How instantly did they pivot from... "this AI chat-bot is sentient, it learns and reasons, we must grant it inalienable human rights" ...to... "no of course it can't be held 'legally liable' for crimes... that's unpossible, you silly-billy! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Know an undergraduate looking for an opportunity to get paid to do cryospheric or other geoscience research this summer? Let them know about the GT EAS Broadening Participation REU here in Atlanta. Now accepting applications through ETAP! easreu.eas.gatech.edu

I’m very thankful to Stephanie Maltarich at @cires.colorado.edu for this writeup about efforts to reform how scientific fieldwork operates. To make it less hostile & exclusionary, and *actually* safer. From our research talks @ AGU about this subject. The work is ongoing. #disability 🧪

@fieldinclusive.bsky.social is offering a $500 personal grant to support accessibility and inclusivity in fieldwork. Can be used for supplies, transportation, housing, technician salary, etc. Applications due February 1, 2026: www.fieldinclusive.org/research-gra...

A whole syllabus of reading materials in this thread if you like books / essays and ever “wanted to learn more about disability rights and politics.” I’ve read only a fraction of them and hope to pick off a few more this year. This is a wonderful thread. #disability ♿️

Friends, if you or someone you know has published awesome work in disability studies (defined *broadly*), please let me know! I'm updating my "Disability: A Democratic Dilemma" course and would love to include some newer work (both academic and otherwise).

With another influx of users, a nudge to remind people to use alt text

It’s astounding to me how quickly these nitwits pivoted on a tile from “AGI will outperform all human intellect within a few years” …to… “…but if you think about it, software doesn’t actually have to work, does it?”

No shade at all to @scifri.bsky.social, but I truly wish I could “embrace winter” right now. Denver, CO (the “Mile High City”) clocked 70 °F (21C) today, the warmest Christmas since records began. Some trees and bushes are starting to bud, they’re so confused. It freaks me out.

"Even after accounting for the upfront costs and delayed benefits, enrolling marginal applicants to public universities generates substantial net returns for society, the marginal students themselves, and the government budget." Public Universities FTW!

Anyone else get a steady trickle of new follows from hashtag-Resist accounts that do nothing but post anti-Trump “resistance” memes, instantly hit 10k+ followers, but don’t actually do jack squat to organize anything? I block them on sight. Feels like a whole lotta bad-actor fake accounts.

😚 abc7.com/post/man-acc...

14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

I checked out at an unmanned airport kiosk where I grabbed a sandwich & drink from the cooler, scanned them myself, and paid w a CC, at which point it prompted me for a “20% tip.”

YOU DUMB FUCKS. THIS IS ME. I have a scooter. I can walk. I can't, however, walk through 80 miles of airport. I can walk onto an airplane or through hallways. I can't walk the .5 mile to the convention center. People, get smarter, it's embarrassing at this point.

More than 7000 people have already reached out to their representatives about saving NCAR. Join us:

Eternal curses and hexes upon whomever decided that between Google Slides, LibreOffice, and PowerPoint, in every case the fonts shall be rendered *completely differently.*

I'm editing a PowerPoint using MS Sharepoint Online (with CoPilot automatically enabled). I can't convey how horrific & painful this is. It literally added a giant "5 min timer" window (an "Add-in" feature!) to my cover slide that I can't select, disable, nor delete. Because it assumes I want this.

Welp. ICE agents have been confirmed today in our town in Colorado (Longmont). I was wondering when they'd come. (Took longer than expected, TBH.) I have a bag of small metal whistles, time to hand them out to neighbors with instructions. For Coloradans: 1-844-UNITE-41 ^ Put it on speed-dial. ⇩

Not surprising to anyone paying attention, but it's still shocking how much of these "market price shocks" are specifically engineered by CEOs in backroom deals. In late-stage capitalism: competition yields to market manipulation & reckless corruption. Break up 100% of these giant conglomerates.

It’s official: The historic flight of my friend Michi Benthaus, who will become the first wheelchair user to leave our planet’s atmosphere, will launch one week from today: on Dec 18th at 8:30am CT / 3:30pm CET. I’ll be watching live, come hell or high water

Everyone deserves a seat at the table. Especially those of us who literally roll up to it. #AccessibilityMatters

The lack of "Drafts" in Bluesky is annoying. I can build a thread on a science topic (w/ figures, etc). One accidental click away and *poof* it's gone, no way to get it back. This is basic digital stuff; lemme save my progress when I write something! So... I have to do it offline, then copy-paste.

