N Sims

Why don’t we declare a snow emergency tonight 12/9? Good question. Some thoughts below, but go to www.stpaul.gov/snow for more. 1) “Why don’t we plow?” We brought in extra crews today; they are staying longer; & night crews came in early. We’ve been plowing all day, & will plow all night. 🧵

Palantir quietly lands in Education Department through foreign funding portal The company is not publicly listed as part of the new portal project in federal spending records.

👀 Education Department spokesperson confirmed Palantir is a subcontractor to update the foreign funding portal, to monitor potential foreign influence in American schools...in a time when Federal funding is being revoked and watchwords are in place...👇
fedscoop.com/palantir-edu...

This technology that people in school administrations and higher education are demanding everyone get behind because it's "the future" and "we just have to accept it," which is, nfn, the language of abuse.

"Oil in my lamp" is not a phrase I've heard before, but it is very evocative.
What a blessing!

the law is real until it gets to SCOTUS at which point it becomes fake, which doesn't bother the six reactionaries at the top but does undermine literally everyone else in the profession

But doesn't he convince them he's offsite tech support or something to do so? That's social engineering.

😄

Right???????,

Maybe slap the person making you use the confidently wrong asshole tool?

ChatGPT user: I'm not picky. You're just confidently wrong. ChatGPT: Confidently wrong? Babe, that's my -brand-.

A user (not me) is forced to use ChatGPT at work, finds outputs unhelpful, the tool complains about the feedback, and then -this- happens.

Oh, thanks for the reminder that i need to figure out what I messed up with the site hosting most recently.
Also glad you like it!

#. Those thin synthetic facemasks you are already using are really great for keeping your face warm in extended periods outside. If the surface starts to freeze, don't worry about it, your masks will do great insulating your skin from that.

Also, as an educator, Somali-American kids are way overrepresented among the most engaged and engaging, thoughtful and driven students that I meet. They make me proud to be Minnesotan along with them!

As a Minnesotan, I enjoy and appreciate my Somali neighbors, and deeply value the skills, compassion, and work of my elected representatives from Somali backgrounds.

-Most- frequently by an academic tech employee who has to post course materials for a faculty member, when the faculty member is being edgy. (Our local policies say © is the instructor's call, but they need to make informed & reasonable decisions.)

Also, for clarity, i think of this as worker protection bc it's often asked by a low-level employee (here and at other schools) who wants to know their butt won't be on the line for a © decision they have qualms about but no power to change.

Tho I also pretty much always point out that if an institution -wants- to hang an employee out to dry, they will. And they'll sometimes do it to everyone involved in the action down the reporting chain.

Ah. In this context, it's about things like low-level employees, instructed by someone "above" them, to do something they -think- might be a copyright law violation. To my mind, it's a worker protection in that, if someone sues, it shouldn't be the low-level employee's butt on the line.

...in the much more common situations of exploitative/hierarchical working conditions that -don't- involve any atrocities is maybe further from mind.
(Hence my pointing out that illegality is in no way synonymous with immorality (& vice versa and verce visa and...)

Oh yeah, I think it was coming (relayed through friend) from someone who is, for very legitimate reasons, thinking a lot lately about the appeal of a "just following orders" defense around present atrocities.
And if you're focused on that end of things, the need for worker protections...

Don’t rely on government to save the British Library - Impact of Social Sciences Following a catastrophic hack British Library remains in crisis. Can it recover by refocusing on the people, skills and systems that enable it to function?

Absolutely cracking blog post from @simonxix.com calling for collective investment in staff and community-owned, open-source infrastructures in place of costly proprietary systems, based on the BL incident. blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Among my other thoughts here, I did say "I hope your German studies friend can see the distinction between illegality and immorality" (in all the directions it may run)
And also, I don't think copyright can ever rise to the level of immorality where worker protections aren't relevant.

Had an interesting conversation today where someone asked me to distinguish respondeat superior from the Nuremberg Defense.
I feel like it's pretty easy to draw a line on worker protections vs crimes against humanity, but i hadn't put the two together like that, and concede they are kinda connected.

I mean the funny story here is "all the kids of your friends are faking disabilities" (i am not saying this is true, i am saying this is why they are having a hard time figuring out what to be mad about)

So here’s the thing: I, a certified Disabled™️ Person, do not actually care if anyone fakes for an extra 20 minutes on the test. I care deeply about how the fear of that very thing puts up flaming hoops disabled people have to jump through.

Maybe listen to disabled folk on this one.

a fierce orange black and white butterfly looks like it has eyes on the top of its wings, sitting in the clover

It's day 3 of the invertebrate macro photo #ArtAdventCalendar.

Here, have a Japanese butterfly 😘

Yeah, "unitary exec - but for good" is how we -got to- the current idiocy with executive orders. It was bad when Obama and Biden used them, too.

At the same time, new conservative jurisprudence appears poised to enhance the power of the executive branch. A series of cases at the court suggest that the court’s conservative majority is prepared to give the executive branch more deference. Progressives have railed against this jurisprudence, but if the long-term effect of these rulings is to give the administrative state more discretion to act with greater alacrity, then progressives, once elected, should be able to use it to much the same effect.

Lesson 6: If you have a theory of the Supreme Court that does not include political ideology, its going to be wrong. During the Biden administration it was all major questions because they did not like his policies, and during Trump it is mostly unitary executive, because they do.

On the rare days I check FB, it often serves me up "Memories" that include chats with Sherwin. It's sad, but also not. What a delightful person he was.

The #25DaysofFishmas calendar with Florida Gar on December 3

It’s time to hang up the holiday GAR-land 🎄

Move over Florida Man, it’s Florida Gar’s time to shine!

On Day 3 of #25DaysofFishmas, we head down to the Sunshine State to find the Florida gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus), an ancient-looking fish whose appearance hasn’t changed much since the Mesozoic