Barbara
@batesbarb.bsky.social
She/they - queer midwestern biochemist and general homebody.
Reposted by Barbara
a load-bearing component of “the magic of Christmas” is the invisible domestic labor of moms
you are now realizing how much she was doing for you and instead of just thanking her you’ve decided it’s about the decline of civilization
you are now realizing how much she was doing for you and instead of just thanking her you’ve decided it’s about the decline of civilization
Because you're an adult you fucking muppet. You gotta pay the magic forward.
December 3, 2025 at 6:35 PM
a load-bearing component of “the magic of Christmas” is the invisible domestic labor of moms
you are now realizing how much she was doing for you and instead of just thanking her you’ve decided it’s about the decline of civilization
you are now realizing how much she was doing for you and instead of just thanking her you’ve decided it’s about the decline of civilization
Reposted by Barbara
Every day I get angrier abt that wretched Harper’s Letter, and the broader feckless, bothsider-poisoned media environment that treated it as legit.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?
December 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Every day I get angrier abt that wretched Harper’s Letter, and the broader feckless, bothsider-poisoned media environment that treated it as legit.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
Reposted by Barbara
Sure, they've made an environmentally catastrophic mass hallucination disinformation plagiarism Clippy that will destabilize the world, but also their other goal is to replace human workers entirely and let us humans starve. A boycott of AI is the most important boycott of your entire life.
"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."
Analysis: OpenAI is a loss-making machine, how can it survive?
Don't call it a bubble! Loss-making monster OpenAI is on the hook for $1.4 trillion (with a T) in compute commitments. How can this go on?
www.windowscentral.com
November 30, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Sure, they've made an environmentally catastrophic mass hallucination disinformation plagiarism Clippy that will destabilize the world, but also their other goal is to replace human workers entirely and let us humans starve. A boycott of AI is the most important boycott of your entire life.
Reposted by Barbara
The timing for this article is also particularly bad, as holidays stretch even politically engaged parents super thin. I've had 8 kids (ages 2-11) staying at my house this week. And even with 7 other grownups to help, I can count on one hand the number of news articles I've had time to read in full.
November 29, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The timing for this article is also particularly bad, as holidays stretch even politically engaged parents super thin. I've had 8 kids (ages 2-11) staying at my house this week. And even with 7 other grownups to help, I can count on one hand the number of news articles I've had time to read in full.
Reposted by Barbara
Meanwhile, even if a reader takes the time to click on and read the article, they still have to scroll past two ads and a list of related stories to get to the "okay but" paragraph explaining that real scientists are highly skeptical of these new FDA claims.
November 29, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Meanwhile, even if a reader takes the time to click on and read the article, they still have to scroll past two ads and a list of related stories to get to the "okay but" paragraph explaining that real scientists are highly skeptical of these new FDA claims.
Reposted by Barbara
the hardest part of writing politically charged fiction is that a good villain needs to be complex, cool and about as right as the protagonist; while evil people in real life are lame, cruel, childish morons motivated by greed or not wanting to look at minorities
November 29, 2025 at 8:04 AM
the hardest part of writing politically charged fiction is that a good villain needs to be complex, cool and about as right as the protagonist; while evil people in real life are lame, cruel, childish morons motivated by greed or not wanting to look at minorities
Reposted by Barbara
part of what made louis ck’s old routines funny was the ability to trust that he knew whereof he spoke, that he had conquered his issues with women enough to joke about them incisively. turns out he hadn’t, therefore couldn’t. craft issue!!
November 29, 2025 at 1:54 PM
part of what made louis ck’s old routines funny was the ability to trust that he knew whereof he spoke, that he had conquered his issues with women enough to joke about them incisively. turns out he hadn’t, therefore couldn’t. craft issue!!
Reposted by Barbara
Terms of remaining include not only giving up social media but a priest put in charge of them. Nothing really changes in the Catholic church.
"Runaway nuns can stay in Alpine convent if they leave social media"
Austrian nuns win reprieve in abandoned convent - if they stay off social media
The three nuns say they were taken out of the convent against their will and placed in a care home.
www.bbc.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Terms of remaining include not only giving up social media but a priest put in charge of them. Nothing really changes in the Catholic church.
Reposted by Barbara
Sure, misinformation, disinformation, and bad actors have been running amok on the web ever since the advent of social media, but at least now we have AI to make things exponentially worse.
November 27, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Sure, misinformation, disinformation, and bad actors have been running amok on the web ever since the advent of social media, but at least now we have AI to make things exponentially worse.
Reposted by Barbara
In fairness she had the most seasons and episodes of the bunch!
“Cabot Cove in Maine…has 149 murders for every 100,000 people”(higher than any country in the world or city in the US) www.theguardian.com/media/mediam...
Which fictional TV town has the highest murder rate? | Media Monkey
Media Monkey: Radio 4's More or Less has totted up the figures to work out the deadliest fictional place on television
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:53 AM
In fairness she had the most seasons and episodes of the bunch!
Reposted by Barbara
Don't worry, if you go to Northwestern, you can "choose to identify" as trans, you just can't live or use the bathroom there
"The agreement places no restrictions on our transgender community."
