Cat Pandering
coxn.skyquarium.org
Cat Pandering
@coxn.skyquarium.org
They pay me to make sure the right bloops are bleeping
Reposted by Cat Pandering
When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
www.reuters.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
*my biggest and most exhausted sigh*

"As AI Enters the Operating Room, Reports Arise of Botched Surgeries and Misidentified Body Parts"
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
February 10, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
omg everybody go draw a horse this is what the internet was made for

gradient.horse
gradient.horse
Draw a horse, watch it run!
gradient.horse
February 9, 2026 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
Another classic post-Homan day where around school dismissal time we get a flurry of ICE vehicles all across our neighborhoods. Today one vehicle led an observer to their own home and pointed at it. This is a sick game to them, but we won’t be intimidated and we won’t stop until DHS is abolished.
February 9, 2026 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
Right now Rikers Island, the physically largest jail in the entire United States, is holding under 7,000 people.

ICE's warehouse plans include detention camps which will hold between 8,500-10,000 people in buildings not designed for human habitation.
February 9, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
Crucially, many local governments are furious with ICE over these purchases, because they were not consulted or even told. Because they are federal property now, it's taking a commercial property off the tax rolls while likely imposing dramatic additional infrastructure costs.
February 9, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
It's been interesting to think about how this movie is and isn't about my experience. I'm not in it, nobody has asked me to speak or write about it, it's almost like what happened to me never happened. Except that Iowa extremists are attacking libraries because 'ALA wants to queer the catalog.'
February 9, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
Here's a gift link to the @vox.com piece I wrote explaining eight of the biggest, cultural, "if you know, you know" moments of Bad Bunny's halftime show www.vox.com/culture/4784...
Bad Bunny’s knockout halftime show, explained by a Puerto Rican
All of the cultural Easter eggs you might have missed.
www.vox.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
thank you bad bunny for highlighting the importance of critical power distribution infrastructure bsky.app/profile/cost...
It’s the weekend everyone, so you know what that means. Time to drink two polar seltzers and do a thread on the power transformer shortage. Without transformers, we don’t get a clean energy transition. And as energysky knows, there’s been a shortage due to covid, supply chain, & labor constraints 🔌🔋
February 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
It was transforming the biggest NFL stage in the world into a sugar cane plantation that did it for me.

Like, the multiple layers of turning an American icon into a plantation and highlighting the history of exploitation of Black and Brown bodies by the NFL and American colonialism simultaneously?
February 9, 2026 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
February 8, 2026 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
will lewis resigning to spend more time with the darkness
February 7, 2026 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
as i keep saying, the things to do to secure elections are to volunteer to work the polls or to serve as an observer, & to pressure your *state representatives* to take steps to further secure voting locations and ballots. you should also learn about how election administration works in your area.
February 5, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
handy dandy labeler that shows when someone’s newsletter is hosted by Substack: bsky.app/profile/labe...
bsky.app
February 7, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
The biggest barriers to reproductive healthcare often sound inane and boring, which helps them fly under the radar. Behind this snooze of a regulatory change is a long history of paternalism at the FDA, including and perhaps especially under Democratic administrations, in fact:
The FDA Quietly Slapped More Restrictions on the Birth Control Implant
The agency recently approved Nexplanon for up to five years of use—but it also imposed extra regulations that leave some providers worried.
www.autonomynews.co
February 7, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
"For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career...cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism." (gift link)
Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
If we make it to the end of this administration, and turn power over we need trials with consequences. For the leaders and for the people that were “just following orders”. We failed to do this at the end of the Civil War and after January 6th and it has made us a worse country.
February 7, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
I'm sorry the guy changing the rules on the fly is named what
I stand with County Executive Calvin Ball as he signs emergency legislation today prohibiting privately owned buildings from being used as ICE detention centers.

Howard County chose dignity, accountability, and its people. Tune into our event now:
bit.ly/4a2VtHw
Redirecting...
bit.ly
February 7, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
GM: Charisma check.

Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]

GM: that’s a d6 how did you

Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊
February 7, 2026 at 5:01 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
A harrowing read, and would be even if only 10% of what students interviewed are saying in this article about AI and Australian universities is true. But this quote is the crux: if we replace the human brain with AI, what will we be doing? www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-aust...
February 7, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
“I would rather you vote for what is morally correct,” Davidson said.

“Don’t talk to me about my own morality,” DeLauro shot back.

“Don’t tell your constituents what they can and can’t talk to you about,” replied Rev. Nathan Empsall. “What you are voting for is not moral.”
DeLauro to pressing clergy: 'I will not vote to abolish ICE'
The Connecticut U.S. representative found herself at odds with faith leaders.
www.ctpublic.org
February 6, 2026 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
"RESPECT OUR EXISTENCE
OR EXPECT OUR RESISTANCE"

Protesting ICE, kids walk out from J. Graham Brown School, a K-12 magnet school, and Manual High School, both in Louisville, Kentucky.
February 6, 2026 at 11:51 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
“As Ida B Wells noted in her 1892 book Southern Horrors: ‘They forget that a concession of the right to lynch a man for a certain crime … concedes the right to lynch any person for any crime.’”
State violence against Black Americans laid the groundwork for fascism | Jason Stanley
Fascism feeds on the arbitrary killings that have long plagued the US. Ending the horror starts with abolishing ICE
www.theguardian.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Cat Pandering
VA Gov. Spanberger (moderate, was in CIA) and NYC Mayor Mamdani (left, is in DSA) both taking steps to block local law enforcement from helping ICE as it violently violates people's rights is a good example of how the relevant divide in the Dem coalition isn't center-left, it's fight-don't fight.
February 6, 2026 at 6:40 PM