🔇 🔇 🔇 My book, Deep Unlearning, is now available for preorders! I don't know how people write so many books because this one took a lot out of me. It turns out, I had a lot to say 😂, with editors cutting out 50k of my words 🫣 ✴️ You can now preorder it at www.simonandschuster.com/books/Deep-U....

This is an absolute travesty. Northwestern has, probably, the 2nd best library collection for African History/Studies in the USA (behind Yale and ahead of MSU, UCLA, etc). A self-inflicted wound that is absolutely, 100% unnecessary given the massive wealth of Northwestern--north of $15 billion.

SCOOP: Northwestern moves to close Program of African Studies

thepurplewire.beehiiv.com

heads up, there's a scummy AI company making profiles of us (academics) (i'm gonna write to them to tell them to take mine down, wish me luck. it really bugs me when 3rd parties post my picture without permission) scholarlink.ai

Sesamstraße "A new special, Storm on Sesame Street, which aired on Aug 3, follows Elmo & friends as they work together to get ready for a big storm, and help rebuild in its aftermath. The episode was created to help kids better understand extreme weather as it becomes increasingly more frequent."

Sesame Street Has A New Extreme Weather Episode. Here's What Climate Experts Think

'Storm on Sesame Street' hopes to prepare children and parents for how to cope with extreme weather.

time.com

BREAKING: in July 2026, *every single one* of the 2,528 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 10,255 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

Alex Ip 葉清霖@alexip718.com · last mo.

BREAKING: in June 2026, *every single one* of the 1,062 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 7,727 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

🎉 IT'S LIVE 🎉 The game industry hardship fund itch bundle made in partnership with @necrosoftgames.com is HERE. Over 100 games for $10+ bucks: all funds (save for itch fees) go directly to the UVW-CWA Game Worker Hardship Fund. GOOD GAMES FOR A GOOD CAUSE👇 itch.io/b/3802/game-...

breaking: Wikimedia Foundation says it will not voluntarily recognize its workers union, instead insisting on an election held under Trump's NLRB. Wiki Foundation execs dodged this question at its massive conference last week. www.404media.co/wikimedia-wa...

Wikimedia Waits Until After Its Massive Conference to Say It Won’t Voluntarily Recognize Union

A supermajority of Wikimedia Foundation workers say they have signed union cards, but the foundation is insisting on an election.

404media.co

What’s tenure worth if you don’t use it to call out bullies and support your colleagues. Add your name. actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...

Open Letter Concerning the Tenure Denial of Dr. Iván Chaar López

The denial of tenure to Dr. Chaar López has become a national concern because it raises questions that extend far beyond one faculty member or one institution. Scholars across disciplines depend upon ...

actionnetwork.org

The LPL summer newsletter is here. Updates on organizing, summer events, and our 2026 fellows is all inside. Please check it out and hopefully you can make it to one of our events. canva.link/mf4dxd6q164i...

Dr. Iván Chaar López: “If you want a productive university…that supports the state, its citizens, its neighbors, I’m not sure that you want the workers in this institution to be nervous, to be looking over their shoulders… Academic freedom is not under duress—it’s being dismantled.”

Prof Denied Tenure: Academic Freedom at UT Being Dismantled

Border-surveillance researcher Iván Chaar López received a near-unanimous recommendation from faculty and outstanding external support letters. Still, he was denied tenure without explanation.

insidehighered.com

Interested in accessibility, visualization, or data ethics? I'm looking for Ph.D. students to join @data-and-design.org in Fall 2027. I've updated this post with additional information about this year's focus area. data-and-design.org/recruiting/phd

Recruiting Ph.D. Students for Fall 2027

We are an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Colorado Boulder that uses design to understand and reimagine socio-technical systems.

data-and-design.org

"Members of the group Patriot Front ride the metro as a commuter looks on, during the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2026. REUTERS/Cheney Orr"

An agreement between the U.S. and Kazakhstan has given Trump sons and Howard Lutnick ( Commerce Sec.) sons billions $$$$ in access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/w...

