Lauri Donahue
@lauridonahue.bsky.social
Screenwriter Entertainment/tech/IP attorney Former Sr. Counsel, Motion Picture Association Occasional journalist History nerd Lauri's List of screenwriting fellowships, labs, etc.: https://tinyurl.com/spmfzxfh Website/blog: https://lauridonahue.com
This is an entirely new phenomenon because before the vaccine, most women who survived measles were immune because they had it when they were young. But now, idiots who refuse to get vaccinated are giving birth to babies with measles. Two babies have died. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
America had wiped out measles. Now babies are infected at birth.
Congenital measles has rarely been seen in the U.S. That’s changing as vaccination declines and more pregnant women become infected.
nbcnews.com
In addition to not understanding how insurance works, why would you kick off the only people who AREN'T costing you money. That's like Planet Fitness kicking out the people who join in January and never come back. THESE ARE YOUR BREAD AND BUTTER
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 11h agoAssistant AG for Fraud Colin McDonald: "Apparently 35% of people have never even used their Obamacare account for any health services. That is a statistical impossibility and it's because these are not real people seeking real care. These are fraudsters."
"Shifts the agency"? Did an AI write that? "Suddenly you're not recording people" ... because the camera is "cute"? This is the kind of idiotic consumer product that only a resident of the Metaverse could love. 🙄
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 10h ago“Everyone hates cameras in smart glasses. But if the camera is contained in a charm you wear around your neck, it shifts the agency. Suddenly, you’re not recording people. It’s just a cute little animated avatar looking out on the world.”
Just watched a made-for-streaming movie with an inexplicable 82% on Rotten Tomatoes that was so relentlessly stupid we gave up after 20 minutes. And there was one simple thing the writers could have done to make it 82% less stupid and justified the main character's stupid decisions...
Exclusive: Egypt’s top spy flew to Israel shortly before October 7 with a dire warning about Gaza, Vivian Salama reports: theatln.tc/2t3svWou
Deaths now outnumber births in reliably Republican counties for the first time since at least 1982. We explain how this may already be affecting voting patterns in America bit.ly/471apDL
Anyone else remember the filksong "When Harlie Played One"? The original is by Robert Osband, ca. 1974, and the following version is by Jay Scott from 1985. It's based on the David Gerrold AI novel "When HARLIE Was One." www.swil.org/FILKS/filkbo...
SWIL Filkbook #4
swil.org
A hidden list of 100 abusers in Silicon Valley. Left unstated: some are abusing *men* Sam Altman used to date Peter Thiel, known for recruiting young men for sex (one died of suicide). Sam's sex parties are notorious for how hard they go, and the abuse. Three sources told me about this:
Silicon Valley ‘sex assault list’ with ‘over 100 ‘ names circulated, warning female tech workers of predators to avoid
“Some of them were very prominent names, you know? People who were famous investors. Businessmen who were in the scene”
nypost.com
Can anything help us focus besides sleep? A recent study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences compared two strategies for protecting memory after sleep deprivation: aerobic exercise and a nap. https://cnn.it/4yWNfdt
Is Pangram inherently racist? Or are the people who use Pangram more liable to use it to evaluate the manuscripts of people of color? Either way, something is wrong. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
His Novel Had a Shot at a Top Book Prize. Then Someone Ran an A.I. Test. (Gift Article)
“It Was Either That Or Die,” by the Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien, was the hit of the French literary season. Now it has been pulled from the shortlist for a prestigious prize.
nytimes.com
It would be nice to imagine a bunch of retired freedom-loving lawyers signing up to do this and then messing up the government's cases...
Nancy Levine Stearns@nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 17h agoSurges: “The positions for 179-day terms starting Oct. 13 or later will ‘support areas with an increase in prosecutions associated with a surge in federal law enforcement efforts,’ the email stated. ‘Responsibilities are expected to be immigration related.’” news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
Oxford lets OpenAI train its AI models on Bodleian library
Oxford lets OpenAI train its AI models on Bodleian library
University staff voice concerns over reputational risk of partnering with company behind ChatGPT The University of Oxford has allowed the company behind ChatGPT to train its AI models on historical texts from its Bodleian library, as tech companies scour academic institutions for fresh data. The Bodleian material digitised by OpenAI has been used to “populate the OpenAI training set”, according to internal documents. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
The panic over AI’s potential existential threats is obscuring a more immediate risk from the technology, @willgottsegen.com argues.
