Meghan Lafferty
@lafferty.bsky.social
Libraries, STEM (chemistry!), higher ed, MPLS. Pronouns: she/her/hers. 🐦: laffertylib; 🐘: livelaffertylove@mspsocial.net
If you can squeeze out a little for Soraya Nadia McDonald, please do. So she can get over this hump. @soraya.press
Soraya Nadia McDonald@soraya.press · 3d agoHey folks, my situation is still precarious Tip jar contributions welcome (Trying to make rent and get current on health insurance premiums. Much obliged 🙏🏽) www.soraya.press#/portal/supp...
Israel is giving Trump's former campaign manager millions of dollars to fill the internet with pro-Israel articles written by AI, not so that anyone will actually read them, but so that *LLMs will train on them* & regurgitate their perspective. This is the future of the information environment.
Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working.
Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence.
dropsitenews.com
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
AI companies are ensuring rare books are about to get a whole lot rarer. futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain
AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.
futurism.com
So, what happens if I'm a parent and I know that my kid needs highly paid teachers, a library full of books with diverse characters, trans-inclusive bathrooms and extracurriculars, and a curriculum unpacking topics like systemic racism, colonial oppression, economic inequality, and climate change?
AI companies are buying, scanning, and destroying older books to improve their models' training data & avoid problems of "model collapse" (wherein LLMs choke on their own slop). One of their suppliers is Better World Books, which partners with public libraries. www.404media.co/ai-companies...
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
404media.co
You could get mad about dead senator discourse *or* you could enjoy this video of sea lions who have retaken an island with a decommissioned lighthouse off the coast of Oregon and now use the staircase as a giant slide.
Amy Klobuchar’s eulogy for Lindsey Graham was 390 words long. This was 390 more words than she has said in support of trans people
Why are car-centric transport systems so difficult to undo? Because automobiles represent the dominance of private property over public space. In this @urbancyclinginstitute.org essay, I look to history to uncover how we got here. #StealingCars
Stealing Cars: Property, Automobility, and the Colonial Crisis of Car Culture
Long Ride | Historian John Munro delves into the past in order to understand how the primacy of private property shapes mobility hierarchies in the present
urbancyclinginstitute.substack.com
if you only looked at the use of “working class” by people who opine on the democratic party’s “need to win back the working class” you would never suspect that every historically feminized profession is working-class
Oh now Thiel is talking about the "reproducibility crisis" in science, amazing Wait these guys are all myna birds, aren't they. They hear a few words said by someone else and they just grab them and repeat them without understanding. Now I see why they love LLMs so much.
🧵 … Hey all … I’m in search of story sources who’d want to interview for an upcoming feature about trans folks who’ve moved from red states to blue ones, especially since the last presidential election. Signal boosts appreciated.
A friend of mine is trying to help an immigrant family hurt by the ICE raids in Minnesota this year. Please join me in donating if you’re able to spare a few dollars. If not, just boosting the Go Fund Me helps too! Thank you. gofund.me/982017cea
Donate to Help Jenny's Family Build a Better Future, organized by Pearce Bunting
Hi friends, my name is Pearce Bunting and back in late January of 2026, durin… Pearce Bunting needs your support for Help Jenny's Family Build a Better Future
gofund.me
You don't have to answer the door for the Feds. Do not voluntarily talk to the Feds. If they have a warrant signed by an actual judge, then they can do precisely what the warrant says. But DO NOT TALK TO THE FEDS. Do not answer the door. If you're arrested, your only words are "I want a lawyer."
C. Robert Cargill@crobertcargill.bsky.social · 2mo agoICE observers in Minneapolis have begun receiving visits from FBI agents sent to intimidate them. A close friend-combat vet, mother, no criminal record-who was a volunteer observer during the ICE crisis, had a visit and was threatened for taking photos and videoed, claiming that filming was illegal.
An opportunity to support someone who gives so much to this city; please donate and/or share:
Queer Motherhood Legal Support
My name is Junauda Petrus. I am a community member, novelist, soul sweetener and poet laureate of Minneapolis. But my most favorite, transformative, magical and joyous thing I have ever got to be was ...
chuffed.org
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new sunscreen ingredient in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years. It's been used for decades in Europe and Asia. n.pr/4opPFx7
4 things to know about the new sunscreen ingredient the FDA approved
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new sunscreen ingredient in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years. It's been used for decades in Europe and Asia.
n.pr
If you want to attend the annual DFL feminist caucus meeting, the registration deadline is TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT according to an email sent at 12:55pm today
While Pink News has the best headline, GoMag has the best pictures, i.e. pictures of the actual ex-nuns, not just random stock photos:
They Met In A Convent, Now They’re Married - GO Magazine
“If there is a Cupid in the world, ours was God,” Francilia Costa said.
gomag.com
Jasmin🌸@theboobtaster.bsky.social · 2mo agothis might be the best headline i’ve ever read
I suspected there was a reason the Bosnian players weren't singing along to the anthem and it turns out it has no official lyrics because they can't come up with a set of lyrics the country's various ethnic groups agree upon
Some small measure of justice is about to happen, happy Friday.
LIVE: See Donald Trump’s name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens
YouTube video by MS NOW
youtube.com
Help your impacted multiply marginalized neighbors, Minnesotans
OutFront Minnesota@outfrontmn.bsky.social · 2mo agoTwo weeks ago, we opened applications for our Queer & Trans Relief Fund: a direct-aid program for 2SLBTQIA+ Minnesotans affected by the ICE occupation. We have received over 400 responses–but our current funds are limited. To provide aid to as many Minnesotans as possible, we need your help.
I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇
How do you control unruly academics? Through their trustees, of course. This right-wing group has a national network to push their agendas on universities across the USA. @aaup.org www.aaup.org/sites/defaul...
I think she's a front runner for worst alum of my high school in terms of people harmed by her actions
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo agoAssistant AG Harmeet Dhillon: "What CUNY is doing is disproportionately favoring African American men and students in general, and this is illegal. They could lose funds."
Happy Pride to this Caravaggio self-portrait that made one man so gay he had to go to the hospital
It's okay to use citation software. It's okay not to. Using citation software isn't even a little bit like using Gen AI to write, read, or summarize (citation software is deterministic: same inputs, same outputs). These are actually easy things to know and understand and avoid Discourse about.
When I complimented a librarian friend on the amount of Criterion releases in the Jefferson County (Alabama) library's system, she was like "Good. Keep checking them out. That's how we know to keep purchasing them".
Sarah Stubbs@sarahstubbssays.bsky.social · 2mo agoJust a reminder- If you don’t have a streaming service and want to see newer releases without paying VOD prices, check your local library! So many of them have physical releases available for checkout! Checking them out that way also helps show budgetary committees that there is a need there!
The last couple mornings I've been hearing they have been working VERY QUICKLY so that a crowd doesn't have the chance to scare them off. They've been smashing car windows again, too. If you're outside, remember your whistle.
Jason Chavez@jchavezmpls.bsky.social · 2mo agoICE vehicles have been seen this morning in the Corcoran and Powderhorn neighborhoods/ South Minneapolis. It would be great to get extra support from community today. Please help out in your local area. 1/
![A person holds a sign that reads [citation needed] in the style found in Wikipedia articles with unsourced information.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qmu5auqwzgwutebewndwhzb6/bafkreid4kyncccydeigzi2rtgwp2wwhcke7na7c6ps7pptxgs57wbmaqmm)
