Paul Collins
@paulcollins.bsky.social
Author, Professor of English at PSU, bewildered radio guest.
Personal account.
www.pdx.edu/english/profile/paul-collins
Personal account.
www.pdx.edu/english/profile/paul-collins
The new issue of McSweeney’s arrived, and it’s in the form of a ✨✨Trapper Keeper ✨✨
November 27, 2025 at 12:50 AM
The new issue of McSweeney’s arrived, and it’s in the form of a ✨✨Trapper Keeper ✨✨
Imagine being stuck behind this guy at the Coinstar machine
Parking inspector and wife arrested for €1m meter theft
Parking inspector and wife arrested for €1m meter theft
The man is alleged to have stolen coins from parking meters in the German town of Kempten, police said.
www.bbc.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Imagine being stuck behind this guy at the Coinstar machine
Reposted by Paul Collins
Oregon Humanities now receives three AI-generated submissions for every real one. If you know your market well, they're pretty easy to spot, because they quote people who don't exist, get basic facts wrong, etc. But I don't envy the international news editors dealing with the flood of slop pitches.
Fascinating read on how a suspicious pitch highlighted a growing problem in freelance journalism: A flood of generative AI that even prestige publications don't catch, complete with fabricated quotes, from scammers who see opportunity in a field so many real humans are struggling to survive in.
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Oregon Humanities now receives three AI-generated submissions for every real one. If you know your market well, they're pretty easy to spot, because they quote people who don't exist, get basic facts wrong, etc. But I don't envy the international news editors dealing with the flood of slop pitches.
Reposted by Paul Collins
I keep coming back to this
November 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
I keep coming back to this
Reposted by Paul Collins
Which reminds me of one of my favorite New Yorker corrections
November 21, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Which reminds me of one of my favorite New Yorker corrections
Reposted by Paul Collins
New Mexico just became the first U.S. state to offer free universal child care
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told CBS News it would save families an average of $12,000 a year.
"In 41 states in America, your child care payment is more than your mortgage payment," she said.
#PublicHealth
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told CBS News it would save families an average of $12,000 a year.
"In 41 states in America, your child care payment is more than your mortgage payment," she said.
#PublicHealth
New Mexico will become the first state to offer free universal child care next week
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who championed the new initiative, told CBS News it would save families an average of $12,000 a year.
www.cbsnews.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:44 AM
New Mexico just became the first U.S. state to offer free universal child care
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told CBS News it would save families an average of $12,000 a year.
"In 41 states in America, your child care payment is more than your mortgage payment," she said.
#PublicHealth
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told CBS News it would save families an average of $12,000 a year.
"In 41 states in America, your child care payment is more than your mortgage payment," she said.
#PublicHealth
"I mean, isn't everything punishable by death, if you just wait long enough?" -- someone on Fox, probably
November 20, 2025 at 8:39 PM
"I mean, isn't everything punishable by death, if you just wait long enough?" -- someone on Fox, probably
Reposted by Paul Collins
RFK Jr had committed to Bill Cassidy, as a condition to win his vote, that he would keep website language.
Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”
Note the language in second photo.
Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”
Note the language in second photo.
November 20, 2025 at 2:42 AM
RFK Jr had committed to Bill Cassidy, as a condition to win his vote, that he would keep website language.
Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”
Note the language in second photo.
Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”
Note the language in second photo.
Reposted by Paul Collins
This is an excellent story. We got similar pitches from the same writer at Defector and if they had not been entirely generated by someone plugging prompts into The Fabulism Device they really would've been cool.
A few months ago @thelocal.to got a promising pitch from a writer with bylines in whole bunch of reputable publications—The Cut, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, etc. Then I started investigating. Here's a story about fabulists in journalism's AI slop era. thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 19, 2025 at 4:23 PM
This is an excellent story. We got similar pitches from the same writer at Defector and if they had not been entirely generated by someone plugging prompts into The Fabulism Device they really would've been cool.
