# F L O T I S S E R I E
> Follow @flotisserie on Micro.blog.
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# Computah: Make it a link
*2026-08-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/13/computah-make-it-a-link.html
I spent a little time with the blog last night and pulled together two new site features using Claude Cowork. The last time I experimented significantly with Claude like this was to use Claude chat to [build the link log from scratch](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/link-archive/), walking it through my thinking in plain language, then copying and pasting its suggestions into the backend of the site and hitting publish. This time I used Cowork, the tool that runs in the browser, and it clicked through the screens itself, fully taking on the execution of tasks. I have some coding skills, but not the kind these changes required. If I were taking this on, I would need YouTube, Hugo for Dummies, and my own personal IT guy, and still probably couldn’t pull it together.
Last night I asked a few things of Claude:
I asked Claude Cowork to get into the backend of the micro.blog site and change my theme to link each line in the linklog back to my original post. The date field in the right column now links back to the original post for each link logged. No problem, easy request with easy execution. I made the request, confirmed the plan, and went about my business while Claude made the edits.
I also asked it to analyze my post content and suggest category tags for groups of content, then to label that content correctly in the backend. Claude reviewed about 500 posts and suggested I add a few new categories to my blog: [AI in Practice](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/categories/ai-in-practice/), [Books & Reading](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/categories/books-reading/) and [Writing & Language](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/categories/writing-language/). Then I set up some auto-filters to run at publish time to automatically categorize posts based on keywords moving forward.
Finally, [I manually added the archive page](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/archive/), which lets you sort posts by category or year. This means I now have a functional archive here. Enjoy my anodyne thoughts, dear reader.
Adjacent to my day job, I’ve been toying with Claude Pro now for about a year; in my experience, it has improved significantly within the last six months. It’s not perfect: my requested edits were completed, but [it also changed the CSS on the linklog so some of the text is too light to read](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/link-archive/), which I didn’t ask for and don’t want. But it has arguably extended my ability to execute on work that requires skills I don’t otherwise have (such as design and coding). What I do bring to the table is an expansive practical background in publishing and production, and all the language to describe it.
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# 2026-08-13
*2026-08-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/13/when-you-gaze-long-enough.html
"[When you gaze long enough into Instagram](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-13/from-veneers-to-ai-pursuit-of-perfection-runs-its-course-on-tiktok-instagram?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4NjYzMzMyNCwiZXhwIjoxNzg3MjM4MTI0LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSlBENEtLR0lGUEowMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI3MDQyN0U3REVGMkM0MDEzODNCNDUzRjAyNUE2NDc3NyJ9.iWr_BbwW2gdP_L5efN2dpghePU8BcSMD0dhPzsGmetc&leadSource=article-gifting), Instagram gazes back into you."
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# 2026-08-12
*2026-08-12* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/12/a-friend-of-the-blog.html
A friend of the blog shared [the Embroidered Computer, a programmable 8-bit computer](https://ireneposch.net/the-embroidered-computer/) created by using a combination of magnetic and glass beads, gold wire, and traditional gold embroidery techniques to fix material elements to cotton cloth. When complete, it has the processing capacity of a 1950s mainframe computer without the modern silicon microchip. Something about this [reminds me of Ellen Ullman's observation](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/02/21/my-life-is-work-right.html) that computers are made of boxes and wires, written on chips and tape. ([via](https://www.isaacgreene.com/))
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# 2026-08-12
*2026-08-12* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/12/claude-is-launching-an-ai.html
[Claude is launching an AI watermark](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/anthropic-says-it-will-watermark-text-generated-by-its-ai-models), one that users can’t opt out of (but can easily outsmart). As internet god Notopoulos wrote, “Claude’s watermarking poses the question: [Are you willing to proudly own that you write with AI?](https://www.businessinsider.com/claude-watermarking-ai-writing-unmasking-2026-8)” More: [What is an AI watermark and how do they work?](https://huggingface.co/blog/watermarking)
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# 2026-08-12
*2026-08-12* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/12/i-cant-believe-its-midaugust.html
I can’t believe it’s mid-August. I’m terribly behind on my reading list. Still, I did want to draw attention to this entertaining and extremely shareable article on [the glory of Record Head, a legendary record store in Milwaukee](https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/lawyers-guns-and-records-the-long-playing-story-of-record-head/). Make sure to watch their public access TV commercials at the link.
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# 2026-08-06
*2026-08-06* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/06/the-knitting-community-is-one.html
The knitting community is one of the great deliberative communities of the internet, and as they’ll happily tell you, knitting and fiber arts are closely tied to industrial and computing history. It’s really hard to pull one over on knitters online, because they have a deep and different relationship to the technical side of their hobby and all of the political and tech history behind it, and [especially how it relates to computer engineering](https://illumin.usc.edu/common-threads-between-knitting-and-engineering/). I was thinking about that dynamic while [reading about the latest fracas around YouTuber Hank Green](https://www.garbageday.email/p/hank-green-s-anti-ai-ai-psychosis), who is taking time away from public life after being called out by his audience, when his AI use was perceived as being in contradiction with his public persona. If you want to go down the rabbit hole on this, [here’s a good video summary](https://youtu.be/0EA3QwdC2OQ?is=EL80zmzQBFf3bich).
Ultimately [viewers are reacting negatively to Green’s admission of using AI to quickly aggregate research to drive his content creation](https://fortune.com/2026/08/04/did-hank-green-use-ai-chatgpt-youtube-social-media/), suggesting that he lost his own creative discretion amid a growing demand for online content. But in the meantime, his technical inaccuracies were paired with completely avoidable gender bias alongside the AI use, which drew additional scrutiny from technical experts. It [wasn't his first go-round](https://knitting.craftgossip.com/why-do-knitters-have-beef-with-hank-green/2025/09/12/) with the knitting community, it turns out. Was the bias Green's or facilitated by his use of the tools? Debate ensues.
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# 2026-08-04
*2026-08-04* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/04/winer-on-the-purpose-of.html
Winer on [the purpose of web standards](http://scripting.com/2026/08/04/124651.html): "I find that most standards that come out of the standards bodies aren't developed by implementors or with them in mind. They avoid trying to solve any specific problem, rather focusing on the elegance and flexibility of the format. This makes interop much less likely. I saw the differences several times as the web standards were growing up."
