Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Today's news and jokes

Incredible double feature idea courtesy of Criterion’s November slate:

[image or embed]

— Oscar Goff (@theoscargoff.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 10:16 AM








When the LA city council opposed our first transit oriented upzoning bill on local control grounds in 2018, LA’s HUD Fair Market Rent was $1,663. They have opposed every subsequent bill with the same rationale: trust us, we will fix this ourselves. Now rent is $2,625. Enough is enough. Pass SB 79.

[image or embed]

— California YIMBY (@cayimby.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 5:02 PM






("after snapping up more than $100 million in properties in the area in recent years, the Monaco billionaire has grown increasingly infuriated by delays on his development projects...the scion of a powerful real estate family that built much of mega-rich Monaco, a dense, one-square-mile nation on the French Riviera. His defenders in Carmel-by-the-Sea have questioned whether he has been discriminated against because he is too rich.")







A write-up







The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

[image or embed]

— Jacob T. Levy (@jacobtlevy.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 11:09 AM


I actually want more of this. I want ai companies to land all sorts of highly visible contracts with low stakes that they publicly flub. I want everyone to understand this shit doesn't work before it's integrated into something life threatening, like, say, hospital scheduling.

[image or embed]

— Emily L'Orange 🦆🍊 (@emilylorange.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 12:40 AM
(Another lawyer got in trouble for using it)

Game developers got a preview of Meta's unique style when they decided to "create the Metaverse", bragged about a budget larger than the entire gaming industry, and released a VR chat client with much, much worse graphics and performance than Second Life, which came out 25 years ago.

[image or embed]

— Lum (@brokentoys.social) August 19, 2025 at 7:28 AM








NEW: The late Pope Francis opposed the Mafia but failed to get them excommunicated, highlighting organized crime’s historical relationship with the Vatican and the limits of papal infallibility, writes Floriana Bulfon for @newlinesmag.bsky.social. newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

[image or embed]

— New Lines Magazine (@newlinesmag.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 3:45 AM
(Like reading the plot of Godfather 3, which I like, a lot.)







Incredible, must-read investigation by @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social into how Tea's founder got women to join the app, how its founding story changed, how it spammed Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups, how it hired an influencer marketing firm to promote it www.404media.co/how-teas-fou...

[image or embed]

— Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 7:18 AM
("paid influencers to undermine Are We Dating the Same Guy and created competing Facebook groups with nearly identical names. 404 Media also identified a number of seemingly hijacked Facebook accounts that spammed the real Are We Dating The Same Guy groups with links to Tea app...took over the persona and communicated with other Tea users as if he was Tara")















Seventeen cartoonists have filed a lawsuit against Cadence Comic Art and its owner Paolo Belfiore claiming the gallery and art dealer of defrauding them of hundreds of thousands of dollars and refusing to return their artwork. www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/20...

[image or embed]

— The Daily Cartoonist (@dailycartoonist.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 1:25 PM
















Job opportunity for an historian at Monticello. This is the 4th time they've tried to fill the role this year (they seem to have given up trying to find a senior person and have dropped the PhD requirement). DM me if you want to know what it's like to work there. www.monticello.org/thomas-jeffe...

[image or embed]

— Frank Cogliano (@frankcogliano.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 11:03 AM








“They want to do something not staring at a screen and relatively inexpensive, and once people start collecting books they just buy more,” Daunt says. “BookTok is an easy label to put on it, but this is about people wanting to read and talk about books.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

[image or embed]

— María Ramírez (@mariaramirez.bsky.social) August 17, 2025 at 5:18 AM










[image or embed]

— Usili (Sage) 🏳️‍⚧️ (@usili.bsky.social) August 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM








@mrsalyssabueno Give me a challenge and i commit 💪🏽 #cabosanlucas #couple #momsoftiktok ♬ Originalton - @easy_edit415




@scottvisits She’s have a great time… #holiday #holidays #resort #hotels #hotelpool #resorts #hotelpool ♬ Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine








@daiseygibson I think I’ve found my new calling in life 🚤🍦 #sicily #sicilytravel #travel #italytravel ♬ original sound - Kate Hutchins








@gallodrogado Se llevaron la birria :c #goat ♬ XCUSE ME - Henny Fay








@birdeenyc

Just another chill day at birdee ☂️

♬ Almost forgot that this was the whole point - Take my Hand Instrumental - AntonioVivald








@coffeeinalens Caught her mid chill. Literally. #catsoftiktok #orangecat #cats #orangecatbehavior #orangecatsoftiktok #fyp #heatwave ♬ Nice and Easy - Louis Adrien




*More funny posts.