Ian Kennedy

Social Media Marketing I went to a panel yesterday where online retailers spoke about the changes AI has brought to their profession. Ugly Talk: Selling in the World Run by Algorithms. While a well-structured website with lots of meta-data around your catalog have become table-stakes, success or failure can also come from unexpected data layers in your checkout pages. ​Frank Pacheco from Nearly Natural spoke about how one of his SKUs sales dropped 75% overnight because of a shipping issue which extended delivery times beyond the usual Amazon two-day. Your supply chain and logistics is just as important to agentic commerce as your descriptions and prices.

Social Media Marketing

I went to a panel yesterday where online retailers spoke about the changes AI has brought to their profession. Ugly Talk: Selling in the World Run by Algorithms. While a well-structured website with lots of meta-data around your catalog have become table-stakes, success or…

U.S. sub sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing 87 and expanding war zone A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening Washington's pursuit of the Iranian navy.

A US submarine sinking a lonely, dinky Iranian surface ship an ocean away from the theater of the main conflict—and 9000
miles from North America—makes it pretty clear the US is fighting a general war, without the declaration required by the Constitution. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Close to 650 federal agents remain in Minnesota weeks after border czar announced end of operation There are still more than quadruple the 150 agents Tom Homan said there would be in the state by the end of last week.

They’re still lying to us.

www.startribune.com/close-to-650...

Claude’s New Ads Challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT Anthropic, makers of AI Assistant Claude, is going after their competition with a series of ads to designed to give users pause after the Open AI's announcement that ads would be coming to their product, Chat GPT. The campaign, Time and a Place, was envisioned by Mother London, extending Claude's positioning from the Keep Thinking campaign. The ads launched yesterday, timed for this weekend's Super Bowl, which will feature two of the spots as detailed by AdWeek.

New ad campaign questions value of advertising in a research product and is a shot across the bow of Open AI's recent announcement.

The New Yorker archives Went to visit the excellent selection of ephemera on display at the New York Public Library and picked out a few choice pieces to share. Interview questions Font Catalog "In Cold Blood" draft "Spot" illustration Talk of the Town idea Telegram to EB White "I want more money!" Oct 1942 cover Pitch for "Hiroshima" "Hiroshima" issue JD Salinger letter Nabokov doesn't like edits That famous cover Tina Brown's rolodex Harold Ross' mission statement A The Century of The New Yorker is free to the public on the third floor of the main Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue in Manhattan and well worth the time. The exhibit closes on February 26th.

The New Yorker archives

Went to visit the excellent selection of ephemera on display at the New York Public Library and picked out a few choice pieces to share. Interview questions Font Catalog "In Cold Blood" draft "Spot" illustration Talk of the Town idea Telegram to EB White "I want more…

The Tyranny of Gift-Giving in Japan In Japan gifts are launched as missiles, serving, if rightly chosen, to stun the recipient, or as least to nudge him or her off balance.

The Tyranny of Gift-Giving in Japan

In Japan gifts are launched as missiles, serving, if rightly chosen, to stun the recipient, or as least to nudge him or her off balance.

Universal Scale At the American Museum of Natural History in NYC is the Scales of the Universe. In the center of a large atrium is the Hayden Sphere which serves as a point of reference around which other objects are placed to give you a sense of scale. 26.5 meters (87 feet) in diameter—represents the size of the Sun, then Jupiter stretches 2.7 meters (9 feet) across, while Earth is a mere 24 centimeters (9.5 inches) in diameter. While the Hayden Sphere gives a sense of size, there is another exhibit that…

Universal Scale

At the American Museum of Natural History in NYC is the Scales of the Universe. In the center of a large atrium is the Hayden Sphere which serves as a point of reference around which other objects are placed to give you a sense of scale. 26.5 meters (87 feet) in diameter—represents…

How AI Redefined Access and Ownership in 2025 I tried something different this year, asked Chat GPT to summarize the year for me.

How AI Redefined Access and Ownership in 2025

I tried something different this year, asked Chat GPT to summarize the year for me.

AI Energy Suck The AI industry's demand for electricity has outstripped the power industry's capacity to deliver. Bloomberg says two data centers sit idle, waiting for more power to come online. To meet their growing need for power, AI companies are taking power generation into their own hands. One data center in Texas is bolting old jet engines to racks and spinning them up to generate additional power. Google announced that they are blasting racks of AI chips into space to harness solar energy from satellites with a project they are calling Suncatcher…

AI's demand for electricity has outstripped the power industry's capacity to deliver such that Bloomberg says two data centers sit idle, waiting for more power to come online. To meet their growing need for power, AI companies are taking power generation into their own hands.

