@jayvarner.bsky.social
Author of NOTHING LEFT TO BURN (Algonquin), first-year writing and rhetoric lecturer at James Madison University, recovering Central Pennsylvanian, studying how to write about climate change. Avid home gardener at the end of the world. Susquehanna U, UNCW.
Saw that temp plunge and thought, uh oh.
Oh man!!! I need to try to see this. Amazing!
Oh man… this brings back memories! Loved Dr D!
War is a climate story that billionaire media owners would prefer goes unreported
So far, billionaire media owners are getting their way...
**CONFIRMED: the temperature fall from 87° yesterday to 33° today in 21 hours is a record temeprature fall for Charlottesville (54 degrees) since records began at CHO in 1961. Big props to Peter Forister (GOAT) for the information!
I learned so many songs on this xylophone.
Another tough day for team “there’s no point in complaining about AI, just accept it.”
AI has definitely made every single aspect of my life worse. Including living it.
Seed start day. Garden 2026.
The speed of the misery shift is really amazing. From -40 windchills to murderous allergies, this year has truly had it all so far!
There were 250 people in the audience, at the biggest available room for our #awp26 panel, Resisting AI in Writing and Teaching.
It was invigorating; hearing about how writing instructors are pushing back against their institutions was inspiring. Thanks to my co-panelists Carmen and Umair.
50 gates of understanding and 49 are closed.
not enough folks talking about this kinda thing!
Have had numerous conversations with various walks of life at my rural gas station in line. Everyone is staggered by the skyrocketing price. Some know about data centers (VA has more than any state), but many also have no clue. (and there’s where I give a bit of a primer…)
I paid $18,000 for a new high-efficiency heating system last year. I had one at my old house and expected to see a similar savings.
My bill went UP. Why? Not because of my usage; bc of the distribution and other charges tacked on by my utility company in PA. I’m subsidizing AI data centers. 😡
Parallel to this, I think, is a common misunderstanding of the problem of cheating in education connected to AI. I don’t think it’s in essence a problem of certification, since cheating, & corruption in the form of grade inflation (or, perhaps, “grades” themselves) is already widespread.
The richest man owns X.
The second and third richest men control Google.
The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.
And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.
See the problem here?
Netflix won't counter Ellison's offer.
Ladies and gentleman, the full right wing power grab is here and will now be beamed into every home on CBS, CNN, HBO, movies from Warner and Paramount.
about.netflix.com/en/news/netf...
“'It’s essential for us to have both popular books and rare books, because we cater to both customers, because we live in an academic town and the Rare Book School is here. There are professional book collectors and sellers and librarians here,' Fleisher said."
news.virginia.edu/content/stud...
Yes!!! Heard them tonight here for first time this year!
Peepers!!!
Yo-yo weather. Sinus weather.
I await the day when their ultimate vision is laid bare: billionaires sitting around in a ruined world, Agentic AIs doing everything for them, while the rest of humanity is detained and turned into batteries to run the Agentic AIs, Matrix-style.
As someone who was, I think, an effective note-taker in college, this discourse about LLM note-takers is alarming. For me, the act of *taking* notes is the important part. If I had thrown the notes away immediately after a lecture or reading a chapter I'd still have gotten 80% of the value.
Everything is fine.
We need new radical organizations dedicated to helping people detach from and avoid AI. Tech-heads telling you online “it’s easy just Linux to migrate your Ghost,” or whatever, doesn’t cut it. We need anti-big tech volunteers in every town. This would be critical work in the fight against fascism.
I hoped higher ed would form a roughly unified front against generative AI, a tool of automation, theft, surveillance, & control. Nope. I believed faculty & staff might. Nope. Ok, then, the fight against this job-destroying, mind-melting, fascism-enabling machine is going to need new coalitions.
No, Afton isn’t getting that much. I am willing this away!
