Anne Pasek
LightNews LightNews
apasek.bsky.social
Anne Pasek
@apasek.bsky.social
590 followers 450 following 280 posts
STS, cultural studies, media, environment, climate, energy

Bikes, cats, synths, barbells, good recipes
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Anne Pasek
dennycarter.bsky.social
The markets are staying afloat right now on the hope that AI will destroy American workers. What a bleak thing.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/b...
“A big part of the high stock prices is not a reflection of high future growth,” he said. Rather, it is a sign that A.I. is expected to boost productivity and shrink employment. “The firms all think they’re going to shed a lot of labor, and that’s why the profits will be high,” he said. And while the construction of data centers to power artificial intelligence is fueling economic growth now, these centers, once built, employ skeleton staffs.
November 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM
apasek.bsky.social
I'm a committee member a v. cool PhD on GPU e-waste/thermocultures, which includes some research-creation elements. This means that I got an atari punk synth in the mail made out of old GPU boards, with a fan/light sensor element added in.
Shout out to Cyrus Lognonné-Khalatbari---this is so joyful!
November 27, 2025 at 4:52 PM
apasek.bsky.social
The big news today is that there's a bunch of jacked firewomen in NZ who have put together a calendar to fundraise for breast cancer research: www.breastcancercure.org.nz/calendar/wah...
PRE-ORDER Wahine Toa Firefighter Calendar 2026 — Breast Cancer CURE
Original order SOLD OUT. Pre order now and help these trailblazing firefighters - every purchase makes a difference. 13 Firefighters. One Cause. From the frontline to your wall - New Zealand’s fir...
www.breastcancercure.org.nz
November 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Anne Pasek
rasputinzero.bsky.social
Adapted scene from The Good Place. Jason: "I think we're in a bubble economy!" Michael: "Softbank figured it out? Softbank?!" Michael: "This is a real low point. Yeah, this one hurts."
November 11, 2025 at 8:43 AM
apasek.bsky.social
Hello Internet. The Taste of Things (2023) is a very good movie in which the majority of the screen time is given over to silently (occasionally, huffingly) preparing amazing french food in a beautiful kitchen. Two thumbs up. 👍👍
November 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Anne Pasek
elleisanisland.bsky.social
The diagram for what Palantir does is like if Richard Scarry got super paranoid and did an Apocalypse picture book
A schematic of the multiple types of communication and weapons systems: laser guided munitions, GPS aided bombs, SATCOM jammer
November 7, 2025 at 8:14 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Guess who just got access to a primary care physician for the first time in 8 years and so will be doing preventative medicine again! :)
Cordelia Flyte writes: my deepest darkest fantasy is that I collapse on the street and I am rushed to the hospital. They perform a bunch of tests and find out I am severely deficient in some kind of vitamin. Then I start taking the vitamin and I become the happiest, cleverest person alive because all my problems were caused by this one deficiency. Cara Calliope adds: Moreover, everyone gathers around to be tremendously compassionate and discreetly admiring: all this time, you lacked the Vitamin? And yet you persevered?
November 6, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Anne Pasek
lifewinning.com
When I say that the concept of the "digital commons" was always a facade made up by politically illiterate toddlers this is what I mean
damonberes.com Damon Beres @damonberes.com · 24d
NEW: Common Crawl, the massive archiver of the web, has gotten cozy with AI companies and is providing paywalled articles for training data. They’re also lying to publishers who have asked for material to be removed. “The robots are people too,” CC’s exec director told us when we asked about this.
The Nonprofit Feeding the Entire Internet to AI Companies
Common Crawl claims to provide a public benefit, but it lies to publishers about its activities.
www.theatlantic.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:38 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Fun times with Canadian AI Policy. The federal government wants to do consultation in a 30 'sprint.' That's probably very unwise, plus the survey itself is full of leading questions. A bunch of folks (including me!) are calling for a different strategy: bccla.org/policy-submi...
OPEN LETTER to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation from civil society organizations and individuals opposing "National Sprint" consultation on AI strategy - BC Civil Liberti...
The Honourable Mélanie JolyMinister of IndustryHouse of CommonsOttawa, OntarioK1A 0A6 The Honourable Evan SolomonMinister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital InnovationHouse of CommonsOttawa, Ontar...
bccla.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:21 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Sneaky bastards
unfuck google drive by shooting gemini Hey folks! Google is fucking you via sneaky enshittification again! Want the shit in your google drive to load instantly again, instead of taking for-fucking-ever? Open yourgrive settings, manage apps. Gemini was checked as use as default. Nuke that, and suddenly folders that took up to a minute to populate and sort do so in a fraction of a second.