Mamdani’s Victory Speech – annotated Inspired by Anil's hope for an "easter egg breakdown" of the mayor-elect's victory speech, I spent some time digging in. I know there's more that I've missed, add your own in the comments below. The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said: “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands.

Inspired by Anil's hope for an "easter egg breakdown" of the mayor-elect's victory speech, I spent some time digging in.

A Bond Born from a Robbery On a subzero New York night, a pianist met two robbers. What followed was not a fight, but an eight-hour conversation — and a promise that changed three lives.

Sharing a wonderful story shared by a Japanese pianist living in NYC that was locked behind a language barrier and has been liberated thanks to a couple of AIs.

everwas.com/2025/11/a-bo...

"Whether people like that or not"

This administration has a real problem with the truth. It lies constantly, and then also tries to hide anything truthful that damages its narrative or debunks its lies.

Pritzker calls for Trump's removal from office under 25th Amendment Gov. JB Pritzker for the first time is calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment, after the president said cities like Chicago should be used as “training g...

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/vide...

Thank you for your service and thank you to the CAC for seeing through the glitzy PR campaign, push polls, and bused in “supporters” A casino does not belong next to the United Nations or affordable housing.

Thank you for restoring my faith in (local) democracy!

Leaving NOLA, highlight was the drunken tourist who was stumbling towards me and shouting “Touchdown Jesus!!” I looked at him, confused, then turned around to see this.

That’s him posing in the photo.

oh ok, i guess i misinterpreted the president’s memes and newfound enthusiasm for helicopter emojis.

Oh right! Apologies for getting my notes mixed up. Very informative presentations from all nonetheless. Wish I could have joined you all today!

Rupert Manfredi speaking at Protocols for Publishers

"Epistemological Fractures" a new term learned yesterday from
@ruperts.world at #ProtocolsForPublishers

Robot boxing takes over San Francisco The “world’s first robot combat league” has been drawing sell-outs and online FOMO.

There is something deliciously dystopian about the fact that tech workers are sending robots into cage match fights and betting on the result.

sfstandard.com/2025/08/10/r...

“Nuclear deterrence is nothing more than the power to intimidate.”

Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.

How one man crawled out of a delusional, ChatBot-enabled rabbit hole with the help of another ChatBot.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/t...

My dear fellow, the scofflaw police are out about to cuff any ruffians sulking about in Gotham.

The building blocks necessary for successful Publisher/AI marketplace. IAB Tech Lab kicked off a task force to collaborate on the design of a marketplace for AI Agents and publishers. This could be the future the online publishing ecosystem.

Some thoughts on how publishers and their CDNs can work together to drive up value and redirect LLM searches to licensed & monetized distribution routes.

WeRide launches Southeast Asia's first fully driverless bus Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide launched Southeast Asia's first fully driverless bus service on July 17, operating without safety personnel aboard...

Driverless Buses in Singapore

Park Slope 'Car Condominium' Sells For $250K Amid City Housing Crisis - Streetsblog New York City A parking spot in Park Slope just sold for $250,000.

How expensive is housing in NYC? So expensive that parking lots are going for six figures.

nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/07/14/p...

Freedom Plaza Updates At 1pm today, there is a kick-off meeting (page has a YouTube link to view remotely) to discuss the mandated public information sessions and other aspects of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC). The six member of the CAC will ultimately recommend the project to the New York Gaming Facility Location Board and help determine which three (out of eight) applicants ultimately receive a casino license. If you have any interest in this project, I would encourage you to learn more by viewing the livestream. Work will keep me from watching but I would love to hear what you think.

Freedom Plaza Updates

At 1pm today, there is a kick-off meeting (page has a YouTube link to view remotely) to discuss the mandated public information sessions and other aspects of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC). The six member of the CAC will ultimately recommend the project to the New…

Luxury Top Real-Time Translation Translator Earbuds & Earphones The Timekettle WT2 edge also called the W3 Real-TimeTranslator Earbuds device supports bilingual conversation translation for up to 6 people. With 95% accuracy in 40 languages and 93 accents, it's the...

Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide’s to the Galaxy imaged the Babel fish, an actual fish that you would slip into your ear and it would translate for you. We now have that device www.timekettle.co/products/may...

Just watched, American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden

“Your prompt is showing”