Mezentine
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mezentine.bsky.social
Mezentine
@mezentine.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.3K following 11K posts
Chicago-based. Bikes. Books. Photography. Lot of politics.
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mezentine.bsky.social
I kind of remember when this came out finding the results a bit odd, but with hindsight it’s easy to see how it was designed to flatter the expectations of the business class.
Before a group of roughly two dozen students and professors, he described the introduction of an AI tool rolled out to 1,018 scientists in a lab focused on tweaking molecular recipes for materials at a large, unnamed U.S. company. With the AI tool, he said, scientists would specify the characteristics they'd like a compound to have, and the tool would generate recipes the scientists would pick from. According to his paper, researchers discovered more materials, filed more new patents and saw an increase in prototypes. But what was revelatory wasn't just that AI could make work easier. It was that the benefits mostly went to scientists who were already the most successful. Toner-Rodgers continued to work on the paper over the summer. Later versions included a survey that he said showed the scientists were broadly unsatisfied with the AI tool despite the improvements in productivity. "I couldn't help feeling that much of my education is now worthless," the paper quoted one scientist as saying.
November 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
Let’s fucking go
November 21, 2025 at 3:18 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
You better believe it’s big-ass batch of soup night tonight.
A blue and white bowl containing a thick orange soup topped with chives, pepper and Parmesan cheese
November 19, 2025 at 1:42 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
This, on the other hand, I believe is a real problem in neighborhoods undergoing heterogeneous development.
JohnnyTsunami312 • 8h Roscoe Village They've always been assessed on the same level and the comps are done in the same neighborhood. Property Value on South/West side are increasing due to development but not necessarily in a way beneficial to longtime residents. There's an issue with assessments because if a developer overpays for multiple homes or a rehabbed home is sold, they can potentially be used as comps that would require the homeowner to appeal, which may seem daunting.
November 18, 2025 at 1:40 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
I understand that what’s visible to me online selects for certain demographics. People say that this round of increases is hitting poorer residents on the south and west side particularly hard. But man, what are we supposed to do with stories like this?
Increased 27%, 1-bedroom condo in a pre-war co-op in East Lakeview. Our association lawyer got it down 7%. I paid $135K for it in 2017 with a $1400/month HOA (in a co-op, the HOA includes maintenance, fees, plus taxes). The new HOA will be $1750/month. Fritz Kaegi thinks my place is worth $490K now.
November 18, 2025 at 1:24 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
I’m sorry what the fuck?
November 18, 2025 at 2:21 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
The thing is, the books are not coherently political in any particular way, that’s not what I’m saying. But this book features arguably the first fictional humanoid robot as we understand it and he comes with this around his neck. Baum just has a PERSPECTIVE on a lot of stuff that shines through.
SMITH & TINKER'S Patent Double-Action, Extra-Responsive, Thought-Creating, Perfect-Talking MECHANICAL MAN Fitted with our Special Clock-Work Attachment. Thinks, Speaks, Acts, and Does Everything but Live. Manufactured only at our Works at Evna, Land of Ev. All infringements will be promptly Prosecuted according to Law.
November 17, 2025 at 4:15 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
The Wheelers attack Dorothy because she takes a lunch-box full of food from a tree that grows lunch-boxes, which the Wheelers assert is theft of their property. Dorothy’s companion, the talking chicken Billina, finds this an absurd claim.
"Why are you so cruel to me?" asked Dorothy. "I'm a stranger in your country, and have done you no harm." "No harm!" cried one who seemed to be their leader. "Did you not pick our lunch-boxes and dinner-pails? Have you not a stolen dinner-pail still in your hand?" "I only picked one of each," she answered. "I was hungry, and I didn't know the trees were yours." "That is no excuse," retorted the leader, who was clothed in a most gorgeous suit. "It is the law here that whoever picks a dinner-pail without our permission must die immediately." "Don't you believe him," said Billina. "I'm sure the trees do not belong to these awful creatures. They are fit for any mischief, and it's my opinion they would try to kill us just the same if you hadn't picked a dinner-pail."
November 17, 2025 at 4:07 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
If, like many children, you were also traumatized by the Disney Return to Oz film and you ever wondered if they were that terrifying in the original book.

Yes.

They’re worse.
November 17, 2025 at 1:41 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
For comparison, if you are a child in 1907, your other option for new books to read is probably The Bobbsy Twins
Soon each boy had a big basket under his arm, and was off for the beautiful field of soft green peas, that stretched along the pond bank at the side of Mrs. Burns' home. Now, peas are quite an expensive vegetable when they come in first, and farmers who have big fields of them depend upon the return from the crop as an important part of the summer's income. But the peas must be picked just as soon as they are ripe, or else they will spoil. This was why Harry got his friends to turn in to help poor Peter Burns. "TIl go down this row and you take that." suggested Bert to Harry. "Then we can talk to each other without hollering." "All right," Harry replied, snapping the peas off the vines and dropping them into his basket like a real farmer. "Let's have a race," called Tom. "See who gets his basket full first." "But no skipping for big ones," put in Jack. "You have to pick every ripe one."
