there's nothing they or the city can do about it, sadly

they are not just at the mall

it's a source of daily disgust for me and only one of the signs of how much Trump II has fucked over the city, which is economically disrupted and constantly under threat of punitive budget changes. You can't see this from outside DC, but the administration has destroyed normal civic life

the pointless, militarized occupation of Washington DC continues with these armed, camo'd figures constantly patrolling the safest, calmest areas of the city. Glad my corner grocery store and the steps leading in to Kalorama Park are so heavily guarded

honestly one of my fav bits of writing

Uniqlo is Sally Rooneycore | Dirt More like Normcore People.

I think about this five year old @chaykak.bsky.social piece at least once per month (including now, as I sit on the couch reading Intermezzo and count six articles of Uniqlo clothing on my person).

dirt.fyi/article/2021...

The Feed is Cooked: Newsreel's Launch Event · Luma Your feed is cooked. You already know this. The algorithmic feed was supposed to democratize information. Instead, it flattened culture, rewired attention, and…

I'll be attending the newsreel.co launch event. Looks like @chaykak.bsky.social will be on the panel titled "The Algorithm Broke. Now What?"

Friends, some personal news! I'm starting a newsletter called Porch Party. My proposition: the Trump admin is really NOT business as usual, and the effects on people's lives that I hear about daily are mostly not making it to the public. Let's change that. Sign up here: www.porchpartynews.com

The Car-Crash Conspiracy High-speed accidents, crooked lawyers, and poor people desperate for cash—it was the kind of scheme that could have been cooked up only in the Big Easy.

In the New Yorker this week, a story I've been trying to get off the ground for 5 years... about a Hollywood stuntwoman-turned-personal-injury-lawyer, her ex-con fiancee, high-speed crashes with 18-wheelers, and economic desperation in 21st century America. It's set in New Orleans and it's a doozy.

The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology Our hatred of social media or of artificial intelligence is not some novel phenomenon, the new book “Techno-Negative” reminds us; it’s a feeling that has existed in some form across millennia.

"The history of struggle against technology is also the history of struggle over what makes the human different from the machine." @chaykak.bsky.social on @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social 's TECHNO-NEGATIVE in @newyorker.com : www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology Our hatred of social media or of artificial intelligence is not some novel phenomenon, the new book “Techno-Negative” reminds us; it’s a feeling that has existed in some form across millennia.

‘Our hatred of social media or of artificial intelligence is not some novel phenomenon, Dekeyser reminds us; it’s a feeling that has existed in some form across millennia.’

@chaykak.bsky.social reads @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social’s new book, 𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰-𝘕𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦.

www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

say what you like about BlueSky, I still love this labeler that tells me who went to a fancy private school

www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

This is the biggest stretch of an acquisition since when Jack Dorsey made Square buy Tidal because he wanted to be friends with Jay Z

this is a really new phenomenon! slopaganda is incredibly fast and very glossy, easy to take seriously

I think this counts as a "scoop"

new column: I talked to the Iranians making the viral Iran war LEGO videos, describing their goals and 24h turnaround process. AI "slopaganda" is the new language of geopolitics:

I saw this on Industry

this was great!

Opinion | All the Worst People Seem to Want to Be ‘High Agency’

great essay by Sophie Haigney about an age of agency without morality [gift link]

Social Media and AI Disrupt, Distort Iran War Coverage | KQED We talk about AI, disinformation and social media as tools of war.

🎙️ON AIR:

We're talking to @newyorker.com's @chaykak.bsky.social, @nytimes.com's Tiffany Hsu and @washingtonpost.com's @drewharwell.com about how social media and AI are disrupting and distorting Iran War coverage.

❓What Qs do you have about the use of disinformation as a tool of war?

