Nora Kenworthy
@kenworthy.bsky.social
Professor, writer, author of (most recently) Crowded Out. Co-host of @inthemeanwhile.bsky.social. Public health, medical anthropology, tech, politics. Good trouble always.
Sounds like maybe the FAA vibe coded too close to the sun. "Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, confirmed the outage in a social media post, citing “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”" www.nytimes.com/2026/11/13/w...
F.A.A. Declares a Rare Nationwide Ground Stop
The F.A.A. grounded all flights nationwide, citing “extraordinary circumstances” and “reasons of safety.”
nytimes.com
I was lucky enough one night in Seattle to have dinner with Jim McDermott and Paul Farmer. They were dear friends and both huge supporters of UHC. Wild to think they have both left this earth now. Rest in power.
Robert Cruickshank@robertcruickshank.com · 20h agoA hero is gone, a giant of Seattle. He stood up to Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush when few others would. He will be missed.
Is now a good time to talk about Jeffries financial links to Palantir and Anduril?
Hakeem Jeffries Is Bankrolled by the Most Controversial Tech Companies in Existence
The incoming House speaker's blue-wave mandate will be no match for the Democrat's powerful tech industry allies.
futurism.com
We are going to unrig the economy. Working people don't want their data fed into hidden algorithms that decide how much they pay for essential goods. Proud that Seattle was the first city to ban surveillance pricing at grocery stores and excited to see NYC do the same.
More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 2d agoBREAKING: The New York City Council just approved a ban on surveillance pricing. The measure passed 44-5, and Zohran Mamdani is expected to sign the bill. Companies will no longer be able to charge different prices based on algorithms or New Yorkers’ personal data.
A damning and very concerning threat about the bird flu outbreak in WA, and its connections to an ICE surge across the state…
United Farm Workers@ufw.bsky.social · 4d agoThere is an active outbreak of avian flu (H5 influenza) in dairy herds in Washington State, particularly the Yakima Valley. A number of dairy workers have been infected, with at least one death. Speaking with workers, we believe the official case numbers are a vast undercount. 1/
might have something to do with newsrooms and publications not hiring black journalists, particularly women, especially for leadership roles. only ~5% of reporting journalists are black
public health guy@publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 2w agothe biggest blind spot in mainstream politics media was black organizing across the south
INBOX: Drawing on the energy of Tuesday's blue tsunami, Washington's Democratic governor... meets with CEOs, halts all new regulations for six months.
Dr. @sarahkendzior.bsky.social shares her thoughts post election. "I'm not going to sugarcoat the threat we face, which goes beyond electoral politics. But I hope folks feel proud -- not just for last night, but for making it through these terrible years, & for standing up for each other."
Sarah Kendzior@sarahkendzior.bsky.social · last wk."The midterms were a battle in an ongoing war. You redrew the battle lines in the public imagination. Imagination is a wonder; in a kleptocracy, it is a weapon. You can’t vote out the mafia. But you can change the nature of the battlefield. You just did." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-bellwe...
Allison Montgomery, a trans woman, was elected to office in fucking Alabama because she told it like it is. Other politicians should take notes. They should, but they won’t unless we make them
The tech industry wants Americans to believe that AI expansion is an inevitability, something the public must simply accept and adapt to. This week, voters showed they don’t buy that story. datasociety.net/news-events/...
A Referendum on the Tech Industry: Our Statement on the Midterm Elections - Data & Society
Through their ballots, Americans spoke out against the industry’s vision of an unstoppable AI-dominated future.
datasociety.net
Following her victory in Denver, Colorado, Congressmember-elect Melat Kiros identified Medicare for All as her top priority and said progressives must lay the groundwork “so that in ’29, when we have the House, the Senate and the White House, we can sign it into law on day one.”
First Gen Z Congresswoman: DSA’s Melat Kiros on Corruption, Medicare for All & Israel
The Democratic Socialists of America made major gains in this year’s U.S. midterms, electing not just the largest-ever socialist bloc to Congress, but also winning dozens of races at the state, county...
democracynow.org
Bill Radke replied to my email, and this is just a head-scratcher. My complaint isn’t that Guppy isn’t “civil,” it’s that HE’S A HOMOPHOBIC ELIMINATIONIST WHO CHAIRS A HATE GROUP. This is just weird brain rot, but it exemplifies local legacy media.
J. Puma Says Protect Trans Kids@broccoliwizard.bsky.social · 4w agoI wrote ton @kuow.org to ask them why they continue to platform Paul Guppy, who chairs the board of an anti-LGBTQIA+ hate group whose mission is to criminalize gay adoption. The reply from @zakihamid.bsky.social? Basically "sorry not sorry, he's a nice guy." This is *pathetic.*
My good friend @parismarx.com’s book is out this week and I can’t recommend it enough. This is the one-stop primer not just for the data center buildout but the logics of big tech’s broader project right now. Give it to anyone who wants to understand what’s happening with data centers right now.
