This is totally kabonkers

I ran into this yesterday when I got my vaccinations at CVS. Steak n' Shake also no longer offers an option to purchase a meal with a human; it's all touch screens. All the humans there are grill cooks. More outsourcing of labor onto customers

I’m reading a sci-fi novel that is basically about what happens when a professor gets in trouble for pursuing research that goes against the regime in charge within the context of alien life forms/civilization. I’m reading it more slowly than I normally would because… well, you know.

It is funny for sure. The reason for the difference is that the closer analogy here is between Columbia's board and ABC's executives, who responded similarly. Kimmel is more like Columbia faculty who have resisted their bosses' capitulation. The recurring pattern is: management cowers, labor fights.

Before I turn on @npr.org again or read another @nytimes.com editorial, because I know exactly how it'll be: This isn't "a threat" to academic freedom. It's not igniting "a debate" about it. The "future" of academic freedom isn't at stake. This is what the end of academic freedom has made possible.

They’re also closing the drive-thru Starbucks on Rte 9 in Natick. I know a lot of folks hate their coffee, but I think of these stores as being among the first locations where trans and queer people find their footing. The closest starbucks to me is among the gayest places to go in town.

It’s profoundly weird that after the Wellesley Square Starbucks location closes by the end of the week, there won’t be a reliable coffee shop for evening study work off-campus for Wellesley students within easy walking distance. When I first started my job here, there were two.

Confirmed: Assata Shakur has joined the ancestors. cubaminrex.cu/es/nota-de-p...

So *if* this is accurate, it looks like she was not demanding that they pay her, unlike everybody else (I’m gobsmacked they don’t pay artists, but whatever). She was saying “since I’m doing this for free, here’s what I want to make this worth it for me.” And they were like, “Nah.”

After it made how much money from them? Whatever.

It’s raining a ton today, so of course my title of Department Chair means I worry about leaks in our very old building (in desperate need of renovation). Never a dull moment.

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

If pundits won’t discuss the deaths from half a world away, you’d think they would grieving about the over 1000 detainees who just “disappeared” let alone the two who were killed just today. I know that some of this has to do with what we see, what’s re-posted on social media, etc. but lordy

They've lost the 9yos

This is really great reporting from Mother Jones - the "godfather" of evidence-based medicine disavows the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine for misusing his work. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Comey is one of the biggest reasons Trump was initially elected in 2016 so this is deeply ironic. It's also deeply political and completely unwarranted. www.reuters.com/world/us/for...

Friday: a prosecutor is forced to resign bc he concludes there's not enough evidence to go after Trump's perceived enemies Saturday: Trump makes public post asking Attorney General why she hasn't gone after his enemies Wednesday: DOJ says enemy indictment coming right up sir do I have that right?

I just taught a class session on immaterial labor and holy smokes but this hits hard

Chat GPT did even worse than Google Gemini

I asked Google Gemini for some help in finding recent examples of compound meter in pop music, and two examples were 4/4 with a tresillo groove.

Cute to blame the left before any information about the shooter has been found. ESPECIALLY given who was shot.

the most important thing to remember when you see eugenicists who don’t believe that autistic people should exist rambling about “the autism epidemic” is not that they’re wrong about the “cause” (although they are absolutely wrong about it); it’s that they are eugenicists

Wienies

As an autistic trans person, I’d say that this isn’t an accident.

Science Vs has an episode about the Tylenol and autism thing. It might be worth listening to.

So far the only features I like from this new OS is how my fancy email app works AND being able to adjust playback speed in the native podcasts app.

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

"Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.

who would have thought forceful push-back works

🍎 🍯

Trans folks: update your documents ASAP. Protect yourselves legally as many ways as you can.

I'm doing one of those "researcher surveys" for a research about research (??), and this question has me wondering just how alone I am outside the humanities

"In the name of 'fighting antisemitism', the Trump administration is publicly making an example out of arguably the most famous Jewish public intellectual in the country today."

At this point, if you do not see what is going on here, you are dumber than a Nazi

There used to be a question on OKCupid back when I used the app: “What’s more important, the right to vote or the right to bear arms?”

This from M. Gessen’s latest has me downright shook. Do I want to do the query and teach whatever LLM that I exist?

Happy September 21st to those that celebrate!!! 😃 💃🏾🕺🏾

Meta exposé author faces bankruptcy after ban on criticising company

Hang on, why didn’t anyone tell me The History of Sound is… an ethnomusicology movie? I knew music figured prominently from the title and trailer, but such field specific media needs more warning/advertising

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Suzanne Ciani doing an improvised set on a Buchla 200e and it was magical. A real highlight of 2025

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

On a good day: Lionel Ritchie.

Today, we release guiding principles and concrete practices on how to meaningfully combat antisemitism, without enabling the Trump administration or sacrificing immigrants, trans people, or the rights to free speech and protest. www.concernedjewishfaculty.org/copy-of-agai...

Go to protests Sign up to be on mailing lists Practice good operational security Don’t volunteer information you don’t need to, like where you plan to be Know your phone gives away information even when locked Don’t use face unlock or print to unlock your phone

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

I think we can come back at some point with more rights IN THEORY, but I could write such a realistic dystopian novel about it not mattering much if an LLM is making the relational choices for you.

“For the large majority [of the Harper’s Letter signatories,] Trump’s reign of terror has apparently been less objectionable than the irritating undergraduate and entry-level scolds of the 2010s.”

The weirdness around how colleagues treat you when you observe the high holy days isn’t anti-semitism, exactly, but it is indicative of just how much freedom of religious expression isn’t real. Imagine people being surprised when someone says, “no, I can’t do that because it’s Easter/Christmas”