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Reposted by James Grimmelmann

Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · Oct 12

I misspoke at work babbling too fast because OF COURSE I DID while telling co-worker about ADHD and yeah that leads to this.

A scan of the front of an instruction manual for TSR Inc's Official Advanced Deficits & Disorders Dungeon Master's Guide based on of course the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons guides by TSR.

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 5h

James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 6h

Day Two of the new Platformer format and I am really not digging it. The thing I wasn’t getting anywhere else (the curated link roundup) is gone, replaced with a thing I can get tons of other places (short takes on already widely-reposted stories).

Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social · 6h

Wrote about fresh signs of an AI bubble (and why the industry says the worries are mostly overblown) www.platformer.news/ai-bubble-20...

We have entered the "weird financial tricks" phase of the bubble. A reliable indicator of bubbles is that companies concoct bizarre financial instruments and accounting measures to paper over their problems. In Fortune, Allie Garfinkel reports that venture capitalists are irked at some of the creative accounting going on in their portfolios. Some startups are reporting one-time sales as "recurring revenue." Others technically show "recurring revenue" for what are essentially trials.

And that's on the tame side. For crazy, you can look to Robinhood's suggestion that it might offer "tokenized" equity in OpenAI. By "tokenized," Business Insider reports, Robinhood means "blockchain-enabled representations of securities like stocks." In reality, they have no connection to OpenAI equity whatsoever. But that doesn't mean that consumers shouldn't be able to gamble on the mirage!

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 7h

If, hypothetically speaking, one thought that the AI boom were a bubble, what asset classes would be most insulated from it?

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Reposted by James Grimmelmann

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 8h

So Trump is now going to try to rule like an early modern king - just avoid calling the estates general or parliament or the diet and so rule by fiat.

Maybe someone in the GOP should turn the page in book and see what happened next...oh, oh dear...oh no...oh dear ohnonono....

George Pearkes @peark.es · 11h

Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 8h

Bill Swerski’s Superfans deployed to Chicago

abcnews.go.com/US/texas-nat...

Texas National Guard arrives in Illinois, as Gov. Pritzker calls for end of Trump administration's 'authoritarian march'

abcnews.go.com

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 8h

might of heard have

James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 9h

Chaser.

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 9h

Repeat after me: They don't care!

www.404media.co/sora-2-water...

Sora 2 Watermark Removers Flood the Web

Bypassing Sora 2's rudimentary safety features is easy and experts worry it'll lead to a new era of scams and disinformation.

www.404media.co

James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 9h

Shot.

Reposted by James Grimmelmann

Federalist Society Pitchbot @fedsocpitchbot.bsky.social · 10h

“Money shall be drawn from the Treasury” as a Grant of Executive Authority

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 10h

It’s 1992 in Trump’s brain, and if there aren’t riots for him to send the National Guard against, he will manifest them.

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 11h

Trump wants to see troops in American cities. To him, the factual and legal rationale behind those deployments is unimportant.

Trump Is Destroying One of America’s Oldest Traditions

America has always had a strong aversion to seeing the military on the country’s streets. That is not stopping the current president.

www.theatlantic.com

James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 15h

No, the adjuncts are the potted plant in the background. If they're lucky, someone remembers they need water.

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Reposted by James Grimmelmann

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 17h

Very nice piece from my colleague @stevevladeck.bsky.social in today's Times on the illegality of Trump's troop deployments to American cities. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by James Grimmelmann

Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 16h

Just so. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

A Compact for Control (opinion)

No self-respecting institution of higher education should accept the Trump administration’s unconstitutional terms, Robert Post and Tom Ginsburg write.

www.insidehighered.com

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 18h

Heck, they also rely on their own employees to submit original work. That too is in danger.

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 19h

“Maybe another sector AI is disrupting is the ability to "rely" on overcaffeinated and drugged up twenty-somethings to kill themselves on consulting assignments to squeeze a few more dollars out of the bottom line.”

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

Is this a genuine difference between the "post-totalitarian system" of 1978 Czechoslovakia and the personalist system Trump wants to impose on the United States in 2025? And if so, how do his demands function? Or is this just a further spelling-out of ideas that are already present in Havel?

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

Whereas I get the sense that if Brad Karp (Paul Weiss) or Claire Shipman (Columbia) said, "I am afraid and therefore unquestioningly obedient," it would be rejected as an insufficient demonstration of fealty. That kind of truth-telling allows them to retain _too much_ dignity.

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

Havel says that if the greengrocer hung a sign saying "I am afraid and therefore unquestioningly obedient," it wouldn't work. That would be too degrading and he couldn't "conceal from himself the low foundations of his obedience."

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

I've seen various people cite Havel over the last eight years for the way in which obedience is socially enforced through mandatory agreement to obvious lies, and for the power of "living within the truth" (great phrase!) challenges the entire system.

I'm after something different.

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

I've been rereading Havel, as one does in times of need.

Has anyone written a careful comparison of the greengrocer in _The Power of the Powerless_ who hangs a "Workers of the World, Unite!" sign in his window with the displays of servile flattery that Trump and Trumpism demands?

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

Fourth factor, third factor, second factor, first factor.

Ryan Teague Beckwith @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social · 1d

Editor in chief, city editor, features editor

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

The new analysis-heavy Platformer format is dramatically less interesting than the old one, and much less useful to me professionally. My subscription just renewed two weeks ago, so I guess I have a year for it to grow on me, but I'm not optimistic.

Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social · 1d

In this edition we're also launching the Following feed, part of our new approach to curating links. Each day we're giving you three to five stories we're following, why we're following them, and what people are saying about them. Today we wrote about reactions to Sora

Zelda Williams, daughter of the late comedian Robin Williams, begged people in an Instagram story to stop sending her Sora videos of her dad. "You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else's throat hoping they'll give you a little thumbs up and like it," she wrote. "Gross."

Meanwhile, what do average users want? Fewer content restrictions. We found App Store reviews reading “It’s so censored it’s not even fun,” and “the “safeguards in place prevent you from making anything worth watching,” among other complaints.

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

I remain grateful that I was allowed to enroll in both Fed Courts and Corporate Tax, even though they overlapped by half an hour. I alternated which one I left to go to the other.

I, um, also don’t think that I missed much.

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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 1d

In this blog post, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University exhibits the same keen understanding of contemporary American politics previously on display in her debate with the guy who believes in "the liquidation of democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law."

Why I’m Excited About the White House’s Proposal for a Higher Ed Compact

Now we have a chance for collective action

therenovator.substack.com