I’ve been screening our documentary with organizing communities in the South. So far, the organizers mention data centers first at every single event. From racial justice orgs to old school activists who don’t usually think about tech policy. This has legs.

In re: to recent news about the Meta data center, Sheila Tahir and I are sharing our zine, "Ghosts in the Cloud: A Southern Gothic Approach to Studying AI Infrastructure" based on a trip to the hypderscaler construction site in spring 2026.

That was fast. Google sent me a statement saying it is now “rolling back“ this AI feature after our demonstration and others from OSINT researchers www.404media.co/google-earth...

“The universe, Musk said, according to the Economist, could be a computer simulation created by aliens. ‘The things I’m doing are so preposterous that it’s hard to believe they’re real,’ he said.”

Elon Musk says he got ‘carried away’ with Trump – but still holds on to contentious political views

In interview, billionaire says instead of running ‘Doge’ he should’ve ‘worked on my companies’ and shares extreme predictions

theguardian.com

Anyone want to adopt an adorable, energetic Australian cattle dog? Sadly, my neighbor, who has ongoing serious health issues, has to give up her lovely 3-year-old doggo. Perfect dog for a family who can give her the love she needs. Location: Long Beach / 90808.

My brilliant colleague Iván Chaar López 's tenure denial is not only a threat to UT faculty, but to all scholars who research topics considered "controversial." His case is a model for how to deny tenure with zero justifications to him or his colleagues. www.statesman.com/news/educati...

UT border surveillance scholar was a shoo-in for tenure. UT denied him.

American Studies scholar Iván Chaar López fears UT’s unexplained tenure denial violated his academic freedom amid scrutiny of controversial fields.

statesman.com

Has anyone else received weirdly specific but clearly AI generated and sketchy emails from “recruiters”? Like the book club scam emails but more LinkedIn in shape

Go Fund Me for the sister who was surrounded by white supremacists on the Metro in that viral photo. If you shared the photo, consider actually making a material donation.

Brian Goldstone@brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 3w ago

www.gofundme.com/f/support-be...

Maine Public Radio's coverage of the killing by ICE this morning. It sounds like ICE is once again claiming that the victim tried to run them over, so just as a reminder, every time they've claimed this, it's been a lie. www.mainepublic.org/maine/2026-0...

Developing: 26-year-old Colombian man dead in ICE shooting in Biddeford

Federal, state and local law enforcement had closed off the scene of the shooting, which occurred before 8 a.m. Monday. Details were still emerging but state officials said an unidentified man was sho...

mainepublic.org

Our local newspaper, The Portland Press Herald, has lifted their paywall on coverage of the ICE shooting of a man in Biddeford, Maine this morning. They have excellent reporters and will have much more accurate information than natl news as we learn more: www.pressherald.com/2026/07/13/s...

Live updates: Man killed in Biddeford ICE-involved shooting ID’ed as 26-year-old from Colombia

Witnesses described seeing one person being shot in the head.

pressherald.com

Based on 10 months of fieldwork, Hannah Lipstein shares five takeaways from "Greening AI in the public sector," a new procurement handbook for agencies weighing AI's environmental impacts.

Governments Can Advance 'Greener AI' Through the Power of Procurement

People have the power to leverage the civic and public sectors to fight corporate interests and demand a sustainable future, writes Hannah Lipstein.

techpolicy.press

HYPERSCALE is hitting bookstores on October 20. Preorder it now! In the book, I dig into how the data center boom is pushing our planet past its breaking point, and the incredible efforts of people pushing back against the profit-driven interests of Big Tech. Get your copy: hyperscalebook.com

Very strange to me that one could critique critiques of Big Tech’s dominance by claiming that data center energy use isn’t real/isn’t a problem outside of the US. The ideological scaffolding and speculative investments behind “AI” are all too material and also global in their ambitions

NEW: The AI boom didn’t happen spontaneously. It’s the result of a corporate takeover of state capacity, setting the stage for Big Tech to make a killing while inflicting deep, lasting pain on the working class. @zeteo.com covers our latest research 🧵

Zeteo@zeteo.com · last mo.

3 Tech Giants Driving the AI Data Center Boom Avoided $50 Billion in Taxes Last Year A new report from @cplusc.bsky.social reveals how the Trump administration is actively facilitating the data center contagion sweeping the nation. @premthakker.bsky.social breaks it down: zeteo.com/p/50-billion...