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# 2026-08-04
*2026-08-04* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/08/04/i-found-this-american-affairs.html
I found [this American Affairs article on the insidiousness of ad tech quite relevant](https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2026/06/exploitable-by-design-social-media-and-the-adtech-threat/). It focuses on foreign propagandists' exploitation of social media, but it's just as instructive for thinking about ad tech as tech, channel and product, and its entwinement with social media as infrastructure.
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# 2026-07-24
*2026-07-24* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/24/garbage-day-uses-jimothy-to.html
Garbage Day [uses Jimothy to trace how virality works](https://www.garbageday.email/p/how-to-go-viral-in-2026-as-told-by-jimothy) on the internet of 2026. Related: this story on how [the algorithm has prevented us from producing a single "song of the summer."](https://archive.ph/foqIW)
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# 2026-07-22
*2026-07-22* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/22/uwmadison-communication-professor-catalina-toma.html
UW–Madison communication professor Catalina Toma argues that [technology-mediated communication more often supports human connection and well-being than harms it](https://onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/the-upside-of-online-relationships/), provided people use it intentionally.
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# 2026-07-21
*2026-07-21* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/21/i-watched-obsession-with-my.html
I watched “[Obsession](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/obsession-review-1236747795/)” with my teenager last night, and dare I say, I liked it as a little genre story, a morality play about romance, relationships and consent. I also enjoyed the practical horror effects.🍿
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# 2026-07-21
*2026-07-21* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/21/a-colleague-hosted-a-nice.html
A colleague hosted a nice discussion of the work of David Dylan Thomas, who advocates for [using human-centered design concepts to bring humanity back to tech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTmSqxu3kWg). New and novel approaches abound, especially on whether and how to let engagement metrics drive decisions on design teams.
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# 2026-07-20
*2026-07-20* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/20/this-is-a-pretty-good.html
This is a pretty good [Tiktok breaking down the historical, cultural and religious meanings invoked in the “computah” memes](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTARBuxuU/). An important rule of the internet: [the best memes are intertextual](https://ceid1002019.home.blog/2019/12/14/memes-and-intertextuality/).
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# 2026-07-20
*2026-07-20* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/20/scheduled-send-as-alibi-nice.html
[Scheduled send as alibi](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/19/business/delayed-email-glitch.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zFA.J1sb.Zwlk_x16AZeX&smid=url-share)? Nice try, Costanza.
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# 2026-07-20
*2026-07-20* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/20/parents-wanting-stakes-lower-than.html
Parents wanting stakes lower than a smartphone: [consider a kid-friendly Wi-Fi landline, which looks and works like an old corded phone but runs over your internet connection](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/wirecutter-show-podcast-20260626-bluetooth-landline/), giving kids the independence to get connected safely. Alternatively, get a VOIP phone through your ISP for ~$10/mo.
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# 2026-07-17
*2026-07-17* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/17/finished-reading-well-prescribe-you.html
Finished reading: [We'll Prescribe You a Cat](https://micro.blog/books/9780593818749) by Syou Ishida 📚
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# 2026-07-13
*2026-07-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/13/the-atlantic-takes-on-the.html
The Atlantic takes on the [prevalence of the “it’s not X, it’s Y” construction in AI-generated writing](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/07/ai-chatbot-writing-tic-negative-parallelism/687892/?gift=A_VYuI0Bs4X1cJsYonaJVKZI8BKMs-1E0bmyL5bl368&utm_source=www.garbageday.email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=every-new-beginning-comes-from-some-other-beginning-s-end&_bhlid=9da7212be82c4732d921c03f77cd18b119e799b9), highlighting the semantic roles in sentence construction that differentiate ideas for clarity. Chatbots seem to like this construction, despite how clunky it sounds to the human ear.
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# 2026-07-13
*2026-07-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/13/henry-rollins-and-ian-mackaye.html
Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye have taken on a critical calling: [preserving the legacy of The Cramps for posterity](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/cramps-new-abum-vengeance-records-poison-ivy-lux-interior-henry-rollins-ian-mackaye-punk-psychobilly-revival/).
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# 2026-07-11
*2026-07-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/11/finished-reading-yesteryear-a-novel.html
Finished reading: [Yesteryear A Novel](https://micro.blog/books/9780593804216) by Caro Claire Burke 📚
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# 2026-07-10
*2026-07-10* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/10/rsschat-is-a-new-free.html
[rss.chat is a new, free social network service](http://scripting.com/2026/07/10/161133.html) that uses RSS to create a federated social feed that looks and feels a lot like OG Twitter. See also: the launch of [HyperTexting](https://hypertexting.com/), another RSS-based app that [centralizes the open web in a way that feels a little like Google Reader](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/a-new-app-hypertexting-turns-the-open-web-into-a-scrollable-social-media-like-feed/) (complimentary).
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# 2026-07-10
*2026-07-10* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/10/clothing-technology-tracing-a-history.html
Clothing technology: tracing [a history of pockets from ancient coin purses to tie-on pouches to today](https://www.christopherroosen.com/blog/2021/8/22/unobtrusive-power-but-uneven-influence-of-pockets).
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# 2026-07-09
*2026-07-09* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/09/a-cool-article-from-cap.html
A cool article from Cap Times on how [language translation serves as a trust-builder for local government](https://captimes.com/news/government/the-madison-city-workers-helping-spanish-chinese-hmong-speakers/article_f25cf78c-123c-464c-b852-d6ac6824b6c8.html) in an era of mistrust.
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# 2026-07-01
*2026-07-01* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/07/01/with-global-temps-at-peak.html
With global temps at peak in several areas of the world, the [BBC covers how critical tech infrastructure is impacted by high heat](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0gez6d50ro).
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# 2026-06-26
*2026-06-26* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/26/if-youre-looking-to-be.html
If you're looking to be depressed, see this [early research from Business Insider on the social implications of GLP-1 usage and how it may impact relationships in the home and workplace](https://www.businessinsider.com/ozempic-glp-1-weight-loss-women-jobs-marriage-harvard-study-2026-6).
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# 2026-06-26
*2026-06-26* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/26/dan-hon-made-me-laugh.html
Dan Hon made me laugh with "[carbon-based chauvinism](https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s21e07-anything-llms-can-do-i-can-do-better/)."
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# 2026-06-25
*2026-06-25* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/25/i-found-this-piece-from.html
I found this piece from an anthology celebrating 50 years of women's studies, which explores [the intersection of scholarship and publishing practices over time](https://uw.pressbooks.pub/happy50thws/chapter/from-theory-to-content-feminist-publishing-makes-womens-studies-powerful/).
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# 2026-06-25
*2026-06-25* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/25/i-too-am-dismayed-at.html
I too am dismayed at the [sudden lack of cottage cheese in the local supermarket](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/20/business/cottage-cheese-shortage.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s1A.h037.jbL7sffshd6z&smid=url-share) (I take mine as a snack, dusted with EBTB). The shortage hits hardest in the lactose-free section, where six of us appear to be competing for five tubs, and I have started to recognize their faces.
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# 2026-06-25
*2026-06-25* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/25/among-other-disappointing-scotus-announcements.html
Among other disappointing SCOTUS announcements today: [Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit Alleging Roundup Weedkiller Caused Cancer](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/us/politics/supreme-court-weedkiller-roundup-bayer.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s1A.jEVb.qgoshQC5WmrZ&smid=url-share). In a previous life, I worked in the same college as [a cancer researcher who developed twenty years of conclusive research that Roundup causes cancer in dogs](https://vet.purdue.edu/wcorc/news/screening-scottish-terriers.php) by studying Scottish terriers. Scotties, it turns out, tend to be susceptible to bladder cancer, and thus make good candidates for related research when cancer is present. For several years, I got to witness a veritable army of Scottie dogs dressed in bowties and plaid jovially trotting in and out of our veterinary research hospital to seed her research during their cancer treatments in West Lafayette.
What I learned during that time is that a great deal of veterinary research is about looking for health patterns across species. While not all carcinogens act identically across species, most known cancer-causing agents affect both dogs and people in similar ways. Because dogs share our homes and have similar biological responses to toxins, scientists track canine cancers as an early-warning system for human health risks and to research viable interventions to treat them.
In any case, while I don't know the ins and outs of the specific laws in play here, this is a disappointing outcome when it comes to the science.
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# 2026-06-22
*2026-06-22* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/22/ive-been-on-vacation-which.html
I've been on vacation, which means I've been reading my fool face off. I've also caught several great live shows lately, including an incredible set by [Australian no-wave noise band Party Dozen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCQGMnY504g). It's a two-person band and the saxophonist sings directly into the bell of her horn -- energetic work.
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# 2026-06-21
*2026-06-21* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/21/finished-reading-the-mixed-marriage.html
Finished reading: [The Mixed Marriage Project A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family](https://micro.blog/books/9781668068380) by Dorothy Roberts 📚
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# 2026-06-15
*2026-06-15* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/15/a-deeply-nerdy-complimentary-look.html
A [deeply nerdy (complimentary) look at the history of Markdown](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3PyuENpS2F1EKhpeDnuBFM?si=pl1xGmb8Q32e9Gb9XH6_MA). And [more on Markdown, its function and legacy from Anil Dash](https://www.anildash.com/2026/01/09/how-markdown-took-over-the-world/).
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# 2026-06-14
*2026-06-14* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/14/finished-reading-mother-mary-comes.html
Finished reading: [Mother Mary Comes to Me](https://micro.blog/books/9781668094716) by Arundhati Roy 📚
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# 2026-06-10
*2026-06-10* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/06/10/finished-reading-a-language-of.html
Finished reading: [A Language of Limbs](https://micro.blog/books/9780593852736) by Dylin Hardcastle 📚
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# 2026-05-29
*2026-05-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/29/finished-reading-my-mothers-daughter.html
Finished reading: [My Mother's Daughter - Finding Myself in My Family's Fractured Past](https://micro.blog/books/9781668083321) by Tracy Clark-Flory 📚
---
# 2026-05-29
*2026-05-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/29/how-internet-misogyny-parallels-realworld.html
"[How internet misogyny parallels 'real-world' harassment](https://scispace.com/pdf/blogging-while-female-how-internet-misogyny-parallels-real-3tmi0agm8a.pdf)" is a 2007 paper in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism by my old co-blogger, Jill, on her experience being harassed online by peers she knew IRL. Many parallels to current attitudes, all enabled and accelerated by digital networks and tools.
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# 2026-05-29
*2026-05-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/29/another-old-article-on-the.html
Another old article on [the emotional toll of being an internet personality and a woman with a platform in the public sphere](https://archive.ph/GbNap). I'm quoted briefly: I intentionally broke my social presence when I stepped away, which gave me necessary peace but made it harder to claim my work in this arena over time.
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# 2026-05-28
*2026-05-28* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/28/a-cathartic-read.html
[A cathartic read](https://www.theringer.com/2026/05/28/tech/pope-leo-xiv-ai-encyclical-tech-industry-problems).
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# 2026-05-28
*2026-05-28* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/28/its-a-pleasure-to-read.html
It’s a pleasure to read such a deft writer. Currently reading: [My Mother's Daughter - Finding Myself in My Family's Fractured Past](https://micro.blog/books/9781668083321) by Tracy Clark-Flory 📚
---
# 2026-05-27
*2026-05-27* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/27/i-followed-the-discourse-on.html
I followed the discourse on this one, but the book itself was much more sad than I expected. I did appreciate her thoughts on the pressure of balancing a public persona with the reality of being a messy and unfinished person, as we all are. Finished reading: [Adult Braces](https://micro.blog/books/9780306831850) by Lindy West 📚
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# 2026-05-27
*2026-05-27* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/27/this-one-was-okay-it.html
This one was okay. It felt like a series of earnest blog posts without a real throughline. Finished reading: [Glitch Feminism](https://micro.blog/books/9781786632692) by Legacy Russell 📚
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# 2026-05-27
*2026-05-27* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/27/i-attended-the-clayman-institutes.html
I attended the [Clayman Institute's talk on Gender, Power and Artificial Intelligence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcF60P73eDQ) earlier this month. They now have the session shared on YouTube for posterity. There are many topics and ideas here to chew on as this AI moment develops, and I recommend giving their angles some consideration.
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# 2026-05-26
*2026-05-26* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/26/there-are-enough-common-signs.html
There are enough [common signs of AI writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing) now that the subject has its own Wikipedia page. Via [John Gallagher's latest on "template rhetoric."](https://meresophistry.substack.com/p/the-growth-of-template-rhetoric-in)
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# 2026-05-25
*2026-05-25* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/25/the-pope-provides-a-vision.html
The [Pope provides a vision for living with artificial intelligence](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/world/europe/pope-leo-encyclical.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lFA.ps3j.ZyP0m_v4STgt&smid=nytcore-ios-share) (gift link).
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# 2026-05-19
*2026-05-19* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/19/major-changes-coming-to-google.html
[Major changes coming to Google Search](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/). Question: What search engines do we like in 2026?
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# 2026-05-16
*2026-05-16* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/16/the-harris-digital-campaign-head.html
The [Harris digital campaign head does a post-campaign autopsy](https://www.thebulwark.com/p/heres-what-i-told-the-dnc-autopsy-biden-harris-2024-lessons-democrats-2028) of the conditions that impacted the DNC's 2024 presidential strategy, with lessons learned. I enjoyed this read because it was so close to the work that there are relevant takeaways for other public marcomms practitioners.
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# 2026-05-15
*2026-05-15* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/15/after-listening-to-the-talk.html
After listening to the talk yesterday, I was reminded of this [article describing a journalism model for using AI](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/how-the-new-york-times-uses-a-custom-ai-tool-to-track-the-manosphere/) that shared some [parallels with D’Ignazio’s research](https://datoscontrafeminicidio.net/en/home/).
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# 2026-05-15
*2026-05-15* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/15/some-media-and-adtech-operations.html
Some media and ad-tech operations hire "clippers," people who cut and distribute high volumes of short video across social platforms, to manufacture cultural relevance. The strategy in short: [volume generates attention, and attention confers legitimacy](https://archive.ph/5EUbs).
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# Gender, Power and AI: Wrestling for the soul of the network, again
*2026-05-14* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/14/gender-power-and-ai-wrestling.html
[Stanford's Clayman Institute](https://gender.stanford.edu/) ran a virtual panel this morning called "[Gender, Power, and Artificial Intelligence](https://gender.stanford.edu/events/gender-power-and-artificial-intelligence)," with [Safiya Noble](https://safiyaunoble.com/) (UCLA), [Catherine D'Ignazio](https://dusp.mit.edu/people/catherine-dignazio) (MIT), [Angèle Christin](https://www.angelechristin.com/) (Stanford), and moderator [Genevieve Smith](https://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/genevieve-smith/), a Clayman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow. The panel applied principles from [feminist tech studies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_science_and_technology_studies) to the current moment, and covered how gender norms get encoded in data and reproduced by AI systems, and discussed whether the technology has real capacity for equitable design and implementation at scale.
Noble's argument throughout is that the governance conversation has gotten too high-level and universalizing while the actual outputs of these systems have profound day-to-day consequences for specific people today. She named [the role of AI in the recent gerrymandering of Louisiana and Indiana](https://time.com/article/2026/05/11/ai-redistricting-gerrymander-congressional-map-district-midterm-election/) as examples, and called for tripling down on long-term social science research about AI's impacts. She also pointed out that philanthropy is retreating from feminist academic and organizational work because that work originates from the same dynamics that critique philanthropy itself, precisely at a point when this research is sorely needed. A lot of money is moving in AI, and very little of it is funding the people best positioned to study how it impacts everyone downstream.
D'Ignazio was asked directly whether feminist generative AI at scale is possible. Her answer was no, with caveats, given who owns the technology today and the current emphasis on profit motive. She suggested it is more important to consider how to organize around our relationship to technology, and how we might approach questions of profit and ownership, policy and decision-making, and data and tech governance.
She provided an example of a reasonable use case by walking us through a project from her [Data + Feminism Lab](https://dataplusfeminism.mit.edu/). The example is documented at length in her recent book "[Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action](https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/5767/Counting-FeminicideData-Feminism-in-Action)," where her team partnered with activists who scour news reports to document [the gender-related killing of women and girls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femicide), including cisgender and transgender women. The lab built a very lightweight AI-based approach that streamlines the scanning and identification of news stories as possible cases to include in their project, supercharging their work (note: very similar to [how the NYT uses AI to analyze data for reporting](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/reader-center/how-new-york-times-uses-ai-journalism.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)). In this example, the AI’s job is task-scoped, democratically co-determined with the people who use it, and small. Smith picked this up: there is an idea baked into the current LLM moment that AI must scale to make it marketable, and the alternative is using purpose-built models that are right-sized against a body of work.
Christin spoke at length about how embodiment is one of the primary focuses of feminist theory, and how AI perpetuates the "disembodied" illusion of technology, and how this dynamic shows up in everything from the marketing to UX to user comprehension. This spoke to my thoughts on how [the single-interface design of LLM chat reproduces Haraway’s “god trick,”](https://medium.com/data-science/the-god-trick-in-data-and-design-4ec71e19811) knowledge that presents as universal while concealing the specific and situated position it comes from.
The parallel I kept returning to, listening to this, is one I think about often with my own cohort of early bloggers, women who grew up alongside the rise of the internet — and then the rise of [ad tech](https://epom.com/blog/ad-server/ad-tech-101). The internet of the late 1990s and early 2000s was being shaped by several camps: writers, students, information architects, and user-centric researchers who saw it as an information access network and a space of possibility; entrepreneurs and opportunists who saw it as a channel for marketing, monetization and extraction; and a smaller boycott camp that wanted to limit and refuse the whole personal computing and digital revolution altogether.
