I saw this video at least four times yesterday, on social media. Maybe you did, too. It’s very cute: A fox plays in the snow. It bounds in a snowbank, slides amusingly across a frozen creek, buries its head in another snowbank, pops out, bounds down to another snowbank.
I watched it with a cold eye. It is almost certainly AI.
What do I base this on? First of all, foxes are pretty wary, and likely wouldn’t cavort so close to a person holding a phone. OK, so maybe the animal is domesticated somehow, accustomed to humans. Then why, when it pops out of the snow, does it have not a flake of snow on its head? Why is the camera so steady? Why is it too good to be true? Why is the creator’s page full of supercute-but-unlikely animal videos, scenes of kittens cuddling with tigers, cats nursing baby rabbits or a horse dropping to its belly so that a little girl can pet its nose?
Why aren’t people more skeptical? A local politician has been posting videos of “ICE agents” being kicked out of restaurants by a scolding woman with a Spanish accent. Fakes, every one. He doesn’t seem to care. It’s like when Facebook was new, and you’d point out that the “totally true” story someone just put up is an old urban legend, never happened, and they’d say, essentially, who cares? It’s a good story, don’t take things so seriously.
Come back to me when the video is so good you can’t really tell if this is THE pee tape, or not. When there are riots between ethnic groups sparked by videos of things that never happened. We are sleepwalking off a cliff with this technology and no one seems to care.
The other day I had a conversation with a media professional who seemed amazed that I don’t use ChatGPT or any other AI tool. I’ve mentioned before that Google now reports results in AI summaries, but I don’t go out and ask Gemini or Grok or any other tool to summarize my email. I don’t tell the chirpy assistants to help me polish a paragraph. Talk about putting yourself out of business. I guess we just have to learn how to write the correct prompts.
And I was going to go on about this, but whenever I hear Alan mutter “Jesus Christ” I know it’s bad, and whaddaya know, it is:
The Trump administration has acknowledged for the first time in a court filing that members of the U.S. DOGE Service accessed and shared sensitive Social Security data without the awareness of agency officials.
The admission comes months after a whistleblower raised concerns that members of DOGE — the government cost-cutting operation founded by Elon Musk — had obtained one of the government’s most protected databases, risking the security of hundreds of millions of Americans’ private Social Security information. The agency had previously denied the whistleblower’s allegations.
But the Justice Department submitted a court filing Friday in an ongoing case saying that the Social Security Administration had discovered a secret agreement between a DOGE employee and an unidentified political advocacy group. The agreement called for sharing Social Security data with the aim of overturning election results in certain states, according to the filing.
Gift link. This country is so broken. See you later this week.
Mark P said on January 21, 2026 at 1:25 am
Have you seen the videos showing famous actors in a role from 20, 30, or 40 years ago, and then their current selves coming in to sit beside them? They are quite good, but obviously AI, and intended to be recognized as such. But there are an equal number of AI-generated videos that look like the real thing, in every genre from politics to model railroading. There is almost always a tell, but you have to be looking for it. Unfortunately, the people these are aimed at are not looking for a tell. The video is showing them something they want to see, and want to believe. So they do.
The danger is obvious. Many of these videos are made by complete amateurs, who can produce incredibly real videos with essentially no knowledge of AI. The AI apps are that good. So now we are almost at the point where you can’t believe anything you see.
We live in a broken country, a failed democracy, a fascist near-dictatorship, a hybrid Russian-Nazi oligo-kakistocracy. Look at a map and find the shithole. There will be an arrow pointing to it saying, “You are here.” Try to find the route out. It might be there — and it might not — but it will be long and hard, and once we’re out, it won’t be the same place we imagined it to be, back in the before times, when Republicans were willing to kick out one of their own for violations that seem quaint today. We are not in the midst of change, we are on the other side of it. We have a sick fuck for president, one who would be laughably unbelievable in a 1950’s movie, and we have a political party that is so afraid of that stupid, ignorant, sick fuck that they won’t help rid the country of his stench. They would rather see the country collapse into a nightmare where masked thugs shoot women in the face and the government investigates the wife of the victim. If these people and their bosses had been born 120 years ago, they would be the architects of the holocaust and the guards at the concentration camps.
We are in for a very unpleasant ride, and we deserve every second of it. Too bad so many innocent people will suffer.
