Spectacular reporting by @wired.com

This is because a statistical model of word frequency is not a useful tool for modeling the complex interactions of the human body

"First Monday will cease publication, after 30 years, with the May 2026 issue, volume 31, number 6, scheduled for release around the first Monday of May, 4 May 2026." What a loss. Just a groundbreaking platform for weird research about the internet, from back when no one took the internet seriously

The CFP for #AusSTS2026 is now live! This year’s theme is ‘Antipodean Interruptions’. We invite submissions for presentations, written workshop papers, meet-ups, and Making and Doing sessions. Deadline is Friday 3 April (11:59pm NZST). Full details on our ✨NEW WEBSITE✨ aussts.org/aussts2026

There's a kind of intellectual malaise among a certain kind of socialist that just doesn't understand automation and I think probably comes from not having worked much on or around it. The prospect of AI as a fantasy capacity to automate labour and free us from drudgery I think corresponds to...

Spanish is clearly now the world’s coolest language. So why do we push British children to learn French? | Gary Nunn

It was inevitable.

Wondering where the sunshine has gone? Spare a thought for northeast Scotland; Aberdeen Dyce hasn't recorded any sunshine since 21 January! This is provisionally the longest sunless period here since records began in 1957 ☁️

Spain’s PM: “The days of hiding behind servers are over.”

📻 IIPP Head of Research, Dr @ceciliarikap.bsky.social, joined the BBC World Service to discuss her forthcoming book 'The Rulers: Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud', which addresses key issues of corporate power, value extraction, and digital sovereignty. 🔗 Listen here: buff.ly/FTSntcL

El matemático Pascual Diago generó con ChatGPT un texto delirante sobre unos supuestos experimentos para quitar la ansiedad con matemáticas a 60 embarazadas. El trabajo fue publicado. Su intención está a medio camino entre la broma y la denuncia de las revistas depredadoras

Top AI conferences now use author rankings to manage high submission volumes. Research shows authors accurately predict long-term impact. ICML 2026 will adopt this to identify quality work and ease peer review burdens. #AcademicSky

Noooo you wouldn't! quitgpt.org

"Querido lector, lectora: exprime la vida, sé feliz, valora lo que de verdad importa, huye de lo tóxico y practica la empatía… mucha empatía."

“The boundaries of what you are allowed to critique are rapidly shrinking.” Why I'm Leaving Big Tech https://disjunctionsmag.com/articles/why-leaving-big-tech/

#Novedad Ensayo sobre las violencias en México. Sólo el duelo público y la elaboración ritual de las muertes -defiende la autora- generan la posibilidad de imaginar colectivamente un futuro más allá de la repetición de la violencia. @PerifericaEdito  https://acortar.link/h9LFkJ

"The Last Baby Will Be Born in 2012 and, Worse, He'll Look Like This." A 1913 news article suggested that a decline in birth rates and social changes, such as women entering the workforce and fewer people marrying, would lead to a "neuter type" of human and eventually, the end of the human race.

This pretty much nails what underlies all the hype about sentient AIs.

"The tacit assumption is that fossil energy systems will manage their own declines: The invisible hand of the market will simply turn those dials slowly to zero. But fossil decline isn't linear - without careful planning for decline, these systems will break, with potentially catastrophic results"

Here's a gift link! www.science.org/eprint/NRCEW...

Gracias al equipo de @rtvenoticias.rtve.es por invitarme a hablar hoy sobre la sostenibilidad de los centros de datos y de la inteligencia artificial. En especial a Lorenzo Milà por dirigir tan bien el debate. Un placer haber participado en esta conversación de la televisión pública española.

we're hiring in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social! deadline coming up soon (February 8). focus is the social science-y corners of STS preferably w/ some interest in sustainability & environment - but interpreted broadly. vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

NEW Nerve investigation reveals extent of Palantir's enmeshment in UK state operations Peter Thiel's surveillance company has deals with government bodies amounting to at least £670m – inc. £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency By @carolecadwalla.bsky.social Charlie Young & Max Colbert 🔗⏬

Apple & Google removed ICE tracking apps in their app stores. TikTok reportedly suppressed videos criticizing ICE & the shooting of Alex Pretti. Meta blocked Facebook groups tracking ICE & links to a database of agents that the government wants to keep secret. Big Tech is enabling Trump's regime.