It was generally considered weird to be a girl on a computer or a woman on the internet — so weird that [many of our peers didn’t recognize us at all](https://geekfeminism.fandom.com/wiki/Where_are_the_women_bloggers%3F) — and we were there anyway, making stuff, witnessing, learning, advocating, producing, influencing. So when I watch some of my old peers, many of whom are professional writers and academics today, treat LLMs as a question of refusal rather than a condition to engage with critically, I worry we are abdicating a responsibility at precisely the moment when our technical and rhetorical expertise applies. Their refusal has good logic: user-centric researchers and communities engaged extensively with the early internet and the extractive camp won anyway, so why expect a different outcome here?
But Noble's work on algorithmic bias attributes that failure not to engagement, but to the institutional and financial disadvantages that user-centric approaches operated under relative to gargantuan commercial interests. David and Goliath. That gap does not close through abstention. Understanding the trade-offs around tech, producing knowledge and analysis that does not depend on investors and marketers to frame the platform and the questions, requires presence. Refusal cedes so much ground.
Overall, the recommendations from the panel were practical. Noble called for people with capital (and the political will to spend it) to consider how to put money toward socially responsible research and development. D'Ignazio called for alternative funding infrastructure outside of venture capital logic, and pointed at [European digital sovereignty models](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/digital-sovereignty-europes-declaration-of-independence/) as worthy of consideration here. She also gestured at the popular [AI Skeptics reading group](https://buttondown.com/ai-skeptics-reading-group) as one current example of mad-and-commiserating-as-organizing that is creating safe psychological space for people to talk about AI and its tradeoffs. Christin's recommendation was community organizing, on the grounds that [LLMs are unpopular with a lot of people who feel there is no space to say so](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/12/key-findings-about-how-americans-view-artificial-intelligence/), and that finding those spaces is itself worthy because it provides shared language and awareness of others’ knowledge and experiences.
Personally, it was refreshing to hear reflections on the work (and the feelings) of being inside institutions that are being reshaped by AI, and being responsible for some of how that reshaping gets communicated and absorbed. I’m thinking about the incredible value of interdisciplinary governance, and how the commitment to governance is a specific position, and all the margins to consider.
**Further reading:**
Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein, [Data Feminism](https://data-feminism.mitpress.mit.edu/). The foundational text on applying intersectional feminist thinking to data science practice.
Catherine D'Ignazio, [Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action](https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/5767/Counting-FeminicideData-Feminism-in-Action). Extended case study of the grassroots data activism project D'Ignazio described on the panel.
D'Ignazio et al., "[Feminicide and Counterdata Production](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35845842/)." Research paper on the counterdata methodology behind the femicide tracking project.
D'Ignazio et al., "[Data Feminism for AI](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3630106.3658543)." Conference paper extending the data feminism framework to questions specific to AI systems.
Safiya Noble, [Algorithms of Oppression](https://nyupress.org/9781479837243/algorithms-of-oppression/). Noble's study of how commercial search engines reinforce racism and sexism through their ranking systems.
Donna Haraway, "[Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3178066?seq=1)" (1988). The original essay where Haraway introduces the god trick and the case for situated, embodied knowledge against the view from nowhere.
---
# 2026-05-14
*2026-05-14* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/14/how-early-blogging-tools-like.html
How [early blogging tools like Movable Type made reverse-chronological posting the path of least resistance](https://stackingthebricks.com/how-blogs-broke-the-web/), killing the curated, librarian-style personal homepage and locking the whole web into [the chronostream](https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/1p5hk55/time_in_c_understanding_chrono_and_the_concept_of/).
---
# 2026-05-14
*2026-05-14* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/14/more-on-personal-websites-as.html
More on [personal websites as digital gardens](https://medium.com/@raysims/a-digital-garden-inventory-d6450fe74b4).
---
# 2026-05-14
*2026-05-14* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/14/did-poptimism-kill-rock-n.html
[Did poptimism kill rock n' roll](https://stevenhyden.substack.com/p/rock-is-dead-vs-rock-is-back-a-history)?
---
# 2026-05-13
*2026-05-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/13/two-things-can-be-independently.html
“[Two things can be independently true about social media](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00902-2). First, there is no evidence that using these platforms is rewiring children’s brains or driving an epidemic of mental illness. Second, considerable reforms to these platforms are required, given how much time young people spend on them.”
---
# 2026-05-13
*2026-05-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/13/for-those-who-love-to.html
For those who love to post, [a guide to the Internet of the future](https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/23/23928550/posse-posting-activitypub-standard-twitter-tumblr-mastodon).
---
# 2026-05-13
*2026-05-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/13/garbage-day-on-whether-bluesky.html
Garbage Day on whether [Bluesky was a net negative for left politics](https://www.garbageday.email/p/safe-and-cozy-in-your-doomsday-bunker). I'd argue the most important thing Bluesky did/does is technical, by [producing the AT protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Protocol) that underlies it, thereby building out the federated web. Distribution channels come and go, so [consider posting at your own domain](https://www.insanityworks.org/randomtangent/2024/11/3/the-posse-approach-to-your-online-presence).
---
# 2026-05-13
*2026-05-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/13/a-look-at-the-national.html
A look at the [national decline in student test scores](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/upshot/test-scores-school-districts-us.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iFA.bhkJ.SYIr76nEDx3p&smid=url-share). It's important to consider this alongside [global trends in education](https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2023/12/decline-in-educational-performance-only-partly-attributable-to-the-covid-19-pandemic.html) as well.
---
# 2026-05-12
*2026-05-12* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/12/some-contemporary-thoughts-from-ana.html
Some contemporary thoughts from Ana Rodrigues on the [perennial question of being a "woman in tech."](https://ohhelloana.blog/woman-in-tech/)
---
# 2026-05-11
*2026-05-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/11/added-a-wayback-link-preserver.html
Added a [Wayback link preserver plugin](https://github.com/gunnarr/wayback-link-preserver) to the site. This lightweight code detects broken external links on the blog and shows clickable Wayback Machine fallbacks so readers can still access the content. Handy when we're [working on the indie web](https://mxb.dev/blog/the-indieweb-for-everyone/) where [the web is fragile](https://jeffhuang.com/designed_to_last/).
---
# 2026-05-11
*2026-05-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/11/finished-reading-the-bluest-eye.html
Finished reading: [The Bluest Eye](https://micro.blog/books/9780307278449) by Toni Morrison 📚
---
# 2026-05-11
*2026-05-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/11/reflections-on-teaching-fiction-writing.html
Reflections on [teaching fiction writing in the age of AI](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/10/fiction-writing-professor-ai), from a professor with ten years of classroom experience teaching writing at MIT.
