Hochul signed *TWO* AI safety bills. The RAISE Act requires AI incident reporting and risk assessment. AB295D requires agencies to disclose use of automated decision-making tools and conduct impact assessments for safety, effectiveness, privacy, security and bias. www.axios.com/2025/12/19/n...

the slow death of legitimate, verifiable, reliable knowledge systems

Happy birthday to Jane Austen, and to this very on-brand Economist chart www.economist.com/christmas-sp...

The original definition of academic freedom came from the American Association of University Professors--the union for professors--in response to suppression against professors for being "too left" & it focused a LOT on universities not being beholden to corporate funders or wealthy benefactors...🧵

This is your annual reminder that if you are in the US and have FSA funds that you won't use, Menstrual products are covered by FSA funds and can be donated to food pantries and shelters.

I hope people understand that if Trump gets his way America will soon be part of the global axis of evil if we aren't already. You see it in the Caribbean, you see it in Ukraine, and you see it with Trump trying to buddy up to Xi. We are a malevolent force.

This is a fun holiday read. Who made Rudolph happen? A Jewish copy writer; his Jewish composer brother-in-law; the BIL’s neighbor who happened to be Arthur Rankin; and a Japanese animator who had pioneered new stop motion techniques. Now that’s an American Christmas

Bought a new treadmill and my in-home equipment inspectors are very dedicated to their job. #caturday

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

We saw it with big tobacco, we saw it with the fossil fuels industry. When their own internal research showed the harm from their product, the defunded the research and attacked independent researchers coming to the very same conclusions. #ScienceUnderSiege

Faculty senates are under attack from new legislation that sidelines faculty voices and undermines academic freedom. The latest AAUP report defends independent, representative governance as essential to higher ed’s integrity. @aaup.org academeblog.org/2025/11/18/i...

NEW: ALA is sounding the alarm after the Administration announced new steps to dismantle the Department of Education. School & academic libraries across the country rely on Dept. of Ed. funding and knowledge to best serve their students and faculty. More: www.ala.org/news/2025/11... #ForOurLibraries

I don’t know what you did to deserve this, America, but Tommy Tuberville might be about to sue you.

Another thing that's happened overnight is we've become fully aware of the number of fossil fuel lobbyists at these talks. More than 1600 - 1 in every 25 participants, the highest concentration on record. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Today is #RLSDay which marks the birthday of the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson who would have been 175 today. It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵

Democrats have spent 38 days trying to lower health care costs and reopen the government. Trump and Republicans completely control this process, and instead of looking for solutions they’ve defunded SNAP, interrupted commercial travel, and pursued political vendettas.

Chef’s kiss* article. My involuntary response to just hearing “The New York Times” is to eyeroll and keep scrolling. This article clarifies the pointed little ways the Times undermines its own integrity.

1/ Saw this, wanted to amplify this. If you go to protests, or demonstrations, or are going to help those under threat from 🧊, or track & record 🧊, BRING A PEN & A NOTEPAD. If something goes wrong, if you witness something awful, you should take photos and capture video. But you must TAKE NOTES.

Today, Mike Johnson will keep the House adjourned for the 95th day out of the last 107. 12 days of work in 107 days. With full pay and benefits. The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown. It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.

What's the difference between a President threatening to withhold money based on how people vote vs promising to give money in exchange for votes? In other words: how is this not illegal? Trump backs Cuomo, threatens to cut funds for New York City if Mamdani wins. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Trump did on 60 Minutes what he does every time. He spews a blizzard of lies, exaggerations and assorted other falsehoods, and if (as usual) the reporter isn’t equipped or doesn’t bother to push back, he keeps going. Here is a detailed list, via @mehdirhasan.bsky.social zeteo.com/p/factchecki...

Gendered talk and expectations have infused the race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

This person is one hundred percent correct and it’s scary af. We will never “media literacy” our way out of this as a society. We are about to reap the whirlwind when it comes to misinformation, disinformation, and informational warfare.

For years, some big polluters were allowed to estimate their own emissions. Now, the intrepid @lisalsong.bsky.social has found emissions at facilities were far higher than their estimates. Terrifying reporting w/ incredible pics from @annie-flanagan.bsky.social that make me feel like I'm choking:

Where are the Democratic Party and its donors? This is a fantastic opportunity to put that fundraising apparatus and those billionaire donor networks to good use. "This food package courtesy of the Democratic Party." stickers on every single box. No means testing, just show up if you need one.

Y’all, Spotify’s stock price sunk by 5% in 1 day. YOU did this by spreading the word to boycott them for running ICE ads. These billionaires only speak one language—money—so let’s keep up the pressure. Tell everyone you know to cancel their Spotify subscriptions. Send them to BoycottSpotify.com.

The federal govt. shutdown means visitors drive right past unstaffed entrance booths without paying the $35/vehicle fee. Acadia/other national parks are losing millions of dollars at a time when Trump admin cuts have taken a heavy toll on these “crown jewels.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/24/n...

Trump Administration Proposes Staff Cuts In Offices That Manage Grazing and Wildlife Read more from the Food Policy Tracker ➡️ buff.ly/mjiE8Cp

PBS News Hour made history in 2013, when Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff became the first female co-anchor team on an American network nightly news broadcast, says Deema Zein.

Nick Langworthy served as Chair of the New York Republican Party from 2019 to 2023. During that time, he promoted and celebrated the New York Young Republicans. The same organization is now tied to the leaked group chats filled with racist, antisemitic, and homophobic messages.

Well. That’s great.

I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.

"The people we most love do become a physical part of us, ingrained in our synapses, in the pathways where memories are created." Beautiful and healing read for anyone who has lost a loved one www.themarginalian.org/2014/06/09/m...

The entire business model of R1 public universities rests on 4 revenue sources: 1. Federal grants 2. Private gifts/endowments 3. Tuition (esp. from foreign students) 4. State $ For decades, 📈 in 1-3 offset a secular 📉 in 4. Now, 1 & 3 are being decimated & 4 ain't coming back. The math is clear.

Happy to explain what people get out of peaceful protests like No Kings day and what we should expect from today's day-of-action to @reuters.com: www.reuters.com/world/us/no-...

“There’s so many dominoes that will fall if scientific research does not continue to be funded,” said Rayna Birnbaum, a biomedical researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and one of the organizers for the "Stand Up for Science" rally in New York City. (Published March)

World’s landscapes may soon be ‘devoid of wild animals’, says nature photographer

Thank you to @dailyyonder.bsky.social's Sarah Melotte for citing @alexip718.com's reporting! Access our full dataset: www.thexylom.com/post/h-1b-vi...

This is good reporting on the disaster in Alaska if you're looking for a reliable summary. This is a bigger disaster than I think most are realizing. 1500 people have been displaced by the flooding with an exceptionally complicated response and recovery. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5kz...

But having politicians who don't understand the internet ecosystem is bad actually. It makes us less safe. It makes us beholden to the tech weirdos whispering in their ears who are happy to destroy our lives and our society for profit.

🦒Biologists are often drawn to charismatic species but they do not always have the opportunity to study them. This study reveals some fierce competition in certain academic fields, and illustrates unequal social distribution of research opportunities➡️https://buff.ly/kjYUIBg

What a work schedule. The Republican speaker of the House grinds hard

New from 404 Media: the Discord hack is every users' worst nightmare. Yesterday the hackers started posting Discord users' selfies, identity documents, email addresses, phone numbers, more. I watched in real time. This is risk of tech storing ID for age verification www.404media.co/the-discord-...

👇🎯 This is how governing works in literally every actual democracy around the world. If you don’t have the votes, it’s up to you to make concessions to the minority parties. It’s not their job to save you from your responsibility to govern by giving you things you don’t have the votes for already.

Currently at: — only buy tech too old to have AI built in — painstakingly disable AI every time they add it to something that used to work perfectly well — if it can't be switched off, abandon the platform or tool — if there are no good alternatives, avoid the AI parts — patiently wait for the crash