Erik Toraason
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etoraason.bsky.social
Erik Toraason
@etoraason.bsky.social
700 followers 480 following 6 posts
Simons Fdtn. LSRF postdoc fellow in @ctmurphy1.bsky.social lab at Princeton University | Aging, death, and DNA repair in worms 🪱 🏳️‍🌈 | ♥️ art and film https://letterboxd.com/deelort/films/
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Reposted by Erik Toraason
Again, this precise use case is why these systems exist-to proliferate people’s racist (transphobic, misogynistic…) imaginary at scale. This should not be seen as a “misuse” but rather the product being used exactly as intended.
Racist Influencers Using OpenAI's Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for Cash
Folks looking for evidence of SNAP recipients as welfare queens have no shortage of AI generated schlock to use as justification.
futurism.com
Reposted by Erik Toraason
will kim is still in ICE detention
will taeheung kim, a korean american scientist and doctoral candidate with a green card, is still being detained by ICE. he's been in detention since July 21, first at SFO for over a week and then in various ICE facilities all over the country.
I got into horror movies in my 20s, so in October I do "Halloween homework" and catch up on classics. 8 films later, my recs from this year's batch (in order based purely on enjoyment) are: Saw, Possum, Possession, Misery, Nightmare on Elm St, Evil Dead 2, Suspiria (1977), and Halloween!
Reposted by Erik Toraason
And this, kids, is why decent data protection laws are this year’s must-have accessory
DHS document states ICE will NOT let people decline from being scanned by its new facial recognition app - Mobile Fortify.

It is used to verify one’s identity and immigration status. However, the face photos taken will be stored for 15 years, regardless of your immigration status.
You Can't Refuse To Be Scanned by ICE's Facial Recognition App, DHS Document Says
Photos captured by Mobile Fortify will be stored for 15 years, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, the document says.
www.404media.co
Reposted by Erik Toraason
This is it. We know exactly how to fix the climate crisis. We have all the technology and we know what actions we need to take. What people are hoping for is a technology that will fix everything without us having to change anything at all, and that's a fantasy. We have to do the work.
The most insanely frustrating thing about the #ClimateCrisis is how the breakthrough we so clearly need isn’t technological. It’s just a collective willingness, a determination even, to change in ways that would clearly be SO MUCH BETTER than the clear and obvious consequences of NOT changing.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
This is why I get pissed off when I see people dismissing the importance of the ACA. This is how things were before it. You either had coverage through work, or you paid literal thousands a month
Reposted by Erik Toraason
Well, an acquaintance who relies on the ACA marketplace for insurance just received a notice explaining that their fee for coverage will be rising. Right now they pay $180 a month. The new price?

$2733.15 a month.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
this is blood libel gutter racism of the kind that you only encounter if you or your staff are spending a lot of time in online spaces that are avowedly white supremacist
Speaking at the Univ of Mississippi in Oxford, Vice President JD Vance claimed that when settlers arrived in the New World, they “found widespread child sacrifice,” adding that “Christian civilization ended the practice.”
JD Vance talks Israel, abortion, AI and immigration at Ole Miss Turning Point rally
Thousands packed Ole Miss’ pavilion as Vice President JD Vance took unscripted questions on faith, policy and Trump-era politics.
www.clarionledger.com
Reposted by Erik Toraason
After 13 years in the US, I’ve made the difficult decision to leave. Having packed up everything and rethought about priorities, rather painstakingly, while I’m sad to leave the life I’ve made here, I’m also relieved that I won’t have to plan my life around immigration policies anymore.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
#Cancer treatment being banned by #ExecutiveOrder. Sane country we have here.
And #breastcancer in men is usually far more deadly
Citing a Trump executive order banning "gender ideology," the VA is withholding coverage and treatment for male veterans with breast cancer, an increasing condition among veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service. 100 male veterans a year are diagnosed with breast cancer.
Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage
A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...
www.propublica.org
Reposted by Erik Toraason
“To leave our students to their own devices — which is to say, to the devices of A.I. companies — is to deprive them of indispensable opportunities to develop their linguistic mastery, and with it their most elementary powers of thought.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Opinion | Why Even Basic A.I. Use Is So Bad for Students
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Erik Toraason
Same coercive model they’re using with abortion.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 2d
The White House plans to bar hospitals that treat transgender children and youth from getting any Medicare and Medicaid payments. The move would affect trans youth who have private insurance, too. n.pr/4qFa1mY
Trump pushes an end to medical care for transgender youth nationally
The White House plans to bar hospitals that treat transgender children and youth from getting any Medicare and Medicaid payments. The move would affect trans youth who have private insurance, too.
n.pr
Reposted by Erik Toraason
In case anyone missed it (part 1/2):
Reposted by Erik Toraason
I respectfully* submit: If you manage to become a “disaffected democrat” based on a thing that happens 10 times on half a million student-athletes, you weren’t much of a democrat to begin with.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
We are beyond Kubrickian satire and it’s literally going to get us all killed
☢️ President Trump says in Truth Social post tonight that U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons again.

— The US hasn’t tested nuclear weapons in three decades. This is a major shift in policy.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
So when I hear people argue that we “put ourselves at risk” and should stop using the words equity or structural racism because “some people” get offended, it’s worth asking who those people are and why their feelings matter more than those of the people directly affected by structural racism.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
the amount of academic research now using llms in research (synthetic data generation, to classify, annotate, or analyse large scale data, etc) is astounding. remember, just cus use of llms in research is becoming normalised does NOT erase the fact it degrades the research & undermine your results
Reposted by Erik Toraason
I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice.

This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
Over two dozen states are suing the USDA for refusing to use SNAP contingency funds during the shutdown, affecting 42 million families.

The coalition includes: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, PA, RI, VT, WA, WI
Reposted by Erik Toraason
It's becoming chillingly clear: an administration that gleefully dismantled USAID and consigned countless people to slow death by starvation and preventable disease will not hesitate to inflict hunger on tens of millions of Americans by cutting off SNAP funds.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
In a shocking reality check, @wired.com is not, in fact, bankrolled by “donations from far left organizations.”

We actually rely on an amazing and growing audience of subscribers to support our journalism, so please subscribe to WIRED if you don’t already.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
One would think it would give journalists at the NYT, CBS, and CNN pause that Teen Vogue & People Magazine offer better coverage of political news these days, but 🤷‍♂️
We are in a timeline in which People Magazine is publishing legit hard-hitting news headlines while CBS and CNN publicly humiliate themselves.

I don’t like this timeline. But I’m loving People Magazine right now.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
Federal officer blasts chemical spray into vocal but nonviolent Portland protester, video shows

The interaction illustrates how federal law enforcement officers do use aggressive tactics against protesters who yell and needle officers but don’t appear to present clear physical threats.
Reposted by Erik Toraason
SNAP is not the reason your taxes are high.

SNAP recipients don’t need to “just go get a job”.

Most of them work. The rest are disabled, elderly, children or caregivers.

People need & deserve assistance

Your taxes fund wars and tax cuts for the ultra rich

Be mad about that