When Bots Edit Your Newspaper...

From today's Eric Zorn substack:

It will brighten your day to learn that page B-3 of the weekend print edition of the Wall Street Journal referred to Netflix executive Cindy Holland as “Cindy the Netherlands.”

 The use of automated language police officers predates AI, and some of us are still amused to recall how a program installed on the OneNewsNowwebsite of the conservative American Family Association (now American Family News) changed the name of U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay to “Tyson Homosexual” in its coverage of the 2008 Olympic trials.

© 2025 Praveen Puri

AI Datacenter Craze: Now This is How you Flip Property

These developers bought the CBOE building in downtown Chicago for $12 million in June 2024, with the idea of turning it into a datacenter. 

They were smart, visionary,  and secured more power from Com Ed by applying for a long term deal three years ago, when they were still negotiating for the building, and just before the current AI datacenter craze.

Since everyone wants data centers, it’s now a long process to secure power contracts, so they increased the value of the property. 

Now, they flipped the building to another company that wants to build a datacenter for $40 million!

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/former-cboe-hq-lasalle-street-sold-data-center-firm?share-code=17613393242971665-19a1821474e&utm_id=gfta-ur-251024

© 2025 Praveen Puri

The Two Unwritten Rules of Life

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Disinterested vs. Uninterested

I subscribe to the substack of Eric Zorn, former Chicago Tribune columnist.  

In today's issue, one of the items was a language criticism of a recent Chicago Tribune editorial:

 

the Editorial Board seems either not to know or not to care that “disinterested” is not a synonym for “uninterested,” which is plainly the concept they were going for.

An uninterested person is bored, unconcerned, or indifferent; and a disinterested person is impartial, unbiased, or has no stake in the outcome.

You want the referee of your game to be disinterested. You don’t want the referee to have a bet on the game. As another example, if you’re on trial, you want a disinterested judge.

Here’s how to use these words according to the traditional rules:

Squiggly was uninterested in the Super Bowl. Instead, he was looking forward to the Puppy Bowl.

The ex-wife can hardly be considered a disinterested party in the estate sale.

© 2025 Praveen Puri

That Pumpkin Spice Time of Year...

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Book Ban?

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One of The Guys Quit?

© 2025 Praveen Puri