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nancy said on January 21, 2026 at 11:21 am
I take along a small speaker when I do lifeguarding duty, which serves to cheer the early hour somewhat and sometimes inform me. The NYT’s “The Daily” podcast marking one year of Trump II was yesterday, and boy was it depressing. I know it’s chic to despise Maggie Haberman, but with her, Jonathan Swan and Charlie Savage, it’s hard to think of a better team to talk about what the last year has been and what the coming year is likely to be. The worst was the consensus, and I believe it’s accurate, that we’re now in a death struggle for power, period. That even if the Dems sweep the next three major election cycles, the game is forever changed, and the Reps will stop at nothing to regain what they have now. In other words, we’re fucked. Moses would have to keep us in the desert for 40 years to rinse the scum off of the United States.
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Jeff Gill said on January 21, 2026 at 9:09 am
I no longer send my columns & stories to an editor with Gannett. The person I was directed to start sending material to was originally shown (in sig file underneath) as “Newsroom assistant” but then I started noticing online & in print this at the end of what few news stories are going into our local paper, the local weekly, and the flagship in our state capital:
“This story was created by reporter [Blank Lastname], [blastname]@dispatch.-com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more atcm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.”
I fear the middle sentence is inaccurate. But whom should I tell?
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Suzanne said on January 21, 2026 at 10:31 am
Anybody have a tried and true and excellent recipe for bolognese ragú? There are so many recipes out there that I am getting confused. I used to use one from food blogger Joy the Baker but she’s gotten on the MAGA mothership so I have disavowed that one.
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alex said on January 21, 2026 at 10:43 am
Suzanne, I swear by Marcella Hazan’s recipe in the NYT cooking archives. I’m gifting it here: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015181-marcella-hazans-bolognese-sauce?unlocked_article_code=1.GFA.Ud9P.HlM4dx9uuiSI&smid=share-url
You’re making me hungry just by mentioning it. I have three and a half pounds of frozen ground-up trimmings from a big-ass tenderloin of beef that I’ve been wanting to use, and this might be the perfect way to use it.
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Deborah said on January 21, 2026 at 10:54 am
Here’s how I make Bolognese: I use my food processor to finely chop carrots and onions, one whole onion and maybe a cup of chopped carrots but I’ve never measured those. In a bit of olive oil in a large pot I sautee the onions and carrots. Then add a pound of ground beef and a pound of ground pork. I used to also add ground veal but I don’t do that anymore, stirring until browned then I add cheap red wine (maybe 3/4 of a cup?) and a small can (or tube) of tomato paste. I let it simmer for hours (if I have hours otherwise I keep going). Close to dinner time I add heavy whipping cream, a lot, I’ve never measured, mixing that in well I let that heat up. During that process I add herbs to taste like oregano etc, whatever I have, usually from the fresh section of the grocery store, If I don’t have any of that I use dried Italian seasoning. I got my way of doing this from a restaurant we used to go to often in St. Louis called Bar Italia, it’s still there but much diminished unfortunately. I’ve made it without carrots too, but I think the carrots help it. I serve it on pasta like farfalla or something that has curls or ridges to hold the sauce, if I don’t have any of that kind I just use whatever I have. It’s not a big deal to make, I keep it simple. I’m probably forgetting something writing it out like this. I’m so used to just making it I don’t really even think about what I’m doing and I never measure anything. I love it.
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Julie Robinson said on January 21, 2026 at 11:22 am
Okay, hive mind. In an attempt to distract myself from, well, *waves hand* everything, I’m doing some clearing out. I’ve got some COVID home tests with expirations of 10/25, and a few a bit older. Guess what, the FDA isn’t updating their site as to what’s still okay to use. I spent the last 45 minutes trying to track this down, and of course it just got me angry all over again. Think I’ll pitch them all.
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David C said on January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
What I was told at the pharmacy is if you feel lousy and you have an out of date test kit, go ahead and use it. If it’s positive, you can believe it. If it’s negative get a new kit to confirm. I’d get new ones though. Who wants to have to get out and be a spreader when you feel rotten if it’s negative.
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Dexter Friend said on January 21, 2026 at 1:24 pm
I use AI Chat daily for questions like what coaches or athletes make and sports statistics and lots of such mundane things.
