Zack Kruse

Tech CEOs Confused by Why Everybody Hates AI So Much With public sentiment on AI resoundly negative, the tech CEOs pushing the new tech only seem to be doubling down.

just spitballing but some of it might have something to do with 15 years of sociopathic behavior culminating in the enthusiastic embrace of violent fascism

HOOOOOOOLY COW! Look at this goddamn thing!

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

Haunt 139 [INTRO: The Moontrekkers – “Night of the Vampire”] Tommy Tucker and The Esquires -“Don’t Tell Me Lies” Johnny Burnette -“Cincinnati Fireball” Eddie Daniels -“Hurry Baby” The Deadly Ones -“Monster Surfing Time” The Cramps -“Mystery Plane” Mad Magazine -“When My Pimples Turned to Dimples” Hank Davis -“Woman Train” Merv Griffin -“House of Horrors” The Thunderbirds -“Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’Roll” Jimmie Haskell and His Orchestra -“Astrosonic” Thee Ultra Bimbos -“(Love Story from Outer) Space” The Jay-Hawks -“The Creature (from Outer Space)” The Bomboras –“Adventures Through Inner Space” Jim Wolfe and The T-Towners – "Innersanctum” Eddie Noack -“Too Hot to Handle” Steve King -“Satan is Her Name” Southern Culture on the Skids -“Tunafish Every Day” The 415s -“Six Pack to Hell” The Greenhornes -“Satisfy My Mind” The Gories – “Goin’to the River” Red Simpson – “I’ll Be Goin’Home to Momma” The Rebels – “TNT in a T-shirt” [OUTRO: “Fantastic Horror Frolic”]

IT'S TIME, MUTIES! From the misty, mystic shores of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin, it's the THE MUTANT GRAVEYARD #139! Shamble, lurch, & scrounge around with the #MutantFam as we dig up the sludgy, slimy, lonely corpses of lost rock and roll!

www.suburbspod.com/radio/

TODAY @ 4e / 3c / 1p

Haunt 138 [INTRO: The Moontrekkers – “Night of the Vampire”] The Periscopes -“Beaver Shot” Batmobile -“Gorilla Rock” Debris -“New Smooth Lunch” Dick Dale -“Mag Wheels” Duane Eddy -“Up and Down” Lee McBride -“Confusion” The Hillbilly Moon Explosion – “Gods and Monsters” Southern Culture on the Skids -“Devil’s Stompin’ Ground” Lightnin’ Hopkins -“Devil is Watching You” Maurice Burkhart -“At the Devil’s Ball” The Chuck-a-Lucks -“The Devil’s Train” Tiger Army -“Devil Girl” Johnny Tyler –“Devil’s Hotrod” Hank Williams III – "Devil’s Daughter” Woody Carr & The El Caminos -“My Woman” Screamin’ Joe Neal -“Rock‘n’Roll Deacon” Eddie Noack -“Beer Drinkin’ Blues” Trini Lopez -“Sinner Not a Saint” The Sinners -“Nightmare” [OUTRO: “Fantastic Horror Frolic”]

IT'S TIME, MUTIES! From the misty, mystic shores of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin, it's the THE MUTANT GRAVEYARD! Shamble, lurch, and scrounge around with the #MutantFam as we dig up the sludgy, slimy, lonely corpses of lost rock and roll!

www.suburbspod.com/radio/

TODAY @ 4 E / 3 C / 1 P!

Michael Parenti had a profound, positive impact me on as a thinker, critic, and person in the world. I’m grateful he was here, I’m excited to see how his work still impacts people, and I’m sorry that he’s passed.

it is so grim to know that the big successful project of the 80s & then of the tech age was berserker libertarians arguing that you don't have an inherent right to take home your dignity from the workplace

IT'S TIME, MUTIES! From the misty, mystic shores of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin, it's the THE MUTANT GRAVEYARD! Shamble, lurch, and scrounge around with the #MutantFam as we dig up the sludgy, slimy, lonely corpses of lost rock and roll!

www.suburbspod.com/radio/

TODAY @ 4 E / 3 C / 1 P!

White image with the words "The evolution of the trash icon". On it are seven Windows "Trash icons", each with a year under it. (1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2015, 2025, and 2026) For 2025, the "Trash icon" is replaced with the Microsoft Teams icon. For 2026, the "Trash icon" is replaced with the Microsoft Copilot icon.

From the misty mystic shores of Lake Michigan...! My 2025 wrap-up and looking ahead to 2026

My 2025 wrap-up: documentary films, short films, film hosting gigs, film festivals, and looking ahead to a big comics project in 2026

zackkruse.substack.com/p/from-the-m...

Hell yeah. Thanks, man

Are we still using social media for this sort of thing? I really don’t know but am happy to be this kind of old person

Lots of writing projects wrapping up in the last few months: a screenplay for a horror short, tweaks on an academic book chapter on the Dr. Strange films, a script for miniseries reviving Ditko’s Static, & finishes on my parts of the Ditko documentary. Very grateful to be done & for my collaborators

They say imitation crab is the sincerest form of crab

HO HO HO, MUTIES! From the misty, mystic shores of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin, it's THE MUTANT GRAVEYARD #136! Shamble, lurch, and scrounge around with the #MutantFam as we dig up the sludgy, slimy, lonely corpses of lost rock and roll!

www.suburbspod.com/radio/

TODAY @ 4 E / 3 C / 1 P!

The Solitary Gourmet - The Comics Journal Joe McCulloch offers his thoughts on the latest Jiro Taniguchi offering from Fanfare/Ponent Mon.

The Solitary Gourmet by Jirō Taniguchi and Masayuki Kusumi, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian with Chitoku Teshima (Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 2025)
reviewed by TCJ first-timer Joe McCulloch! www.tcj.com/reviews/the-...

“I got into podcasting because I’m an idiot, not for accolades.” Lou Farmer, Embroidery Enthusiast

Golden Globes Introduces Best Podcast Category
https://theonion.com/golden-globes-introduces-best-podcast-category/

THE SHROUDS (dir. David Cronenberg, Canada, 2024, 120 min.)

Haunt 134 [INTRO: The Moontrekkers – “Night of the Vampire”] Eddie Noack -“Beer Drinkin’ Blues” Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys -“Whose Heart Are You Breakin’ Now?” The Electric Prunes -“Dr. Do Good” Link Wray & The Wraymen - “Moonlight Love” Mike Ness -“Ball and Chain” Flamin’ Groovies -“Heading for the Texas Border” Pauline Rogers -“I’m Just a Woman” Wayne Hancock -“Going Back to Texas” Dead Pioneers -“Working Class Warfare” Lightnin’ Hopkins -“The Devil is Watching You” Bobby Please & The Pleasers -“The Monster” Jackie Walker –“Only Teenagers Allowed” Thee Ultra Bimbos -“Weird Guy” The Greenhornes -“Nobody Loves You” Dead Moon -“Going South” Otis Spann -“It Must Have Been the Devil” [OUTRO: “Fantastic Horror Frolic”]

IT'S TIME, MUTIES! From the misty, mystic shores of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin, it's THE MUTANT GRAVEYARD #134! Shamble, lurch, and scrounge around with the #MutantFam as we dig up the sludgy, slimy, lonely corpses of lost rock and roll!
www.suburbspod.com/radio/
TODAY @ 4 E / 3 C / 1 P!

I mean, I’m in it. It’s across the board, unless you’re a “business” program.

FWIW, this is happening at A LOT of major institutions and has happened at various points under various circumstances in the past. It’s very bad, but it’s not necessarily The End™.

Higher ed is a lot like comics: the sky is always falling, and yet nearly all of our skulls remain intact.

Humanize Al: Free Al Humanizer Make AI-generated writing sound more natural and engaging with Grammarly's AI humanizer, designed by language experts.

They made... an AI tool... to make AI... which is already built on actual writing... seem less like slop...

JUST DO THE WRITING YOURSELF TO BEGIN WITH JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

beautiful Ditko page. A man trapped in a nightmare where he's continually boxed in.

Ditko!

Photos of Javier Hernandez, Zack Kruse, Carl Potts, and Arlen Schumer holding up a Spidey Pez dispenser.

The great Steve Ditko was born on this date in 1927. Why not remember him by listening to @javierhernandez.bsky.social, @zackkruse.bsky.social, Carl Potts, and @arlenschumer.bsky.social reminisce on an episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during Ditko Con? www.scottedelman.com/2021/09/17/s...

Haunt 130 [INTRO: The Moontrekkers – “Night of the Vampire”] The Cramps -“Strychnine” The Executioners -“The Guillotine” Little Gerhard and His Rocking Men -“Rockin’ Ghosts” Ralph Nielsen and The Chancellors - “Scream” Zacherle -“Dinner with Dracula” Jackie Morningstar -“Rockin’ in the Graveyard” Randy Alvey -“Green Fuz” The Pharaohs -“The Green Werewolf” Isaac Rother and The Phantoms -“Witches’Brew” Kip Tyler -“She’s My Witch” Dead Moon -“You Must Be a Witch” Southern Culture on the Skids -“The Great Atomic Power” The Ghastly Ones -“Robot Atomico” Roky Erickson -“Creature with the Atom Brain” Frankie Stein and His Ghouls -“Wake Up Dead” The Meteors -“Daughters of the Deep” The Gories -“You Done Got Wrong” [OUTRO: “Fantastic Horror Frolic”]

IT'S TIME, MUTIES! From the misty, mystic shores of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin, it's THE MUTANT GRAVEYARD #130! Shamble, lurch, and scrounge around with the #MutantFam as we dig up the sludgy, slimy, lonely corpses of lost rock and roll!
www.suburbspod.com/radio/
TODAY @ 4 E / 3 C / 1 P!

I’ve never much been interested in categorizing, critics can waste time on that. But I’m now totally convinced that The Return is a movie. The way the audience engaged with it felt exactly right and changed the experience.

Robert Mitchum in a pair of noir classics! OUT OF THE PAST (1947) screens today & tomorrow, Saturday & Sunday September 13th & 14th, at 6:30pm paired with CROSSFIRE (1947) at 8:35pm. 35mm prints of both!

What’s the rhyme on this one?