Rory Solomon
@rorshock.bsky.social
Mesh networks, media infrastructure, software engineering, ham/CB radio (KD2QGX); Assistant Professor of Media & Cultural Studies at Macalester College; “very clear & cool, simple but intricate”; he/him
aside: an anecdote i like from computer history is how sql was originally conceived so suits could pull their own reports this is laughable for lots of reasons but the particular one i want to surface is the fact that the whole point of being a suit is somebody else pulls the reports for you
"Full AI Communism," a phrase from the Wall St Journal this morning on whether China's vision of AI as a public good or Wall Street's as a private product will win the AI race. Good title for a book!
Why do we as a society even tolerate private equity? Just an entire industry premised on the idea of making everything else worse
Louisa@louisathelast.bsky.social · 2w agoWell, this article is incredibly depressing for cooking enthusiasts. The short version: private equity has, over the last couple of decades, quietly bought up most of the classic brands you’ve heard of and then traded on their names while drastically cutting quality and closing American factories
A really interesting piece on reducing AI cheating in the classroom from a Professor of English and former Dean of Humanities at University of Utah. The solutions? Smaller classes, lower teaching loads for faculty, and in-person classes.
How to limit unauthorized AI use in the classroom
A handy rule
hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com
Maybe if we stopped thinking of ourselves as so special and removed from broader labor dynamics, we'd actually have models for enacting the change we want to see.
Some responses to this post have been so defeatist, basically saying "admin will never change and there's no money so we're fucked." I wish faculty feeling this way had a little more humility. Union organizers in the past were beaten and killed, but they worked on. Let's take our lead from them.
Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa@benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · 3w agoA really interesting piece on reducing AI cheating in the classroom from a Professor of English and former Dean of Humanities at University of Utah. The solutions? Smaller classes, lower teaching loads for faculty, and in-person classes.
TIL the CIA World Factbook was discontinued this past February. RIP. You got me through many games of Carmen Sandiego. It seems OpenFactBook may carry on its legacy, offering accessible geographical info with less imperialist ties openfactbook.org
OpenFactBook - World Factbook Alternative | Country Data & Statistics
The community-maintained successor to the CIA World Factbook. Free comprehensive data on 260+ countries: geography, demographics, government, economy, and more.
openfactbook.org
You can, and almost certainly should, opt out of being part of Muse Image's new experiment in making the internet a worse and more invasive place.
Instagram about to start letting internet randos "remix" your photos with AI
Instagram about to start letting internet randos "remix" your photos with AI
avclub.com
Now, we need to stop private equity from buying hospitals. It's a disaster waiting to happen, if not already here.
Educating myself about campus culture at my new employer & really enjoying the excellent journalism in the student newspaper, The Mac Weekly. themacweekly.com
The Mac Weekly
The Student News Site of Macalester College
themacweekly.com
VR, AI, face computers … How many times is FB going to choke on poorly regurgitated old tech fantasies before people realize that maybe the rapey webpage guy doesn’t actually have any good ideas? finance.yahoo.com/technology/a...
Zuckerberg Admits That AI Is Not Working Out the Way He Imagined
Shocker.
finance.yahoo.com
Please let’s all start using this coinage and let this be his most lasting legacy in the public consciousness … that and the lesson learned to never make this kind of compromise again.
LunchCounterPunch@theultrasecret.bsky.social · last mo.The US absolutely face platnering these past few hours.
Friends & colleagues, I'm very pleased to announce that this fall I'll be starting a new job at Macalester College as Assistant Professor of Media & Cultural Studies. Events at my current institution haven't left much space for sharing good news, but I hope we can also celebrate light in dark times
Le Guin on the idea that there is a secret to getting good at writing.
Definitely one of the more interesting & intellectually dishonest figures in US politics. According to this review he manages to celebrate the US cause in WWII & endorse fascism. Elsewhere Trump's VP has the audacity to criticize Bill Clinton's "moral failings" www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/o...
Opinion | JD Vance Is Worried
nytimes.com
Are the many “Intellectual Freedom Centers” being placed on college campuses nationwide really just mandatory ideological indoctrination centers? 🤔 #AcademicSky
They’re talking about abundance but we’d rather have a Bund
How many Jews shouting ‘genocide’ will it take until everyone understands that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism?
can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool
I mean without occupy there was no Bernie 2016 and without Bernie 2016 there was no dsa as it is today and without dsa as it is today there's no Mamdani. Highly unlikely an AOC, but also Bernie 2016 on that one.
The rise of larger vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks, with their taller hoods and larger blind zones, has contributed to a 75% increase in pedestrian and cyclist deaths since 2009. Until we design better streets and ban these vehicles, people outside these vehicles will keep dying.
The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s (Gift Article)
The vehicles on American roads have grown larger — and they are killing thousands more pedestrians, a Times investigation found.
nytimes.com
To the “AI is useful” crowd, it might certainly be in theory, but we can’t ignore that it is being shaped by right wing extractive logics mired in cultural hierarchal commitments, that have very little interest in a utility that serves a broader social good.
“The AAUP and AFT condemn the federal indictment of fifteen Minnesotans—including Erik Davis, former president of the Macalester College AAUP chapter—for defending their community during the violent ICE occupation of Minneapolis earlier this year.” www.aaup.org/news/indictm...
Indictment of Minnesotans for ICE Protests a Threat to Democracy
The AAUP and AFT condemn the federal indictment of fifteen Minnesotans for defending their community during the violent ICE occupation of Minneapolis earlier this year.
aaup.org
Absolutely legendary video. It’s incredible they got this whole rap crew to so many iconic Bay Area spots. Kids today will watch and assume it’s AI or at best green screen
Evan Torner@guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 2mo agoIncredible. My students & I experiment with commands like these in my Radical Software class when we craft keystroke injection attacks, scripting that pretends to be a human user. Here this is using a CAPTCHA, supposedly the test of a real human at the keyboard, to mímic the scripted attack
Julia Métraux@juliametraux.bsky.social · 2mo agoExcuse me, what's going on with captcha?
American political discourse is written on an Etch-a-Sketch and the goal of every political campaign is to tickle the populace so hard they inadvertently shake it clean
Danger, Bees!@foolishhoomans.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe American Memory is wiped each time the price of gas changes
The professor made it hard for the guy to be there
Robert Komaniecki@komaniecki.bsky.social · 2mo agoFiling this one away for the next graduate seminar
Feels like a lot of STEM guys believed coding was the hardest thing a human could do, and assumed that once somebody invented an AI that can code, it would follow naturally that the AI can do all of the lesser non-coding things that other dumber people were doing
