Dr. Abdul El Sayed, Melat Kiros and Darializa Avila Chevalier (the latter two are PhD candidates) examples of academics who successfully went out of the ivory tower and talked to regular people and resonated with them. but you'll never hear of this as an example of higher ed being engaged.

Air quality. I grew up in the Los Angeles basin in the 70s and 80s and remember having to stay inside because the smog was so bad - Stage 2 smog alerts, they were called. Apparently they haven't had one of those since 1988. Haven't had a stage one smog alert since 2003.

Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 21h ago

Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.

Big assoc between evaluation and prestige & paper topic "...raises an important question: To what extent do the editors and reviewers at elite journals tend to overlook great scientific contributions that lack these advantageous author and manuscript characteristics?" www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Editorial and peer review dynamics at elite general science journals

Analyses of deidentified data reveal complex interactions that quantify success at elite general science journals.

science.org

i love these posts because it imagines like none of us can remember a time before this tech. we all remember 2023! the only people who don't remember 2023 are literally six years old!

Alexander Glass@alexanderglass.bsky.social · 17h ago

I have one answer.

If you’re working with your Meta pervert glasses on, don’t forget that looking at passwords shares them with Meta. I know the immediate solution is to use a password manager, and I’ll never not recommend that, but how about not wearing your pervert glasses?

A day in the life.

The search company fucking up search this badly is right up there with inventing an expensive computer program that can‘t do math

Tbh, this kind of friction happens when we practice new skills or try to get better at something. It happens when we seek out challenges to our acquired skills or when we "test" ourselves in the world. The friction and its overcoming are valued in these moments.

Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)@shengokai.blacksky.app · 2d ago

I would call it a "good friction," or a "willful friction," or a "voluntary friction" because it's a friction we willingly adopt and not everyone wants that degree of friction or resistance from the world. That friction is gone when the hive mind tries to anticipate her needs and just fill them.

"Why can't you just appreciate how revolutionary the job-taking, environment-degrading, information-shredding, technology-hoarding, economy-swamping machine is?" My brother in Christ, there may indeed be a revolution in part because of "AI," but it might not be the one you wanted.

I'm not going to QT but there's a silicon valley NIMBY complaining about maintaining the historical character of Palo Alto and man that place should look like fucking singapore. Market cap of tech companies based in and around there is like $14 trillion and it's full of fucking bungalows? So broken

This whole administration has taught me that the notion that people update their prior beliefs is malarkey and good faith intentions will always be assumed

It would be so much easier for people to grasp the circular financing of Commercial AI if it involved more physical goods…

Inspired by @mattseybold.bsky.social, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social offers A Reading List for Our Age of A.I. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...

Opinion | A Reading List for Our Age of A.I. (Gift Article)

A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.

nytimes.com

"I don't understand why you, a fantasy writer, don't appreciate the value of making bargains with the fae."

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 2d ago

Every now and then someone takes a run at me along the lines of "I don't understand why you, a scifi writer, don't appreciate 'AI'," and I'm all, motherfucker, it's *because* I'm a science fiction writer I have the positions I have, how many times do we have to fucking yell "torment nexus," my dude

Me on the AAU "The AAU claims to be comprised of America’s leading research unis...But if the member presidents choose the guise of institutional neutrality as a way to gain political cover, they may now be leading higher ed toward greater authoritarianism." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

How Elite Colleges Aided Censorship During the Red Scares

Powerful organizations during the Red Scares crafted a world where “academic freedom” was conditional on political allegiance.

insidehighered.com

Also: the best polisci evidence we have says there is no vote penalty for progressives vs. mods. Hong & El-Sayed are favored to win in Nov, like any D. We won't have counterfactuals, but if close, win or lose, it'll reinforce the polisci finding. If they lose by a lot (they won't), another story...

A.R. Moxon@juliusgoat.bsky.social · 2d ago

You guys, nominating the person who earned the most votes is now an “ideological purity test.”

Behind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...

Inside Britain's university crisis

As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter

democracyforsale.substack.com

"Artificial intelligence is not just a market product or a scientific achievement. It is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy." connect the dots! Dr. McMillan Cottom has homework! go to the library, host a reading group, organize your neighbors www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...

Opinion | A Reading List for Our Age of A.I. (Gift Article)

A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.

nytimes.com

I came through Canadian education. It's not perfect let me tell you, but I was still doing advanced physics and hell I could have done 'shop' class (cars, machines that cut things) in my equivalent of a-levels. Canada has a massive and successful college system (FE). Burnham's DfE should look at it.

Dr Dave Hitchcock@davehitchcock.bsky.social · 3d ago

One of the strongest ameliorations this country could use, but doesn't, is actually *less* specialisation demanded of students so early in their progression. Keeping their year 10, GSCE and AS curricula more broad allow a larger proportion of students to find a niche or subject that works for them.

AI companies are trying to do this, but with human knowledge. It's why they're destroying the books. Wipe out our ability to think for ourselves, then own the means of thinking.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 3d ago

Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.

Every Gender Studies major deserves an apology for every joke made at their expense. People studied STEM because everything was science and engineering. People studied CompSci because everything was computers. People studied Gender because as it turns out, everything actually is Gender.

Vought is using the NSF to weaponize research grants in service of the President’s agenda. Register for our webinar to learn about the key NSF changes, analyze their implications and draft strong public comments: zurl.co/uZgiw Then leave your public comment: zurl.co/IutuN

A Skinner Box but for work!

Me, personally, I consider it a pretty huge indignity to have an algorithm write my code then turn to others and say "here's my code".

RFK is dismantling the US’ longstanding child vaccination schedule so rapidly that measles cases are through the roof and polio (Polio!) is making a comeback. And the same people responsible for that public health disaster have been pushing the exact same poison in British popular discourse. So dw!

The immigrant union troops who defended their adopted country from slaver traitors are in fact, proof of concept of American higher ideals having nothing to do with “blood” or “heritage” or whatever cowardly euphemism is in vogue among these pathetic losers

"Our time will come, and when it does: no amnesty." Great, important piece from @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/tru...

Truth Without Reconciliation

Why did Brazil’s democratic institutions hold firm while those in the United States so quickly wilted?

bostonreview.net

AlphaFold was always bait-and-switch; now Google confirms it. A hyper-narrow bioinformatrics model with actual science bolted on whose guesses can be experimentally checked was never a licence for socially-applied slop at scale, but it's done its job. Effort transferred to LLMs.

There is a certain level of obtuseness in (some) "AI" apologists when they flounce up to point out what "AI" is good for in science, etc, while eliding the fact that almost none of that use is driving the current market capitalization, environmental degradation and resource hogging of the field