David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

🚨🚨Conference Alert! Abstract Submissions Due Soon!🚨🚨 “Globalizing Political Economy: Launching the Global Political Economy Network", Happening July 2026, University of British Columbia. Open to all Topics Within a GPE Framework. Lots of Travel Funding Available. Details: tinyurl.com/2nv8st73

—>the report estimated that emerging technologies "could destroy nearly 100 million U.S. jobs in a decade," replacing 47 percent of truck drivers, 64 percent of accountants and 89 percent of fast food and counter workers.

Newsletter: This is The Case Against Generative AI, a comprehensive analysis of a financial collapse built on myths I’ll dispel, the markets’ unhealthy obsession with NVIDIA's growth, and the fact that there is not enough money in the world to fund OpenAI. www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

For those looking for ways to push back against the blind adoption of AI in universities, I recommend this piece: zenodo.org/records/1706...

🚨 New paper: Will global environmental governance survive Trump? @rakhyunkim.bsky.social and I argue that its high complexity makes it more resilient than other governance systems. We give hegemonic stability theory a complexity science twist. 📖 Open Access: doi.org/10.1111/1758...

Lmaooooooo

This is very generous and a nice writeup of some of the tech critical media crowd, including yours truly

Social media was once positioned as the great connecting force that would improve our world. If it ever did that, it certainly isn’t now. We must rein in these platforms, and deceptive narratives aimed at stopped regulation isn’t helping. Age restrictions are an experiment worth trying.

This article from @bryancurtis.bsky.social is bang on. Institutions bowing to Trump doesn't work. It only stokes a positive feedback loop based largely on a false perception of strength and inevitability. www.theringer.com/2025/09/19/p...

❗Now recruiting MSc and PhD students for September 2026❗ Come work @forestry.ubc.ca on indirect impacts of the internet on the environment. These are funded, thesis-based positions. Details on the positions and how to apply here: bst.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2025/0...

Draining the nation's groundwater and skyrocketing electricity prices so cheating high school and college students only need to work on their paper two hours instead of four

🌲Excellent opportunity for a senior colleague to come work with me @forestry.ubc.ca. DM me if you have questions.🌲

“the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria,thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain.”

Dystopian nightmare

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

This piece hits so hard: www.404media.co/teachers-are... "GenAI can...summarize readings, pull out key concepts, draft text, and even generate ideas for discussion. But that would be like going to the gym and asking a robot to lift weights for you."

Is that good

We're looking for a Research Lead for our Mitigation team! The Research Lead will work remotely and lead major Institute research projects including overseeing the work of research associates. Apply before June 15 👇 canadianclimateinstitute.bamboohr.com/careers/39?s...

hey lovelies, I finally got around to publicly sharing my compilation of big tech energy and emissions data. I'll be using it in articles, posts etc but it's yours too, free to use (w/ attribution is nice) ketanjoshi.co/2025/05/23/d...

I thought it was neat for about 15 mins but then realized it just answers questions you previously could Google, is often wrong, it is destroying the planet, costs billions of dollars while using stolen training data, and is further isolating us as a species. It is not miraculous or amazing.

More evidence that young people are tired of the tech-industrialist complex. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Great piece on the [false] promise of AI for conservation. e360.yale.edu/features/art...

BAHAHA! This ⬇️👇 www.ft.com/content/b180...

People feel more lonely, in part because so many of our relationships are mediated by social media. Instead of atoning for the harms of his platforms, Mark Zuckerberg has a new tech solution: he’s going to give us all a bunch of Meta-powered AI friends. It’s an even more dystopian future.

"AI will not democratize creativity, it will let corporations squeeze creative labor, capitalize on the works that creatives have already made, and send any profits upstream." Oldie but I still hear this bullshit. Bookmark this one from @bcmerchant.bsky.social and use it to push back if you do.

it's crazy that this is off the charts evil behavior and it's still not the most evil thing that facebook has ever done

New article in Resources Policy. #Openaccess 'Licensing to operate: Understanding variations in regulatory outcomes in the Australian mining sector' Wrote this one with Lisa Mills & Jennifer Stewart. Thanks to #SSHRC for funding support. See abstract 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"The damaging environmental impact of generative AI and a dislike of Big Tech mean ChatGPT is being shunned by many young people who could easily access it...other students use it sparingly but do not trust its ability to create high-quality work." #ChatGPT #AI www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Dear US-based profs and post-docs, Tired of the attacks on universities? Come spend a semester at @ulaval.ca in beautiful Québec City. Fulbright research position in international studies: $25K USD for a 4-month stay starting in Sept 2026 or Jan 2027. www.fulbright.ca/programs/ame...