Trump Cut a Billion-Dollar Mining Deal. His Sons Stand to Profit.

nytimes.com

Teaching an intro to computing class in the fall and planning to do a collaborative AI class policy with students. Curious if others have done this and how it went! 👀 hope to use it as an opportunity to share my refusal and how it’s not an inevitable. Ultimately goal is to empower students w choice

* ISRAEL DROPS FLYERS ON SOUTHERN LEBANESE TOWN ORDERING PEOPLE TO LEAVE IN FIRST SUCH ORDER SINCE CEASEFIRE -- LEBANESE STATE MEDIA @reuters.com

Holy shit these idiots are now playing CSI "computer, enhance" to catch someone for touching water as if (1) it actually worked that way or (2) had fuck-all to do with a crime.

Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Ah, using "AI enhancement" for engagement, with no concerns of the risks it might create for innocent people.

Anti-Prime Day starts…NOW! 🥳 Today through 6/26, enjoy free standard shipping site-wide, all while supporting local, independent bookstores.

Yeah, fuck this. Our public money is essentially being diverted from science to supporting the stock prices of ruling party donors.

Science Magazine@science.org · 2mo ago

Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm

@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win dailystruggle.org/uaw-divests-...

UAW Divests from Israel Bonds

After UAWD members forced the amendment onto the Constitutional Convention agenda, UAW delegates voted to divest the union’s reported $400,000 in Israel bonds, marking a victory for decades of rank-an...

dailystruggle.org

Last night, the US military invaded a quiet residential neighborhood in Pasadena for a “training exercise” that went until 1AM. Mayor Victor Gordo didn’t inform residents until right before and supposedly the military didn’t tell the city until yesterday

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘@kojamf.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Pasadena, CA - June 4th, 2026 • 1:15am Rick Cole @urbanistcole.bsky.social Pasadena Councilmember 📍District 2 3/3

There is not an alternative vision coming from above. The politicians and the bosses do not have a big idea about how to make things better, beyond time-traveling to 1999 (for Dems) or 1899 (for the GOP). That vision must be ours and it must be built brick by brick and imposed on them.

You cannot use a software system designed to make things up as research. You cannot rely on it to generate ideas, or translate text, or write for you, or check your grammar or spelling. If you do use it, you will have your moment. 100% fucking guaranteed. It will probably be really, really bad ⏱️

WIRED got a copy of a New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau report that has a curious term for opposition to AI development and data centers: "anti-tech violent extremist activity." Great reporting here on how law enforcement is tracking big tech opponents www.wired.com/story/us-law...

US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows

As Americans stew over the looming risk of job-stealing AI and data centers in their back yards, the feds are raising the alarm about a new category of threat, documents obtained by WIRED show.

wired.com

@formerlytomato.bsky.social, on building material alternatives to Big Tech.

FOSS Contra Big Tech

Contestation beyond critique

disjunctionsmag.com

The students really are't down with the AI praise. A compilation of the latest commencement speakers that got booed, and also a school that used an AI system to read off graduates' names, and glitched. From our latest pod here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE0E...

Today @dairinstitute.bsky.social is releasing the Luddite Lab Resource Hub. The hub hosts case studies, resources, and political education for unions, labor organizations, and workers who want to fight “AI” and automation at work. labor.dair-institute.org

If you're reading this, my cat and I have boarded a one-way flight out of the United States. The Trump administration wrongfully denied my work permit renewal; after months of demanding that they follow the law, we have run out of legal recourse, and I have no choice but to leave the country. (🧵)

Support Alex's Emergency Relocation + Next Steps on Give In May

Alex is leaving the US after his work permit renewal was wrongfully denied by Trump's USCIS.

giveinmay.org

I had a realisation Context: In our Reclaiming AI paper we argued that AI systems cannot scale up to human-level cognition without consuming astronomical amounts of resources My realisation: The AI industry is determined to burn through the earth’s resources just to prove us right *empirically*

If US wealth were spread equally over all households, the poorest 50% of households today would get *$1.2 million* richer on average. The next-poorest 40% of households would get $300k richer on average. Only the richest 10% of Americans would lose any wealth, at all. Calculations and data source:

2025 US wealth distribution

docs.google.com

In response to the year of negative reporting on Flock and its harms, the vendor has started hosting webinars on how police chiefs should engage city government at budget hearings. What you’re seeing is a corporate-backed propaganda campaign in real time.

shawn@mulchy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

chief mitchell davis of the hazel crest police department is speaking first in public comment. he says he's on the board of the national association of chiefs of police, which serves as the "conscience of law enforcement." license plate readers are "the most powerful tool since in-car computers."