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The Independent Variable

Posts on page 40

Introducing the new and improved TIV Featured Post

If you're reading this, you're probably thinking, "Great, another idiot with a Ghost blog who is probably going to try to ask me for money. And this idiot isn't even a journalist or a real writer."

DAMN STRAIGHT!

I'm here to bleed your wallet dry—capitalism, baby; it's a game and there can only be one winner: me.

Okay, to be a little bit more serious... if you've enjoyed reading the links I've shared with commentary in the past, nothing will change. Not only that, I'm committed to getting back to more frequent link blogging as I've gotten some things organized and settled a bit with Foofaraw.

But as a freelance consultant, I figured I should be trying to find ways to diversify my income and maybe even try to pretend like I'm an "expert" in certain things... so I'm committing to writing something a bit longer every week and will be sharing my movie, tv, and album reviews, which will both be exclusive to paid supporters.

To be clear, I'm financially stable for the next two years with my current client, so don't feel the need to support out of charity. But if you enjoy what I do here or are interested in checking out the longer writing and reviews I'll be publishing moving forward (or want to help offset the costs of paying writers and artists on Foofaraw), you can subscribe to TIV.

In terms of newsletters, I plan on putting together a weekly roundup of everything I publish for free, so there'll be multiple ways to keep up with the links. Those newsletters will occasionally include some things for paid subscribers, like my monthly Little Letter of Nonsense zine and other goodies as I come up with them.

That's it. Now be gone!

🔡 GT Era

Grilli Type

Our latest release transforms the warmth of 19th century grotesks into a 21st century tool.

The new typeface from GT is very, very nice; falling somewhere between GT Standard and GT Flaire in terms of that minimal approach and infusing it with some personality.

🤖 ChatGPT will guess your age and might require id for age verification

404 Media

ChatGPT will now also apply different rules to teens who are using the chatbot.

ChatGPT used to be a far more restricted chatbot that would refuse to engage users on a wide variety of issues the company deemed dangerous or inappropriate. Competition from other models, especially locally hosted and so-called “uncensored” models, and a political shift to the right which sees many forms of content moderation as censorship, has caused OpenAI to loosen those restrictions.

Because, you know, why solve a problem and save lives when you need to stay competitive in our ruthless capitalistic society that cares more about number go up than actual human lives. Unless, of course, those human lives are aligned with us politically, then act outraged, but still do nothing to prevent it from happening again. Am I rambling and conflating two different things? You’re damn right!

ChatGPT Will Guess Your Age and Might Require ID for Age Verification
OpenAI introduces new age prediction and verification methods after wave of teen suicide stories involving chatbots.

🤔 The Sunday Edition — 09.14.25

A young father with largely the same list of values was killed for having those values.

Oof… here are some of Charlie Kirk’s values in his own words. Not to mention the blatant intolerance of others of all walks of live, especially his anti-trans views. Hiding behind a book doesn’t stop one from being a deplorable person—Jesus fed the poor, while the people Kirk aligned himself with are calling for massive lethal injection of the homeless.

On the off chance this is the first time someone is reading me, I think Charlie’s death was wrong—even if he thinks gun deaths are acceptable to keep the second amendment—but that doesn’t magically change the person Charlie was—coming from someone who shared a basketball court and locker room with him for a year (we were not friends, to say the least.)

The Sunday Edition — 09.14.25
Good Sunday afternoon, my friends. Thank goodness it’s Sunday! I always find I get hungry for church by Sunday. It’s such an uplifting place to spend time, and I always come away with hope and revival for the seven days ahead. It’s increasingly difficult to make it