Quoting s'thing @cnygren.bsky.social & I are publishing soon: "the literacy argument is being made in advance of its necessity...it presumes a state in which those who are “AI illiterate” are disempowered, precisely in order to make an argument in favor of compulsory indoctrination in its use."

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4h ago

“If it's this embedded in the world, then it needs to be embedded in the learning and in the coursework…”

Forget "Don't be evil"; Google's true motto is a form of vulgar spidermanism: "With great power comes no responsibility." The internet's *de facto* boss is an absentee landlord. 1/

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

On Jan. 11, Gregory Bovino watched as his Border Patrol agents dragged a man out of his car at a St. Paul Speedway, knelt on his back until he lost consciousness, and dragged his limp body into the back of a van. The man's name is Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano and this is his story.

Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano survived a violent arrest in St. Paul. It still haunts him. • Minnesota Reformer

The morning of Jan. 11 began for Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano with an ominous warning: The gas light on his Jeep Cherokee was glowing yellow on the dashboard. He didn’t want to go to work at the r...

minnesotareformer.com

Note for example that in today's academy, all the financial incentives for professors are structured to encourage the embrace AI. I can get a grant from my employer (Columbia U) to use AI in my teaching; I cannot get a grant if I exclude AI from my classroom.

This is a huge problem: a million campus grants for more AI, and nothing for those of us trying to teach without.

Karl Jacoby@karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 3d ago

Note for example that in today's academy, all the financial incentives for professors are structured to encourage the embrace AI. I can get a grant from my employer (Columbia U) to use AI in my teaching; I cannot get a grant if I exclude AI from my classroom.

It's okay to sit in the bowl of melancholy for a little while, just not too long. Photo from my collection, no date/info.

man I will just never get over the fact that the collective response to the pandemic, and an absolutely miraculous vaccine development, was to destroy public health in this country and smear everyone involved I generally take a positive view of humanity overall but it's so depressing

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Moreno to Fauci: "Who the fuck did you think you were?"

A glut of AI-written fiction is drowning out human authors, new research shows. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/b...

The wealthiest 1% of US earners now own 50.1% of US equity and mutual fund holdings. To put this into perspective, their ownership stood at 40.1% in 1990 and 39.6% in 2001.

This is fucked up. Newsmax is worse than Fox.

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · last wk.

AYFKM “Meta will be able to draw upon Newsmax's significant current reporting as well as archived content to support AI queries across Meta's apps and devices.” ir.newsmax.com/news/news-de...

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

Why is everything so transparently evil now?

At first, but then, as with Calypso, Nolan provides no explanation for why Circe randomly lets Odysseus go. Scylla's tentacles, on the other hand, might just be Nolan's 1st depiction of an internally consistent female character. Clear motivation: grab & kill sailors within reach! And she does!

Angelica Jade Bastién@angelicabastien.bsky.social · last wk.

“Without the nuances of Morton’s performance, the Circe scene as written by Nolan is rooted in men’s questionable fear of being accused of violence against women rather than the tragedy of how women navigate that very real threat to our lives.” My latest. www.vulture.com/article/circ...

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

The Assault On Science Funding Continues

science.org

Astonishing. RFK Jr. adds 8 members to a 6 member FDA advisory panel. 6 of them were sellers of peptides, and the 7th a compounding pharmacist. In an 8-6 vote with all 8 votes coming from these new panel members, the panel approved 4 peptides against the objections of FDA scientists.

FDA Panel Supports Lifting Restrictions on Four Peptides (Gift Article)

In an all-day hearing, the agency’s scientists argued against allowing broad access to unproven drugs that the agency had banned three years ago.

nytimes.com

Today, in violations of the rule of law that would be sufficient for impeachment in any other American presidency but aren't in this one because pathological partisan loyalty has rotted the constitutional order:

tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w ago

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

On top of AI brain rot, companies are proactively obliterating every trace of organizational knowledge they managed to accrue, by annual waves of mass layoffs targeting the most tenured (expensive) people.

