Dr B Mikus

Whether or not these new tools / enhancements *succeed* at doing what they say they do (from the looks of it, they do not), that they’re being launched with educational surveillance in mind is bad enough and a reminder that AI tools exist to create a permission structure for authoritarianism

Hey so Grammarly is now basically Search Party / Ring cameras for education, enabling large-scale surveillance of both users (students) and educators alike

Grammarly Revisited - Carleton College A close look at Grammarly's new AI tools

This (about the 'new' Grammarly AI toolset) is absolutely terrifying, not because the tool is good, but because it is an easy, all-in-one, way to avoid thinking any thoughts or doing any work at all *and 3000 universities say its OK to use*.
www.carleton.edu/ai/blog/gram...

The (im)possibilities of being a female scientist in Enlightenment Europe: how women navigated gender roles in eighteenth-century science by Pia van de Schaft As a consequence of the increased appreciation of empirical research, a new scientific culture emerged. Intellectuals collaborated in national scientific academies while amateu…

Soms heb je studenten waar je heel blij van wordt. Pia is er zo eentje: ze schreef (in haar 2e studiejaar!) een mooi stuk over de rol van vrouwen in de 18de-eeuwse wetenschap 👇

"Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any Black man, any poor person-ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it."-James Baldwin, No Name in the Street

How to Fake It in Society by KJ Charles | Waterstones Buy How to Fake It in Society by KJ Charles from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

Heads up, Waterstones is doing 25% off preorders of HOW TO FAKE IT IN SOCIETY. Enter the code FEB26 to get the deal. This lasts to the 20th so get in quick! #WPreorder

*nods over spring rolls and chow mein

Not sure if I'm delighted or appalled. 😆😂

Great news for UK readers! Waterstones has selected THE DRAGON HAS SOME COMPLAINTS for their 25% off pre-order sale! Just use the code FEB26 at check-out to get the best price of the year on my dragon.

All three of Garrodigh's heads can't wait to meet you.

Observe how the UK and US treat neurodivergent people and queer and trans people and you can start to piece together a "history sure does rhyme" type of eugenics that should be alarming to everyone.

Roses are red
But enough talk of flowers

If you know...😂

Disclose.tv @disclosetv NOW - EU Parliament votes to accept a report, that calls for "the full recognition of trans women as women" as part of the EU priorities for the UN CSW on "women's rights and gender equality." • • I| 0:14 12:31 pm • 12 Feb 2026 • 174K Views

The EU has just voted, by a VERY wide margin, for the full recognition of trans women as women…!

If you haven't yet responded to the UK government's current shocking and disgraceful proposals regarding changes to settlement (not citizenship) pathways and status, please do: you have until just before midnight to complete it. Helpful guide to Qs by Amnesty:

media.amnesty.org.uk/documents/Am...

What to know about how the SAVE America Act could change voting Ahead of the midterm elections, Republicans are again pushing for legislation that requires documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote.

The SAVE America Act would block millions of married women from voting, reject military and Tribal IDs, and tell Americans their driver’s license isn’t enough. This is voter suppression by design. Republicans can’t win fairly, so they’re rigging democracy.

www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude

The Hugos nominations are now open, so I'm going to do a big ol' thread of short fiction. Starting off with my monthly short speculative fiction column where I spotlight 10 stories I loved. These posts will get you started in finding noms. 1/ reactormag.com/tag/short-fi...

#HugoAwards #HugoAward

No-one seems to have noticed, but many of the core developments in the Mandelson/Epstein story these last few days have been broken on this website. @pickardje.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social are both posting each breaking development on BlueSky, not X.

Ether/aether theory. Not sure how much that translated into (a) technology though.

300,000 children face 10-year wait for settled status under UK plans, says IPPR Thinktank analysis says proposed ‘earned settlement’ changes could trap families in prolonged insecurity

New analysis @ippr.org that 300,000 children currently in Britain will be adversely affected by government’s settlement reforms. The government consultation closes on Thursday. Dozens of MPs are concerned that impacts to their constituents & families feel unfair
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

A dark grey cat crouches on a table corner and stares directly into the camera. She looks friendly and intense.

#Caturday stare for treats

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A dark grey cat with yellow eyes, looking unimpressed.

My cat doesn't like the noise of me coughing or sneezing. Since I currently have bronchitis, I'm doing both a lot. Cat now jogs out of the room with loud "meh-eh-eh!" noises in complaint whenever I start up.

Stoppicize, surely...

Meet the mastermind behind Trump’s definition of "woman" May Mailman’s anti-trans crusade could threaten gender equality for all.

“The administration is telling us what their long game is, which is to treat women’s bodies as commodities and to create laws to exert control over these commodities."

After 6 months, all initial committee members listed have moved to different roles and their email addresses and telephone numbers have not been updated.

Create a dedicated page for the committee reports on the intranet. Make sure none of the links work.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

Take the time to do this folks. The proposed changes to ILR are shocking and cruel, which is made abundantly clear in the text of the public consultation linked below. Please lend your voice to try to mitigate the cruelty.