Sign in

Mark (reluctant scrivener)

@markmadsen.bsky.social
2.5K followers 881 following 5.1K posts

Decision support, design, decades of data, architecture, augmenting human analysis, systems, cybernetics, safety, resilience, GOFAI, engineering management, urban planning, botany, history, art, dada.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Saga, sighs queen @saga.iam.bi · 21h
In case anybody wants a source for this story that *isn't* on a website using AI and doesn't read like it was written by AI, here ya go: heritageheadlines.com/rare-west-vi...
heritageheadlines.com
Rare West Virginia Chestnuts Sit Near a Massive AI Data Center Plan - Hopewell Heritage Headlines
Advocates warn that blight-surviving American chestnuts near Mason County’s former state nursery could be lost to AI data center construction. State…
3388269
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
The Ken In Yellow @kenlowery.bsky.social · 21h
I will simply say I am seeing exactly this situation play out right now in a different field. Work that would have taken about 3 weeks start to finish via traditional methods is now into week 6 and still in what amounts to first draft territory
2889269
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
New York Fed: Trump's 2025-26 tariffs contributed 2.9% to US goods price inflation, via higher prices for imports AND domestic goods. Without the tariffs, "goods prices would have fallen slightly." All exactly as most macroeconomists forecast.
14929
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
How I arrived on BlueSky
Jean Luc Picard, in the captain’s chair, looking devious. Or pervy. It’s hard to tell.
000
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
The A.V. Club @avclub.com · 05/10/2026
David Zaslav bids farewell to industry he helped destroy
avclub.com
David Zaslav bids farewell to industry he helped destroy
In a video address to employees on the eve of the Paramount takeover, David Zaslav says it’s been an "honor" to oversee so many HBO name changes. 
33894275
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
American Airlines skimping on in-flight entertainment has consequences
000
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 06/10/2026
Another example of the performance of autonomized ignorance as a projection of one's desired social status in the post-information world where the powerful pretend their power derives from shedding annoyances like "the truth" and "knowing things", while the rest are temporarily embarrassed idiots.
1104
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Prove it
030
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
K. Thor Jensen @kthorjensen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
chat is this good
best_of_web 1d
A customer just tried to use an employee discount code that ChatGPT gave her. I work at a high-end clothing store and clocked in to my manager telling me about the most unhinged interaction from yesterday. A woman walked in asking if she could use a 40% off code she got online. We don't have any sales running, so my manager looks at the screen and realizes ChatGPT straight up handed this woman a real employee's internal ID number.
6853911215
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Charles Keener @charleskeener.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
439189945332
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Alex Awoos @alex-awoos-backup.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I feel like more people should be talking about this part
Screenshot from the article that reads, The Stud, San Francisco's oldest gay bar, was only able to have its Meta pages restored because of the bars popularity among gay tech executives with connections to Meta
3850242098
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This unsourced viral video appears to show a group of male lions flopping into a pile together, a moment of bonding. We usually think of male lions as monarchs of all they survey, but COALITIONS of male lions are actually quite common. Let's learn about this surprising band of brothers.
620537
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I like the proposal for increasing business tax on large publicly traded companies based on on the gaps. Every city should do this.
000
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Woodrow Peel 🆗🆒 @woodyluvscoffee.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Car ads overestimate how much I want to rock climb and kayak and underestimate how much I want to buy ice cream at midnight.
532766
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Three elected Alabama public officials, all Republicans, were running a human trafficking ring. They were arrested and booked this weekend. weartv.com/news/local/a...
weartv.com
Three Alabama officials among 17 arrested in Atmore undercover prostitution sting
ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Ala. -- Three public officials in Alabama were among the 17 people arrested Friday in a multi-day undercover prostitution sting in Escambia Cou
63821506
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Looks like I have some LPs to check out
010
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Everything at the moment is sending me back to Lorraine Daston's (and Ian Hacking's) work: lareviewofbooks.org/article/hist...
lareviewofbooks.org
Historicizing the Self-Evident: An Interview with Lorraine Daston | Los Angeles Review of Books
Jack Gross interviews historian of science Lorraine Daston about her early work on rules, which has become newly salient in the age of algorithms.
2132
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Shamsa @shamsa.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I'm old enough to remember when this shit used to be called spyware and we paid money for an antivirus to keep out of our devices
39928
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
end op·pres·sion @respect4all.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
AI dataset for training Large Language Models composed purely of public domain content at Common Corpus? huggingface.co/blog/Pclangl...
huggingface.co
Releasing Common Corpus: the largest public domain dataset for training LLMs
A Blog post by Pierre-Carl Langlais on Hugging Face
011
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
TODAY is the last day to register to vote in several states. I urge you to double check your state's deadline, verify that you are registered, and make changes to your registration if needed. Then contact three friends or family members and have them do the same. whenweallvote.org
10231742250
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Texas Pediatricians Face Paxton Investigations for Vaccinating Children. Paxton alleges a vague conspiracy between doctors and vaccine makers. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation. But for a donation of $10,000 or more they can buy an exemption from Paxton's probe.
nytimes.com
Texas Pediatricians Face Paxton Investigations for Vaccinating Children
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate, has alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation.
35846
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 05/10/2026
believe it or not this is what a datacenter looked like before ai
strong bad and coach z, both cartoon characters, in front of beige computers labeled datum center
1118522
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Relative got a $500 check from US Treasury and a shocking letter full of lies signed by Trump and ending with "May God bless you". Basically a pre-electoral bribe. News reports say they're sending almost a million of these. Full text in alt below. (I told him to cash it quick before it bounces.)
Dear [name],

For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you!

With this Historic Action, my Administration is taking the surplus funds that accumulated from the Obamacare ''Premium Tax" and issuing a one-time $500 REFUND to Americans who use the HealthCare.gov platform to purchase their health insurance, but who do not receive Taxpayer Subsidies to help pay for their Coverage. You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back.

Healthcare Dollars should benefit Patients, not Insurance Companies or Government Bureaucrats. Since returning to office, I have fought to lower Healthcare Costs, increase Accountability, and Put Patients First. Through TrumpRx, we are delivering massive discounts on Household Prescription Drugs, and my Most-Favored-Nation Pricing Agreements have already saved Americans more than 1 Billion Dollars on much-needed Medications. We also secured an unprecedented 50 Billion Dollar investment to transform Rural Healthcare, expanded access to Health Saving Accounts for millions of people on Obamacare, and restored Pnce Transparency, all while roofing out the Waste, Fraud, and abuse across our Healthcare System.

I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare.

May God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,

[signed] 

DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1991865709
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/10/2026
Exactly this. And in fact, many models *have* been created this way, and decades of prior machine learning systems *were* created this way, consensually. These things are choices! People are STILL working this way! It’s not just that a better world is possible — it already EXISTS. We can nurture it.
171752473
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 04/10/2026
That all of these universities producing reports on what the future of higher ed should be are collaborating with the American Enterprise Institute is a tell that they see this moment of higher ed "reform" as an opportunity to entrench reactionary policies and undermine the humanities further.
312834
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 04/10/2026
The Cornell report on the Future of the American University is a disaster, mainstreaming and endorsing profoundly reactionary right-wing diagnoses of higher education that have no business in a serious report on what higher ed is or should become.
Compare, for example, the Progressive Policy Institute’s report on The Distortion of American Studies
with a similar study of American political science from the Goldwater Institute: Richard D. Kahlenberg
and Lief Lin, “The Distortion of American Studies: How the Field’s Leading Journal Has Embraced a
Worldview as Slanted as Donald Trump’s,” Progressive Policy Institute, January 22, 2026,
https://www.progressivepolicy.org/the-distortion-of-american-studies; Timothy K. Minella, “Peer Review
Gone Wild: Flagship Political Science Journal Shows How Academic Gatekeepers Promote Ideology Over
Scholarship,” Goldwater Institute, December 2, 2025, https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-
report/peer-review-gone-wild/.12 Jenna Silber Storey and Benjamin Storey, “Five Reasons Viewpoint Diversity Makes Academic Sense,”
American Enterprise Institute, January 26, 2026, https://cfau.aei.org/five-reasons-viewpoint-diversity-
makes-academic-sense.
13 Richard D. Kahlenberg and Lief Lin, “The Distortion of American Studies: How the Field’s Leading
Journal Has Embraced a Worldview as Slanted as Donald Trump’s,” Progressive Policy Institute, January
22, 2026, https://www.progressivepolicy.org/the-distortion-of-american-studies
719049
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
MB Brown @mbbrownsf.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
GOOD NEWS!
0438
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My Minnesota friends have already seen this, but I keep thinking about it and want more people outside our state to, too.
1343151
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I wonder if this is a precursor to a merger in a year or two?
100
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
#TeslaTakedown @teslatakedown.com · 03/10/2026
Since 👇 post 9 days ago, Elon has spent almost $11 million more, over a million bucks a day. In the Senate races alone, he's spent: $8.7m in Texas $4.5m in Ohio $4m in Michigan
38598258
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Outbursts Of Everett True @everetttrue.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
The Evansville Press, April 10,1916
MY CARD.
MR. GEO. PUSHEM, EFFICIENCY EXPERT. 