“We’ll restructure the university to give everyone AI degrees b/c that’s what they want” is a ludicrous amount of faith to put in a young technology in an enormous bubble already cracking at the seams. This is, of course, another highly-paid “consultant” whose real job is to destroy higher ed.

A Colorado state Senator is launching a primary challenge from the left against Colorado's U.S. Senator Hickenlooper: coloradosun.com/2025/12/08/j...

I will literally give a reporter $1,000 bucks if they ask Elon Musk how it felt to be a DEI admit at UPENN

I really can't emphasize enough that if you care about local politics, all you gotta do is show up. Just a regular schmegular person showing up. Literally just show up consistently in person and within a remarkably short amount of time, you will have a shocking amount of influence.

"a new tax deduction" only benefits those who make enough (+pay enough in deductible expenses) above-and-beyond the "standard deduction" most people use. It'd be a slight help for rich people (not nearly enough to offset huge increases in premiums), but does jack-squat for anyone else. By design.

A close elderly family member is engrossed in conspiracy culture (anti-vax, etc). They fwd me emails, despite me requesting they stop. Latest one is a documentary about “chemtrails.” *sigh* Conversations don’t work. I wanna yell; that won’t help either. I’m kind of at a loss how best to respond.

A prediction: Despite suppression, the US Democratic party will make enormous gains in the 2026 midterms. Republicans will refuse to concede losses. They’ll pull a thousand illegal tricks to overturn seats. After that, either Republicans go jail, or we’ll have a LONG DARK ROAD of autocracy ahead.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal government has never lived up to its commitment to shoulder 40 percent of the cost. Now, advocates want the feds to pony up, @juliametraux.bsky.social writes. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: Tarantula Dolphin Black Bear Bald Eagle Moray Eel

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: Polar Bear Narwhal Beluga Leopard Seal Emperor Penguin

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: Coastal brown bear Coastal black wolves Giant sunflower star Olympic ermine Musk ox

I know zero real scientists who say this.

Nearly every panel I spoke on this year ended with the same question: "What gives you hope?" My friends, that question expired years ago. (If you need receipts, my book Saving Us is literally a 300-page answer.) The real question is: How are you PRACTICING hope? Because Greta is right ..

A local board election. After 3 mos’ organizing, we booted the fascist caucus out with resounding 80/20 blowout majorities. The last remaining a-hole on the board was so gobsmacked that he resigned on the spot and stormed out. So? We replaced him too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Local organizing ROCKS, y’all. 🤘

Here's a direct link to my chapter on ableism, incarceration, disability [liberation], abolition, the disability consciousness gap, etc fr years ago: bit.ly/abolitiondjc... caveats: This was a necessary intervention; not a willing offering; I wasnt able to fully express myself for myriad reasons.

I muted the word “Nuzzi” about half a year ago and it’s still paying dividends.

Local coffee shop has two receptacles. One says “Trash.” The other says “Garbage.” And it always momentarily confuses me.

They’ve committed no crimes. At what point does it become a concentration camp. I’m seeing very little daylight between the two.

I feel like a reason the White House thing angers so many people is that it visually rips away any notion that “things can go back to normal once Trump’s gone.” Which, hasn’t been true for a good bit now, but those not personally affected by all the overt fascism (yet) really wanted to believe it.

I want to deeply thank @mskellymhayes.bsky.social & Mariame Kaba for this book. I’ve read it slowly; ingesting a chapter, sink it in, enact it over a month, read the next. It’s helped me w local organizing (we vote our own lil fascist out next week!) and is prepping me to restart a larger campaign.

I was thinking about this after No Kings.

Deciding that someone is unable to perform a physical job due to a disability, without ever once including that person in the conversation or hearing their expertise on their own body, directly violates their civil rights. Science does this regularly, has for generations, and it’s never been okay.

In one fell swoop, the resistance has completely reclaimed the frog 🐸 from the 4chan dipshits. A win for everyone. #amphibians #resist

Just got this in my Inbox from a counseling service provider. I. Think. The. Fuck. Not. Nuh-uh. No.

Any cause you could care about is a Palestinian cause. If you care about human rights, women's rights, Indigenous rights, environment, climate change. And here I want to stress a very urgent conversation that must center Gaza: DISABILITY JUSTICE.

Somewhere in America, a young Hispanic girl is hiding in an attic writing a diary.