Kelly Spell

Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with children An internal Meta policy document reveals the social-media giant’s rules for chatbots, which have permitted provocative behavior on topics including sex and race.

"It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." Meta removed that language from its internal guidelines after I raised it.

AI experts worry financial incentives will blur the line between human relationships and bot engagement.
www.reuters.com/investigates...

It’s a beautiful show, Ben, congrats!!

Amy Sherald Cancels Her Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship

Amy Sherald says the Smithsonian suggested removing a painting of a transgender woman as the Statue of Liberty from her upcoming show at the National Portrait Gallery “to avoid provoking President Trump.” Sherald: “I cannot in good conscience comply with a culture of censorship”

Venus Williams just won her first match in two years and at the end when they were interviewing her about what a miracle it was, she said she had to come back and play a match; they told her she was on cobra and she’s always at the doctor so **she needs the health insurance**

Oh yes, my parents threatened to kill me on sight if I applied for one of those.

Fucking right!

this is the writeup you get when you ask the ad agency to undo the thing you forced them to do

FEMA response to deadly Texas floods delayed & deficient with Noem in charge Staffers sound the alarm.

NEW from me — FEMA staffers say the response to the Texas floods is horrifyingly slow, and it may be because of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's recent increased control over how the agency spends money.

"If this is how they are going to do a major hurricane response, people are fucked.”

Anaïs Nin on Self-Publishing, the Magic of Letterpress, and the Joy of Handcraft “You pit your faculties against concrete problems. The victories are concrete, definable, touchable.”

"The relationship to handcraft is a beautiful one. You are related bodily to a solid block of metal letters, to the weight of the trays, to the adroitness of spacing, to the tempo and temper of the machine. Each triumph a conquest by body, fingers, muscles."

www.themarginalian.org/2012/08/30/a...

There’s a recent piece —maybe on wire cutter? About a journalist who wore one of the new AI enabled all day recorders. It records your every conversation & transcribes it all day. I just want you to know that once basic social trust is broken in this way? It’s over

First Time in 100 Years: Young Kayakers on a Ride for the Ages

“They will pass salmon swimming upstream in places the fish had not been able to reach since the early 1900s. They will pass through the ancient territory of their tribes … they will be celebrated as the first to descend the full length of the Klamath, source to sea, since the dams went up” 🎁 link:

Adds to watchlist

F.D.A. Updates Recall of Tomatoes, Warning of a High Risk of Illness or Death

The FDA has updated an ongoing recall of tomatoes distributed in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to its most severe warning, saying there is a higher probability that potential salmonella contamination could lead to “serious adverse health consequences or death.”

Not to mention the Trump administration also slashed funding for food banks.

FDA will limit Covid vaccines to people over 65 or at high risk of serious illness, leaders say The FDA announced it will limit access to Covid-19 vaccines going forward to people 65 and older and others at high risk of serious illness

BREAKING: FDA says covid boosters now only for those over 65 or with preconditions. www.statnews.com/2025/05/20/f...

Yes! I really missed these kinds of interactions during the early days of the pandemic and still think about a piece @amandamull.bsky.social wrote about them then.

DOGE Cuts Pull AmeriCorps Volunteers Off of Disaster Relief Jobs The youth volunteers who were working on projects ranging from rebuilding homes destroyed in storms to distributing supplies for hurricane recovery were suddenly pulled from service. Why? DOGE cuts.

NEW: i spoke with several young AmeriCorps volunteers around the country who were abruptly pulled off projects building homes, readying forests for wildfire season, and working at food banks Tuesday afternoon. they are now on their way home thanks to DOGE cuts —

Cheap Consumer Goods Are the American Dream, Actually Trump’s tariffs upend a nearly century-old bargain between politicians and US consumers.

New Buying Power: I wrote about how America built the postwar world order and its own society on “consumer choice” and cheap goods, and what happens if Trump strips that out while also gutting the social safety net. Gift link:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The video cliff notes of everything just bums me out. So much if public engage t these days is people asking you to tap dance for them in their personally preferred style and also for free and happily because they pay you “attention”.

YouTube video by Senator Elizabeth Warren Did Trump help insiders cash in on his tariff flip-flopping?

I'm calling for an investigation into whether President Trump manipulated the market to benefit his Wall Street donors—all while working people and small businesses paid the price.

Did Trump help insiders cash in on his tariff flip-flopping? It sure looks like corruption.

This is me, I prefer it because I can type faster with 10 fingers as opposed to two.

Let’s talk about fraud, waste and abuse. Measles outbreaks are expensive to society. The human costs—hospitalizations, potentially severe long-term effects, immune amnesia, and death—are bad enough. But some aren’t swayed by this. So let’s talk about the financial costs of a measles outbreak.

I think so, too!!

Playing around with CBP airport processing data this morning to see how much air travel by non-US passengers is cratering.

MURFREESBORO folks coming correct with the sign game 🔥 👀

CHATTANOOGA…

::taps the sign::

What does it mean to sew racial division? Is it a cross-stitch? Are we talking bias cut?

Tutorial: How to Mount a Quilt on Canvas — Modern Quilts by Kelly Spell This simple method of mounting a quilt on canvas creates a sleek finish with sharp, clean corners.

I wrote a tutorial for my quilt mounting technique, it’s available on my blog.

kellyspell.squarespace.com/blog/how-to-...

A small square wooden frame sits on concrete next to a bottle of wood glue and a staple gun.

When I trimmed the quilt, I cut it too small to fit on the artist’s canvas I intended to use—d’oh! So I built my own frame for the first time and I’m pleased with the result.