AND STAY OUT!
I HAVE NO USE FOR THE SHARP BOYS THAT GO AROUND SHOWING EMPLOYERS HOW THEY CAN KILL OFF THEIR HELP QUICKER BY
SHIFTING TUO MEN'S WORK
ONTO ONE!!!
9182502336
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Gavin Newsom, the next GOP candidate for president
010
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 01/10/2026
Yesterday I tried to fast track my bill to ban data center development on public lands, like this one in Oregon. Republicans blocked it. In case there was any doubt, it’s clear Republicans are all in on Trump’s plan to hijack your public lands for data centers.
oregoncapitalchronicle.com
Data centers proposed on federal land in eastern Oregon, western states • Oregon Capital Chronicle
A data center proposed on BLM land near Hermiston would be the first on federal public land in Oregon, one of dozen proposed in six western states.
19355145
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Jeremy Littau @jeremylittau.com · 01/10/2026
Good from @mattdpearce.com. My read on this bill is it's calibrated to address the tension between public investment and the downsides of government subsidy (i.e. strings). Detractors will ask why invest in a failing business, but news is a public good and a vacuum left by dying news orgs is worse.
mattdpearce.substack.com
California roadmap
On Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of the Community NEWS Act and the roads unexpectedly traveled.
153
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Kashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
And this is almost an aside in the story, but also absolutely bonkers. Meta claimed Zuck as a "researcher" to get a $355 million tax break on his $4.1 billion stock-based compensation.
Screenshot from New York Times article: "Meta is already in one sizable dispute with the I.R.S. over this tax break, for using it to subsidize its chief executive’s multibillion-dollar pay package. In 2013, Meta claimed that $4.1 billion of stock options exercised by Mr. Zuckerberg counted as a research expense because he helped invent new software, such as Facebook’s News Feed. The I.R.S. is trying to claw back the company’s resulting $355 million in tax savings, court filings show."
69044
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Will have to wait for the northwest passage to open.
020
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Looking for a post doc? Come join us at the Machine Visual Culture Research Group, which “combines digital and computational art history, critical AI studies, and the history of art and visual culture.” www.biblhertz.it/3815269/2909...
biblhertz.it
Call for Postdoctoral Research Fellows in Digital Art History
01821
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The counter to superintelligence is apparently incredible stupidity. Balance is maintained
020
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'm honored to deliver the 2027 Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh. Across 6 lectures, On Science, Technology, and Social Values, I will work through the claim that what we build and how we put it to use carry commitments about who counts and what matters in collective life cahss.ed.ac.uk/news-events/...
011026
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Akshually, that makes you an aiccelerationist
000
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Fun @funkelly.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
please keep in mind that many shitheel things tucked into the big beautiful bill aren’t set to take effect until AFTER the midterms, because they know they’re fucked. so tell everyone this, as often as you can so no one forgets, because the republicans WILL blame everything in that bill on democrats
37324
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I’ve been using notebooks again too. And had a freakout when I thought i left the current one in my hotel. Luckily just bundled with my ebook reader.
110
Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you’re in edmonton I can smuggle some across the border when next I visit.
220
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
LMFAO the official America.gov AI website uses a Chinese open source model
27670154
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 30/09/2026
GOAT OR BIRD????
This is even better than the
"what color is this dress" dress.
Goat?
or Bird?
2071827478
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
they DIDN'T REFUND her fucking TUITION?????
1454971466
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 30/09/2026
So-called AI detection tools might be an even bigger scurge than AI. I was talking today with a student (a senior), who shared that they now have to spend time "dumbing down" their papers--shortening sentences, removing advanced vocab and punctuation--because otherwise they get flagged as "AI."
1029574
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 30/09/2026
lmao
Google: Because of that executive order today, the proper corporate names for OpenAI and SpaceXAI will effectively function under the OpenSI and XSI umbrella in official government documents and the broader industry rebrand.
1226531
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Sometimes good things still happen.
09914
Reposted by Mark (reluctant scrivener)
Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Would be better to try him here.
714024