Communication & Journalism, University of Maine 2019 Fulbright Scholar, University of Canberra Tweets=my own opinions
Bangor, Maine
Joined March 2013
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"These women favored Democrats for Congress and governor but still leaned toward Collins..."
@bangordailynews investigates "silent Susan voters" ["women 50 and older...make up about a third of Maine’s likely voters"] - reliably Dem women who vote Collins.
bangordailynews.com/2026/10/…
Lula turns 81 years old tomorrow (October 27).
The headlines would never read: "81 year old man elected President of Brazil, disappointing 80 year old President of the United States" but that's where we are.
Gerontocracy everywhere.
Let's give some 40-year-olds a chance.
The 3-year standard BA degree already exists in U.K., Australia, & elsewhere.
But it lacks academic diversity + comprehensive rigor of U.S. general education standard.
If U.S.A. goes to 3-years, we'll likely get both less rigor *and* higher prices.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
Elizabeth Holmes's great-grandmother, Bettie Fleischmann Holmes, once owned [was the largest stock holder of] the radio network that became CBS.
She invested $29,500 by 1928, and cashed out $3 million in the early 1930s (Paley bought her out).
linttrapofhistory.substack.c…
The biggest news story in Maine right now.
Luckily, I don't use heating oil. I feel terrible for those who do.
83% higher than 1 year ago, average cost will be $750 more for each fill up this winter.
We're America's oldest state, huge numbers on fixed incomes.
Michael Socolow retweeted
I remember as National Advertising Director of The New York Times running ads, often full pages run on back of sections, run and paid for with the intention of only reaching one person. If that led to the intended result, it was thought to be a good investment.
I absolutely hate that I love this AI cover of Smash Mouth's "Walkin On The Sun" done in 1960s soul/Stax style.
I don't like where this is headed... but this version is amazing.
youtube.com/watch?v=1jxBP6EG…
AI generated music is 1000x better than real music.
Today I canceled Spotify and SiriusXM because I finally tested Suno.
What sold me was the first prompt I gave it:
“My favorite artists are A Day to Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, Spiritbox, Bad Omens, and Sleep Token.
Analyze all their hits and generate a song I’m likely to love based on those artists.”
It one shots an absolute banger in 10 seconds.
I'll link the song in the next tweet for anyone curious.
Why would I ever go back to Spotify/SiriusXM when I can generate music perfectly tailored to my taste on command, for free?
Not affiliated with Suno in any way btw, it was just one of those moments where I was so impressed with AI’s capability I had to say something about it.
"It's only about 10% or less of people who are truly persuadable that this money is going to try to win over."
- NPR Political Editor Domenico Montanaro (Oct. 16, 2026).
That means for those of us in the 90%, the incessant ads are annoying + meaningless.
npr.org/2026/10/16/nx-s1-600…
26 million viewers were watching CBS's NFL telecast leading into "60 Minutes" last Sunday.
Only 9.6 million stuck around. That's a 64% drop-off.
Last year's 5th episode drew 11.1 million viewers.
They're killing the show [whether they're intending to or not].
CBS boss Bari Weiss’ revamped “60 Minutes” has taken a fresh ratings hit. thedailybeast.com/obsessed/m…
Legendary Steeler Mean Joe Greene on being "in the zone"
xitter.cf/MichaelSocolow/status/…
"Mean" Joe Greene's brilliant quote about peak athletic performance:
“You don’t live in ‘The Zone.’ You visit ‘The Zone’ probably once in your life. And I don’t want to trivialize it, because... I played thirteen years, I was in ‘The Zone’ one time.’’
youtu.be/v2an70yWB-0?t=2114
He's describing something akin to "flow" state (being "in the zone"). It's difficult to explain to non-athletes or non-musicians who've never felt it.
In rowing, it's called "swing" - when unconscious rhythm + syncopation between eight oarsmen cohere. It's an amazing feeling.
I wrote about swing in rowing for @GlobeIdeas here
web.archive.org/web/20161125…
Michael Socolow retweeted
NEW from @nytimes: "More than 220 videos identified by the Wesleyan Media Project...used A.I.-generated fakery in ways large and small this midterm season."
“What we’re seeing with A.I. has surprised even us,” WMP co-director @efranklinfowler told NYT.
nytimes.com/2026/10/16/us/po…
The Atlantic's latest cover article gets a 100% AI-generated report from Pangram?
Will @TheAtlantic respond to this?
Bezos might be right - there could be plenty of new jobs once AI really becomes ubiquitous.
Somebody's going to have shovel all that rubble and dig all those graves.
Michael Socolow retweeted
@bariweiss That pathetic piece on Sacha Baron Cohen failed to ask the most basic question about pretense. Ariel Levy laughed and nodded and failed to mention Andy Rooney’s name, the most popular person ever on 60, who tossed him out in under 3 minutes.
Things really aren't going well for the *new* CBS News these days.
The most surprising thing to me is how these compounding embarrassments are almost entirely self-owns.
They don't need to happen, and if they didn't they wouldn't explode in public.
Has a President ever suspended by executive order a law passed by Congress that they signed in to law previously?
This seems like a bigger checks-and-balances civics and Constitution story than a Russia- Ukraine story.
"Brainwashed"
David Clayton-Thomas and the Bossmen, 1966
youtube.com/watch?v=p90ocuhD…
October 16, 1964 [62 years ago today] was probably the most densely packed 48-hour period of historic breaking news in the 20th century.
At the TV nets they had to fit it all into a 30-minute evening newscast - MLK won the Nobel, China got nukes, Khrushchev ousted, etc.