But ask anything to do with Trump? Ha! I asked if e. Jean Carroll has collected anything from Trump (no she hasn’t) and “I’m sorry I can’t help you with that.” I tried this once more: “Is President Trump really an adjudicated rapist?” “I can’t help you. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?”
Google will bypass Chat there and provide the information.
Lawrence O’Donnell is still proclaiming this Greenland saga is just an Epstein rape cover-up. Other cable journos are feeling it too.
After yesterday’s 1:45 podium speech I am now over 100% sure Trump is physically sick and well into dementia.
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Suzanne said on January 21, 2026 at 1:34 pm
Oooh! Thanks Alex!
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tajalli said on January 21, 2026 at 1:49 pm
Suzanne, if you don’t mind a real book, The Joy of Cooking (Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker c. 1964), this looks pretty good. Uses ham or Canadian bacon for the pork contribution. Describes it as “an interesting variation on the usual meat sauce for pasta.”
Bolognese Sauce
Melt in a large saucepan:
1/8 cup butter
Add:
1/4 cup minced lean ham or Canadian bacon
1/4 cup finely chopped carrot
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes
Add:
1 cup chapped lean beef
and brown it over medium heat, stirring occasionally, then
Add:
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 strip lemon peel
a pinch of nutmeg
1 cup beef stock
(1/2 cup dry white wine)
Partially cover and simmer slowly for 1 hour. Remove from heat, take out the lemon peel and stir in:
1/4 cup whipping cream
just before serving with
Green Noodles or Lasagne
I’m only using DuckDuckGo these days since Google has turned into a swamp of worthless AI repetition.
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Brandon said on January 21, 2026 at 3:13 pm
I’ve never heard of this till this morning. Who here has heard of, or does this?
https://www.today.com/life/what-is-house-burping-benefits-rcna255170
As a deep freeze envelops a good chunk of the country, “house burping,” in which people open the windows of their homes to let in fresh air — even in the dead of winter — has grown in popularity. It’s part of a German practice called “lüften,” which translates to “airing out,” in order to ventilate.
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john (not mccain) said on January 21, 2026 at 3:45 pm
So AI Jesus being worshipped by rubes is inevitable. Get in on the ground floor or just enjoy the show?
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LAMary said on January 21, 2026 at 3:58 pm
Marcella Hazan rules.I gave a copy of her book to the slightly crazy artist neighbor whom I’ve been feeding occasionally for the last three years. I don’t think he’s tried making any of the recipes and I’m still feeding him when he comes home from his studio late. He gets leftover lasagna or meatloaf or red lentil soup or whatever from me and occasionally I get a piece of art from him.
He also admires my spatchcocking skills. I’m a fan of the art he makes.
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Julie Robinson said on January 21, 2026 at 5:29 pm
Opening windows for fresh air is a new concept? Doesn’t everyone do this?
tajalli, I despise the AI slop and poor results of G**gle these days, so I was intrigued enough to look at DDG. The reviews seem to indicate it’s mostly Bing. Of course, that was on G**gle, so maybe not dependable.
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Brandon said on January 21, 2026 at 5:44 pm
I guess people tend to keep their windows and doors closed during the winter, so opening them during freezing weather seems novel.
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tajalli said on January 21, 2026 at 5:46 pm
My mother’s family was German and my mother would air out the house weekly during winter, gas furnaces generating a lot of fumes in the 1950’s. An acquaintance whose landlady/housemate is from Kansas (possibly German descent, possibly not) complained recently of her opening all the doors and windows despite the cold. An African American coworker in the Bay Area commented that she aired-out weekly, so maybe not strictly German. “Burping” may just be a new term for “airing out.”
Wikipedia has a detailed article on DDG that actually indicates it is designed to do what G**** and B**** cannot since its privacy practices run counter to their business models.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo
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alex said on January 21, 2026 at 5:54 pm
I suspect these videos are AI but still funny as hell:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16kwPuwQjg/
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Suzanne said on January 21, 2026 at 7:14 pm
The Hazan bolognese is happily perking away on the stove. I add in a bit of pancetta because, well, because why not? I also realized after I put in the ground beef that it only calls for 3/4 pounds and I had a 1 pound package. Oh, well! I am sure it’ll be fine.
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Sherri said on January 21, 2026 at 7:43 pm
As we learn that DHS has instructed ICE to ignore the 4th Amendment and as they are disappearing children off the street, “Abolish ICE” is necessary but insufficient. “Prosecute ICE” needs to follow.