WSJ on private insurers gaming state Medicaid contract requirements w/ nonexistent networks:
"Centene claimed to have 28 child psychiatrists available [near Belleville]... 11 didn’t have a single appointment that year, the Journal’s analysis of Medicaid claims records showed, & 9 saw 10 or fewer."
"Centene claimed to have 28 child psychiatrists available [near Belleville]... 11 didn’t have a single appointment that year, the Journal’s analysis of Medicaid claims records showed, & 9 saw 10 or fewer."
Medicaid Insurers Promise Lots of Doctors. Good Luck Seeing One.
Many doctors listed in insurer networks treat few or no Medicaid recipients, leaving patients with long waits. “Don’t get sick.”
www.wsj.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:58 PM
WSJ on private insurers gaming state Medicaid contract requirements w/ nonexistent networks:
"Centene claimed to have 28 child psychiatrists available [near Belleville]... 11 didn’t have a single appointment that year, the Journal’s analysis of Medicaid claims records showed, & 9 saw 10 or fewer."
"Centene claimed to have 28 child psychiatrists available [near Belleville]... 11 didn’t have a single appointment that year, the Journal’s analysis of Medicaid claims records showed, & 9 saw 10 or fewer."
Reposted by Paul Collins
Google directions before the Internet. Photo-Auto Map books, published by Rand-McNally in the early 1900s, provided illustrated turn-by-turn directions -- in this case, all the way from Chicago to New York City. You can find a collection on the Internet Archive.
archive.org/search?q...
archive.org/search?q...
November 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Google directions before the Internet. Photo-Auto Map books, published by Rand-McNally in the early 1900s, provided illustrated turn-by-turn directions -- in this case, all the way from Chicago to New York City. You can find a collection on the Internet Archive.
archive.org/search?q...
archive.org/search?q...
"Defense attorneys are telling us they can’t get their clients to take good or reasonable plea offers because they felt they’re better off spending their money on a political donation."
The fall of the DOJ is both exactly what you suspected & yet still shocking. Gift link:
The fall of the DOJ is both exactly what you suspected & yet still shocking. Gift link:
60 Attorneys on the Year of Chaos Inside Trump’s Justice Department (Gift Article)
Sixty former staffers describe an environment of suspicion and intimidation within the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:27 PM
"Defense attorneys are telling us they can’t get their clients to take good or reasonable plea offers because they felt they’re better off spending their money on a political donation."
The fall of the DOJ is both exactly what you suspected & yet still shocking. Gift link:
The fall of the DOJ is both exactly what you suspected & yet still shocking. Gift link:
Reposted by Paul Collins
Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown
Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown
Touts – and ordinary consumers – will no longer be able to charge anything more than price at which they purchased ticket
Reselling tickets for profit is to be outlawed under plans due to be announced this week, the Guardian has learned, as the government goes ahead with a long-awaited crackdown on touts and resale platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub.
Ministers had been considering allowing touts – and ordinary consumers – to sell on a ticket for up to 130% of face value, as part of a consultation process that ended earlier this year. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown
Great headline in the latest print edition of the Onion:
November 16, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Great headline in the latest print edition of the Onion:
My wife and I came across these in London like 30 years ago, and they're still the best idea ever for a card deck.
November 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM
My wife and I came across these in London like 30 years ago, and they're still the best idea ever for a card deck.
Reposted by Paul Collins
Writers! Applications for the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award are open. This year, we've increased the prize to $15,000 to account for the higher cost of pasta. Apply now: journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/awa...
Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award - NYU Journalism
Matthew Power was an award-winning journalist who reported empathetically on the human […]
journalism.nyu.edu
November 14, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Writers! Applications for the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award are open. This year, we've increased the prize to $15,000 to account for the higher cost of pasta. Apply now: journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/awa...
Congratulations to the Times app on 17 amazing years of a useless search function
November 14, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Congratulations to the Times app on 17 amazing years of a useless search function
What if we didn't ask people to concuss themselves for scholarships? What if we didn't knowingly run up a huge future legal liability? What if an institution for developing minds didn't, you know, damage them?
What if, like SF State, UC Santa Cruz, and U Vermont, we just didn't have football?
