On this day in 1966, Star Trek first beamed into living rooms across America. None of us could have imagined then the journey it would set us on. And not just the cast and crew, but the millions of fans who would find hope, inspiration, and community in its vision of the future.

My wife introducing me to folks

"i asked grok" "i asked chatgpt" yeah well i asked carl sagan and he said the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge 🧪

I have a crazy idea what if we abolish private property and wage labor so certain people can’t be vastly more more wealthy than other people through economic exploitation and then buy power with that money to influence politics and the media

A sticker from ohmygollyembroidery on Etsy that says Trans Lives Are More Important Than Harry Potter.

‘You Can’t Lick a Badger Twice’: Google Failures Highlight a Fundamental AI Flaw Google’s AI Overviews feature credible-sounding explanations for completely made-up idioms.

Google’s AI Overviews will not only confirm that a gibberish idiom is a real saying, it will also tell you what it means and how it was derived -- often including reference links.

www.wired.com/story/google...

The phrase "hoop hoop hoop hoop hoop" can be interpreted in a few ways. It's most likely a playful or humorous way of saying "basketball" or referring to playing basketball, as "hoops" is slang for basketball. However, it could also be a simple repetition of the word "hoop" to emphasize the circular shape of a hoop, a ring, or the hula-hoop.

The phrase "making the milk sizzle" likely refers to the act of causing something, particularly a product or idea, to be exciting, interesting, or even to be very hot. It's a metaphor for creating an emotional connection or a sense of excitement around something. The word "sizzle" itself suggests a hissing sound, often associated with food cooking in a pan, and this sound is used to describe the emotional impact of a product or idea on a customer.

The phrase "stringing beans for pleasant means" suggests a pleasant social activity or event, often involving family or friends, where green beans are being prepared or eaten according to the Dictionary of American Regional English.

New game for you all: ask google what a made-up phrase means.

Mask For Pleasure: COVID-impacted Artists Raise Awareness at George Clooney's Broadway Opening On the opening weekend of the Broadway debut of George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck, a small group of COVID-impacted NY artists offered a gesture of collective care in Manhattan's theatre distri...

The "Mask for Pleasure" flyers distributed during the walk underscored the importance of protecting communal experiences in the arts. The front of the flyer proclaimed, "Mask for Pleasure: Breath is Sacred, COVID is Airborne."

www.broadwayworld.com/article/Mask...

REFLECTIONS ON AI IN THE CLASSROOM: How We are Not Using Al in the Classroom By Sonja Drimmer & Christopher J. Nygren Premise Prompt engineering is a term that has become commonplace since the widespread availability of generative AI applications like ChatGPT. The idea is that the outputs of the large language models (LLMs) on which these applications are based are only as good as the prompts that are input: vague prompts result in equally vague outputs. And thus was born the race to train for careers in prompt engineering. Unfortunately, the bubble seems to have burst before even the first generation of students was trained for this career outcome. We were given a prompt as an invitation to participate in this newsletter: "How are you using Al in the classroom?" While we have accepted this invitation, we are engaging in the most humanistic act we can imagine-refusing the prompt.

I just co-authored a piece with @cnygren.bsky.social on exactly this! It’s short!

static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...

You know, your own imagination is far more wonderful Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Than any computer could ever be. You know why? Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

You’re a living human being. And a computer is just a machine. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Human beings are far more wonderful than machines. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Mister Rogers never misses

So if I say “billionaires should not have this much money,” I’m declaring Class War but if the billionaires say I should be replaced by robots, that’s just good business?

YouTube video by CNBC Television The rising risk of a data center bubble and how it could affect Nvidia

Absolutely brutal coverage on CNBC about CoreWeave. This is a negative shift against the AI bubble. The words "red flag" used multiple times, suggesting their accounting is questionable. "...is this the straw that breaks...something"
youtu.be/4tYDennhEgo?...

Bubble Trouble An AI bubble threatens Silicon Valley, and all of us.

Some astonishing numbers in here:
-OpenAI loses $2 for every $1 it makes
-OpenAI projects annual losses of $14 billion by 2026
-To break even OpenAI needs to increase revenue 25x in just 5 years
-33% of VC portfolios are committed to AI
-5 AI-heavy stocks account for 29% of the S&P 500's value

Hyperscale Demand Has Increased Y/Y; MSFT Lease Cancellations Have Created Opportunities For GOOG And META A clear takeaway from both NVIDIA GTC in San Jose last week and DCD Connect in NYC this week is that aggregate hyperscale data center demand has increased Y/Y driven by the same factors we highlighted in late February. Specific to Microsoft, since publishing our initial note on Microsoft lease cancellations, our incremental channel checks indicate that the list of third-party data center operators affected by lease cancellations has expanded, with leases being terminated in both the U.S. and Europe. In addition to lease cancellations, our channel checks also point to lease deferrals by Microsoft. As we put this in the context of our Takeaways from PTC, Microsoft has both (1) walked away from +2GW of capacity in both the U.S. and Europe in the last six months that was in process to be leased, and (2) has both deferred and canceled existing data center leases in both the U.S. and Europe in the last month. In our view, the pullback on new capacity leasing by Microsoft was largely driven by the decision to not support incremental Open AI training workloads. However, we continue to believe the lease cancellations and deferrals of capacity points to data center oversupply relative to its current demand forecast. As such, we believe the lease deferrals are intended to provide Microsoft with a medium-term runway of capacity in major markets to support cloud/inference workloads, with Microsoft canceling leases for capacity that exceeds its updated medium-term capacity needs. (Please see full report by opening link)

TD Cowen reports that Microsoft has actually walked away from TWO GIGAWATTS of compute capacity, owing it to them deciding not to support OpenAI's training workloads, and Microsoft being in an "oversupply position." It's even worse than I previously thought!

Warm lines don’t call the police. Call Blackline 800-604-5841, Trans Lifeline 877-565-8860 US 877-330-6366 Canada, Wildflower Alliance Peer Support Line 888-407-4515, StrongHearts Native Helpline 844-762-8483, Thrive Lifeline 313-662-8209, LGBT National Help Center 888-843-4564

warm lines save lives. please share 💖

credit ig: @/inclusivetherapists

AND I found my second tardigrade ever just before class started today! How’s that for luck. #microscopy #sciart

The Tyranny of Work or Why Are we Still Measured by Our Productivity? - anti capitalist musings The idea that work is a moral duty rather than a means of survival is so deeply ingrained we rarely question it. But as technology advances and work becomes more precarious, exhausting, and intrusive,...

The idea that work is a moral duty rather than a means of survival is so deeply ingrained we rarely question it. But as technology advances and work becomes more precarious, exhausting, and intrusive, it is worth asking why productivity remains the measure of a person’s worth.

Can Artificial Intelligence Stir-Fry? Ed Zitron, an A.I. skeptic worried about “rot-com” in the tech industry, gives robot-fried chicken a try.

I am in the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" this week talking about tech's obsession with growth, the cynical AI bubble, DeepSeek, and making Better Offline.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Raspberry beret

So when exactly can we expect the new golden age of America to kick in?

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.

TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson saying "I want pictures of Spider-Man" but I changed it to Luigi

Waking up today

might eat a banana today just to peel something

You love to see people letting their neighbors know! Thanks for the credit!

Black History Month...
James Baldwin 1924-1987