Ariel Ducey
@aducey.bsky.social
Sociology @Ucalgary, morals emotions affect technology — head of department, still love teaching. arielducey.com/pubs/
School’s back in session. Maybe the Premier should spend some time in her crowded classrooms. First assignment: show your work. If “guest workers” cost $10 in services for every $1 in taxes, show us who you mean and where that number came from. albertasvoice.ca #ableg #abpoli #NoToTheNine #abvoice
Live report from the Minnesota State Fair, located in the heart of American democracy, where there’s an ICE Out adaptation of Picasso’s Guernica made entirely from crops
Live shot of faculty all over academia trying to design their syllabi to be AI-proof without guidance from their institutions
Al Jazeera English@aljazeera.com · 2w agoChina has been showcasing its growing robotics industry with robots designed to move and work like humans. This humanoid attempted to sprint the 100m.
Anybody who’s still advocating putting these tools anywhere near a school is not doing so despite the cognitive collapse they cause, but because of it. dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...
John Roberts' Constitution forbids any attempt to proactively ameliorate racial discrimination and racial inequality, but permits open racial discrimination as long as there is a facially neutral explanation available, even if it isn't remotely plausible. This, my friends, is "Colorblindness."
ZERO evidence to support this move. ZERO. More privatization likely result in: > inequities > in healthcare spending > inefficiency & admin costs > unnecessary care / procedures < resources / providers in public system Sum: unhinged idea fuelled by blind ideology www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Eligible doctors in Alberta can work in both public, private systems starting this fall | CBC News
In order to be eligible for dual practice, doctors must do a minimum number of hours in the public system first. The province says those hour requirements along with other safeguards will protect the ...
cbc.ca
Researchers are finding that using AI tools tends to bias people's viewpoints without them realizing it, and even if people are warned that AI writing tools can bias their thinking, the bias still happens. This is a dangerous and insidious thing. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Biased AI writing assistants shift users’ attitudes on societal issues
Biased AI writing assistants shift people’s attitudes about societal issues; common interventions do not prevent this influence.
science.org
NEW site in CALGARY! upper-level undergrad & grad students Build relationships w/ others interested in sustainable futures & learn approaches at nexus of phys &mental health-ecology-equity & society SUST 503 will be offered as a directed study @ucalgary.bsky.social copeh-canada.org/en/key-areas...
Four-byline alert: 🚨 “.. A broker for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter.” www.ft.com/content/744e...
The widely cited study on closing Red Deer’s overdose prevention site is inconclusive & overstated. It ignores key factors, conflicts of interest, and transparency. Relying on it risks lives, especially when broader evidence shows these sites save them. edmontonjournal.com/opinion/colu...
Opinion: Flawed study on Red Deer OD prevention site closure could put lives at risk
Basing decisions about the future of overdose prevention sites on a single, inconclusive study puts lives at risk.
edmontonjournal.com
“If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
Seth Cotlar@sethcotlar.bsky.social · 7mo ago4 federal agents pull over an elderly US citizen for the suspected crime of being brown, break her car window, throw her to the ground, then drive off after they find her US Passport in her purse. The Salem Police, when called, say there’s nothing they can do. www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...
In 2025, more than 10,000 STEM PhDs quit or were fired from federal jobs. That's 14% of the federal STEM PhD workforce, and 17% of STEM PhDs at 14 critical agencies. A huge loss of expertise and institutional memory, representing more than 106,000 person-years of experience.
Colette Delawalla, PhD@cdelawalla.bsky.social · 7mo agoWow. This is devastating. www.science.org/content/arti...
“An observer pinned down and tortured with a chemical weapon in South Minneapolis. Use of chemical agents are controversial due to associated health effects and risk of death. An observer's role is to monitor, record, and document law enforcement interactions with civilians.” Fixed it for you
Ashley Miller@amreports.bsky.social · 7mo agoAn observer arrested in Suth Minneapolis. Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune
University of Calgary Sociology Professor Alex Bierman discussing holiday financial stress on @ctvnewscalgary.bsky.social #stress #sociology www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/vide...