What if, like SF State, UC Santa Cruz, and U Vermont, we just didn't have football?
The Vikings are returning to Providence Park, but is Portland State football even worth saving? | Bill Oram
Ann Cudd, in her third year as PSU's president, said the Vikings one-game return to its longtime home signals that the school is ready to get serious about football.
www.oregonlive.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:55 PM
What if we didn't ask people to concuss themselves for scholarships? What if we didn't knowingly run up a huge future legal liability? What if an institution for developing minds didn't, you know, damage them?
What if, like SF State, UC Santa Cruz, and U Vermont, we just didn't have football?
What if, like SF State, UC Santa Cruz, and U Vermont, we just didn't have football?
“Wilson is co-founder of the Transit Riders Union [& entered] after the incumbent became the public face of an effort to block a new tax on high earners to pay for housing construction… She lives with her husband & 2-year-old daughter in a rented 600 sq ft apartment & does not own a car.”
Gift link:
Gift link:
Katie Wilson, a Political Newcomer, Is Elected Mayor in Seattle
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:42 AM
“Wilson is co-founder of the Transit Riders Union [& entered] after the incumbent became the public face of an effort to block a new tax on high earners to pay for housing construction… She lives with her husband & 2-year-old daughter in a rented 600 sq ft apartment & does not own a car.”
Gift link:
Gift link:
An important account of both the neglect of the disabled in institutions & the erasure of their history. The fight David Scott went through is outrageous. You shouldn't have to personally confront the governor to get records on a sibling with no heirs who died over 50 years ago in an institution.
He Died at a School for Disabled People. Decades Later, His Brother Sought Answers.
www.nytimes.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:05 PM
An important account of both the neglect of the disabled in institutions & the erasure of their history. The fight David Scott went through is outrageous. You shouldn't have to personally confront the governor to get records on a sibling with no heirs who died over 50 years ago in an institution.
Reposted by Paul Collins
if you can’t see the aurora borealis tonight, here is a sewer tunnel which is a wonder in itself.
November 12, 2025 at 3:58 AM
if you can’t see the aurora borealis tonight, here is a sewer tunnel which is a wonder in itself.
Reposted by Paul Collins
Still super stressed about this.
Pat and I just got our medical insurance renewal. Our monthly rate is going from $763 to $2,323.
Our deductible went up too.
We knew it was going to be bad with the subsidies expiring, but holy hell ...
Our deductible went up too.
We knew it was going to be bad with the subsidies expiring, but holy hell ...
November 11, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Still super stressed about this.
Coming this December:
November 10, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Coming this December:
Reposted by Paul Collins
I asked Georgetown law prof David Super wtf is going on with this latest demand for states to claw back benefits already sent out.
He says the law doesn't allow for this, and if the USDA is mad that states already sent out SNAP money, too bad—they were following USDA's own guidance. Full comments:
He says the law doesn't allow for this, and if the USDA is mad that states already sent out SNAP money, too bad—they were following USDA's own guidance. Full comments:
November 9, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I asked Georgetown law prof David Super wtf is going on with this latest demand for states to claw back benefits already sent out.
He says the law doesn't allow for this, and if the USDA is mad that states already sent out SNAP money, too bad—they were following USDA's own guidance. Full comments:
He says the law doesn't allow for this, and if the USDA is mad that states already sent out SNAP money, too bad—they were following USDA's own guidance. Full comments:
Doesn’t seem to have been picked up locally, but Portland State's having to hire back 10 faculty they laid off, because the not only did the U basically blow off the union & faculty senate, they also couldn’t really explain *why* those specific faculty got the ax.
And that's why we have unions.
And that's why we have unions.
PSU AAUP | PSU-AAUP wins NTTF arbitration judgment
psuaaup.net
November 9, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Doesn’t seem to have been picked up locally, but Portland State's having to hire back 10 faculty they laid off, because the not only did the U basically blow off the union & faculty senate, they also couldn’t really explain *why* those specific faculty got the ax.
And that's why we have unions.
And that's why we have unions.