And can we get rid of the awful Department of Homeland Security? That and the PATRIOT Act have been making my skin crawl for far too long. I’ll say this, though; they were clarifying. They’re the catalyst for my involvement with the ACLU.
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Sherri said on January 21, 2026 at 8:51 pm
Every time I see video of Greg Bovino strutting around in Minnesota like a discount Patton, I have to keep reminding myself, I’m opposed to the death penalty.
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Deborah said on January 21, 2026 at 8:55 pm
It’s so maddening, yes an understatement. This morning I was furious about Trump’s Davos speech especially after Carney’s amazing one earlier. And then at the end of the day Trump has (thankfully) completely capitulated after he’s had us all in a tizzy. All for attention, the toddler throws a tantrum gets everyone upset and then settles down with his lollypop, or whatever. I never had a kid acting out tantrums, thank god, but I’ve seen it in action while shopping. I’m not going to make it until the end of his term, unless he gets impeached which isn’t going to happen I realize because of the god damned Republicans.
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Cheez Whiz said on January 21, 2026 at 11:15 pm
Our monkey brains will swallow any story that tickles its need for novelty and justice, and social media was designed to feed those stories to us. Truth is an optional part of the equation. AI simply automates the process of generating those stories, whether text, pictures, or videos. Provenance is going to be an ever-increasing issue, and most people don’t even know the meaning of the word.
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Jeff Gill said on January 22, 2026 at 8:40 am
Discount Patton… mmm, stealing.
Younger me would be amazed at how many things I add finely chopped carrots to. Love all the Bologneses.
The world is mad, our president venal, but the female Scout troop from our town won the Klondike Derby last Saturday, edging out the guy troop here, and the Cub Scouts have their Pinewood Derby this Saturday if we can work around the weather. Our all-volunteer emergency warming center just had a three night operation, and my worries right now are about finding enough volunteers to open tomorrow afternoon and possibly stay in operation for eight nights, which would be our longest stretch since we started doing this in 2019. Wish us luck; prayers welcome. And may the local police not find reasons to come by and check out our guests…
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Peter said on January 22, 2026 at 10:25 am
Jeff, that’s great news about the Klondike Derby. It brings back a lot of good memories – especially the Klondike Soup!
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Kath said on January 22, 2026 at 11:02 am
Bovino is a jumped up popinjay. Watching him fumble with the teargas canister and then hurl it all of ten feet. I can throw better than that and I’ve had a double mastectomy.
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Dexter Friend said on January 22, 2026 at 1:29 pm
…made it through 3.5 hours so far and I am glued to the TV and devices. Every repugg is steering the topic away from Trump’s criminal stealing of the 2020 election.
Smith is holding his own with dignity, no outrage yet. He’s a cool cat under fire by Jordan and those fuckers.
Trump is TruthSocializing about how DOJ should now imprison Smith for, oh…whatever.
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Deborah said on January 22, 2026 at 3:12 pm
I tried to watch but I couldn’t get past about 10 minutes. These “hearings” are ridiculous, showboating, lies. Everybody goes into them with their biases in places, what do they prove?
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David C said on January 22, 2026 at 3:57 pm
I couldn’t watch those baboons for 3.5 minutes let alone 3.5 hours. You’re made of sterner stuff than I am, Dexter.
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alex said on January 22, 2026 at 7:19 pm
Hope Suzanne’s bolognese was a success. I’m going to do it again this weekend, this time using ground trimmings from a beef tenderloin that I’ve been saving in the freezer. Because it’s such a lean meat, perhaps I should mix some pork with it. Don’t know yet. I have 3.6 lbs. of it to use up.
Tonight making pork tenderloin in red pepper and paprika sauce, another NYT recipe, and it smells divine.
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Suzanne said on January 22, 2026 at 10:29 pm
The Bolognese was quite good! I made it yesterday and just warmed it up today, boiled up some pasta, combined the two and voilá!
I also made this bread https://www.girlversusdough.com/classic-italian-bread/ which was easy and turned out well. I used a Tuscan herb infused olive oil in it which gave it a little extra flavor.
Dessert was this wonderful and simple to make apple cake (https://food52.com/recipes/82496-apple-cake-from-dorie-greenspan) I hadn’t entertained in way too long and it felt good to get back in the swing.
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