@amyaharder.bsky.social on one of the biggest stories in energy: fossil fuel companies working with tech to build massive gas power plants on the site of data center complexes. Rob Wingo of the pipeline company Williams says this "doesn't hit the retail customers," but I'm skeptical.

AI boom drives clash between grid power vs. energy "islands"

Data centers could plug into the grid, or they can operate on their own.

axios.com

AI can speak non-English languages fluently, but it still thinks in a Western worldview. For instance, it will prioritize individual autonomy, direct communication and personal boundaries, even in cultures where harmony, community and relational awareness matter more.

AI’s fluency in other languages hides a Western worldview that can mislead users − a scholar of Indonesian society explains

Research shows that a hidden American worldview can shape AI advice in ways that are culturally misleading.

theconversation.com

Pentagon bombs Iranians w/Palantir, Anthropic for rapid AI target selection and "speeding the pace of the campaign." www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... Were the Minab schoolgirls murdered because of an AI? Hegseth and Trump should be held responsible when AI is put on the job.

Anthropic’s AI tool Claude central to U.S. campaign in Iran, amid a bitter feud

Anthropic’s AI tool Claude is playing a key role in the U.S. military’s campaign in Iran, amid a bitter fight with the Pentagon over the terms of its use in war.

washingtonpost.com

A new CA science foundation is a good step forward. Here's hoping that if it becomes reality, it really evaluates the "potential benefit to the health and well-being of the population, natural resources, and environment of the state" including in how it deals with intellectual property.

Can Innovation Serve the Public Good?

Not as it’s traditionally done, but there are more equitable models.

bostonreview.net

Patrick McCray@patrickmccray.bsky.social · 6mo ago

California proposing $23B bond initiative to create its own science foundation calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202...

THRILLED that Brian Chen's new policy brief, "The Big AI State: How the Trump Administration is Shaping US Industrial Policy toward 'Global Technological Dominance'" is live! Trump is not "deregulating"; his admin is intervening in the market BIG TIME to bolster AI. datasociety.net/library/the-...

How have economic warfare and sanctions been applied in modern history? New book by @mark4harrison.bsky.social and Stephen Broadberry looks across three centuries of global history for clues to how economic sanctions and warfare worked and why their effects often came as a surprise. buff.ly/2vOcWIl

Thanks for sharing, @rcolesworthy.bsky.social! If anyone wants an even more detailed guide through the book peer review process, I have a free webinar on it too (but today is the last day to get it) courses.manuscriptworks.com/courses/surv...

Workshop: Surviving Peer Review for Scholarly Books

This free workshop from Laura Portwood-Stacer of Manuscript Works teaches scholarly authors at all career stages how to ensure their books survive the peer review process. Get practical tips on sugges...

courses.manuscriptworks.com

Rebecca Colesworthy@rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Laura Portwood-Stacer (@lportwoodstacer.bsky.social) also has a helpful, thorough blog post from a few years ago on writing a letter of response: manuscriptworks.com/blog/reader-....

I am very pleased to share our new Social Media + Society special issue, co-edited with Jingyan Elaine Yuan. This collection brings together leading and emerging scholars to rethink both “platform” and “Asia” as dynamic, contested imaginaries—rather than fixed objects of analysis.

Great to see @lausanhk.bsky.social's account of the Wang Fuk tragedy 🕯️✊

Tai Po in flames - Lausan

How Hongkongers are reviving mass action and mutual aid in the wake of the deadly fires in Tai Po.

lausancollective.com

Drugs (tobacco and sugar), were the very engine of the colonial American economy.

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 9mo ago

"As a historian of drugs, I can tell you that this argument is wrong in almost every way. There is no wholesome, traditional drug-free America that we can return to." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/o...

This has gotten surprisingly little attention — it's not even on the front page of @science.org right now — but it's really hard to describe what the SAFE Research Act would do to US science and scientists without sounding insane www.science.org/content/arti...

U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations

Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students

science.org

Such a pleasure working with you all to bring this piece into the world. Hope our conversations continue!

Hatim El-Hibri@sayshatim.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Everyone so often you have a conversation with people that really makes the world make more sense, and so this conversation turned into an article that tries to recreate that. what a joy to have worked on this with @msteinbrg.bsky.social @linzhang.bsky.social @rahmuk.bsky.social and Joe Khalil!

Super excited to announce a new piece out in the world: States and platform capitalisms: A conversation. This is a collaboration with some amazing thinkers and friends- led by @sayshatim.bsky.social Joe Khalil @linzhang.bsky.social & @rahmuk.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

Black, magenta and an edge data center on the cover of my book about Nairobi, smartphones, platforms, standards, venture capital and digital China. Out in the boreal fall this year 🪩 with U California Press (and OA)

I’m thrilled to share my recently published book forum response in Dialogues in Urban Research, in response to a set of wonderful book reviews of The Labor of Reinvention. Details and links to articles here: www.linkedin.com/pulse/book-f...