---
# 2026-05-11
*2026-05-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/11/read-this-alongside-the-bluest.html
Read this alongside _The Bluest Eye_. Finished reading: [On Morrison](https://micro.blog/books/9780593732939) by Namwali Serpell 📚
---
# 2026-05-11
*2026-05-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/11/reading-timothy-chesters-reflections-on.html
Reading [Timothy Chester's reflections on last week's Canvas incident](https://dispatchesinternetpioneer.substack.com/p/recap-the-canvas-breach-is-not-a). As institutions increasingly outsource the technical load to cloud service teams, IT incident response becomes about communication.
---
# Why I'm broadly skeptical of device bans in K-12
*2026-05-08* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/08/why-im-broadly-skeptical-of.html
Watching a [local phone ban policy ](https://www.wortfm.org/madison-school-board-grapples-with-phone-restriction-policy/) snake through the community this week. Like others have already said, my concern is mostly related to enforcement, as we know enforcement for all [school policy lands unevenly across school populations at the expense of Black students](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23328584241293411). But also, my experience is that the local school system is not communicative in a way that reinforces student and parent desires for two-way communication, especially considering the logistics of having kids who need transportation and after school arrangements.
When I was young, there was a pay phone on every corner and a central landline in every home. We don't live in that world anymore -- in our world, phones and other personal devices are part of our daily processes for school, work and family logistics and communication with friends, family and the broader world. Same for kids with devices.
None of this means screens are neutral or that Jon Haidt is entirely wrong about attention and comparison dynamics. But [Haidt et al](https://parentcheck.wixsite.com/parent-check-on-tech) diagnose a genuine social problem and locate the cause as technology design, then arrive at [solutions that are driven by individual consumer behavior](https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/pdfs/thought-starters-for-parents.pdf). Ultimately he does not call for taxing and regulating algorithmic platforms, regulating algorithmic amplification of distress, regulating algorithmic amplification of marketing, reducing economic precarity, or doing anything about climate change linked to tech. All of the behavioral changes indicated (device bans, Faraday bags) set up fights between kids and adults on phone access at the individual behavior level, fights with consequences that generally land harder on certain students.
While this issue roils locally, my kiddo's locker was broken for two months this year, and while waiting for repair, she got dinged for having her device in her pocket in class when the locker wasn't a secure option. She had shoes stolen from her locker in the meantime, proving the point.
I spoke with my kiddo at length to get her thoughts. Her takeaway as an 8th grader is that kids have second and third secret devices that they hide from parents and teachers already -- often, mom and dad's old devices slipped from a junk drawer and connected to wi-fi. She suggested we adults don't fully appreciate the kids' ingenuity around their devices, and how they view their phones and tablets as the means to get and stay connected with one another.
While talking, I was reminded of the dance between students and the school system's IT department during the COVID-19 shutdown. In our community, the kids were in remote learning for a full year and a half, and the IT department chased them around their approved digital tools like a game of whack a mole, shutting down access to chat and collaboration. In the meantime, almost no socialization happened between students that wasn't directly observed by teachers, on camera. By 2021, the kids were engaged in secret, digital note-passing, chatting within Google docs and slide decks to avoid teacher surveillance. Where there is a will, there is a way.
---
# 2026-05-05
*2026-05-05* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/05/its-like-the-phrase-turtles.html
It's like the phrase "turtles all the way down," but [turtles are marketing](https://www.wired.com/story/openai-enables-cookies-by-default-for-free-chatgpt-users/).
---
# 2026-05-05
*2026-05-05* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/05/a-new-group-is-attempting.html
A new group is attempting to [map influence in the AI industry](https://mapping-ai.org/), with the goal to "produce a structured, shareable, and dynamic resource that identifies who is working on what, where the gaps are, and which partnerships might form across ideological and organizational lines."
---
# 2026-05-03
*2026-05-03* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/05/03/a-new-study-suggests-that.html
A new study suggests that [people who use AI for writing are more able to detect AI writing than automated scanner tools](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.15654). My current LLM pet peeve is how they use language like _load-bearing_, _structural_ and _legible_ to describe most ideas.
---
# 2026-04-30
*2026-04-30* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/30/a-quarter-of-the-way.html
A quarter of the way in and already exhausted/confounded. Currently reading: [Adult Braces](https://micro.blog/books/9780306831850) by Lindy West 📚
---
# 2026-04-30
*2026-04-30* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/30/amazon-has-launched-a-new.html
"Amazon has launched a new feature that uses AI to generate a short, podcast-like audio segment where [two AI 'hosts' discuss the merits and reviews of a specific product](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ai-generated-podcasts-products-2026-4)."
---
# 2026-04-29
*2026-04-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/29/im-seeing-grunge-icons-l.html
I'm seeing [grunge icons L7](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMykR5v8-XA&list=RDtMykR5v8-XA&start_radio=1) in concert with [Amyl and the Sniffers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98DrIPe7t8I) this summer and have been reading a lot about the '90s indie rock era in the meantime. One frame I keep encountering positions grunge as regional punk musicians navigating a global, corporate pop mainstream -- awkward, crass and vulgar, but in the big leagues all the same. [Reading the Auf der Maur bio](https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/25/finished-reading-even-the-good.html) reminded me that a lot of the punk scene was steeped in ideas about [social roles and archetypes](https://meridianuniversity.edu/content/jungian-archetypes-and-the-hidden-architecture-of-the-psyche) and oriented around upending them -- or at least giving them a healthy challenge. This subculture was also populated by poets and artists in the classical sense. The retro polish around '90s pop culture has flattened that texture, but it was genuinely a thing.
The era also introduced the woman rock star, introducing women who wrote and performed with full creative authority, not just as muses, groupies or singers. The reception from fans and critics was mixed, and the discourse around Courtney Love in particular was gross and volatile. Most of the positions she was vilified for read as entirely unremarkable today. I was a teenager during all of this, too young to meaningfully participate, but the aesthetic dominated my early adolescence. At the time I loved [Tori Amos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_HA5Czhtx4) and [PJ Harvey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuJE40OBt48&list=RDWuJE40OBt48&start_radio=1) like kids now love Chappell Roan. What I forgot over time is how literary the era was, and how romantic, both in the literary sense and in relation to the [New Romantics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Romantic) of the 1980's. Big culture lessons for a starry-eyed teenager.
