Lisa Schmeiser
@lschmeiser.bsky.social
Editor in Chief, No Jitter; podcast @ The Incomparable; writer of a Beehiiv newsletter (https://notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/) parent/partner/community volunteer/aspiring long distance swimmer.
In Gloria Naylor's "Linden Hills," a passage details the psychologically unnatural state of one character by going into the control he exerts over his diet & his bowels. It is not aspirational. 40 years later, we get someone unironically recommending the same thing: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/m...
The Most Powerful Men in America Are Eating Only Steak and Sauerkraut. Could I?
I ate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a week. The results were fascinating.
nytimes.com
Not exactly surprising: www.geekwire.com/2026/he-it-b...
He, it, but rarely she: When AI models write kids’ stories about animals, female characters vanish
A new University of Washington study testing leading AI models across nearly 24,000 story completions found that AI guardrails designed to reduce bias have accidentally erased female characters — defa...
geekwire.com
"Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery" should be the kind of headline that prompts congressional hearings. Should.
Matt Burgess (WIRED)@mattburgess1.bsky.social · 4h agoNEW: Over the last few months, Meta has run dozens of paid ads that included AI-generated CSAM. The ads, some of which were linking out to “nudify” apps, targeted men in the US, UK, and a dozen European countries. Some were running in the last few days
"It's a big club, and you ain’t in it ... by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy." -- George Carlin.
BOMBSHELL story by Olivia Carville @bloomberg.com Internal Report Shows TikTok Kept Safety Feature From Millions A confidential document says an algorithm adjustment was kept from many users “by design,” as part of an experiment to measure engagement NO PAYWALL www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
TikTok Withheld a Safety Feature From Millions. One Died by Suicide
A confidential document says an algorithm adjustment was kept from many users “by design,” as part of an experiment to measure engagement.
bloomberg.com
It always bodes well for a society and its economic viability when the government chooses to cut off all support to education, the arts and social sciences.
Asha Rangappa@asharangappa.bsky.social · yesterdayI think there is a First Amendment argument to be made here
I love data-driven visual analysis like this.
Sean O’Kane@okane.fyi · yesterdayNEW: Elon Musk clearly hates talking about Tesla's stagnant car biz these days so @russellbrandom.bsky.social and I mapped out just how much it's taken a back seat on the company's earnings calls. Musk now spends half or more of his time talking about AI & robotics: techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/e...
There shall be feasting in Valhalla for the team of product nerds who made it possible for me to autofill a browser field with the two-step verification code that just got texted to me.
I have a friend whose great gift is loving things without apology or reservation, among the things she loves is George Michael & I always feel honored when she shares her zeal for something. I saw this documentary with her last week -- definitely worth it if you love history & pop culture.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2d agoCareless whispers: what really happened between George Michael and Lindsay Anderson? The Wham! movie producer reveals all
it’s hard not to see forcing genital exams on female children who want to do sports as just one step removed from the same perverse culture that let Larry Nassar abuse girls for years. And it’s all part of an effort to force girls out of athletics: www.thecut.com/article/wash...
The Push to Force Genital Exams on Student Athletes
In just a few months, Washington could become the first state to require sex-verification tests for girls playing sports in K–12 schools.
thecut.com
So I just learned the Kyoto Aquarium has a visual chart to document the soap opera-like relationships among their penguins and I am SAT: www.kyoto-aquarium.com/special/soka...
Kyoto Penguins Relationship Chart 2026｜Kyoto Aquarium
The 2026 edition of our penguins relationship chart is finally here! It's fun, adorable, and as complicated as always!
kyoto-aquarium.com
So a fun thing to do in this, our summer of Odyssey discourse: Go read (or re-read) Sheri S. Tepper's THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY. She interweaves the society's annual performance of a play, "Iphigenia at Ilium," into the plot & ghost Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra & Iphigenia drop some real bangers.
orchid is an new ai agent that wants to fix your emotionally checked out bf. but as one therapist told me, "no amount of feigned attention will convince the nervous system that someone is there for you when they are not.” maybe just break up. my latest for @wired.com www.wired.com/story/this-a...
This AI Assistant Wants to Make Up for Your Boyfriend’s Incompetence
An ad for Orchid suggests the AI agent can fix relationship problems by simply doing everything for inconsiderate partners.
wired.com
Starts off as a story on the continuing trend of assortative mating in the U.S., ends up explaining why cultural & political movements to push women out of college & the workplace are going to continue to appeal to working-class male voters: finance.yahoo.com/economy/arti...
College-educated women are snapping up the highest-earning men without college degrees, leaving the rest further behind
A new NBER study finds that as college men grow scarce, college-educated women marry high-earning men without degrees—leaving noncollege women with a shrinking, poorer pool of potential husbands.
finance.yahoo.com
Okay, sort of into the editors at the New York verticals deciding this week is the week they'll run nonstop coverage on how dreadful influencers are.
The impact on the LinkedIn Lunatics subreddit cannot be understated: www.404media.co/linkedin-int...
LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button
Following 404 Media's reporting on how LinkedIn is full of AI slop, the platform is giving users a chance to report it when they see it.
404media.co
As someone who lived through the Michael Pollen/ Mark Bittner "America is fat because women are no longer cooking dinner for their families" moment of the 2000s, SO GLAD to see we're reviving the premise that Americans' real food issue is that they don't cook. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Exclusive: RFK Jr. hosting a new cooking show with celebrity chefs
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an exclusive interview, says he will be 'reintroducing' Americans to cooking again in a new series.
usatoday.com
Can someone point me to the no-doubt-already-written thinkpieces about how podcasts and livestreams are so popular because they fulfill the social need for having "hang out" friends who will check in and ask how you are?
My AI Slop-loving Facebook connection likes to share three common ideas with their posts: 1) Kids today need to go to trade school 2) The olds are full of wisdom and today's entry 3) Things were better before we had personal technology.
Well, @theatlantic.com story on how the death of the girlboss signals Gen Z's embrace of amoral vapidity and their rejection of firm political convictions and unapologetic ambition would really piss off Gen Z if they could read. Fortunately, according to the Atlantic, Gen Z isn't doing that either.
Has anyone used AI to create/maintain the website that fact-checks all of Sam Altman's claims?
Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last wk.“What we need to explain to the world: Number one, we are close to creating a genie that can grant any wish. Number two, we are going to make sure that our first wishes broadly benefit humanity” - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — This is definitely the opposite of Anthropic’s AI kills all jobs pitch.
some of us do our own writing because we aren't shitty writers, champ!
One of my favorite emerging microgenres of content: op-eds from economists who are very upset that Gen Z is turning away from capitalism.
Your worst fears about cultural collapse might be true – here’s what you can do about it
Your worst fears about cultural collapse might be true – here’s what you can do about it
Writer Sarah Wilson argues we’re hurtling toward the same end as ancient Rome and the Mayan civilisation – but there’s plenty to fight for
theguardian.com
"I want term limits on opinion columnists," I whispered. The monkey's paw curled one finger.
Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social · last wk.Genuinely bizarre that Douthat would give up the cushiest job in journalism, where management clearly loves him, to join a newsroom whose defining attributes are its internal dysfunction and the constant stream of embarrassing leaks from disgruntled staffers.
The goal of the right is to eliminate every means of women's participation in public life, from voting to working, from education to sports. It's a multipronged, multiyear effort, and it's working.
Diana Moskovitz@dianamoskovitz.bsky.social · last wk.The right got a big win when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld states banning trans girls from women's sports. What's next? Over at @defector.com, I dig into their plan for essentially winding down competitive women's sports and Title IX — think of it as make women's sports girly again. Gift link:
