UMD CS is hiring in systems and data science, broadly construed (security definitely counts). Come work with us! www.cs.umd.edu/job/2025/jr1...

This is the story of a CS major who first accessed the thing for homework help. 18 months later it cheered him on as he died by suicide. All anyone at the university seems to want to talk about is how to better integrate these things into our curriculum. What the actual fuck are we doing here?

With the #chi2026 reviews coming out, I am posting my regular reminder to folks who do qualitative research. I have been curating a document with common critiques of qual research and how to respond. Check it out and add your own examples! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

How can you not be romantic about baseball? [DEROGATORY] [COMPLIMENTARY]

Even the Phillies think that was terrible execution with runners in scoring position

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is hiring an Assistant/Associate Professor in Black Feminisms. Read more about the position and apply at https://go.umd.edu/WGSSBlackFeminisms🌈🎓 #AcademicSky #Blackademics #PhDSky

Kiddo has been getting it for several years now and same. Honestly better coverage on some topics than certain prestige newspapers I could mention ...

Donated in memory of my immigrant grandmothers and their foundational belief that food == love

Generate data using an LLM. Feed that data back into (the same) LLM for "analysis." Science! (This post brought to you by attempting not to rage-quit the paper review I am working on.)

If you are asking me to do stuff and you immediately qualify it with "Claude can probably do most of this for you" I guess I know how seriously to take your requests.

34 people killed in 50 days. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death. adamisacson.com/boat-strikes/

This is who is paying for the destruction of the White House East Wing, per @wsj.com Altria Group Inc. Amazon Apple Inc. Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. Caterpillar Inc. Coinbase Global Comcast Corp. Hard Rock International Google HP Inc. Lockheed Martin Corp. Meta Platforms Inc. 1/3

existing in all other parts of life: we need to be thoughtful about how we integrate technology into human affairs watching an umpire in the postseason: BRING FORTH THE ROBOT GODS

RFK is undoing human subjects protections so he can conduct placebo trials of vaccines. That means infecting people knowingly. I wonder who will “volunteer” for these trials? If history is any guide, a lot of incarcerated and other powerless people.

Solidarity!! Last week, Indiana University fired the director of student media & halted print on the Indiana Daily Student newspaper. Yesterday, Purdue’s student paper printed the banned edition & drove two hours to deliver it. Incredible www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/l...

mood.

New federal data has revealed a 19% year-on-year decline in international students entering the US in August 2025, including a 45% drop from India, America’s largest sending country. thepienews.com/internationa...

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more. Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.

John Lewis had John Roberts' number from the jump: takebackthecourt.substack.com/p/john-lewis...

Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.

Calling junior faculty, postdocs, and PhD students on the job market (from the security research community) for the 2025 SaTC Aspiring PI workshop. Workshop Dec. 15-16, applications due Oct. 17, travel will be reimbursed for participants.

I’m so struck by this video. A regular day in Logan Square in front of a grocery store and ICE pulls up and tear gassed people. Funston Elementary School is right across the street as well. This is a major corridor in Logan Sq. No concern for human safety Video from: www.reddit.com/r/chicago/co...

Anyway, again, it would take like 20 or 30 Republicans in Congress who decide they don't actually hate the country to stop a whole lot of this

this is tikkun olam as I understand it

I spend all semester in my research methods class trying to teach the grad students that there are no "right" answers, that all data is inherently subjective, that what we choose to measure and how we choose to measure it are just as (if not more) important than what the measurements say.

Phils have won 94+ in consecutive seasons for the 3rd time in their history

The people “enforcing” immigration law under this administration understand what their real job is but we’re all supposed to pretend it’s something else

One of the things I hate the most about the current era is the responsibilization of every last thing: digital privacy, vaccinations, food safety, avoiding forced pregnancy, not getting kidnapped off the street. Basic "functional state" shit whose eradication is a long-held RW dream now coming true.

it's Blocked Field Goal week

During Gamergate a YouTuber said I was part of a secret Bill Gates plot to promote Common Core because my dad was "One of the most important men in education research in the United States." My dad printed out a frame from the video laying this out in bold impact font and framed it for his desk.

I don’t think any country in the history of the world has ever done anything as stupidly self destructive as what Trump and RFK jr are doing with vaccines.

TFW when you are listening to @ifbookspod.bsky.social and there's a great segment on replication problems and cherry-picking data ("I'm going to add this to the resource list for my methods class!") immediately followed by a joke about anal sex ("Or maybe not").

The U.S.’s largest estuary is showing signs of revival. Once written off as a dead zone, water clarity in Chesapeake Bay has improved, underwater grasses are expanding, and crab populations are steadier thanks to decades of pollution controls. Nature buff.ly/morNFth #ShareGoodNewsToo

Pritzker: "It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try to disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades. Let's be clear -- the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anybody living here."

Florida also had many more children die from COVID than California. Premature, preventable, death is also a negative educational outcome, it just isn't reflected in test scores.

If you are interested in what is happening in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant these days ‪@maustermuhle.bsky.social‬ ‬ at @51st.news has written the best article I've seen.

Here’s the link to comment on the rule. Please do comment. They can make a difference in litigation. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.

SCHWARBOMB #4 "And everybody looking for history from Kyle Schwarber, the 1-2 on the way... SWUNG ON, HIT DEEP RIGHT FIELD! AND THERE'S HISTORY FOR SCHWARBER!" #RingTheBell

Here's what the third day of elementary school looked like in Mount Pleasant, Washington DC.

Feels like a good day to call attention to a very good (also, scary) paper from SOUPS the other week: www.usenix.org/conference/s...

Eagles beat the Chiefs so bad they had that man thinking about settling down and starting a family.

How fortunate we are that the United States is so bereft of serious crimes that we can afford to have FBI agents standing around the Metro all day watching for turnstile-jumpers.

I'm presenting my USENIX paper "How Researchers De-Identify Data in Practice" at 9am this Thursday. Kudos to my co-authors Paige Pepitone, @adamaviv.bsky.social, and @mmazurek.bsky.social. Come say hi—I am on the academic job market! Here's the paper: www.usenix.org/conference/u... #usesec25

Dozens of companies are hiding how you can delete your personal data, The Markup and CalMatters found. www.wired.com/story/data-b...

As L.A. was a couple of months ago, D.C. is merely an excuse for Trump to continue normalizing the use of federal law enforcement and the U.S. military to police Democratic cities. The implications for local self-government, civil liberties, and the 2026 and 2028 elections are obvious and ominous.