New work with the formidable Viola Provost on how TikTok misrepresents marine conservation issues. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

How is AI reshaping wildlife conservation? @forestry.ubc.ca Dr. Hamish van der Ven noted on @theverge.com that there's a tidal wave of enthusiastic research about AI application and much less critical research that looks at the costs, environmentally and socially: www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Hey this is fucked up !! Suppression of research is one of the hallmarks of fascism !! Authoritarians will always come for universities first !! If you thought Poilievre and the Conservatives were in any way better than Trump and the Republicans, think again (and go vote).

Great article in which I offer the 🔥hottest🔥 of hot takes: "There are far more options for AI to offer bias, extract resources, and drive overconsumption than there are conservation applications. If I could wave a wand and uninvent AI, I would.” www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

i guess i should have known that energy star was toast another necessary but insufficient program gutted by monsters www.eenews.net/articles/100...

The National Science Foundation has halted all grantmaking at the directive of Elon Musk’s DOGE as it sends all recently awarded grants back to program officers to ensure they don't support research Trump deams unacceptable, like work on climate change or diversity. www.science.org/content/arti...

An erroneous post on X about Trump's tariff plans touched off market gyrations, illustrating how the platform's ability to amplify misinformation can have serious consequences, explains @bobbyallyn.bsky.social What did you X-pect? www.npr.org/2025/04/07/n... #SocialMedia

A risk assessment algorithm now has power over parole decisions in Louisiana: "TIGER does not take into account efforts prisoners make to rehabilitate themselves. Instead, it focuses on factors that cannot be changed"—including factors with known racial disparities www.propublica.org/article/tige...

Space-based data centres are interesting purely as a rhetorical manifestation of the compeltely broken, wild and fantastical headspace in which these people operate, and should only be reported in that context (as opposed to being presented as a real possbility) www.bbc.com/news/article...

Your tariff rate is your star sign divided by the number of boys you've kissed, multiplied by one

"A.I. is a parasite. It attaches itself to a robust learning ecosystem...parasite and the host can peacefully coexist as long as the parasite does not starve its host. The political problem with A.I.’s hype is that its most compelling use case is starving the host — fewer teachers, fewer degrees..."

I'm hiring! Funded MSc position my lab @forestry.ubc.ca. If you are: a.) interested in doing cool things with algae b.) speak Spanish c.) have some decent research methods training Then I invite you to check out the position here: www.grad.ubc.ca/ad/58574

🎓What are ECRs in enviro politics studying? How do they study it? Why do they study it? And what professional/ intellectual supports have they found valuable along the way? If you’re a MA or PhD/recent grad studying enviro ptx we want to hear from you! Survey will take >10m: bit.ly/ECR_GEP_survey

Columbia Journalism Review tested eight generative AI search tools and found their answers were wrong 60% of the time, and the paid ones actually fared worse than the free ones. Meanwhile, millions of people trust the way they present total bullshit with confident language.

My latest: Generative AI is enabling a brute force attack against the algorithms that control reality. AI slop is taking over every algorithmically controlled social media platform and search platform, and the tech platforms are helping: www.404media.co/ai-slop-is-a...

Holy shit. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say they’re trying to kill us all. “The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists”

“…we should shed the idea that AI is a technological artifact with political features and recognize it as a political artifact through and through. AI is an ideological project to shift authority and autonomy away from individuals, towards centralized structures of power.”

Shame on US multinationals pandering to climate denying politicians by excising mentions of climate change from their websites... www.ft.com/content/f100...

Canada needs to expand the scope of its trade retaliation to target American services, intellectual property and technology – especially those tied to the “tech bros” who have thrown their weight behind Trump www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

Dear US colleagues, In response to the Trump administration, my university @univ-amu.fr is setting up a new program dedicated to welcoming American scientists wishing to pursue their work in France. There are several M$ in the budget. www.univ-amu.fr/en/public/ac...