Seth Brodsky

Has Altman tried asking ChatGPT how to turn a profit?

Exclusive: AI Error Likely Led to Iran Girl's School Bombing Pentagon investigators believe a bombing of a girls' school in Iran on Saturday likely resulted from inaccurate information provided by AI.

Local Massachusetts weekly says it's confirmed that the Pentagon was relying on Claude for strike targeting, which is how they came to bomb a girls' school.
thisweekinworcester.com/exclusive-ai...

As a former union rep, I know how vital unions are to protecting workers and winning fair pay.

But we're all tired of the backroom deals.

We deserve transparent leadership and independent unions.

Report from Seventh Grade’s Self-Directed Friday Telephone Game: “Kr*sti N*em got fired” (starting phrase)—>”Tr*mp is in the E*tein Files” (ending phrase)

12 yr old MMUN sitting next to me at urgent care says: “so many people ask me, who won, and the thing is, nobody wins, but some kids DEFINITELY don’t win & they’re the ones most dedicated to winning”

It’s true

loud in the streets, POWER IN THE SPREADSHEETS

Nothing more subjective than hankering after objecthood!

coincidence? you decide

Samesies!!

Headline of a Q&A in New Yorker formatting Headline: A panicked middle-aged man refuses to tell me directions to the bathroom. Subhed: Please, I just have to pee. I'm in a hurry. By Isaac Chotiner March 4, 2026

Excuse me. Oh, God. Oh, no. Holy shit. Get away from me. I was wondering if you knew where the bathrooms are. Look, I'm ... it's not a crime to scroll through your high school girlfriend's Instagram account. We remained friends after high school! I was at her wedding! It's only natural to see how she's doing.

I'm in a bit of a hurry, and I'm afraid that if I choose the wrong corridor, I'll be late for my train. I think they're down that way, but I'm actually from out of town. Please stop talking to me.

Real quick, though. I agree that it's natural to be interested in an old friend, but aren't you afraid about the message you might be sending by liking a picture of her at the beach from 2015? If that did happen, and I'm only going off your word, it was probably an accident. They put the ... scroll bars or whatever ... close to the thumbs up button. People have been complaining about that for years. I've been complaining about that for years.

What is music but a form of striking?

"We called London a war zone and moved to Dubai by mistake"

@alexcowan.bsky.social

In her review of Piketty, McCloskey points out that the Latin root of data is "things given," but that the documentation Piketty is working with, primarily tax records, is more accurately a reflection of "things seized." That is, not data, but capta. I want to détourné McCloskey's point to argue that capta is the appropriate title for the currencies of technofeudalism.? It is an economy which is growing increasingly inefficient, coercive, and authoritarian because the economic process it glorifies is not one of mutual consent to market exchange, but of non-consensual seizure of attention, identity, and future potential.

I’ve been trying to use capta consistently, where appropriate, and have been pleased to find, for many, no explanation is needed. It is very intuitive, as disciplinary jargon should be.

It’s ok! Drats! But it’s ok!

It’s true

Results: Progressives win all four of these primaries, ousting incumbents Cunningham, Willingham, and Majeed, while Pierce held off Wray’s comeback.

extraordinary night for state progressives in North Carolina

via boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

Did you know that if you buy my book on Amazon, Jeff Bezos makes 5 times as much as I do on each copy sold? Sharing some behind-the-scenes book math on why buying directly from presses is best for EVERYONE (except Bezos) in my newsletter today! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/book-math

a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the "war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people" class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people

It’s true

It’s not supporting the troops to send them off to kill and die in an illegal war of aggression whose purpose is to make sure that their votes don’t count.

Chuck Schumer: ‘The American People Deserve A President Who Can More Credibly Justify War With Iran’ WASHINGTON—In a pointed critique of President Trump’s foreign policy leadership, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated to members of the press Thursday that “the American people deserve a presid...

From The Archives:

Remember: Donald Trump created this crisis. He walked away from the Iran nuclear deal that was working, promising a "better deal." He didn't deliver. He escalated, abandoned real diplomacy, and has now led us into a conflict that puts us all at risk.

just circling back...

Just a few more days to submit proposals for the Music & Labor Symposium (May 15­–17 at the Friday Harbor Laboratories at the University of Washington)!

Details at the link -- please share widely. I'd love to review lots of proposals! (Yes, really!)

careers.amsmusicology.org/opportunity/...

Somehow these are … still not as hard?!

Really just such a confounding block

It’s true

Norman Lebrecht is a human oil stain and deserves only scorn and shunning