October 31, 2025 at 12:46 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Looking at spending some time this spring either in New Bedford (Moby Dick fantasy) or the Maritimes. Send recommendations if you've got them! I want to divide my time between writing, eating, biking, and looking at tide pools.
October 25, 2025 at 7:48 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Time for me to start baking multiple batches of cookies to assemble into giant variety packs to give away for the holidays (I am intense about this). Anyone baked any banger recipes lately?
October 22, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Anne Pasek
jqwen.bsky.social
AI development should consider its deeper environmental, technical, and sociopolitica infrastructures for the sake of sovreignty, sustainability, and fairness (not endless imaginary scalability!) - we argue for this (and many more) in this piece. So glad it's now out!
October 22, 2025 at 12:48 AM
apasek.bsky.social
Strategic nationalism continues! policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/10/ai-m....
Canada needs a sustainable and ethical path for AI innovation
Canada should focus on green, ethical AI made in Canada to avoid the U.S. tech race and support responsible innovation.
policyoptions.irpp.org
October 21, 2025 at 11:35 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Anyone have a screenshot of the (I hope real?) joke-y post that said something to the effect of "let's make a mastodon instance to discuss the challenges of configuring mastodon instances"? I need it for a slide deck!
October 20, 2025 at 5:42 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Yesterday my students did 'dead media autopsies' in class. It was pretty neat to look at electronics across a range of decades, and parsing when things stopped being soldered, and then largely assembled, by hand
A VCR disassembled. There's a lot of plastic gears, two belts, a motor, a 'magic' tape head, and a big old sheet a plastic with instructions for where all the caps and resistors go Computer speakers disassembled, featuring 2 cones with big magnets, a single phase transducer, screws, caps, and a lone LED The remains of an automated cat feeder. The plastic chassis got busted right apart to reveal a motor, a power port, and a board with spec-sized LEDs and caps/resistors, glued in with soldering paste
October 17, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Anne Pasek
jqwen.bsky.social
So excited to see it out and honored to be part of this group!! Rare opportunity to learn about the real-world entanglements between policy and AI's pasts and futures. My special gratitute to @apasek.bsky.social and Kelly Bronson for their guidance.
apasek.bsky.social Anne Pasek @apasek.bsky.social · Oct 15
This summer I got a bunch of smart academics together to think about anti-extractive Canadian AI futures. Our white paper, which parses good and bad AI policy directions for the federal government, is out now!
www.uottawa.ca/research-inn...
www.uottawa.ca
October 15, 2025 at 5:37 PM
apasek.bsky.social
This summer I got a bunch of smart academics together to think about anti-extractive Canadian AI futures. Our white paper, which parses good and bad AI policy directions for the federal government, is out now!
www.uottawa.ca/research-inn...
www.uottawa.ca
October 15, 2025 at 12:20 PM
apasek.bsky.social
Peak butch moment: friend asks to borrow my tools
October 4, 2025 at 4:20 PM
apasek.bsky.social
I love his writing and all, but sometimes I wonder if David Graeber would have offered a slightly different account of bureaucracy and organizational relations if he hadn't noped out of all his service work at his university...
October 4, 2025 at 3:45 PM
apasek.bsky.social
I am going to talk to a bunch of lawyers at Yale about AI Trash. Yes, I will be showing them the bad AI slop picture of a scientific illustration of rat testicles (?).
AI slop of a scientific diagram. It features a cute white rat, with a cross-section of its abdomin, in which a huge phallic (or is it umbilical?) structure protrudes up and extends far past the height of the rat itself. Helpful labels on the image read "rat" "dissiced" "retat" "testtomcels" "dck" and "spermatocial stem cells"
October 2, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Anne Pasek
florianederer.bsky.social
U.S. regions more exposed to AI saw faster emissions growth, more reliance on fossil fuels, and dirtier electricity generation.
cepr.org/publications...
October 1, 2025 at 2:43 PM
apasek.bsky.social
I'm going to be in NYC in a week for a hot second! What should I do (besides catch the Tega Brain & Sam Levine show at Pioneer Works obvs)?
September 28, 2025 at 11:48 AM
apasek.bsky.social
I'm making my environmental media class vote in Fat Bear week today with me.

Also: Look at this unit. Justice for 901! explore.org/fat-bear-week
A before and after photo of a bear called 901. She's bulked out! Elsewhere on the site "Her early adult life is marked by growth and loss. She readily achieves a level of fatness above that of many other bears... It is not uncommon for mother bears in Katmai to lose their entire litter given the risks faced by cubs. Yet past maternal experience is immensely valuable, which is why 901’s growing maturity and body size have her poised for success."
September 25, 2025 at 6:20 PM