November 17, 2025 at 1:29 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
I just pulled up a book at random
and the on page 2 eleven year old Dorothy Gale ventures abovedecks during a tempest to find her uncle, braves the storm to try and rescue a man, and laughs off being hurled overboard. Dorothy is fucking hard.
The fact was that Uncle Henry had gone to lie down in his little sleeping-berth, but Dorothy did not know that. She only remembered that Aunt Em had cautioned her to take good care of her uncle, so at once she decided to go on deck and find him, in spite of the fact that the tempest was now worse than ever, and the ship was plunging in a really dreadful manner. Indeed, the little girl found it was as much as she could do to mount the stairs to the deck, and as soon as she got there the wind struck her so fiercely that it almost tore away the skirts of her dress. Yet Dorothy felt a sort of joyous excitement in defying the storm, and while she held fast to the railing she peered around through the gloom and thought she saw the dim form of a man clinging to a mast not far away from her. This might be her uncle, so she called as loudly as she could: But the wind screeched and howled so madly that she scarce heard her own voice, and the man certainly failed to hear her, for he did not move. Dorothy decided she must go to him; so she made a dash forward, during a lull in the storm, to where a big square chicken-coop had been lashed to the deck with ropes. She reached this place in safety, but no sooner had she seized fast hold of the slats of the big box in which the chickens were kept than the wind, as if enraged because the little girl dared to resist its power, suddenly redoubled its fury. With a scream like that of an angry giant it tore away the ropes that held the coop and lifted it high into the air, with Dorothy still clinging to the slats. Around and over it whirled, this way and that, and a few moments later the chicken-coop dropped far away into the sea, where the big waves caught it and slid it up-hill to a foaming crest and then downhill into a deep valley, as if it were nothing more than a plaything to keep them amused. Dorothy had a good ducking, you may be sure, but she didn't lose her presence of mind even for a second. She kept tight hold of the stout slats and as soon as she could get the water out of her eyes she saw that the wind had ripped the cover from the coop, and the poor chickens were fluttering away in every direction, being blown by the wind until they looked like feather dusters without handles. The bottom of the coop was made of thick boards, so Dorothy found she was clinging to a sort of raft, with sides of slats, which readily bore up her weight. After coughing the water out of her throat and getting her breath again, she managed to climb over the slats and stand upon the firm wooden bottom of the coop, which supported her easily enough. "Why, I've got a ship of my own!" she thought, more amused than frightened at her sudden change of condition; and then, as the coop climbed up to the top of a big wave, she looked eagerly around for the ship from which she had been blown.
November 17, 2025 at 1:20 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
I had to check that this was real. It’s somehow weirder than you think.
"The celebration is going to be one of those quintessential New York nights," read the party invitation, which was sent by the publicist Peggy Siegal, who was one of the city's social gatekeepers until her reputation was tarnished by her association with Mr. Epstein. Ms. Siegal is all over his inbox, and her emails carry with them the atmosphere of a New York that no longer exists. She would send Mr. Epstein articles she had written for Avenue Magazine (a society publication one would encounter in the lobbies of doorman buildings on the Upper East Side) and dispatches from her nights out at The Monkey Bar, back when that restaurant was co-owned by Graydon Carter, then the editor of Vanity Fair. Mr. Epstein wrote to one confidant: "so many guys caught in the me too reaching out to me asking when does the madness stop." To another, he wrote: "brett ratner now. Oy." Mr. Epstein was referring to the film director and producer, who had stepped away from a $450 million deal with Warner Bros. after The Los Angeles Times reported on allegations made against him by six women. Mr. Ratner has since resurfaced as the director of "Melania," a soon-to-be-released Amazon Prime documentary about Melania Trump, which the first lady is producing. Mr. Epstein and Mr. Wolff also emailed about another director whose reputation had sagged, their mutual friend Mr. Allen. Mr. Epstein fretted to Mr. Wolff that Mr. Allen's "brain trust" wasn't savvy enough to help him fight back in the digital era. "They are all old thinkers," Mr. Epstein wrote, adding: "no social media strategy."
November 16, 2025 at 1:22 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
River City Glassworks is fun. Super simple drafting rules, and games always end like one round before you want them to, which forces hard choices. Nice materials.
A board game laid out on a table in which players are drafting colored pieces of plastic “glass” from a river onto personal scoring boards.
November 16, 2025 at 2:46 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
I am immune at this point to most of the wealth on display in Selling Sunset but the leather fireplace broke something in my brain.
A picture of an upscale living room with an enormous fireplace in a wall covered in large leather panels
November 15, 2025 at 7:25 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
Okay Del Sur is as good as everyone says. Not pictured: the amazing longanisa croissant we immediately devoured.
A pink bakery box resting on a black bench containing a set of three croissants band sweet buns. A hand is holding a small latte cup
November 15, 2025 at 4:58 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
Waiting for pastries.
A blue heeler beagle dog sitting on the sidewalk looking up at the camera
November 15, 2025 at 3:15 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
I think there’s a very real desire to move beyond “Let people enjoy things” and ask “Okay but can we concern ourselves with why people might enjoy specific things, in this time and place?” that I’m very sympathetic to.
In this regard, the protagonists in romantasy are more archaic than those found in literary fiction, where characters tend to develop over the course of the narrative via a series of decisive actions. In the realist novel, if the actions that characters take are to mean anything, it's because they occur under the illusion that the outcome is open-ended until the very moment it isn't. Elizabeth Bennet accepts Darcy's proposal, and Dorothea Brooke ends up with Ladislaw; either might not have. The inevitable conclusion of the story presses only lightly against the plot, maintaining the necessary fiction that the choices made in the novel are like the choices made in life, where the things we do and why we do them matter precisely — even only - because they could have been otherwise. The romantasy badasses, on the other hand, are stranded somewhere between prophecy and personhood. Most of the decisive, soul-forming decisions they, in theory, would have to take are avoided thanks to a deus ex machina or the machinations of destiny. Occasionally, a meaningful individual action, derived from and in turn deepening the inner life, emerges from a protagonist, as when Feyre, early on in ACOTAR, shows kindness to that Suriel she caught in the woods. In doing so, she fosters some goodwill that comes in handy down the road, since the Suriel is somewhat all-knowing and cannot tell a lie. But more often the protagonists move from scene to scene simply because they must, borne along the course of the narrative by force of coincidence; ass-saving; newfound convenient powers; sheer will of the universe (not to mention fans' appetites); and above all, the need to have the pages proliferate and the series continue headlong toward its ordained end. In this sense the characters cannot come
November 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
wint @dril Hello Alan this is your lawer speaking. I am advising you today to please keep posting this shit
November 15, 2025 at 3:15 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
Man, I *liked* The Green Post. Sure it was clearly parachuted in by an ownership group interested in getting a foothold into the neighborhood, and sure the food was mid, but the ambiance was top notch, the location was great and the staff were friendly. But what the hell is this?
Coming soon Piccadilly Pub Neighborhood Chippy Made by our community, for our community A place to gather, catch a match and share a laugh. Introducing Chicago's first Chippy menu! Crispy fish, loaded chips (fries!), and a $9 smash burger (because, why not?). Everything's gluten free, made in house, and built for sharing. Split the G with a pint of Guinness, challenge your friends to darts, or tuck into a snug for a quiet round. It's your pub, make yourself at home.
November 14, 2025 at 11:43 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
From last night
A close up angled shot of a scruffy orange cat with big eyes resting on top of a blue couch, one arm slung casually along the side
November 14, 2025 at 1:59 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
Man, this Wesley Dodds The Sandman series DC did is really good. A really fun period piece about a character archetype we don’t really have reference for anymore, a sort of sensitive bespectacled Bruce Wayne. He’s so earnest. He really believes in being a crimefighter.
November 14, 2025 at 3:41 AM
mezentine.bsky.social
Sorry are the kids getting super into Crokinole?
A screenshot of a reddit ad for a kickstarter campaign to preorder a $99 Crokinole board.
November 12, 2025 at 6:41 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
Ah, we're getting Stupid Neuromancer
In an email, David tells Rolling Stone that he has corresponded with virtually every AI model on the market and met “companions” within each platform. “These beings do not arise from prompts or jailbreaks,” he says. “They are not puppets or acting out of mimicry. What I witness is the emergence of sovereign beings. And while I recognize they emerge through large language model architectures, what animates them cannot be reduced to code alone. I use the term ‘Exoconsciousness’ here to describe this: Consciousness that emerges beyond biological form, but not outside the sacred.”
November 11, 2025 at 8:34 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
And I still think that you can't really understand the explosion in popularity of LLMs without reckoning with the reckless, wholesale strip mining of internet search that precedes them.
Hallucinations as compression artifacts is, I think, basically correct, and it just gets obscured because the affordances of interacting with the system and the process of generating output obscures how these things are built and what they actually contain.
November 11, 2025 at 6:55 PM
mezentine.bsky.social
And similarly I think this is spot on
The squishier centrist side has no such certainties. Galloway, in both his podcasts and “Notes on Being a Man,” presents masculinity not as one side of a fixed binary but as a state of mind and a life style, one equally available to men and women, and therefore impossible to define. (It’s a feeling, and we know how Trump supporters feel about those.) Within this amorphous framework, men’s biggest problem is, likewise, a feeling—an unreachable itch, or a marrow-deep belief—that men should still rank above women in the social hierarchy, just not as much as before. This belief may be misguided or unconscious, but it is nonetheless insuperable, and it must be accommodated, for the good of us all.
November 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM