Chris Oates

Question for anyone who knows. Could you FOIA ChatGPT chats from a government employee? Or is it like a Google search in that it would only be released under a subpoena?

They can avoid a big controversy by not telling anyone but moving the bases back 1 inch every month

Madrid tests first driverless bus 'made in Spain' The Spanish capital has unveiled its first autonomous bus with passengers in Casa de Campo.

Driverless can also change the economics by making other types of smaller public transit viable. Of course all caveats still apply www.euronews.com/next/2025/09...

Chris, if you need an evergreen piece to run on a slow day, I’d read an investigation into why centered text is used in politician’s Canva images. Left or justified is clearly the better option!

They have mayors but no other government employees?

I want to invest in any company that’s being set up with the purpose of buying abandoned data centers and turning them into haunted amusement parks.

I’m one of the biggest AI bulls on Bluesky (which also makes me one of the biggest AI bears on LinkedIn) but this is concerning

Though this take would have to be revisited if nine months from now a lot of Labour MPs announce the birth of their third children

What are Hoodsies coded as?

Man if only there were some number that directly indicated the demand for people to live in a place relative to the existing supply of housing.

@joshtpm.bsky.social has done great work about how the business model of many publications is events and government affairs budgets. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but it does skew which topics get covered massively

My mom grew up in a Dorchester triple decker with her grandparents in one of the other units. The whole thing cost the equivalent of $150k back then.

Sharpe, Hornblower, Aubrey/Maturin. The extended napoleonic universe

It does make me wonder about the first person to make a bed and how they convinced everyone that they should sleep on a six foot long cabinet that they could fall off in the middle of the night. All time great sales job

Split the difference. Spanish-American war dad

Ah good point, this incident just reminded me of that.

This gets to one of my pet peeves which is that members of Congress shouldn't be in the reserves. They already have very important jobs in the national security world, and they should be focusing all their time on that.

Saw a journalist tout an AI feature on LinkedIn and say that it works because "it's magic."

NO!

It's an API call to OpenAI or Anthropic's latest LLM model. That has benefits but also big limitations, and if you don't lead with that, your readers may very well be led astray

Worst performance by a Crawley since Lady Mary after the Turkish diplomat?

My 3 year old keeps asking why the district is always sleeping alone and did his mommy and daddy go into the other room

It is really interesting how the two-stage election (electing the electors) was actually pretty common in the 18th and 19th century. Happened in France as well. Shows how different the informational environment was that the Founders assumed people couldn’t have a true national election

My son plays Assetto Corsa with me on the pedals and though it’s frustrating to see him crash into the barriers at Silverstone every 30 seconds at least there are no predators

Advanced jetpacks for business travels. One-time payment. AI assistant. Icarus Pro.

Amid Trump-Backed Cuts to Public Broadcasting, Representative John W. Mannion (NY-22) Introduces Legislation to Bolster Local Journalism WASHINGTON, D.C. - Amid President Trump’s cuts to public broadcasting, Representative John W. Mannion (NY-22) introduced legislation to protect freedom of the press and strengthen the trusted broadcas...

I've come around to gov't support as the second-best option, after massive grants to public media. Obvious definitional questions, but the tax credit for subscriptions could help sustain a new wave of outlets.

mannion.house.gov/media/press-...

Yes, sorry, to be clear I meant the primary, when it was a gaggle of progressive electeds and he had more of a distinct lane focused on getting a few things done.

But this now raises the question: what is the proper collective noun for progressive officials? An ActBlue of electeds?

This feels to be the real secret of Mamdani's run. It wasn't necessarily the run from the left, but a campaign built on "I will do X, Y, Z" that people responded to.

Looking to make this into a bit more of an entertaining place for #mapoli. Quote tweet or reply with a fun fact about politics, politicians, or government here.

I'll start. The last time a mayor of Boston lost re-election when running, it was 1949 and the incumbent had spent 5 months in jail

What if AI tells us how to vote? The next fight for misinformation

Is AI the next threat vector for democracy? I think yes.

massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/what-if-ai...

Can’t recommend cricket enough to Americans suffering baseball withdrawal. England v Australia starting now has 5 matches, 5 days each, and England may have already blown it.

Trying to think of an American analogy. Maybe muffing the kickoff return in the Super Bowl and the other team starts on the 1