Very much enjoying the Netflix series “Dark Winds,” based on the series of novels by Tony Hillerman. Not only does the storytelling slap, but it’s visually beautiful, with sweeping Southwest vistas and a fleet of classic vehicles that look so good in widescreen.
Wisconsin Watch profiled the Pulaski News, the newspaper of record in a ~3500 person village in northeast Wisconsin, run by high school students.
France is taking the “not now, sweetie, mommy is cyberbullying the mayor” meme to new legal arenas.
On prompt injections: Because AI chatbots are trained to be helpful and to understand context, jailbreakers are able to engineer scenarios where the AI believes ignoring its usual ethical guidelines is appropriate. Is it currently possible to safeguard LLMs from injection attacks at scale?
What made blogging different? Reflections on 25 years of digital media.
Out: SEO; In: GEO.
“LOLgislation,” or how memes become policy, and posting becomes praxis.
For many years, “shitposting” has been a staple of internet culture in which individuals riff on the moment using nonsense and irony, derailing threads for fun. In today’s influencer-driven attention economy, however, shitposting as a practice is now a meaningful comms and engagement strategy.
Purdue Exponent students distributed 3,000 copies of a special “solidarity edition” newspaper in Bloomington after IU spanked their student paper for insubordinance, ending the IDS print edition and firing their director. The media landscape in Indiana is bleak, generally, after years of disinvestment, so student reporters fill a social and political gap that the free market left behind. Given those conditions, the wider community depends on student media, much like public radio, to fill the information gaps. Also, these campuses are situated in communities where it can be very socially uncomfortable to be a squeaky wheel. So. As alum, I’m proud of the Exponent for this brave and newsworthy show of heart. 💐
A difficult number for so many reasons.
The next big trend in AI that I’m watching is platform integration. First company to produce the interoperability required for a united platform experience wins.
RIP D’Angelo. And a good occasion to reread this excellent 2012 profile discussing fame, religion, and how his status as a sex symbol in his youth negatively impacted D’Angelo’s self-esteem - and ultimately his career.
What happens to college towns after they’re hit by the so-called enrollment cliff?
Choco Taco is back: the business and engineering behind the revival of a retro treat.
From Propublica, on how publicly-funded private school vouchers are funding a segregation academy dynamic.
Saving for later: The story of DOGE, as told by federal workers.
A lovely story about the restoration of prairie land undertaken by the nuns of Holy Wisdom, just outside of Madison, WI.
A pleasant surprise resulting from LLM acceleration in the IT landscape is the sudden opportunity for storytelling around other, more analog kinds of information technology and access models. Nostalgia abound (complimentary).
On the rise of faith tech.
Harvard Business Review offers this take on why it’s bad for business to automate our way out of staffing entry-level positions.