The use of AI to marionette a woman whose tortured existence was spent trying to carve her own life and identity out of the space men forced her into is both damningly macabre and a surprisingly perfect encapsulation of the problems with this ghoulish use of technology.

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

I know the headline everyone's running with is "erotica" but "we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues" and "we are putting personality back in ChatGPT so it will act like a friend" are diametrically opposed statements

that's the cause of most of the mental health issues

Drew Struzan, the King of the Movie Poster, Has Died

No, it opened in 1892. However, it's frequently used as a shorthand for the experience of immigrants entering the country, and as a consequence, it is ascribed a much larger position as an immigration station than it actually held.

*At best* not absolutely, and realistically, the German Triangle and that particular trajectory is what she knows. There's a certain narrative of Chicago immigration that sounds a lot like New York, so there's a possibility. But it's all a broad sweep of a grand narrative, not the particulars.

Happy Columbo’s Day

I only went to broke agricultural schools and diagramed sentences in 9th grade French class. I suppose I'm not qualified to critique his Harvard grammar. Wealth buys correctness, as us plebs know.

And even I know I don't know enough to speak to some broad "immigrant experience" across US history. Asian immigrants in 1860s California had a different experience from my Portuguese family in 1920 and 30s Massachusetts. Time, place, and manner. There's no one master immigrant story.

Who was targeted by redlining, miscegenation laws, and found themselves on the wrong side of lynch mobs was all far more complex than "your immigrant ancestors were functionally white." Sicilians here in NOLA were absolutely not white until after WWI.

She knows the Northeast and Midwest at best.

A big part of my diss is immigration in mid-C19th and I understand her point, but her analysis is so simplified as to ignore folks from Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the process by which immigrants could work in ports to process names as a part of becoming white. Amongst other things.

Also, "Fancy" by Reba McEntire (org. Bobbie Gentry)

youtu.be/zplc4Ienkws?...

Placebo: Running Up That Hill (org. Kate Bush)

youtu.be/d-mYX0qKkB8?...

Mona Lisa Vito is a fictional character and she is still more worthy of an American holiday than Christopher Columbus.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/

In honor of Indigenous People's Day, enjoy this Drunk History episode.

youtu.be/6Dx0mA6htVc?...

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Professor contesting student's accommodations.

I hope this gives the USCCB collective jock itch until it lights their tails on fire to be useful for once. It might help their souls.

All of our elected representatives, the representatives of We The People, got together and decided that schools should get that money to spend on providing aid, according to a certain system set out by Congress

It's important to explain that Trump is saying "fuck the law + fuck *your* disabled kid"

I'm not sure of any staff who are left in OSERS. Maybe there are. Maybe even if there aren't, some will be rehired (like we've seen happen with some, but not all, at CDC).

Congress, the elected representatives of the people, said — BY LAW — that money has to go to disabled kids.

If any child in your life has an IEP or 504 plan:

Trump fired (we think) all of the employees in the office at the US Department of Education that disburses special education funds from the federal government that school districts use to pay for those plans.

Anyone who's past their PhD comps (humanities especially):

Is it normal to feel like my brain has yet to resume a solid state of mass 5 days afterwards? My thoughts are gelatinous at best.

Not that it matters, but I don't think that high-falutin' education did Stroller much good -- Derek hasn't used passive voice in the original. It's all active. But I'm sure nobody diagrams sentences at Harvard, we can't expect too much.

Amazing, those teleportation skills!