AI’s Risk to Financial Systems
The tech may soon become an existential risk to humanity, but it’s already a risk to many Americans in a more mundane way: their banks.
bit.ly
The lawyer's argument rejects prior court decisions and copyright office rulings: "If I sat here right now and drew a picture of something and spent 30 seconds doing that, that could be copyrightable," he told NPR. But typing a prompt isn't drawing. #GenAi www.npr.org/2026/08/19/n...
A battle over 'Italian brainrot' could shape who owns AI art
A legal battle over what looks like a cartoon stick could help set the rules over whether creators can claim ownership of their AI-generated characters.
npr.org
Trump reportedly rejects Iran’s seven-day peace deal to reopen strait of Hormuz
Trump reportedly rejects Iran’s seven-day peace deal to reopen strait of Hormuz
Tehran awaits official response to plan, but US president is said to expect renewed strikes after midterms Iran is awaiting an official US response to its proposal to reopen the strait of Hormuz and end fighting in the Middle East war as Donald Trump was reported to have rejected the deal. Iran raised the diplomatic initiative at the UN general assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the Americans via Qatari mediators and could reopen the strategic waterway and put an end to hostilities in the region within seven days. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
Myth busting about Scotland's 'need' for data centres feat. angry moorhen (Follow us on insta at stopaidatacentres.scot)
Yazidi women maintain their rep as badasses... 💪
Nobel Prize@nobelprize.org · 19h agoIn an area of Iraq destroyed by ISIS, Hana Khider leads a team of Yazidi women clearing the land of mines. She works for the Mines Advisory Group, part of the ‘International Campaign to Ban Landmines', a coalition awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Watch the film: https://bit.ly/4e4PUuA
AI is being used to... -Facilitate online scams -Process health insurance claims, leading to wrongful denials -Price gouge customers via surveillance pricing -Set higher car insurance premiums using personal data The dangers of AI aren’t in some far-off future. They're already here.
Final weekend of our September mudlarking exhibitions for Totally Thames Festival. Today & tomorrow (Sat 26th/Sun 27th Sept) Mudlarks will be exhibiting their favourite finds at London Museum Docklands (nearest station is Canary Wharf) from 10-5pm, free entry. Lectures & Guided Walking Tour too.
Mr. Miller, who asserted that he had written the script as an independent contractor, was challenged in a claim that the screenplay was work made-for-hire and therefore exempt from the Copyright Act’s termination provisions. He won. 🥳 #screenwriting #scriptsky www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
Victor Miller, Screenwriter for ‘Friday the 13th,’ Dies at 86 (Gift Article)
Despite the success of his hit slasher film, he played no part in the 11 sequels that followed and chose to pivot into the world of soap operas like “All My Children.”
nytimes.com
"Another U.K. study found that people who had as little as four drinks a week experienced a greater decline in language abilities over the course of 30 years compared with people who were abstinent." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
How Drinking Affects Your Dementia Risk (Gift Article)
Researchers are still investigating what alcohol does to the brain, and what (if any) amount is safe.
nytimes.com
Attn: Pixar #screenwriting #scriptsky www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/s...
On This Mexican Island, Raccoons Make and Play With Toys (and Also Sip Margaritas) (Gift Article)
Scientists observed a family of pygmy raccoons near a Cozumel beach club learning from one another how to craft balls from paper, an indication that the animals have a culture.
nytimes.com
Deferred maintenance as political vandalism... www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/a...
Kennedy Center Shelved Repairs Now Cited for Closure, Whistle-Blowers Say (Gift Article)
In a letter to Congress, former employees say the center delayed a plan to address the leaks that its officials now cite as a serious safety risk.
nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/interactive/... Shows that I'd add to the list: Silicon Valley The Great Russian Doll Shtisel Pluribus Abbot Elementary Blue Eye Samurai Only Murders in the Building
The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century (Gift Article)
More than 500 influential stars, showrunners and other notable names in the world of TV voted on the best series released since Jan. 1, 2000. See what they chose.
nytimes.com
🙄 In case you thought earth-bound data centers were the biggest waste of resources... www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...
Google Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space (Gift Article)
Next Thursday, Google is sending an experimental satellite into orbit that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space.
nytimes.com
