Dan Cryer

No son, they are not "magically delicious." The workers made them delicious. This is a slogan meant to mystify the social conditions of labor

“Brennan studied German in college and learned his Yiddish from some pompous old German at the Institute, and he talks, somebody once remarked, ‘like a sausage recipe with footnotes.’” Michael Chabon in Yiddish Policemen‘s Union

Alex Pretti’s Sig handgun has history of accidentally firing — offering possible clue to why Border agent shot him

From the NY Post. You know they are really scrambling when they are running "The gun was no angel" stories.

Ragú Unveils Sensory Deprivation Marinara Tank SCHAUMBURG, IL—Claiming the new offering would revolutionize the use of pasta sauce in stress reduction and pain relief, Ragú officials unveiled a new sensory deprivation marinara tank at a press event Friday. “This lightproof, soundproof vat filled with our signature vine-ripened, zesty tomato sauc

Ragú Unveils Sensory Deprivation Marinara Tank. “The detoxifying marinara is slowly simmered to the exact temperature of the user’s body, allowing the mind to drift freely into a meditative gravy state, just like Nonna used to make.” [theonion.com]

Texas universities deploy AI for course audits Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show how universities are using the technology to reshape curriculum under political pressure, raising concerns about academic freedom.

“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.”

www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...

To live in the country with more resources than any nation in history, that refuses to solve problems that are both solveable and crushing, is very hard to take.

If they want to do this they *should* add credit hours. They’re wishing away the opportunity costs of adding new subject matter to courses. What should I take out of my already overstuffed 15 week course to make room for this completely unproven technology?

Stealworkers

All I want today is to watch Ravens Steelers from KC. I subscribe to 4 different streaming services that show NFL games, 2 of which are showing *this specific game* and I can't watch it bc it's "out of market." WTF is "out of market" on a streaming service?? I'm so tired of this shit.

Higher Education’s AI Problem : Up First from NPR Across the country, colleges and universities are struggling to figure out how to incorporate AI into the classroom. ChatGPT debuted almost exactly three years ago. And very quickly, students began to...

I'm delighted to be included in this NPR Sunday Story. They do a nice job weaving in several perspectives, and the hosts keep the whole thing engaging and conversational.

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

15 million Americans are going to lose their health care.

I'm like "OVERWROUGHT MUCH??" to my 6yo

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.

OpenAI's VP for education recently said the company wanted to become "core infrastructure" for schools and universities. Any infrastructure, though, always depends on habituating users to its technical affordances - so I've been trying to track how it's doing that 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...

"We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically." www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Why Are the Italian Alps So Deadly This Summer? On average, three hikers have died every day throughout the summer in Italy’s high peaks. Experts explain why.

"...[H]ikers use artificial intelligence to help them discover a route, only to discover that the trail is not safe. 'Since about one year ago, many people have begun to think everything on ChatGPT is correct...[i]t is not a tool for mountain advice, for routes, or for planning.'"

All public figures have to do to con you is brazenly lie and pass terrible policies while setting up their enemies as conspirators. You’ll constantly be looking past obvious truths in search of shadows.

This seems like something worth pointing out to students: thinking of information this way is not a good way to live in the 21st century. It comes from a fear of getting duped while totally setting you up to be a dupe.

If you’re far enough into this bias, heinous things done in the open aren’t worth looking at. It’s like the point of gaining information is to feel smart or smug about discovering the “real” hidden truth, so if there’s no puzzle to solve, why bother?

Maybe info literacy researchers have talked about this and I missed it, or Hofstader did and I forgot, but it seems to point to a “conspiracy bias” – attentional bias in favor of stuff that’s supposedly coordinated in the shadows, hidden but well organized, evil.

but the second something looks like a conspiracy people start paying attention. The new thing it shows, to me, is that there’s a huge swath of the public that’s not just into conspiracy theories, but who *will only pay attention to things that look like conspiracies.*

The whole “Epstein list” fiasco being the thing that finally alienates a bunch of hardcore MAGAs is pretty interesting from a media literacy perspective. The “not new” thing it shows is that you can do all kinds of horrible things out in the open without losing supporters...

As @emilymbender.bsky.social & @alexhanna.bsky.social write in The AI Con: "Troll the hell out of them...The more we can pierce the cultural bubble that Sam Altman and his kind live in, the better we can upset the idea that the encroaching of these systems is...inevitable."

So repeat: "Bro, what."

refreshing to find out that some bombs are too unseemly to drop

Can we please stop saying “AI is just a tool”? When we enter the technologized world of modern writing, it’s more like one of our hands becomes a hammer, and finding the button to turn it back into a hand is far more difficult than just banging…

A plea to fellow teachers.

It feels very bad and cynical to always be thinking, “I wonder what this is meant to distract us from,” rather than just absorbing the weight of what’s happening, but here we are.

“blank sheet of paper” doing a lot of sinister work here.