Except whether they can play sports, where they can use the bathroom or locker room, what kind of housing they can live in, and what healthcare they can receive.
Except whether they can play sports, where they can use the bathroom or locker room, what kind of housing they can live in, and what healthcare they can receive.
November 29, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Don't worry, if you go to Northwestern, you can "choose to identify" as trans, you just can't live or use the bathroom there
Reposted by Barbara
Northwestern University joins the growing list of schools functionally banning trans women.
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Northwestern University joins the growing list of schools functionally banning trans women.
Reposted by Barbara
If by some miracle the whole AI industry falls apart because some tech bros decided to spend trillions on compute without spending maybe tens of millions a year on licensing art, I will laugh so hard I'll be in danger of a ruptured spleen.
The OpenAI ruling writers should know about 👀 (if your work was scraped for LLM training, this affects you). www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
OpenAI Loses Key Discovery Battle as It Cedes Ground to Authors in AI Lawsuits
The issue has been a major battleground in discovery. OpenAI could be on the hook for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars if it was aware it was infringing on copyrighted material.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:02 PM
If by some miracle the whole AI industry falls apart because some tech bros decided to spend trillions on compute without spending maybe tens of millions a year on licensing art, I will laugh so hard I'll be in danger of a ruptured spleen.
Reposted by Barbara
DOORDASH: imagine a $12 sandwich
ME: oh dang that sounds so good
DOORDASH: now imagine that it could be yours for just $37
ME: oh dang that sounds so good
DOORDASH: now imagine that it could be yours for just $37
November 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
DOORDASH: imagine a $12 sandwich
ME: oh dang that sounds so good
DOORDASH: now imagine that it could be yours for just $37
ME: oh dang that sounds so good
DOORDASH: now imagine that it could be yours for just $37
Reposted by Barbara
Love being reminded to do this every year. It's a win/win all round
November 11, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Love being reminded to do this every year. It's a win/win all round
Reposted by Barbara
“Meta stalled internal efforts to prevent child predators from contacting minors for years due to growth concerns, and pressured safety staff to circulate arguments justifying its decision not to act.”
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
November 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
“Meta stalled internal efforts to prevent child predators from contacting minors for years due to growth concerns, and pressured safety staff to circulate arguments justifying its decision not to act.”
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Reposted by Barbara
So a wondrous new technology (or more accurately, a kleptomatic bullshit generator) that does the writing for you is not remotely helpful. Nobody asked for it. What would be more helpful would be if the big publishing companies paid us more and weren't so predatory or inscrutable in their practices.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
So a wondrous new technology (or more accurately, a kleptomatic bullshit generator) that does the writing for you is not remotely helpful. Nobody asked for it. What would be more helpful would be if the big publishing companies paid us more and weren't so predatory or inscrutable in their practices.
Reposted by Barbara
White children hold the bag of chips.
Black children brandish the bag of chips aggressively.
Black children will always be seen as less innocent. By people and by the machines and algorithms people create.
Black children brandish the bag of chips aggressively.
Black children will always be seen as less innocent. By people and by the machines and algorithms people create.
“The IG’s [inspector general] report found that it wasn’t the bag of chips that was the perceived threat, but rather the student’s hand movement.” 🙄
State investigators: AI tool wasn't biased when it flagged student’s chips as gun
Maryland’s Office of the Inspector General for Education recommended more training for school staff and police in use of its AI-powered Omnilert weapon detection technology.
www.thebanner.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
White children hold the bag of chips.
Black children brandish the bag of chips aggressively.
Black children will always be seen as less innocent. By people and by the machines and algorithms people create.
Black children brandish the bag of chips aggressively.
Black children will always be seen as less innocent. By people and by the machines and algorithms people create.
Reposted by Barbara
People who feel bad at being called tourists are without doubt the most tedious people on earth to get stuck next to on a plane and it isn't close to close
Tourists are an interesting group in that they consistently deny what we all know they are. I can’t think of anything that screams tourist more than reducing each experience down to charm bracelet size and wearing it around. If tourism is your thing, just embrace it!
November 20, 2025 at 7:06 PM
People who feel bad at being called tourists are without doubt the most tedious people on earth to get stuck next to on a plane and it isn't close to close
Reposted by Barbara
Is this cheese grater conscious? Many users feel they're talking to a real person. Scientists say it's time to consider whether they're onto something.
November 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Is this cheese grater conscious? Many users feel they're talking to a real person. Scientists say it's time to consider whether they're onto something.
Reposted by Barbara
Reposted by Barbara
Of the roughly 2.4 million farmworkers who help feed our nation from coast to coast, at least half are undocumented. This number is even more pronounced in agriculture-rich states like California, where as many as 75% of workers lack legal immigration status.
November 25, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Of the roughly 2.4 million farmworkers who help feed our nation from coast to coast, at least half are undocumented. This number is even more pronounced in agriculture-rich states like California, where as many as 75% of workers lack legal immigration status.
Reposted by Barbara
Reposted by Barbara
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