Book Forum articles on The Labor of Reinvention

I’m thrilled to share my recently published book forum response in Dialogues in Urban Research to a set of wonderful book reviews of The Labor of Reinvention. Heartfelt thanks to Yifan Cai, Gulinigaer...

linkedin.com

Together with the great @data.ft.com piece yesterday on AI capacity, this is going straight on the syllabus for September - ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

Inside the relentless race for AI capacity

The quest for superintelligence is spurring a data centre boom — but critics question the cost, environmental impact and whether it is all needed

ig.ft.com

Christopher Mims@mims.bsky.social · last yr.

The AI infrastructure build-out is so gigantic that in the past 6 months, it contributed more to the growth of the U.S. economy than /all of consumer spending/ The 'magnificent 7' spent more than $100 billion on data centers and the like in the past three months *alone* www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sili...

This is fascinating although I must admit is not a beach read. It makes me think that one of the big trends we’re seeing in government/public policy is the spread of third wave systems theory (into theories of statecraft, PSR, leadership training, etc). 1/2

New Special Issue Alert: Our special issue “Whither China? Chinese Communication Research at the New Conjuncture” has finally been published in the Chinese Journal of Communication! www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcjc20/1...

Chinese Journal of Communication

Whither China?: Chinese Communication Research at the New Conjuncture. Volume 18, Issue 3 of Chinese Journal of Communication

tandfonline.com

I like this analogy: the computer interface as the 'theatre of the screen', with an understanding of theatre (like all art) as 'a lie that tells the truth'. www.clunyjournal.com/p/history-of...

The History of the Personal Computer by Sheila Heti

Sheila Heti on the birth, rise, and decline of the personal computer.

clunyjournal.com

Coming March 2026

www.cnet.com/home/interne...

Alternative Broadband Networks: Affordable Internet for the People, One Rooftop at a Time

Volunteer-based organizations like NYC Mesh aim to close the digital divide and build real-life connections.

cnet.com

In the midst of the AI boom, countries are scrambling to meet rising energy demands from data centers. In Mexico, Microsoft has had to rely on gas generators in at least one of its data centers

Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers

Mexico's lagging energy grid is forcing companies, including Microsoft, to use generators.

restofworld.org

The Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series is back! This fall features talks from affect and control in Chinese AI to American forestry in Cold War Taiwan. We meet on Zoom on the Tuesdays listed, 10:30–11:45 am ET. Registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia #histstm #envhist #sts 🧪

Exciting news from my colleagues @sciencehistory.org! This archive documents the early history of #MolecularBiology & efforts to determine the structure of #DNA. @matthewcobb.bsky.social provides an overview of its contents & significance in the thread below. #histSTM #histsci #histbio #Molbio 🗃️📜🧬

Matthew Cobb@matthewcobb.bsky.social · 11mo ago

News in the history of molecular biology. The Science History Institute in Philadelphia has acquired a huge archive of correspondence and other scientific material from the pioneers of molecular biology (Franklin, Klug, Perutz, Delbrück etc, with items from Crick and Watson, too). 1/n

Other Tech Worlds Are Possible. Comic book is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese! Partnership with the Tech Sector of the Homeless Workers’ Movement in Brazil (MTST), @germana-fazgibi.bsky.social English: digilabour.com.br/comic-book-o... Portuguese: www.nucleodetecnologia.com.br/hq

Signatures needed! Uber and Lyft drivers are on the precipice of a wage theft settlement and need to push CA AG Bonta to represent what Uber/Lyft really stole, not just a token amount. Please sign and share this petition. www.drivers-united.org/wage-theft-s...

Xi Jinping launched the Global Governance Initiative, adding to China’s suite of global proposals. Centered on sovereignty, multilateralism, and UN reform, the GGI positions Beijing as a champion of the Global South in global affairs.

Xi Launches Global Governance Initiative

In addition to China’s President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic blitz at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit and this week’s upcoming military parade, he also launched the Global Governance in...

chinaglobalsouth.com

Some are embracing the fantasy that the cuts to #NIH funding will only have an impact here in the USA. As Nature reports, the NIH is the largest global funder by far and dwarfs the rest of the world’s funders of biomedical research. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts

Abrupt cuts by the Trump administration to the US National Institutes of Health threaten progress in medical research globally.

nature.com

What is Sinopessimism? From lying flat to runology, Dino Ge Zhang explores a grassroots lexicon of disillusionment in China. Not just youth disengagement but a low theory of coping, refusing, and imagining alternatives amid economic and social pressures.

On Sinopessimism, or Junkies of Futility | Made in China Journal

This essay is written precisely so that it could be dismissed. —Paul Mann (1991: 141)   Gary Gexi Zhang (2021) first coined the term ‘Sinopessimism’ as a speculative counterpart to Afropessimism, imag...

madeinchinajournal.com