Having just come off BBC Radio Scotland, sending good thoughts to all my fellow AI researchers also drowning in media requests this week and trying to fight a multibillion-dollar gilded firehose of bullshit with spray bottles of reason and facts
Tracy O’Connell Novick
@tracynovick.bsky.social
Yes, that Tracy Novick she/her/hers Education policy and finance I speak here only for me/ nullius in verba from the Heart of the Commonwealth Sometimes random photos of the cat linktr.ee/TracyNovick
Covid Vaccines Delayed for Half of U.S. Children: Ordering for VFC is not open yet, and unclear when it will be opened. @maggieastor.bsky.social @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/w...
Covid Vaccines Delayed for Half of U.S. Children
The Health Department has not decided whether to provide the shots to states through the Vaccines for Children program, which serves uninsured and low-income families.
nytimes.com
A little #BookFriday early: I very much enjoyed @lexcroucher.bsky.social’s latest; unputdownable, as we say.
Tracy O’Connell Novick@tracynovick.bsky.social · 19h agoLex Croucher Ooof
Parents Joseph and Arlene Kutzko were charged in connection with an incident at the family's Southborough home in January 2025. They claim the child's removal from their home is linked to their gender transition, but DCF said lack of support for a gender transition would not be a reason to do so.
Mass. parents' story about child's gender transition complicated by court records
Joseph Kutzko was charged with assaulting the child in January 2025, not long before the child was removed from the family’s home. Mother Arlene Kutzko was charged with witness intimidation in connection with the same incident. They have claimed the child's removal from their home is linked to their gender transition.
trib.al
We say some version of this just about every year but one of the absolute best ways to support your local indie bookstore is to do your holiday shopping in OCTOBER. (More context in Hannah's thread. Hi, Hannah!) #BookSky
Hannah Harlow@hhharlow.bsky.social · 16h agoConsumers, please start your holiday shopping early. Don’t get too attached to any one title. Let booksellers help you find something in stock that will delight and surprise. We will have a ton of stock, just maybe not that one title no one can get. There will be one (probs more); what will it be?
"Decker said her bill would classify recess as instructional time, and count it toward the minimum hours of learning required by state law. It also would not allow schools to use scheduled recess time for interventions or other programming." www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/17/m... #MAEdu #mapoli
In a high-tech moment, advocates say: More recess for kids. Maybe a lot more. - The Boston Globe
Some parents are pushing to increase the amount of unstructured outdoor time kids have at school — even if it means tradeoffs.
bostonglobe.com
" A new national survey, conducted between April and June 2026 by the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that 40% of pediatricians have noticed families staying away from care due to immigration concerns." www.npr.org/2026/09/17/n...
Pediatricians raise the alarm on the effect of Trump's immigration crackdown on kids
The Trump administration has been pursuing a quiet immigration crackdown strategy: limiting access to health care and public services. The American Academy of Pediatrics is sounding the alarm about th...
npr.org
I think you can actually see the seam here between what the BBC journalist wrote, accurately repeating the statement of the expert, and where the editor watered down the headline
BREAKING: Boston University's English department (my dept) recently voted to approve new learning outcomes for the English major, including an anti-AI provision that requires students to “craft and revise writing that is sustained, original, and generated without the assistance of AI."
New Learning Outcomes Announced | English
bu.edu
But kids have to learn how to use it or they won’t be ready for the workforce?
Steve Mullis@stevemullis.net · yesterdayOpenAI on Wednesday disclosed six new instances in which artificial intelligence systems hid mistakes, made up data and moved files onto the open internet without permission, amid an ongoing industrywide debate about A.I. safety.
I shrieked
Ned Raggett@nedraggett.bsky.social · yesterdayOkay so @defector.com has had an odd glitch since the site redesign a couple of weeks back where the wrong photo and headline are often put together on the main page and I was going to ask them about fixing it but this just happened and as far as I'm concerned they have to leave it as is.
New — I wrote about this weird thing where people within the Republican party keep being exposed as Nazis and the party then tries to claim each one is an aberration. The facts, as I lay out here, indicate otherwise:
Republicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problem
A spate of recent revelations have shown the ideologies and their adherents are one and the same.
thehandbasket.co
In what might be my favorite headline ever, Commonwealth Beacon Magazine says what’s what with our campaign to keep our gun laws strong in MA. It’s educators vs the gun industry. Teachers want to keep their students and their schools safe — and I do too. 1/2 commonwealthbeacon.org/ballot-quest...
Political Notebook: Teachers vs. Smith & Wesson
The state's largest teachers union is now the single biggest financial backer of keeping a 2024 gun control law on the books.
commonwealthbeacon.org
I keep seeing videos of a guy who catches crabs and lobsters, cracks all the barnacles off them, puts a shrimp in their claws and throws them back. can you imagine. abducted by aliens but they just give you a spa day and hand you two hot dogs and let you go
this is an absolutely god-tier shot across the bow because we all know kraft won't
MB@sugarcubedog.bsky.social · yesterdayMacklemore just announced he’s donating the $1 million he made from Sheeran’s tour to 6 organizations to support Palestinians and he’s asking Robert Kraft to match it. This is just the first part announcing it.
A bipartisan group led by Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will hold Congress’ first-ever hearing on how to improve treatment for menopause and fund research.
Congress is finally talking about menopause
A bipartisan group led by Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will hold Congress’ first-ever hearing on how to improve treatment for menopause and fund research.
bit.ly
People are even commenting on the post from the T about the train to the concert! (Be nice to the T people, please)
Jason Linkins@dceiver.bsky.social · yesterday
Excellent oped in @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social by my @harvard.edu colleague Jill Lepore. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
But damn. If you want to support Palestinians, please match the Macklemore/Sheeran clamor with some kind of Palestinian-centered action. Find & follow Palestinians #onhere. Donate to causes that feed hungry Gazans or defend West Bankers in the face of settler pogroms. Read Palestinians.
Pennsylvania measles cases top 700 after four outbreak-related deaths reported reut.rs/4xpLuEB
Pennsylvania measles cases top 700 after four outbreak-related deaths reported
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Wednesday reported 731 measles cases, up 38 from Monday's update, as the outbreak continued to spread in the state at the center of the nation's worst measles resurgence in decades.
reut.rs
… Democrats [slowly waking up, turning off alarm, yawning, rolling over in bed]: Hey, what the- damn, these bedfellows are getting stranger every day.
interesting story from Boulder www.the74million.org/article/how-...
How Parents in Boulder, Colorado, Rewrote the Rules on Autism Therapy in School
Families persuaded the district to adopt the nation's first neurodiversity-affirming policy. But putting it into practice has been a challenge
the74million.org
…but do read the whole essay
Julia Serano@juliaserano.bsky.social · 2d agoNEW ESSAY on last week's deluge of Dems embracing anti-trans positions. let's stop fixating on trans ppl & instead recognize that Dems have a cisgender problem. pls share! Medium (friend link): juliaserano.medium.com/on-democrats... & Substack (no paywall): juliaserano.substack.com/p/on-democra...