More Workslop for Mother
Brian Merchant's assertion that "The Luddite Renaissance is in full swing," The Jacobin's claim that "The AI Revolution Might Be Running Out of Steam" – these feel a bit too optimistic perhaps, particularly if you're one of many educators who'
Chit Chat
Chit: an official note, sometimes a voucher or an IOU; a slip of paper that grants permission Chat: an informal conversation; a friendly talk Chit-chat: "A reduplication with vowel variation of chat," according to the OED, like "bibble-babble" and "tittle-tattle." "The reduplication implies
The Wait
How Do You Want to Be Remembered?
"The best way to honor Charlie’s memory," California Governor Gavin Newsom said, "is to continue his work." And so we've seen in the last week: the targeted harassment of those who've spoken out about Kirk's overt racism, his Christian
Voices Carry
I'm truly at a loss of what to say today. (Last week. It lingers, doesn't it.) So (I guess) let me just repeat a point I've made repeatedly: one of the saddest rationales for using "AI" is for "brainstorming" – a
Breaking Rocks in the Hot Sun
I was feeling much better, thank you very much, until this country took another grotesque lurch towards fascism midweek. I think it had helped, if I'm perfectly honest, that Kin and I had finally completed our re-watching of all six seasons of The Sopranos. As I've
The Watch List
In a children's literature class at Texas A&M University this summer, a student interrupted the professor as she began to recap some of the previously covered material, "remarks on gender and sexuality we bring from the last class." "I just have a question,
The Booster Shot
A couple of weeks ago, Ed Zitron published one of his epic rants -- the kind that, as he warned newsletter readers, is probably better read on the web than via email: it’s 16,000 words long; so long that he added a Table of Contents to aid navigation.
How Bad Could It Be?
Brood Parasites
Humans have always invested great meaning in birds. No surprise, what with the feathers, the flight. Each week, when I look at all the stories that've been told about education and technology and try to figure out some coherence to the chaos, I think about what bird might
Thought-Terminating Clichés
Last week, Max Read asked "Is the 'AI' 'bubble' 'bursting'?" – those scare-quotes strategically deployed to encourage readers to question what we mean when we talk about "AI" or "bubbles," when we predict the technology's devaluation or