will Tavlin

Large Language Muddle | The Editors The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...

The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the humanities? Yes—and every student gets a personal chatbot. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

‘We took the gloves off’: ex-IDF chief confirms Gaza casualties over 200,000 Retired general Herzi Halevi says ‘not once’ had legal advice constrained Israel’s military decisions in the strip

“The retired general [said] more than 10% of Gaza’s 2.2 million population had been killed or injured – “more than 200,000 people”. That estimate is…close to the current figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry, which Israeli officials have frequently dismissed as Hamas propaganda.”

A Tipping Point at CBS News “Who would have thought this is the piece that would get me fired?” Bill Owens, the former executive producer of 60 Minutes, said in the screening room. For the past year, CBS journalists have been up...

For the past year, journalists at CBS News have been up against extraordinary pressure. The network reached a tipping point. Read the report by Adam Piore. www.cjr.org/feature/cbs-...

Large Language Muddle | The Editors The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...

“'What if we take seriously the idea that AI assistance can accelerate learning — that students today are arriving at their destinations faster?' Hsu asks. But what if we don’t?"
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

This is the most entertaining thing I’ve read in some time, and extremely insightful about the coroprate bland-ification of American life.

The Haunting of Cracker Barrel | A. S. Hamrah, Will Tavlin, Lisa Borst Semiotically, it's detached from all these kinds of things that it was originally designed for. But this kind of sign was always part of the corporate blandification of the American travel experience....

Lisa Borst and I spoke to @hamrahrama.bsky.social about the new Cracker Barrel logo
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

Casual Viewing | Will Tavlin A decade before Airbnb persuaded homeowners to transform their homes into hotels, Netflix convinced its users to turn theirs into mini Netflix warehouses. Customers who held onto their DVDs for longer...

As long as we’re on the subject of Netflix and movies (however reluctantly!) I recommend this piece by @tavlin.bsku.social about why so many Netflix movies suck: www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/ess...

Fascinating and depressing article on why almost everything on Netflix is shit

The Cannes Film Festival of Old Movies How Il Cinema Ritrovato became an international destination for film fanatics.

I went to Il Cinema Ritrovato for @airmail.news airmail.news/issues/2025-...

a political consultancy that does what now?

If you're near a landlord, go put your hand in his pocket for no reason

Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry Friends and family of Moises Sotelo ‘disappointed and disgusted’ after respected fixture detained outside church

He was detained outside church.

“He was in chains at his feet,” Alondra Sotelo-Garcia told a local news outlet about seeing her father arrested. “Shoelaces were taken off, his belt was off, he didn’t have his ring, he didn’t have his watch. Everything was taken from him.”

Worker arrested by ICE in Lynn, later released, says agents beat him in cemetery A Massachusetts man said he told immigration agents multiple times that he's a legal resident and that he was brought to a cemetery where they assaulted him.

A man with a green card said ICE agents arrested him in #Lynn, Mass then took him to a detention facility—but first made a detour to a cemetery, where they took him out of their vehicle and beat him.

#mapoli #Massachusetts

Issue 50 Content filed under the Issue 50 taxonomy.

n+1’s 50th issue is out today! Feat. @hzeavin.bsky.social, Andrew Liu, @hamrahrama.bsky.social, @richardbeck.bsky.social, Iman Mersal, @cgvanderburg.bsky.social, Gemma Sack, @sarahlovescali.bsky.social, E. Tammy Kim, Lisa Borst, Gillian Linden, and Maureen McLane. www.nplusonemag.com/magazine/iss...

This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?

Time to Face Reality Emily Nussbaum charts the history of a TV phenomenon – A.S. Hamrah

www.bookforum.com/print/3101/t...

John Fetterman’s Struggle The senator insists he is in good health. But staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.

‘Fetterman went on to make statements that shocked people. In opposing a cease-fire, he said, “Let’s get back to killing.” A person who heard the conversation told me, “He said, ‘Kill them all.’”’

Four L.A.S.E.R. talks: Cell-Free Protein Synthesis, Islamic Architecture, Art in an Algorithmic World, Casual Viewing

I’ll be speaking about Netflix and Casual Viewing at Stanford shortly. Zoom link here: events.stanford.edu/event/four-l...

Palestinian Student Leader Was Called In for Citizenship Interview — Then Arrested by ICE Palestinian Columbia student leader Mohsen Mahdawi was called in for a citizenship interview. Instead, ICE arrested him for deportation.

SCOOP: Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi went into an interview today hoping he would come out a U.S. citizen. Instead, ICE arrested him. theintercept.com/2025/04/14/i...

The thing about "it's so important to read people who interview people who work at these companies" is the giveaway. The idea that only people who work inside a company can understand it is how journalists become stenographers

The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security's "death master file," which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result of being added to the death database, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and spend money.

What a grim paragraph www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

Lawyer for U-M protester detained at airport after spring break trip with family Dearborn lawyer says feds tried to seize his cellphone at Detroit Metro Airport as he returned from spring break trip with his family.

Deeply concerning: US citizen lawyer getting detained and his phone searched on reentering the U.S. at Customs. www.freep.com/story/news/l...

DHS spokesperson: “Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student, granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”

NEW—DHS claims, without citing proof, Rumeysa Ozturk "engaged in activities in support of Hamas."

Among "activity" Ozturk engaged in was co-writing an op-ed urging Tufts to heed student resolutions to acknowledge the Palestinian genocide & divest from companies tied to Israel.

my god

Netflix’s Origin Story: How the Streamer Killed Blockbuster Video, Snagged ‘House of Cards’ From HBO and Changed Hollywood Forever Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings and other Netflix execs explain battles with Blockbuster and HBO, winning 'House of Cards' and streaming domination.

What's up with Variety doing Wikipedia hagiography for Netflix lately? This reads like an excerpt for a nonexistent boosterish Netflix memoir, several of which already exist
variety.com/2025/film/ne...

$1.4bn is a lot to fall through the cracks, even for Tesla When money spent on assets doesn’t result in assets

Generally not a great sign when Dan McCrum starts looking at a small discrepancy in your company's balance sheet
www.ft.com/content/62df...

Trump is seeking to deport another graduate student who is legally in the country, lawsuit says Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at Georgetown, says he is being punished because of the suspected views of his wife, a U.S. citizen with Palestinian heritage.

SCOOP: Hooded ICE agents snatched Indian-born Georgetown postdoc Badar Suri from Rosslyn street Monday, per court filing. Like Khalil, linked to pro-Palestinian views & Rubio 'foreign policy' power, lawyer says. Then whisked to Louisiana. w/ @kyledcheney www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Le Monde reporting that a French scientist traveling to Houston to attend a conference was denied entry to US after a search of his phone & computer revealed messages critical of Trump's science cuts, "which [says CPB] conveyed hatred of Trump & could be qualified as terrorism". Computer confiscated

From a source: “Just had a co-presenter for a buildings research conference bow out. She’s a dual citizen and the FBI came knocking to ask her about her involvement in coauthoring chunks of the Paris Agreement.

Climate science is being literally (and I mean literally) criminalized.”