L7's music is not that deep -- it's metal for meatheads, by design -- but their politics and presence were. While poking around, I found that L7 was one of four bands featured in the [1995 documentary film _Not Bad For a Girl_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Bad_for_a_Girl), which was co-produced by Love and Kurt Cobain. The film focused on several all-female indie punk bands and won Best Documentary at the New York Underground Film Festival in 1996. I've never heard of it before now. It got middling reviews from critics then, and it's not available streaming in full in English, unless you're viewing it here at [this dubious Google Drive link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ejiur4UxFBjqV2a4ZKPeo7OFCGe-AD4s/view?usp=drive_link) -- which I will do and report back.
---
# 2026-04-29
*2026-04-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/29/it-looks-like-wordpress-has.html
It looks like [Wordpress has produced a short-form blogging app](https://wordpress.com/social) that duplicates the model we are trying over here on the even-more-indie web. I might give it a spin.
---
# 2026-04-29
*2026-04-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/29/im-reading-about-trends-in.html
I'm reading about trends in book and phone bans in American public schools, and reminded that [reading novels was once considered an idle and immoral pasttime](https://daily.jstor.org/a-novel-defense-of-the-internet/), just as internet use is today. This 2016 article from JSTOR goes into the history of reading books and the fear that it "enfeebled the mind."
---
# 2026-04-29
*2026-04-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/29/ai-is-less-regulated-in.html
“[A.I. is less regulated in America than sandwiches](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/28/technology/elon-musk-sam-altman-trial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.elA.V2b5.mpSl7cuSv8Eo&smid=url-share),” said Mr. Tegmark, who is also a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “You can’t open a sandwich shop without having your kitchen inspected. But you can release an A.I. girlfriend for 11-year-olds and that’s fine.”
---
# 2026-04-29
*2026-04-29* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/29/adventures-in-ai-i-asked.html
Adventures in AI: I asked a Claude agent (new Opus, Pro plan) to build a Google Doc template with multiple tabs, using an existing doc as reference. It failed three times over two days, burned thru tokens, never worked with Drive. Eventually it spat out text for me to paste into a doc I made myself.
---
# 2026-04-28
*2026-04-28* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/28/some-initial-review-suggests-that.html
Some initial review suggests that a [staggering amount of Substack content is written by AI](https://www.usermag.co/p/how-much-of-substack-is-actually-ai-pangram-analysis-substack-bestsellers).
---
# 2026-04-27
*2026-04-27* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/27/if-folks-want-quality-firstperson.html
If folks want quality first-person writing about age and aging, I highly recommend the [newsletter magazine Oldster](https://oldster.substack.com/), which explores "the experience of getting older, and what that means at different junctures." Bonus: Oldster is run by [Sari Botton](https://www.saribotton.com/), formerly the longtime essay editor of Longreads.
---
# 2026-04-25
*2026-04-25* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/25/nyt-writes-about-the-surge.html
NYT writes about the surge of “[slopaganda](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/25/business/iran-trump-israel-war-memes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dlA.2Bq9.hCLF3PFJN_y9&smid=nytcore-ios-share).”
---
# 2026-04-25
*2026-04-25* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/25/finished-reading-even-the-good.html
Finished reading: [Even the Good Girls Will Cry A '90s Rock Memoir](https://micro.blog/books/9780306833755) by Melissa Auf der Maur 📚
---
# 2026-04-23
*2026-04-23* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/23/fellow-madisonians-someone-pulled-together.html
Fellow Madisonians, someone pulled together a [website ranking local businesses in Madison by how local they are](https://fourlakeslocal.com) (by what criteria, idk). In my experience, this is one way we’re likely to see AI used in the next couple of years, via prototyping and/or executing ideas that result in dynamic websites.
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# 2026-04-23
*2026-04-23* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/23/digital-humility-stitch-a-new.html
Digital humility stitch: A [new AI tool puts typos back in your emails](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-written-email-perfect-typos-new-chrome-plugin-2026-4), so they don't look like they were written by AI.
---
# 2026-04-23
*2026-04-23* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/23/centaurs-and-cyborgs-on-the.html
[Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier by Ethan Mollick](https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/centaurs-and-cyborgs-on-the-jagged) in 2023: "On some tasks AI is immensely powerful, and on others it fails completely or subtly. And, unless you use AI a lot, you won’t know which is which."
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# 2026-04-23
*2026-04-23* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/23/last-night-i-had-dinner.html
Last night I had dinner with a friend in tech who recently attended a training on AI and analytics, where they made the observation that [we’re in the “Napster era” of artificial intelligence](https://zarego.com/blog/the-napster-moment-for-ai). It’s an imperfect comparison but useful to consider.
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# 2026-04-22
*2026-04-22* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/22/anecdotally-ive-seen-two-family.html
Anecdotally, I've seen two family court cases where one party submitted full AI chats — prompts and colorful complaints included — as formal filings. The complaints wouldn't pass muster with a real lawyer, but the conflict was nurtured by AI nonetheless. One was dinged for wasting the judge's time.
---
# 2026-04-22
*2026-04-22* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/22/ive-posted-a-couple-of.html
I've posted a couple of times about instances I'm aware of where people are using AI in _pro se_ court cases, especially family courts. A new study shows [evidence of increasing numbers in pro se cases at the federal level](https://avshah1.github.io/assets/pdf/papers/pro-se/Pro_Se_Automation.pdf), exacerbating existing bottlenecks. Many trade-offs abound here.
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# 2026-04-22
*2026-04-22* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/22/a-professor-asked-students-to.html
A [professor asked students to self-report AI usage](https://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/general_news/ai-panic-causes-campus-uproar/article_fdb604d1-206a-4883-bbe1-fe7631a2e083.html) on their homework, leading to lots of confusion and uproar. Points aside, it's clear people want more clarity up front about when and whether to use LLM tools. In the meantime, treating students like they're guilty until proven innocent is a bad MO.