I’ve been doing my best to ignore what must be a substantial clothing moth infestation in my closet but the evidence keeps finding me anyway

(i'm never allowed to buy a tshirt again as long as i live but) loving this "death cycle of AI" tshirt from Honor the Earth. Proceeds go to their activities countering data centers and extractive energy projects. Happy 4th. www.honorearth.org/shop/p/speci...

Special Edition: Land Back 2026 & The Death Cycle of AI (Adult) — Honor The Earth

Special edition T-shirt for Land Back Day, July 4 2026.  The United States is not and has never been a democracy. On July 4, we don't celebrate the violent history of genocide, extraction,...

honorearth.org

Resurfacing online to mention: my book on the history of Speech Rec, NLP, and data-driven AI is coming out in a couple of weeks! Just got my author's copy from @uchicagopress.bsky.social and it finally feels real! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Divination Engines

A revealing and surprising origin story, showing how attempts to render human speech and language computable led from the era of big data to today’s AI. Since the advent of computers, society has fant...

press.uchicago.edu

WEDNESDAY: Check out the TechEquity Data Work Landscape Team as they share a demo of the site and talk to the @labortechresearchnetwork.org about the research process, along with trends and insights in the AI data work field. @tnewmsblues.bsky.social

“Your next user isn’t human.” Welcome back to San Francisco!

Oops forgot to add the hashtag bc my conference posting skills are rusty #FAccT2026 Targeting systems are intentionally imprecise and unexplainable, this is not a sign of technological failure but of systems working exactly as they are meant to

Tamara Kneese@tamigraph.bsky.social · last mo.

Lucy Suchman’s keynote at @facct.bsky.social is a revelation. She’s citing media studies scholars like Orit Halpern and Lisa Gitelman while laying out in exacting terms how AI systems are used to perpetuate and legitimize genocide

Lucy Suchman’s keynote at @facct.bsky.social is a revelation. She’s citing media studies scholars like Orit Halpern and Lisa Gitelman while laying out in exacting terms how AI systems are used to perpetuate and legitimize genocide

You can reserve your seat for Thomas Mullaney's discussion of HOW WE DISAPPEAR w/ @tamigraph.bsky.social (Tamara Kneese) at Local Economy on July 9th here. It promises to be very good. luma.com/o8ar0rxe

How We Disappear: Information in Life and in Death · Luma

When Stanford historian Thomas Mullaney “lost” both his parents, he began thinking of how information—all the stuff that makes us, that we make, and that we…

luma.com

Wait FAccT perfectly overlaps with the Montreal jazz festival?? We should be doing that my dudes

🎁FREE ACCESS to my new pub "The Environmental Impacts of AI" in the new Oxford Research Encyclopedia of STS. Beyond the hype, AI is an extractive force reliant on minerals, water, & energy. This entry introduces a 4-Scope framework to map AI's full lifecycle impacts. doi.org/10.1093/9780...

Environmental Impacts of AI

Summary. The global proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) is accompanied by significant debate regarding its net environmental consequences. AI is

doi.org

The entire book is free to read online, as a downloadable pdf, or you can order a hard copy!!

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix@melhogan.bsky.social · last mo.

+ Huge thanks Stefan Laser and Edward Ongweso Jr, with guest editor Hollis A. Brown @stefanlaser.bsky.social @edwardongwesojr.com @hollisabrown.bsky.social www.matteringpress.org/books/predic...

I’ve spent more than a year reporting on how the fossil fuel industry has infiltrated academia over the last 30 years, shaping fundamental paradigms on how to address climate change. My first story in the new @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social series, “Carbon Captured”, is out today.

ProPublica@propublica.org · last mo.

NEW: This is the story of how one of the most influential climate papers in history came to exist thanks to one of the companies most responsible for causing the climate crisis — and one with a financial stake in the technologies described in the paper. w/ @drilledmedia.bsky.social

A university that called the cops on its own peaceful students is now set to be represented by one of them in Congress

Abe Silberstein@abesilbe.bsky.social · last mo.

Two years after Darializa Avila Chevalier took part in the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, she is now set to represent the district in which the university is located in Congress.

MAZEL TOV @bradlander.bsky.social, THE FIRST JFREJ MEMBER TO BE ELECTED TO CONGRESS!

Super excited for our CRAFT workshop on trans AI policy at FAccT, co-organized w @jhereia.bsky.social & @anabrandusescu.bsky.social, come join us if you're at the conference! More details here: programs.sigchi.org/facct/2026/p...

State of the economy: spent some quality time trying to figure out if my brother’s interview was for an actual job or if it was all an AI enhanced scam