📻 Listen:

Why You Hate Your Weather App As the weather becomes less predictable, we need forecasts and apps that are better at telling us what we don’t know.

new @newyorker.com column! We all loved the weather app Dark Sky. When Apple shut it down, nothing seemed as good. Now Dark Sky's co-founder Adam Grossman is back with Acme Weather, a really nice weather app that tries to solve the problems of the genre www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

Goldman Sachs reports that 300 million full-time jobs could be replaced by AI by 2030. Labor turnover is high and hiring has slowed. 71% of Americans worry that AI will cause permanent job loss. As young people about to enter the workforce for the first time, the fear of unemployment is understandable, but we cannot save ourselves with the very tool that is putting us at risk. The irony is that as Penn pours endless money and energy into AI advancement in its attempt to get ahead, the University is only quickening its own demise. AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it. As technology advances and workers are replaced by machines, schools are some of the only places we have left to explore and wrestle with human thought. With our own university leading the charge, AI is now corrupting those few sacred spaces and leaving us with nowhere to engage in true scholarship. Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board who meet regularly to discuss issues relevant to the Penn community. This body is led by Editorial Board Chair Jack Lakis and is entirely separate from the newsroom. Questions or comments should be directed to letters@thedp.com.

An unaccounted for part of the economy is how much young people virulently hate AI, despite how aggressively it's being forced on them. They realize it's making their friends dumber and ruining the world and they want nothing to do with it.

From the Penn student paper:
www.thedp.com/article/2026...

Some personal news:

After nearly eight fantastic years, today is my last day at @wsj.com.

Next month I'm starting with @nytimes.com to cover cybersecurity, intelligence, and more. I'm thrilled to be joining such an excellent team, and can't wait to get started.

A screenshot of Google search with verge headlines rewritten as slop Lego Computer Brick - Engineer James Brown Aug 20, 2022 — James Brown has brilllantly brought classic Lego computer bricks to life by outfitting them with a tiny OLED screen, processor, ... Y/ The Verge https://www.theverge.com› Al> Tech, Reviews: "Cheat on everything" Al tool Apr 23, 2025 - Two 21-year-old Columbia University dropouts are proposing a new $5.3 million twist on the concept: use their Al tool Cluely to "cheat on everything." Read more The Verge https://www.theverge.com» » Microsoft›Al› Tech: Copilot Changes: Marketing Teams at it Again 22 Aug 2024 — Microsoft is getting ready to rebrand its Copilot for its business Al efforts. It's part of an effort to push Microsoft 365 Al tools. The Verge https://www.theverge.com› Wearable Science Tech: Dexcom Stelo hands-on - OTC Continuous Glucose Monitor Aug 26, 2024 - The $99 Dexcom Stelo is an over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor designed for Type 2 diabetics who don't use insulin.

Google is now screwing with the 10 blue links in traditional search and rewriting headlines - including ours - to be the worst kind of slop. This sucks so bad www.theverge.com/tech/896490/...

In the Age of A.I., What Is Taste? And Do We Still Have It? A.I. companies are attempting to hitch themselves to an aura of artisanality. But has the online ecosystem become so polluted that it has warped our ability to exercise taste at all?

Silicon Valley has embraced a new buzzword—“taste”—and in recent months it has become “as much of a tech-world cliché as ‘disruption’ was in the 2010s,” @chaykak.bsky.social writes. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/vCNpCn

In the Age of A.I., What Is Taste? And Do We Still Have It? A.I. companies are attempting to hitch themselves to an aura of artisanality. But has the online ecosystem become so polluted that it has warped our ability to exercise taste at all?

A.I. companies are attempting to hitch themselves to an aura of artisanality. But has the online ecosystem become so polluted that it has warped our ability to exercise taste at all? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/ofYtig

Artificial Intelligence and Venture Capital Editor, San Francisco

Huge job opening at Bloomberg in SF: bloomberg.avature.net/careers/JobD...

yes exactly!

In the Age of A.I., What Is Taste? And Do We Still Have It? A.I. companies are attempting to hitch themselves to an aura of artisanality. But has the online ecosystem become so polluted that it has warped our ability to exercise taste at all?

Great piece by @chaykak.bsky.social . Tech companies know AI i
s anti-taste. To have taste is to discern. AI trained indiscriminately on data is not discerning www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...