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# 2026-04-22
*2026-04-22* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/22/i-missed-this-article-by.html
I missed this [2025 article by Noah Hawley on Vonnegut, war and the atomic bomb](https://archive.ph/fNfIb), and it is worth the time.
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# 2026-04-21
*2026-04-21* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/21/what-does-it-mean-for.html
What does it mean for the culture when everything (everything!) is content, [even war](https://www.wired.com/story/war-memes-turn-conflict-into-content/) and [mass shootings](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/alex-jones-infowars-the-onion-bankruptcy-lawsuits/)?
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# 2026-04-21
*2026-04-21* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/21/timothy-chester-suggests-that-just.html
Timothy Chester offers some thoughts on the place of AI-assisted software development in a modern research university, and suggests that [just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should](https://dispatchesinternetpioneer.substack.com/p/when-the-code-works-but-the-decision).
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# 2026-04-21
*2026-04-21* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/21/mindy-seu-on-its-been.html
Mindy Seu on It’s Been a Minute [talking about the history of women on the internet](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4CmBWWCiCxmjV2kEHPvSfW?si=d8h1E3AJQka7YMsy4Lc7Qw&pi=mlffiDbFTxivr&t=1054).
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# 2026-04-20
*2026-04-20* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/20/out-twitter-on-a-vape.html
Out: [Twitter on a vape](https://www.kqed.org/news/12036123/twitter-on-a-vape-puff-post-pollute). In: [AI-powered crypto vape](https://protos.com/how-do-i-short-this-crypto-weed-pen-gets-dragged-on-4-20/). Is this real? [Who can tell anymore](https://x.com/Gudtrip/status/1981513806347194880?s=20).
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# 2026-04-20
*2026-04-20* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/20/was-gifted-a-jar-of.html
Was gifted a jar of gorgeous fresh maple syrup.
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# 2026-04-19
*2026-04-19* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/19/morels-for-dinner.html
Morels for dinner.
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# 2026-04-16
*2026-04-16* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/16/maris-kreizman-on-ai-pressures.html
[Maris Kreizman on AI pressures building in the publishing industry](https://lithub.com/its-getting-harder-to-spot-ai-in-contemporary-publishing-and-thats-very-very-bad/), particularly how it impacts writers and editors: "It’s not an ideal environment for productivity, let alone for making art."
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# 2026-04-16
*2026-04-16* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/16/a-nostalgic-read-on-how.html
A nostalgic read on [how music nerdery bloomed online](https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/mu-core-fantano-needle-drop-music-discovery).
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# 2026-04-15
*2026-04-15* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/15/more-on-usergenerated-content-marketing.html
More on [user-generated content marketing and how it works](https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/user-generated-content/). UGC is a powerful example of "social proof," where people's parasocial tendencies are leveraged to boost brand credibility and conversions. This is [the consumer psychology behind celebrity and influencer sales and endorsements](https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2024/05/09/decoding-social-proof-in-consumer-psychology/).
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# 2026-04-15
*2026-04-15* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/15/watching-the-fallout-fans-discovered.html
Watching the fallout: [Fans discovered that the band Geese benefitted from a hefty marketing campaign](https://consequence.net/2026/04/geese-not-psy-op-marketing-industry-plant/). Folks are debating [whether this makes Geese a "psy-op"](https://www.wired.com/story/geese-chaotic-good-marketing-industry-plant/) or [merely "sell-outs"](https://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-a-music-industry-plant-looks-like-in-2026-2000746265), to use an old term of art. Meanwhile [the marketing firm behind the push is getting a ton of attention in its own right](https://chaoticgoodprojects.org/ugc-campaigns-1).
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# 2026-04-14
*2026-04-14* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/14/im-following-a-guy-in.html
I’m following a guy in TX who is using AI to write and illustrate children’s books whole cloth, then self-publishes using Amazon, and getting recognition in his region as a laudable children’s author. The books are categorically not good. It’s like people are rewarding his content strategy.
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# 2026-04-13
*2026-04-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/13/toms-hardware-on-mythos-and.html
Tom's Hardware on [Mythos and marketing hype](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/anthropics-claude-mythos-isnt-a-sentient-super-hacker-its-a-sales-pitch-claims-of-thousands-of-severe-zero-days-rely-on-just-198-manual-reviews). Additional commentary from Michael Corn, asking whether [Mythos coverage reinforces or establishes perceptions about cybersecurity](https://michaelcorn.substack.com/p/anthropics-mythos-in-a-historical).
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# 2026-04-13
*2026-04-13* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/13/garbage-day-on-what-makes.html
Garbage Day on [what makes something cool to Gen Z](https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-only-taboo-left-is-copyright-infringement?), and how this is impacted by the degradation of "pillars of coolness" in previous generations like culture rags and MTV. GD predicts that "cool" will be measured by lack of polish and "[how many human beings left their house to experience it](https://www.garbageday.email/p/was-justin-bieber-s-coachella-set-good)."
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# 2026-04-12
*2026-04-12* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/12/finished-reading-death-of-the.html
Finished reading: [Death of the Author](https://micro.blog/books/9780063443679) by Nnedi Okorafor 📚
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# 2026-04-11
*2026-04-11* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/11/what-the-internet-was-made.html
What the internet was made for: A [Chicago music fan secretly recorded over 10,000 live concerts](https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/04/10/from-early-nirvana-to-phish-a-chicago-fans-secret-recordings-of-10000-shows-are-now-online/?utm_content=bufferfdba3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer) from Nirvana to Sonic Youth to Spoon, and has [made them all available online](https://archive.org/details/@aadam_jacobs_collection?sort=-downloads).
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# 2026-04-10
*2026-04-10* — https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/10/taste-the-music-is-a.html
[Taste the Music](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/taste-the-music-conversations-about-creating/id1892140278) is a new audio series exploring why artists are driven to create. The first episode features [storytelling and songwriting by friend of the blog Whitney Mann](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-1-whitney-mann-and-the-box-in-the-basement/id1892140278?i=1000760700366), where she chronicles her experience getting “the yips” onstage, and how she worked through it and picked up her guitar again.