"The year of technoligarchy" by @molly.wiki is worth your time to understand the situation we got ourselves into. www.citationneeded.news/the-year-of-...

"utilities cut deals for data centers which increase everyone else’s bills...In addition to this are environmental costs of data centers and the huge health impact costs that come as a result of gas plant pollution." blog.ucs.org/maria-chavez...

I didn’t realise things were this bad - 30% cuts are disastrous. This will kill all prospects of the UK being a science superpower since astro is a gateway to science for many. @teamlabouruk.bsky.social @rushanaraalibgs.bsky.social this needs fixing urgently.

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Cuando estudiamos #datacenters solemos mirar los impactos en el territorio pero que pasa con las compensaciones ambientales? Con @anavaldi.bsky.social hicimos este articulo que compara proyectos compensatorios en Queretaro (MX) y Quilicura (CL) journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

El fabricante de máquinas para semiconductores ASML anuncia un recorte de 1.700 empleos pese a un año récord de ingresos y beneficios. efe.com/economia/202...

Stop what you’re doing and read this piece, which is as powerful as you’d expect from @adamserwer.bsky.social witnessing the events of last week on the ground in Minnesota. “The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone.”

‼️New article out "Thirsty Forests and Expansive Droughts: The Environmental Impacts of Data Centers in Latin America" where we investigate the feral effects of cloud industry's compensatory projects to mitigate environmental impacts. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

So a range of UK archives that resist placing their public collections in the public domain are nevertheless making them available for commercial AI exploitation?

Read this beautiful commentary from Stacey Patton. substack.com/@drstaceypat...

Este es un día emocionante. Desde @porcausa.org‬⁩ hemos acompañado con respeto y admiración lo que solo puede ser considerada una victoria de la comunidad migrante. Por fin, #RegularizaciónYA. elpais.com/espana/2026-...

The latest evidence that broadcasting people’s movements and intimate data in the Real-Time Bidding online advertising system is truly dangerous. www.wired.com/story/ice-as...

Even when there’s no accountability, the record matters. Credit to the Wikipedia editors maintaining this page.

Calling all the PhDs I know to make monumental annoyances of themselves (and honestly, who better)

In this paper I show that the prevalent forms of knowledge production and use are inadequate to guarantee the perpetuation of a safe ecological space and argue in favor of planning episteme against green finance 1/ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @tandfresearch.bsky.social @dehes.bsky.social

"The Government has acknowledged that it made the wrong decision in allowing the data centre to go ahead without binding commitments from the developer on how they would reduce its environmental impact and agreed" www.foxglove.org.uk/2026/01/22/u...

LLMs also far superior to traditional search for "how do I do X in this language"

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

I guess there are still some people who are OK with this and whose "legitimate concerns" we (the "out-of-touch elite") should use as a trigger for self-flagellation. Actually, no. They are monsters. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Congratulations to @quinnslobodian.com and our colleagues at Zone Books, distributed by Princeton University Press! Zone’s recently published Hayek’s Bastards has been named a finalist for the 2025 @bookcritics.bsky.social Award for Criticism. Read more: press.princeton.edu/news/nbcc2025

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

What's the best map of global AI supply chains you've seen? Looking for visuals for a lecture on tech colonialism

Not sure this is what you are looking for: Schwarzman College for Computing at MIT also Cambridge, which proposes “to bring the power of computing and AI to all fields of study” is backed by Schwarzman’s Blackstone, one of the largest investors in AI infrastructure www.perenews.com/schwarzman-b...

ask @anavaldi.bsky.social

Another map comes from Ana Valdivia’s article, "The supply chain capitalism of AI: a call to (re)think algorithmic harms and resistance through environmental lens” at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....