I still love the theory a Year 6 child proposed to me that David Attenborough is actually God and he got fed up with people not noticing the amazing things he'd created, so he made documentaries to show off.

Talked to NPR for this story about the Canvas hacks. Short version: it’d be nice if schools were as concerned about protecting student data when there isn’t a ransom note involved. www.npr.org/2026/05/09/n...

Ignoring community opposition, Box Elder County, Utah, has approved a 9 GW data center campus powered by onsite fossil gas. Utah as a whole currently uses 4 GWs. Also: the developers have rights to 13K acre-feet of water in this water-stressed region, most of which will be used by the gas plants.

These privileged, wealthy white men who own and manage the NYT don’t really give a shit about the disenfranchisement of Black Americans.

SMH Modus operandi for NYT: Politics is about "who is winning... who losing" and never about fundamental issues of policy and governing or who is ACTUALLY benefiting and who is ACTUALLY getting hurt. It's just so damn stark in this moment

Utterly unserious, in fact dangerous, way to cover the outright unraveling of democracy

The "unsolving of the problems of earlier generations" is a great turn of phrase.

St. John's University is using surveillance and intimidation tactics to stifle legally-protected union organizing on campus. "It's an attempted chilling effect. Which is backfiring but also unconscionable and illegal." — Sophie Bell, SJU AAUP President

Absolutely! Audrey Watters writing in 2014(!): "The learning management system reflects the technological desires of administrators — it’s right there in the phrase. ‘Management.' It does not reflect the needs of teachers and learners.”

This is another threat to annihilate an entire country via nuclear attack. He should have been impeached the first time he made the threat. (Among other things he should have been impeached for.)

What I wish for everybody to remember when Canvas comes back online: The reason OUR data can be held for ransom is because Instructure, their owners (KKR private equity & Dragoneer venture capital), & our own employers (see ASU Atomic) monetize it. It's Canvas that hacked education & stole our IP.

It's amazing how quickly White politicians in the South rushed to PROVE exactly why we needed the Voting Rights Act!

Checking in on the Northwestern Canvas site…and…ah yes the scheduled maintenance that just so happens to coincide with a massive hack nothing to see here what a relief!

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

Can’t wait until taking away Black representation solves nobody’s problems and in fact makes them all worse

There’s of course the lingering thought that for the people in charge, removing a once respected journalistic venue from the board is not a “mistake”

Scientists are increasingly worried that a key Atlantic current, which delivers warmth to northern Europe and shapes weather globally, is at risk of collapse. Multiple lines of evidence suggest it may be nearing a tipping point.

Oof. This chart. drawdown.org/insights/the...

in both cases their fanboys would be an even bigger problem than they were

Every Democrat since Carter has decreased the federal deficit. Every Republican since Eisenhower has increased the federal deficit. The borrow and spend policies of the Republican Party are bankrupting the USA.

Obama, the most college professor to ever politics, isn’t complaining about politicians. He’s creating more permission structure for politicians to ignore activist pressure.

Yes! As a former AFT member and union supporter, Im deeply frustrated by the way K12 unions have been bought by BIG TECH through "AI IN EDUCATION TRAINING" contract. Members, hold the leaders accountable

"Imagine a gamer turning up the difficulty setting on FIFA and thinking they'd made their Playstation better at soccer."

DAWKINS: You idiots believe in God? ALSO DAWKINS: The Computer is alive. And it’s also my girlfriend

What We Believe, It's not the cow, it's the how! We can create farming systems that serve planet, people while generating profit. Come visit Future Oak Farm for a biodiversity walk and see farming with nature in action. May 17 @ 12:00 pm, Donegal. Register now: www.eventbrite.ie/e/future-oak...

“Forcing”

I’m good with legislation that restricts devices in classrooms. But the “less cognitively capable” generation claim is empirically wrong, chronologically inconsistent with screen usage, based on racist pseudoscience, and counterproductive .

INBOX — Turns out @GovBillLee’s special session to steal representation from majority Black MEMPHIS for Trump this week means the YMCA Center for Civic Engagement’s long-planned Youth In Government Conference had to be canceled. How perfect is that? 😕

Hmmmm, who do I trust more to look out for women, Smith College or a Trump appointee currently being sued for covering up years of sexual abuse?

Nearly half of children in the US are breathing dangerous levels of air pollution. Experts warn that Trump’s rollback of protections will make the situation worse. The report also found that communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

That part

My preferred AI metaphor is actually Asbestos. - Seemingly magical properties - Developed and experimented with to make endless products - Poisoned countless communities in it's creation - Everything it was used for eventually becomes a toxic hazard to mitigate & it's in the fucking walls now

this isn't even gambling it's just theft

Catching up on the latest ed tech (🫠) kerfuffle re: LLMs and cognitive offloading and every one of the Substack posts at its center (each posted by different ~expert selling a different ~framework) were all clearly written by LLMs.

“With Camhs [child and adolescent mental health] services across England so overloaded, VR may prove a low-cost and effective way for schools to help students suffering from stress…”

Slightly diminish a book Lord of the rings: one tower

Slightly diminish a book: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Smartness

Kinda burying the lead here, NPR

Mission accomplished. 🤬

"... heavy AI use in manuscripts is not random, but tracks institutional incentives. Authors at schools where counting publications matters most are the ones leaning hardest on the machines." www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Anyone else noticed that Bernie’s acting AI-pilled ? WTF ? @emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social & I will get into it on MAITH3k on Monday 3 pm ET

Brad Lander joined higher ed workers at The New School this May Day to stand up against ongoing admin attempts to dismantle shared governance & eliminate over 20 academic programs. Stand Up! Fight Back! @bradlander.bsky.social @newschoolaaup.bsky.social #DefendHigherEd #MayDay2026

I find it incredibly telling when men like Dawkins are convinced that the LLMs are ‘intelligent’ because it ‘agrees’ with them or tells them how insightful or clever they are

Historian here exactly. The Dems need to learn from the no quarters given political tactics and campaigns of the Republicans in the 1850s and 1860s when they managed to upend half a century slaveholder dominance of the federal government.

if you are a Marxist academic do NOT have kids

Episode 51: Grit In 2013, education reformers decided to fix America's schools the old-fashioned way: By consulting the 16th most popular Ted Talk.  podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

NEW: In a move that may eliminate its one blue congressional seat and disenfranchise Black voters, Tennessee is now seeking to redistrict mid-cycle. While no special session has been called yet, Trump has been pressuring the state to redraw its map following SCOTUS' recent ruling.

I keep thinking about the ease with which they cancelled elections over the last 24 hours

Related - and recommended! - listening from the latest episode of This Machine Kills: