Troy Wolverton

Thanks for your help with that one, Prof. Mann!

Q&A: Jesse Jackson is pleased with progress on diversity, but pushing for more Q&A: Jesse Jackson is pleased with progress on diversity, but pushing for more

A little more than 10 years ago, while a reporter for the @mercurynews.com, I interviewed the Rev. Jesse Jackson about his effort to push Silicon Valley to embrace diversity. At the time, he was hopeful about the tech industry being receptive to his message. And it was — until the backlash.

Great obit. So sad to hear he died.

That 1979 Washington series was truly heartbreaking.

How Sarah Lacy went from founder to bookseller Ex-tech reporter recently opened store in Union Square.

@sarahlacy.com has been a high-profile tech journalist covering Silicon Valley's venture and startup scene and a startup founder herself. For her latest act, she's taken on something slightly different — operating @bestbookstore.bsky.social — but she still has plenty of ambition.

An implicit axiom of journalism is don’t fool the reader. Be upfront and transparent.

Whatever the story’s merits, the readers note fails in two ways. One, it’s at the end of the piece, so many readers likely won’t see jt. And two, it doesn’t unambiguously explain that this is a work of fiction. It should be at the top and very clearly state that this is *not* an actual account.

Narrator: He was.

All that said, the Spurs could really use another knock-down shooter. Not sure if they'll be able to find one in the buyout market or waiver wire, but if Jeremy's departure allows them to sign one, the Spurs will, unfortunately for Jeremy, be in better shape.

And he never got enough reps this year to show that his work over the summer on his three-point shot had paid off and to build confidence in it.

I understand the reasoning behind the Sochan point-guard experiment — with him there the Spurs had a potentially stifling defense — but the failure of that and his diminishing time on the court after really seemed to get into his head. He became frustratingly tentative around the basket on offense.

I'm sad to see him go. I always enjoyed watching Jeremy and envisioned him becoming like a modern-day Rodman (his vivid hairstyles made that easy).

I can't help but think, though, that the Spurs and Pop sabotaged his development and confidence by making him play point in his second year.

Billionaire tax author says fears about it unfounded Few of the ultra-wealthy are likely to leave, he says.

One of the main arguments voiced by opponents of the proposed billionaire tax here in California is that it will drive the ultra-wealthy to leave the state. That fear, says initiative co-author @bdgesq.bsky.social, is overblown. In an interview with the @sfexaminer.bsky.social Galle explained why.

Billionaires march draws attention, if not a crowd Media, detractors outnumber pro-billionaire marchers.

More here:

Pro-billionaire demonstrator Annie holding a “We love you” Jeff Bezos sign at the March for Billionaires in San Francisco on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026 (Craig Lee/San Francisco Examiner)

Seen today at the March for Billionaires in San Francisco:

Researchers: AI reasoning a ‘brittle mirage’ Models fail to solve problems outside their training, study contends.

I’ve written about this before, but these systems are probability engines that are highly dependent on the data they’ve been trained on. They don’t think or reason and they don’t understand the world around them, much less the rules of a game like chess.

See, among others:

ChatGPT "Absolutely Wrecked" at Chess by Atari 2600 Console From 1977 Despite all its advances, ChatGPT still, seemingly, is less smart than an Atari simulator on beginner mode.

like i love this story and I think it reveals something important. the atari is encoding a ton of information about the rules of chess explicitly in a very small amount of data, and the associational model, despite a much larger amount of data & computation, does not effectively model the game

Wow. I'm shocked that The Times had the temerity to actually label something Trump did "racist" in a headline and in the lead paragraph without any kind of equivocation. .

Ha! Thanks, Sarah.

Billionaires march leader ID'd, says effort sincere Startup founder not billionaire, but supports them.

You might have heard there's going to be a March for Billionaires in San Francisco on Saturday. Yes it's real, and no it's not satire.

I spoke with the guy behind it, an AI startup founder here in The City who opposes a proposed billionaire tax and thinks billionaires are getting a bad rap.

I'm sorry to hear that, Geoff. That's a big loss to the Post and to its readers.

Researchers: How AI undermining democracy Paper argues tech threatens democratic foundations.

Generative and other kinds of AI have numerous harmful effects. In a recent paper, Boston University professors @hartzog.bsky.social and @jessicasilbey.bsky.social identify and highlight a new concern: AI is sabotaging democracy by destroying the institutions that undergird it.

But it also means that U.S. government cash (via NASA contracts) is now helping keep X and xAI afloat.

Well, it's almost certainly about Elon trying to shore up balance sheets and cash-flow statements via the one company (other than Tesla) in his portfolio that's generating positive cash flow. It's also likely about appeasing investors and creditors, who can be paid off when SpaceX goes public.

Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, who studies democracy backsliding, on Don Lemon's arrest:

“This is a new dimension. In democracies, journalists don't get arrested. In authoritarian regimes, journalists get arrested."

More in @status.news: www.status.news/p/don-lemon-...

Statement from the Freedom of the Press Foundation's Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern decrying the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort as "naked attacks on the freedom of the press."

I don't know who needs to hear this, but I stand with Don Lemon @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and Georgia Fort @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social — and against this blatant attack on the First Amendment.

Statement from FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern: “The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public. Instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. “These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon. “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong. We’ve recently seen that even in the Trump era, public pressure still can work. It’s time to do it again. News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend Lemon’s and Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.”

The government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press.

Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down.

Read our statement:

I don't know who needs to hear it, but I stand with Don Lemon @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and Georgia Fort @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social — and against this blatant violation of the First Amendment.

“Nuclear power is best thought of a long-term solution to the power needs of data centers, said Sola Talabi, president of Pittsburgh Technical … There’s not likely going to be significant additional nuclear capacity for such uses by 2030 and likely not until at least 2035, he said.“

Why nuclear won’t soon solve AI power problem Big tech boosting it as option, but new plants years away.

Like you, James, I wrote about this a while back:

Just say the government is lying. The goal of journalism should be to inform, not gaslight.