Legislative update
2026 session recap By Sen. Jim Woodward, R-SagleReader Contributor The 2026 legislative session adjourned for the year on April 2. As expected, developing the annual budget was the dominant topic this year. It was...
Tagged: AI
Q&A.I.: Interrogating ChatGPT
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff Against my better judgement, I’ve been using ChatGPT, but not to write emails faster or distill complex data that I can’t be bothered to think about myself, nor serve as...
In praise of ‘performative reading’
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff The New Yorker carried an interesting piece on its website Dec. 2 titled “Now Watch Me Read,” in which Brady Brickner-Wood explores the idea of “performative reading.” That is, the...
Dumb of the Week
By Ben OlsonReader Staff Some very powerful metaphors came across the Dumb Desk this week, as we near the final months of the foul Year of our Lord 2025. First, in an apparent trolling...
Bloody fingers, happy soul
By Ben OlsonReader Staff My first guitar was used more as a prop than an instrument. I convinced my parents to buy it for me when I was in sixth grade. It was a...
New FX-Hulu series Alien: Earth is already a must-watch after four episodes
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff The Panida Theater just screened director Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece Alien as part of its $5 movie series; and, while there is an entire dark constellation of other films...
Becoming (in)human
By Ben OlsonReader Staff “Operator…” “Agent…” “Help…” “Rrrgh, just let me freaking talk to somebody, you son of a…” If anyone had overhead me trying to call my internet provider’s support line over the...
Emily Articulated: AI (again)
By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist It was 2008 — The printer whirred as it spat out 14 pages of MapQuest directions. I swore under my breath as the banner ads emerged in full color...
2025 year in preview
By Reader Staff Even if you’ve never read any of the works of 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, you’ve probably heard someone repeat his famous line: “A pessimist is an optimist in full possession...
Mad about Science: Artificial intelligence, redux
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist A few years have passed since we’ve last explored artificial intelligence. The last time I wrote an article dedicated to the subject was in 2018, and the scope and...