Holiday Financial Stress
For many people the financial stress of the season can be very difficult and trends like "buy now, pay later" can certainly make things worse
ctvnews.ca
the united states is currently being led by a bunch of little david dukes with a senescent outer-borough grand dragon at the top
My mom's really been pestering us for Christmas ideas for our kids, who can be tough to get stuff for. But I hadn't thought of steel.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 9mo agoTrump: "You can give up certain products. You could give up pencils. Because under the China policy, every child can get 37 pencils. They only need 1 or 2. They don't need that many. You always need steel. You don't need 37 dolls for your daughter. 2 or 3 is nice. So we're doing things right."
Weird situation. AI adoption in the work world is stagnating, while higher-ed institutions are rushing to embrace it so that students will be prepared for…the work world?
Tim Newman@tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 9mo ago“we estimate employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point & now sits at 11%. Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing +250 people. 3 yrs into the genAI wave, demand looks surprisingly flimsy” www.economist.com/finance-and-...
The AI bubble may be about to bust. Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock. We all need to say this very clearly: NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH! Expropriate their asses instead. They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet. They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
this morning, ICE went into a Spanish language immersion daycare and took a teacher from the building in front of screaming and crying kids and parents at dropoff and the daycare had to shut down for the day (near Lane Tech, where they were yesterday). Really hoping today's "theme" is not "daycare."
doi.org/10.1093/gero... Fahimeh Mehrabi examines social robots helping to alleviate loneliness in later life! #sociology #gerontology #openaccess @itds-csa.bsky.social
Wired for Companionship: A Meta-Analysis on Social Robots Filling the Void of Loneliness in Later Life
AbstractBackground and objectives. Loneliness is a significant public health concern affecting over a quarter of older adults worldwide. Emerging research
doi.org
i’ve said this before but lemme say it again. it makes absolutely 0 sense to talk about “misuse” of llms because there is no clear use or purpose for llms to begin with. genAI is a purposeless tech floating around looking for uptake 1/
honestly the only piece worth reading on the platner situation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is absolutely cooking here. (gift link)
Opinion | A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness
nytimes.com
You still want to believe the political fuel that powers the American collapse into authoritarianism isn't the deep, abiding resentment of white men who pine for an America that sees and services only them? Gaze upon Leni Riefenstahl's recent work for Donald Trump's U.S. Department of Labor.
Geoff Bowser@geoffbowser.bsky.social · 10mo agoI made an image of all the art posted by US DOL on X since approximately Labor Day
BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name
Opinion piece from David King, former Alberta Minister of Education in a Progressive Conservative government, published in the Edmonton Journal (of all places), addressing the conduct of the UCP towards our public education system. It is absolutely worth reading. edmontonjournal.com/opinion/colu...
Opinion: Alberta undermining public education — and democracy
Any government that undermines ... the project of improving public school education in the face of difficulty is undermining ... democracy.
edmontonjournal.com
@umich.edu faculty call for an honorary degree for Trump “We have proven that we have no hard moral principles and no hill on which we will die.” www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...
Why Trump would be perfect for an honorary U-M doctoral degree
Awarding Trump an honorary doctoral degree would be an opportunity to recognize the long way the University has walked in less than two years. U-M juniors may still remember times when the campus code...
michigandaily.com
i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...
Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.
apnews.com
Thank you for sharing your research with us @raulpachecovega.bsky.social !
Raul Pacheco-Vega@raulpachecovega.bsky.social · 11mo agoThanks to @aducey.bsky.social Amie Kiddle, Laura Montes de Oca, the Sociology Department of @ucalgary.bsky.social and the LACS Group for hosting me today! Two talks (governance of homelessness and ethnography of climate migration) and I’m completely wiped. But grateful for feedback and questions!
