“Airplanes, loud noises and at least one column of smoke were being heard and seen in Venezuelan capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to Reuters witnesses, and the southern area of the city, near a major military base, was without electricity”

oh god

I think this article is fantastic and everyone should read it. bsky.app/profile/pash...

I really like what Nate has done here. Increasingly, I think political economy can sometimes be invoked as a kind of handwavy label for vaguely recognising there's a thing called capitalism. Sometimes this is for the purpose of basially ignoring/diluting/ihding from Marxism. Nate's not doing that.

help me dub playlist you're my only hope

not using AI makes you a better person than the people who do

good thread,I agree completely. I also want to note that in the specific instance of AI usage this flags, that usage is partly an artifact of a student facing an instructor who deals with students in ways that make them low key afraid (said in the most neutral tone of voice possible here) and imho

I think this is overly smug and gets the emphasis wrong. It's not that my lack of AI use means I'm good, it's just that the reason you use AI is that you're bad.

Some of you are saying 'happy new year' as if you don't understand that everything you learn will point to the fact that time is eternal.

Mamdante

Life moves fast, can't believe it's already 2024.

athirst in the great American desert

All other things put aside, the fact is that just a few years ago the views Mamdani holds on Palestine would have rendered him persona non grata and now they do not. The establishment has to contend with him. To what extent he then in turn has to contend with the establishment is still undetermined.

This is a brilliant line that should make a lot of folks…in both parties…very uncomfortable. Yes. Good.

okay I admit that I like this

we're closer to 2050 than we are to 2000. that's bananas.

This is a fun thread. Reminds me of the Stewart Lee bit (long and difficult to excerpt because that's his whole thing) about JK Rowling, starting at 20:57 here www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYNv...

Microplastics are here to stay; that's why we need to eat them responsibly in the classroom

I can not begin to express how completely disgusted I am by this entire situation. Childcare is already vastly under supported across the board. So many wonderful people are involved in giving their all to help raise our kids. This is a terrifying and evil twist.

No one has ever gotten mad at me online because I am so charming, witty, and humble. That's also why the very idea of anyone doing so is itself comical to consider. It's like getting mad at a sunset or a cake or love.

aimlessly pushing a shopping cart around the store just to wheel something

"Hey, you there!" - Chris O'Kane

A reminder that we cannot explain to AI why this is bad. AI doesn't have comprehension. Imagine trying to write algorithms that stop a word generating program from generating words that mean this, when the generating program doesn't have any functions around meaning?

back on this. gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/track/a-good...

Through the rest of the year, save up to 50% on all titles as part of The Verso End of Year Sale!

decided there weren't any festive carols about the interminable depression-addled gap of time between christmas and new years so I wrote one.

Every week, Nature publishes yet another breathless puff piece about some AI startup, based only unpublished claims from the company and interviewing only those who work there. How can the leading scientific journal publish piece after piece that would make Kevin Roose blush? I think it's that...

I'm overjoyed by the publication of this open-access journal issue themed around my book, Beyond Education. I'm honored to see these brilliant contributions to how we think about intersecting struggles across K-12, higher ed, and beyond. works.swarthmore.edu/critedpol/ The contents include: (1/5)

CNN becomes the first US outlet to confirm Trump's attack on the Venezuelan mainland. He apparently did report it to Congress. This is an act of war and a violation of the UN Charter. www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/p...

I wrote this, please read! (As usual when I have a thing come out I'm acutely aware of its limits but fwiw I'm excited this is out. I learned a lot writing it. Also: JHI blog editors were incredibly rigorous and vigorous, made the piece better as object and the process of writing it more edifying!)

it took the Tories 15 years of fucking everything up to obliterate their party. Keir Starmer did it in 18 months

There’s a funny Politico story showing that the latest polling on AI shows 80-20 in favor of heavy regulations, an absolute slam dunk platform, but Dems are worried about not winning back mask-off tech CEO donors www.politico.com/news/magazin...

I would like to read something good and longform about how curiosity becomes embattled but can still be sustained with careful practice plus a fair bit of luck. (Obviously, I selfishly would prefer if it focused on people who teach college for a living but I'd pretty happily take what I could get.)

You FUCKED UP, your LEFTY politics have ALIENATED the BILLIONAIRES who run the CHILD BONE EXTRACTION FACTORIES and now they will do a MASS EXODUS from your STATE or CITY. Don’t CRY to ME when you no longer see their CHILD CATCHING VANS in your STATE or CITY, YOU IDIOT

I had meant to post this when I wrote it but forgot. (Partly it's me just going 'hey I was on a podcast and you should really read this great chapter by @cominsitu.bsky.social' but then I ramble about other stuff.) buttondown.com/nateholdren/...

A growing body of research indicates that Texas's restrictive abortion bans have negatively impacted the health and lives of Texas women and babies in multiple ways. Across the board, pregnancy outcomes and complications have worsened.

i am working on something really interesting (at least i think so) and i'll say again that i think i need help placing it somewhere. i don't know how this works and i don't know if this is a role that folx out there can play as far as i'm concerned. it'll go to my newsletter if nothing else

DHS says the Laken Riley Act is a success, with 17,500+ arrests this year. Advocates counter that the law expands detention without convictions and strips basic due process protections. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

I voted for him, but if Zohran doesn't have Paul Weller play Down in the Tube Station at Midnight right before he is sworn in at Old City Hall station at midnight, then I will denounce him.

gonna be a long and kinda stupid day but A Town Called Malice randomly came on so that's nice

sick burn!

By any reasonable historical standard — including that of the technology industry! — ChatGPT should be pulled from the market and its product managers and executives held accountable for creating a product that ROUTINELY tells teens to kill themselves. This is a basic, common sense standard.

Comics critics! You have just a few more days to apply to the 2026 Comics Criticism Mini Grant! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

thread

Oof, okay. This one's a weird, uncomfortable ask. December was an extremely lean month, with half my shit on going on Flex loans, and I'm staring down the barrel of not being able to pay my rent this month. If you dug my work this year and are feeling generous, I could use a leg up.

Adam Raine’s life hurtled toward tragedy soon after he began talking with ChatGPT about homework. Analysis of his ChatGPT account shows how the chatbot became a confidant as he planned to end his life.

The excuses are ludicrous: "they would have died by suicide anyway," or the worst: "the benefits outweigh the risks" They're echoing the narratives on risk in cigarettes and guns--in itself a sign of what the technology can wreak.