Pluralistic: Writing vs AI (07 Jan 2026)

Today's links

Writing vs AI: If you wouldn't ask an AI to eat a delicious pizza for you, why would you ask it to write a college essay?
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: WELL State of the World; A poem in 30m logfiles; Weapons of Math Destruction; The cost of keeping "13" a British secret; Congress v. "Little Green Men"; "Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air"
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

A weekend's worth of links: Short hits for a long weekend.
Object permanence: Floppy disk CD sleeves; Rules for radicals; California's preventable fires; Muppet Haunted Mansion; Wells Fargo steals rescued Nazi loot; Texas abortion release.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

The extremely shady "educational integrity" industry: From Proctorio to Honorlock.
Oh great, there's DRM in printer PAPER now: Dymo was so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
This day in history: 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The pandemic showed remote proctoring to be worse than useless: Kill it with fire.
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Big Car says Right to Repair will MURDER YOU: You wouldn't download a car.
Algorithmic grading: Another weapon of math destruction.
Snowden vindicated: NSA spying was illegal.
Coronavirus is over (if we want it): All we have to do is reform our entire health-care system.
Rest in Power, David Graeber: Occupy, Debt, Utopia of Rules, Bullshit Jobs.
Hedge fund managers trouser 64%: 2-and-20 is a fiction.
Corporate spooks track you "to your door": SDKs are trojan horses.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The Fifth Pig: OG antifa agitprop.
"Fuck the algorithm": English children force Tories to U-turn on algorithmic educational assessments.
Mr Cook, Tear Down That Wall: Interop, Apple, Fortnite and the Berlin Wall.
Deindustrialization is a market failure: Future crises are never priced into market transactions.
Fed cops substitute dollars for warrants: Why talk to a judge when you can talk to a data-broker?
Upbeat surveillance marketing: Hikvision's jolly medieval spy-tech.
South Africa's copyright and human rights: Fair use, the Berne Convention, and Ramaphosa.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Commercial real-estate's looming collapse: Highly leveraged REITs and extinction-level events don't mix.
Test-proctoring software worsens systemic bias: Also pedagogically bankrupt and run by corrupt, petty shitheads.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading