AI perhaps offers us a really great opportunity if we choose to take it. The one thing it produces is cliche. In order to resist it, we must declare a war on cliche. We must make our language and remake it. Our visual imagination should be shaken up and strive for the shock of the new.

Want to hear me talk about the SATs at the UC for 20 minutes? I was on Capitol Radio's Insight program.

Can I do a California Public Records Act request of a PRA office's rate of picking up phone calls? Inquiring minds seek to range and know.

Dear NYT: I would not rather read this article via your app. Not in a box. Not with a fox. I would not, could not, in a car, in a tree, on a train. I will never want to read your article in an app. Say, I do not like news apps. I wouldn’t, not even in a boat or with a goat.

Among my value-adds to this SAT at UC debate? I calculated the rates of Ds and Fs in every entry-level calculus course at UC Berkeley from 2017 to 2025 to show that while average GPAs stayed THE SAME, the D/F rate jumped by nearly 40% on average (from ~8% to ~11%).

NEW: After University of California dropped the SAT, the student graduation rate went UP! So did the retention rate and first-year GPAs. A faculty report warned those indicators would go DOWN if the SAT went away. BUT! More UC students are failing entry-level calculus. My story probes the issues:

NEW: After University of California dropped the SAT, the student graduation rate went UP! So did the retention rate and first-year GPAs. A faculty report warned those indicators would go DOWN if the SAT went away. BUT! More UC students are failing entry-level calculus. My story probes the issues:

Thanks for sharing my story.

Free money for eligible CA families expires soon! Tell a friend!

What Do Authoritarians Do When They Are About to Lose an Election? Trump’s schemes to subvert the midterms have so far failed. What happens next? A reflection on the threat as well as the limits of authoritarian escalation. My new piece:

“The Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee a painless execution, a decision states such as Tennessee cite to defend their lethal injection protocols. Very well. Then states should stop telling the public that lethal injection is clinical and not cruel.”

Newsom signed this moments ago from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge with Sen. Wiener, the bond bill author. It was Newsom’s last bill signing as governor of California (barring a special session, maybe?). From his press release: