Madeleine Fairbairn

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months

I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.

TIL about the Baldwin Test, and this example of applying it to edtech (and the other ex upthread) is instructive for all of us, providing specific ways we can be more intentional about description of tech claims. these principles are also more broadly applicable to other overhyped domains.

“How Do You Solve for Impact?” An interview with Patrick Bigger on leaving academia, strategic research, and scholar activism

Since I walked away from a tenure track job 4 years ago to move to think tank work, A LOT of people have asked me how and why; I tried to consolidate some of that thinking into this interview I did with @mjhaugen.bsky.social for @cplusc.bsky.social 's substack

This is so inspiring, Patrick. I am going to try to take some baby steps in your direction.

CONGRATULATIONS James!!! I bet it's brilliant.

That is honestly a violation of professional ethics. That file was a slam dunk.

Shut the fuck up.

Democratizing finance by turning everyone into a venture capitalist.

Goebbels Ends Careers of Five 'Aryan' Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime (Published 1939)

These are precedented times and the precedent is a loud ass warning

www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/a...

Israel Waging “Fastest Starvation Campaign” in Modern History in Gaza: U.N. Special Rapporteur on Food “The world needs to impose wide-scale sanctions against the state of Israel to force it to end the starvation and genocide of civilians.” More than 100 humanitarian organizations are demanding action...

Israel Waging "Fastest Starvation Campaign" in Modern History in Gaza: U.N. Special Rapporteur on Food

The Enduring Fantasy of “Feeding the World” – Spectre Journal Members of the Agroecology Research-Action Collective argue against the productivist logic underlying the "feed-the-world" approaches to feed security.

The Orwellian myth at the heart of industrial agriculture?

That environmental destruction is actually conservation.

This must-read essay traces how productivism – the obsession with yield – fuels ecocide & colonialism, while failing to 'feed the world'.

📖 spectrejournal.com/the-enduring...

The majority of DOGE's "work" is to use LLMs to search federal grants for the keywords "LGBTQ," "BIPOC," and similar, and then to cancel those grants.

They are targeting minorities in the most literal, automated way. The outcomes of this are all over their own website:

🚨 There’s a lot of horrific news out of Washington right now—but you might have missed this: Senate Republicans just introduced a plan to sell off 120 million acres of our public lands.

Let me break down what’s in the bill and why it’s a full-scale land grab. 🧵

With Trump's "big tragic bill," "backed by American industry," reaching its penultimate stage, I want to share a "big democratic alternative" I worked on with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, which would be powered by America's people.

A photo of Farm workers laboring in a field with the words: Protect U.S. farm workers. Say No to weakened H-2A provisions.

Take action today to protect US farm workers. Tell your Congressmembers to say NO to weakened H-2A wage provisions that would undercut American farm workers' wages and protections. ufw.org/aewr #WeFeedYou

Who owns most of the farmland in Illinois? Not farmers. Less than 25% of Illinois farmland is owned by the farmer who works the land, with the rest leased by individuals, family trusts and, increasingly, investors looking to turn a profit.

Only a quarter of Illinois farmland is owned by the people who farm it. That’s shaping what’s grown and how it’s grown, including the use of conservation programs/practices. Great in-depth read from @chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/01/i...

Dream life.

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Some astonishing numbers in here: -OpenAI loses $2 for every $1 it makes -OpenAI projects annual losses of $14 billion by 2026 -To break even OpenAI needs to increase revenue 25x in just 5 years -33% of VC portfolios are committed to AI -5 AI-heavy stocks account for 29% of the S&P 500's value

Even labor exploitation, structural racism, and environmental/climate destruction subsidize AI companies, they're still not close to being profitable.

linkedin post screenshot: Ken Cheng - I want to connect with you, emotionally) Al will never be able to write like me. Why? Because | am now inserting random sentences into every post to throw off their language learning models. Any Al emulating me will radiator freak yellow horse spout nonsense. 1 wiite all my emails, That's Not My Baby and reports like this to protect my data waffle iron 40% off. 1 suggest all writers and artists do the same Strawberry mango Forklift. The robot nerds will never get the better of Ken Hey can | have whipped cream please? Cheng. We can tuna fish tango foxtrot defeat Al. We just have to talk like this. All. The. Time. Piss on carpet

unfollowing everyone on linkedin except this guy

Know how the secretary of education was referring to AI as "A1"? I've just discovered the generational inverse of this: my 9-year-old is reading a book about Al Capone. Turns out he's been reading it as: "A.I. Caponey." It took me ages to figure out what he was talking about.

This really mild petition asking Newsom and the UC system to stand up for academic freedom and freedom of speech has reached 2,000 signatures from UC faculty, but it should have much more. UC Faculty, there is still time to sign!!!

The US #LandSqueeze in a graph. As farm sizes climb, the number of farms continues to fall.

When farmland is concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, #food becomes commoditized and uniform. Rural communities are hollowed out.

Diverse foods rely on diverse farms.

Aw, shucks. :)

I cannot wait to read this article. It explores the role of the law in enabling the financialization of farmland in recent years. This is such an important topic and I have no doubt the analysis will be absolutely brilliant, like everything else @jessicashoemaker.bsky.social writes.

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

Meanwhile, every time I see you I wonder why my hair can't look as tidy and shiny as yours.

Cory Booker crosses 23-hour mark in marathon Senate floor speech protesting Trump agenda | CNN Politics Sen. Cory Booker is holding the Senate floor into Tuesday afternoon, as the New Jersey Democrat continues his marathon speech protesting actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Strom Thurmond's record is 24 hours and 18 minutes which was done against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 & in defense of segregation. Cory Booker, a Black senator from Jersey, breaking his record to speak out against a white supremacist President would be poetic justice.

We Demand the Release of Farmworker Leader Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez from ICE Detention - Food Chain Workers Alliance FCWA is calling for ally organizations to join use in demanding Lelo's release by signing on to our open letter.

IATP joins calls for the release of Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez from ICE detention. Farmworker organizations on the ground believe that ICE targeted Lelo for his leadership in standing up for farmworkers and immigrants in his community. @foodchainworkers.bsky.social foodchainworkers.org/2025/03/we-d...