Don’t know who to credit for this. But it is how I feel.

"Wyoming will become the first state in the US where you cannot receive a B.A. in Philosophy."

University of Wyoming to Drop Philosophy Major - Daily Nous

As for Fall 2027, incoming students at the University of Wyoming will no longer be allowed to major in philosophy. The news was shared by philosophy professor Bradley Rettler in posts on social media. He says that students will be able to major in "philosophy and religion" but not "philosophy" nor "religious studies". Rettler points

dailynous.com

I am absolutely begging Democratic politicians to make media reform a centerpiece of their policy platforms

Local U.S. TV News Will Soon Be Entirely Right Wing Propaganda

Thanks to the destruction of media consolidation limits, Republicans will soon enjoy propaganda and market domination over what's left of local U.S. news.

karlbode.com

We will need MORE professors to teach in ways “closer to the Oxbridge tutorial system, the clinical ward round, or the seminars of many small liberal arts colleges in the United States…they are the delivery mechanisms for exactly the cognitive capacities that the architecture of AI cannot replicate”

Nils Gilman@nilsgilman.bsky.social · 3w ago

In which I argue that AI is delivering the coup de grace to the postwar model of the mass-delivery "multiversity," and that this should be seen not as a disaster or tragedy but as an opportunity for curricular, pedagogic, and institutional self-reinvention: www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

🚨NEW: In the 9 months after last year’s reconciliation law enacted unprecedented SNAP cuts, the number of people receiving SNAP fell by more than 4.5 million. Based on available data, we estimate that at least 1.5 million fewer kids are receiving SNAP. www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

He did Jean Tatlock so dirty in Oppenheimer, so no surprise. I'm kinda convinced that like 90% of our Fancy Famous Filmmakers have many wonderful talents but also... maybe don't actually believe that women possess any kind of intellectual interiority.

Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’m just going to say it I’m mad about this movie! The women of color are boxed in, weak- as Helen, Lupita Nyong'o is broken, maimed after the war- not the majestic presence she is in Homer. And Zendaya, f’n ATHENA, is also meek, sad, reacting to Odysseus: rather than IN CONTROL. I was shocked

The Trump admin's latest strategy to mass generate removal orders is diabolical: - Take a huge group of people with hearings scheduled in late 2026, 2027, or 2028. - Send them a physical letter rescheduling all of their cases to next week. - Those who inevitably miss court get ordered deported.

Deportation Orders Soar in NYC as Trump 'Mega Master' Hearings Accelerate

A new report finds removal orders for people who missed hearings more than doubled in New York City in June, as a new tactic of hastily scheduled court dates rolled out.

thecityreporter.nyc

Last July, the Trump administration quietly scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, also known as FoodNet, shrinking the required surveillance to just two pathogens. One of the pathogens they made optional for states to report: the parasite Cyclospora. (Published Nov. 2025)

Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts

The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...

propublica.org

This paternalistic language makes it clear that the faculty are not considered the custodians of academic departments and the curriculum. The state - through its administrative vessels - is in control.

Texas Conference of the AAUP@texasaaup.bsky.social · 2w ago

UT Austin doubles down on denial of tenure to leading borderlands tech scholar: “In an emailed statement to Inside Higher Ed, a UT spokesperson said, ‘Tenure is privilege, not a right.’” www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset" U.S. Military: *suffers crushing defeat to the Persians*

I just read AI investments in US are expected to reach several trillion dollars by the decade. Not only will this cook the planet & do god knows what to our brains, it means corporations & the state could fund anything: a green climate transition, free college, clean air, they just choose not to

Huge new class action lawsuit filed by big publishers and authors against Google this week over AI training. It accuses Google of taking millions of books / articles provided to them for use only in Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar, and secretly using them to train LLMs. 🧵 1/4