Paris Marx@parismarx.com · 4w ago🚨 TODAY’S THE DAY 📚 After years of work, my new book HYPERSCALE is finally on bookshelves! It chronicles the data center boom just as the backlash is reaching a fever pitch. Get your copy today: hyperscalebook.com
We are soon going to have to come to grips with the fact that this shit is asbestos for the mind
Using AI for just 10 minutes erodes your ability to persist at hard things - Berkeley News
A UC Berkeley researcher co-authored a study that raises profound questions about how we interact with artificial intelligence in education — and daily life.
news.berkeley.edu
Not to take away from celebrating Carson, but she's a "former professor" here in large part because the university shut down her department and cancelled its classes. What pride does the institution claim now—years later—when austerity is forcing other scholars out? What does that 'pride' do?
McGill University@handle.invalid · last mo.Former McGill professor Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. 🏆 Awarded “for her bold and inventive oeuvre", she has helped redefine contemporary literature through poetry, essays, translation and criticism. Congratulations! ➡️ mcgill.ca/x/5HS
"Are my migraines hormonal, or am I thinking too hard about how Peter Thiel has more money than all nurses on Earth combined?" buff.ly/oLdL54C
Is It Perimenopause or the Fascist Death Knell of Late-Stage Capitalism?
“Is my hair thinning, or am I ripping it out because a thirty-four-time convicted, sexually abusive steak salesman with a Hannibal Lecter fetish is five poin...
buff.ly
Medical professionals still need convincing that Black people and all women feel pain. But of course techbros would entertain the thought experience of toasters' pain threshold...
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · last mo.1. Can a language model feel pain? Clearly not. Large language models are computer software and they can no more suffer than any other human-created artifact can. >>
"Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypts first pyramid broke ground,before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert,someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth On April 23,2026,"a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it"
Trump's Border Wall Construction Destroys 6,500-Year-Old Arizona Geoglyph – Older Than Stonehenge
Arizona's 6,500-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, the oldest dated geoglyph in the Americas, was irreparably damaged by border wall construction in April 2026.
gadgetreview.com
@sound-transit.bsky.social, could someone explain why you put a big photo of District 5 City Council Candidate Julie Kang at the newly opened Pinehurst Station? This is an outrageous use of public resources. This photo needs to be taken down, or at least covered up, until after the election.
That Bannon says that about Newsom should be the kiss of death for his nomination prospects. Definition of an acceptable nominee is someone who is Steve Bannon's worst nightmare.
Vanity Fair@vanityfair.com · last mo.“Having Gavin Newsom as president wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,” says MAGA philosopher Steve Bannon
Raise your hand if you’re an actual researcher who hasn’t seen a tax break for it EVER.
Kashmir Hill@kashhill.bsky.social · 2mo agoAnd this is almost an aside in the story, but also absolutely bonkers. Meta claimed Zuck as a "researcher" to get a $355 million tax break on his $4.1 billion stock-based compensation.
I left several copies of this little zine I made in my classroom at the start of the year. They are all gone now and no one has said anything but I am pleased.
Feedback from healthcare providers in response to the AI pilot program has been scathing, with one calling it “a disgrace to the human race” and reporting that they saw patients crying in pain as they waited for care.
Trump admin using AI to deny medical care for seniors in disastrous experiment
Vendors rolling out AI have an "incentive to deny as many claims as possible."
arstechnica.com
There’s a whole cadre right wing professors, mostly middle aged, mostly men, mostly white, who went to university in the 80s and 90s. They want their nostalgic vision of academia back and thought partnering with the fascists might get them there. DEI gone too far. Also fat paychecks. Etc.
Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 2mo agoRead this: is is from the chair of outside advisors of the Iowa civics center imposed on campus. He thinks he is describing current faculty but he is perfectly describing himself and his fellow travelers
Today is Pub Day for "Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census"!!! ::bounce:: Please support me by buying a copy of the book or asking your library for a copy! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Hot take, the EA funded technofuturist ideological takeover of federal tech policy is of like kind to the Federalist Society and Christian Nationalist ideological takeover of the federal judiciary.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · 2mo agoBack in 2023, deep-pocketed Effective Altruist funders launched a remarkably successful takeover of DC tech policy: today we're seeing the results in the form of "AI safety efforts tightly focused on distant existential doom, not AI taking jobs, scamming people, or harming the environment today."
