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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 12d

…Coders who were, in fact, working slower w/ "AI"? *Reported Thinking They Were Working Faster*.

…I mean just holy shit.

If these results hold (& I mean multiple cohorts, controls, peer-review, &c), then *all* the self-reported gains in workflow productivity/efficiency are *At Least* questionable…

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Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 23h

One of the under-observed parts of the last several years is the switch where wealthy donors claims directive authority over university policy. So they think Trump’s efforts of undermine academic freedom promote their own control. It’s a symptom of oligarchy, and how oligarchy gives way to Tyranny.

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 7d

The Times' coverage of Rowan's role has been remarkable. It is sad to me that after forcing his alma mater, Penn, to oust a really good president for incredibly poor reasons, Rowan's megalomanical next thought was "maybe the federal government should do this everywhere" and they're actually trying.

The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities

www.nytimes.com

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Peter Swimm @peterswimm.com · 20h

Right now, almost none. Most tools enter classrooms with zero independent bias audits.

Schools rely on vendor assurances and pilot anecdotes instead of accountability.

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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.bsky.social · 12h

lol my favorite type of video on the internet right now is that guy with a rig who finds random MUSIC GENIUSES on the streets of NYC. His name is arii and I think he may be the best producer of MY generation, at least top five. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BUE...

These NYC Locals Sound Better Than SIGNED ARTISTS

YouTube video by ARIatHOME

www.youtube.com

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 2h

Attacks on the federal workforce are also attacks on Black workers, who are overrepresented in the public sector.

Black unemployment is 7.5%. I'm reminded of Coates' observation that Black Americans regularly experience conditions that would be considered a crisis if whites faced them.

Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.

www.nytimes.com

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 1d

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

Read This When Things Fall Apart by Kelly Hayes | Pilsen Community Books

A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable.

www.pilsencommunitybooks.com

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 1d

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists.

I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 20h

Read it all. From one small section:

Shortly after a man fired >500 rounds at CDC and killed a cop, the staff that safeguard employee, facility, and data security are gone. And the Office of Strategic Business Initiatives, that trains and supports risk management across the entire agency, is gone.

Beyond that, the CDC will not be able to function administratively, as the Office of Safety, Security, and Asset Management (OSSAM) office, which safeguards employee, facility, and data security at CDC lost its entire Occupational Health and Safety Office. Barely two months after a gunman shot more than 500 rounds at CDC and killed a police officer, the office devoted to employee safety has been The Workplace Health Office was also RIFed, as was the Office of Strategic Business Initiatives, which is charged with training and supporting risk management across the entire agency. Not only have the CDC employees been terminated, but the ones who remain will be forced to function within an organization that has eliminated mechanisms for looking after their well-being, safety, and ability to effectively do their jobs to carry out the CDC mission.

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 14h

Belatedly reading about this and as always really important to remind people in *every breath* that when the right talks about “woke” and “DEI” they are talking about the cultural and political wins of the civil rights movement. This arrangement existed for 52 years because of historical activism.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

www.dailytarheel.com/article/e9c7...

UNC ends Black Student Movement's 52-year 'co-ownership' of Upendo Lounge

BSM President Adam Sherif said administrators cited new federal guidelines that instruct all federally funded entities to ensure they are not engaging in "discriminatory practices, including those lab...

www.dailytarheel.com

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 3h

The solution being debt is so on the nose

Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 22h

If this was happening in any other country you'd have journalists and analysts discussing risks of state failure

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Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 5h

Students from Cheyfitz’s course speak out against his suspension and explain what happened in the classroom leading up to it. www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...

We Took Cheyfitz’s Class on Gaza. His Suspension Violates Academic Freedom.

Nine students who took the course on "Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance" contextualize the dispute that led to the suspension of Professor Eric Cheyfitz. They argue that his treatment by the University am...

www.cornellsun.com

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 19h

But you know sure let it be your search engine replacement and read and write (whatever that means) for you, not a problem at all 🥲

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT

GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.

www.theverge.com

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 14h

The headline normalizes this so bad

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 15h

Envisioning the EPA Police going door-to-door, raiding family medicine cabinets + teen girls’ dresser drawers, when the mifepristone alarms go off down at the wastewater treatment plant

The E.P.A. Followed Up on an Unusual Request About Abortion Pills

www.nytimes.com

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🇵🇸Tim Henke (tɪm 'ɦɛŋ.kə) @timhenke.bsky.social · 18h

I'm sure it's fine. Who even remembers the so-called "2008 financial crisis"? I'm pretty sure it blew over basically unnoticed

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 2d

“Concerns over an AI bubble bursting have grown lately, with analysts recently finding that it’s 17 times the size of the dotcom-era bubble and four times bigger than the 2008 financial crisis.”

Hang onto your butts. This “correction” is gonna hurt.
futurism.com/artificial-i...

Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.

futurism.com

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Cori Bush @coribush.bsky.social · 18h

I don’t wait for permission to fight for what’s right. I’m running to represent Missouri’s First because our community deserves a leader who shows up when it’s hardest and fights for all of us with courage.

Thanks for having me, @velshi.com @msnbc.com. #CoriForUs

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 17h

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 17h

Ahh this is something I have been wondering but not able to validate, because when I learned about stop words in LLMs it seemed like there were some pretty big differences glossed over by the words LLMs skip!!
That’s….really bad

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 21h

As an example: AI doesn't understand "no." Because the statements "no ketchup on my burger" and "ketchup on my burger" are almost identical to a machine that does not and cannot actually reason. It's only a 2 letter difference.

AI doesn't know 'no' – and that's a huge problem for medical bots

Many AI models fail to recognise negation words such as “no” and “not”, which means they can’t easily distinguish between medical images labelled as showing a disease and images labelled as not showin...

www.newscientist.com

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Suzanne Conklin Akbari @sakbari.bsky.social · 1d

“Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan was revealed last week to be the driving force behind a Trump administration campaign pressuring nine major U.S. universities. Apollo Global Management, which Rowan co-founded in 1990, own[s] the for-profit University of Phoenix.”

Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

Private equity gets its toothhold into firms through economic squeezing, devalues them, then breaks them into parts to sell off. This compact is the squeeze that will simultaneously advantage for-profit ed *and* make it easier to PE-ify non-profit ed. The ideological component is a means to an end.

Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

an article with more context
www.republicreport.org/2025/billion...

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

Lacked the space but yes. This would be a good time for those studying institutional debt to look into who’s showing up at university doorsteps right now suggesting new loans to offset the potential/actual losses from grant and international student attrition. www.commonnotions.org/lend-and-rul...

Lend and Rule — Common Notions Press

Public higher education’s future is being held hostage by financial institutions and actors. How did it get this way?

www.commonnotions.org

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 1d

I'll be putting this into the for-profits lecture slides (where we will be engaging with the good professor's work)

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 1d

www.reuters.com/business/uni...

www.reuters.com

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d

this whole thread is helpful context here, I think

bsky.app/profile/russ...

Russ Frankenstein (no relation) @russ41.bsky.social · 6d

Time for a thread of all the things that Stephen Miller and his band of morons are doing to make enemies of state/local authorities.

Let's start things off with some spice for the CPD.

Phoenix Calida @phoenixcalida.bsky.social · 6d

ICE is pepper spraying CPD (Chicago police)

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

Private equity gets its toothhold into firms through economic squeezing, devalues them, then breaks them into parts to sell off. This compact is the squeeze that will simultaneously advantage for-profit ed *and* make it easier to PE-ify non-profit ed. The ideological component is a means to an end.

Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

an article with more context
www.republicreport.org/2025/billion...

Billionaire Behind Trump Pressure Campaign on Colleges Owns Predatory University of Phoenix - Republic Report

Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan was revealed last week to be the driving force behind a Trump administration campaign pressuring nine major U.S. universities, including Brown, MIT, and the Unive...

www.republicreport.org

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 2d

In 1857, Thomas Howland became Providence, RI's first Black elected official.

Later that year, he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wife & daughter after the Dred Scott case denied Black people protections of U.S. citizenship. He was denied a passport.

Thomas Howland, 1856
John Blanchard

Portrait of a distringuished Black man from the 19th centrure wearing fine clothes, including high collar and tie of the day.
Museum Text:
Thomas Howland, the subject of this unusually expressive portrait, was a dock worker in Providence, Rhode lsland, In 1857 he became the city's first Black elected oficial when he was amed warden of its Third Ward. However, that same year he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wite and daughter, perhaps in response to the recent Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case that denied African Americans the protections of U.S. citizenship. Because of this decision, Howland's application for a passport was denied, despite his status as a free man with the right to vote in his home state (he did eventually make it to Liberia). Howland's confident posture echoes that of the earlier Portrait of a Gentleman shown nearby, the fashionable attire of both sitters serving to reinforce thelir self-possession.

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

Quite a turnaround from the last admin where University of Phoenix owners were reduced to trying (and failing) to hoodwink public universities into acquiring them, with promises of easy predatory cash flow. They couldn’t even sell themselves for parts, and now a $1.36 b valuation and splashy IPO!

"Apollo Global Management and another firm, the Vistria Group, acquired Phoenix’s then-publicly traded parent company, Apollo Education Group, for $1.1 billion dollars in 2017.

During the Biden administration, when the government was working to make it harder to make money off of predatory college abuses, Apollo tried to unload Phoenix to some gullible state university presidents, in Arkansas and Idaho, only to have those deals derailed by opposition in each state.

This week, Apollo and Vistria raised $136 million selling shares of Phoenix’s parent in a new initial public offering for the company, now valued at $1.36 billion."

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