Michael Zimmer

Way back in the day I had my mom's memorized as I used it to make long-distance calls home from my dorm room. (also: my god I'm old)

I can't even count back how many years we've been warning about this.

I'm loving the new rainbow glow when using Siri, which reminds me of my favorite grad school paper on Apple's use of nature metaphors & rainbow logo as embodiment the Calfornian Ideology vs the cold beuracracy of east-coast IBM (Microsoft's Bliss wallpaper in Windows XP was their attempt to lean in)

NBC NEWS SUBSCRIBE BREAKING NEWS Dec. 4, 2025, 5:40 PM EST JUSTICE DEPARTMENT Grand jury declines to indict N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James, less than two weeks after the first case was dismissed Federal officials failed to secure the new indictment against James, whom Trump has targeted, after a judge said the previous one was secured by an unlawfully appointed prosecutor.

NBC News: DOJ fails to get a new indictment of Letitia James.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

Meta Weighs Cuts to Its Metaverse Unit

Reality Labs spent $70 billion+ over the past 4 years, per @mikeisaac.bsky.social, without developing, launching, & scaling any killer app for Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for a #metaverse. Now, Meta is pivoting from virtual reality to smartglasses with AI to augment our vision. (I expect to see… ads.)

Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars.

She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:

This is very convincing to me, a guy who got hit on the head and forgot how most fentanyl ingredients were coming from China.

Two screenshots. Top is homeland security post saying “Want affordable housing? Help report illegal aliens in your area.” The bottom is excerpt from a speech by Hitler in 1922 in which he says Adolf Hitler speech, 1922 8. WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE EXPULSION OF ALL JEWS WHO HAVE ENTERED GERMANY SINCE 1914, and of all those, too, who through trickery on the Stock Exchange or through other shady transactions have gained their wealth. 9. The housing scarcity must be relieved through energetic action; houses must be granted to those who deserve them. Eisner said in 1918 that we had no right to demand the return of our prisoners - he was only saying openly what all Jews were thinking. People who so think must feel how life tastes in a concentration camp! Extremes must be fought by extremes. Against the infection of materialism, against the lowich nockilone we must hold olof o Homina ideolAndif othere

DHS’s post suggesting “if you help kick people out of the country you’ll be able to afford housing” is OG Nazism.

Trump’s Immigration Forces Deploy “Less Lethal” Weapons in Dangerous Ways, Skirting Rules and Maiming Protesters Civil rights and weapons experts cite the consequences of federal agents’ use of crowd control weapons: religious leaders shot with pepper balls and noxious chemicals. A nurse nearly blinded by tear g...

Pastor Jorge Bautista was telling a Border Patrol agent "we come in peace" when the agent fired toxic powder at him, leaving him struggling to breathe.

“No one should be assaulted for being out there protesting,” he says.

With @frontlinepbs.bsky.social

Expressions of overt sadism being normalized and even celebrated is deeply troubling.

The WIRED Guide to Digital Opsec for Teens Practicing good “operations security” is essential to staying safe online. Here's a complete guide for teenagers (and anyone else) who wants to button up their digital lives.

ICYMI: This weekend, we published the @wired.com guide to digital opsec for teens (tho it applies to pretty much everyone!) We hope you and the kids in your life will read it and stay safe out there. No paywall! @lhn.bsky.social and JP Aumasson report: www.wired.com/story/digita...

Anyone who treats violence perpetrated by the state as a joke should be nowhere near decisions regarding the use of force.

Walz on Trump calling him the r-word: "We all know both as an educator & parent that using that term is just so damaging. It's hurtful. We have fought 3 decades to get this out of our schools. Kids know better. But this is what Donald Trump has done. He's normalized this type of hateful behavior."

An ongoing concern of mine is not that GenAI will replace teachers but the technology will - as described in the article - deskill teachers "under the banner of efficiency" while also providing those in power with means to deprofessionalize teachers too.

100% this thread.

I can’t believe people in the room don’t push back. It doesn’t matter if he’s the president, part of holding him accountable is standing up to his bullying— especially if he’s doing it right in front of your face

Racist

Straight-up sociopath.

Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.

Devestating. I was lucky to have a dissertation improvement grant from SBE back in 2006 which let me travel and engage with thought leaders and improve my work immensely.

Noem decided not to turn deportation flights around after judge’s order, DOJ says The flights, this past March, have become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation strategy, and his administration’s pattern of apparently defying court orders.

Kristi Noem is drunk on power. Indict.

the AEB mandate was voluntarily adopted by the entire US auto industry because it has an unambiguous and independently validated impact on safety... eliminating it is the stupidest automotive safety proposal I have heard in my entire life

Is Santa Real? Many users feel they're getting presents from him. Scientists say it's time to consider whether they're onto something.

I don't believe this for a minute.

Is this cheese grater conscious? Many users feel they're talking to a real person. Scientists say it's time to consider whether they're onto something.

"Nothing is riding on this except the First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of the press, and quite possibly, the future of the country." -- Ben Bradlee as portrayed by Jason Robards, "All the President's Men."

53 years later...

ICE Offers Up to $280 Million to Immigrant-Tracking ‘Bounty Hunter’ Firms Immigration and Customs Enforcement lifted a $180 million cap on a proposed immigrant-tracking program while guaranteeing multimillion-dollar payouts for private surveillance firms.

NEW: ICE has torn up its $180M cap on a proposed immigrant-tracking program and is now guaranteeing private surveillance firms at least $7.5M each, with potential payouts reaching $281M per vendor. The change signals a shift from “pilot” to full-scale outsourcing of street-level investigative work.

this is a twofer. they're going to demand auto execs explain why their cars are so expensive, without saying "tariffs" - so they'll blame things like child alerts, in order to continue risking some of the more horrific deaths that can be experienced

Is language the same as intelligence? The AI industry desperately needs it to be The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake.

As every socio-technical scholar has been shouting for years....
"Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it."
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Bossware rises as employers keep closer tabs on remote staff : A lot of companies are turning to employee monitoring tools to make sure workers aren't slacking off

Cool that @vitak.bsky.social's and my work on pandemic-fueled workplace surveillance was included in this Register article on the continued rise of bossware.
www.theregister.com/2025/11/23/b...

Meta had a 17-strike policy for sex trafficking, former safety leader claims Meta is in more hot water.

Meta had a 17-strike policy for sex trafficking, former safety leader claims