Janet D. Stemwedel

Heartbreaking. The University of Nebraska will terminate its entire Earth science department.

One of the country's most successful and respected geology & climate programs: gone.

When ideologues & politicians are threatened by the very act of studying climate change, I wonder: who of us is next?

What we get wrong about the Montgomery bus boycott – and what we can learn from it | Jeanne Theoharis The movement’s success was never a given. It took much longer and required tremendous sacrifice without certainty it would work

Like @prisonculture.bsky.social, I've been worried about the ways popular myths of the civil rights movement make it hard to see how to struggle today. On the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, the things we get wrong & what a fuller history shows us: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A bunch of teachers already making plans for rebuilding civilization after the collapse of fascism, capitalism, etc. In case you hadn’t already decided with whom to caucus.

No, Progressives Don’t Want “Purity.” They Just Want Some Courage. When left-leaning Democrats complain about corporate influence, it’s not a “purity test.” It’s a demand for a better politics.

Exactly. It's disingenuous to call it a purity test to say "You shouldn't be beholden to right-wing billionaires pushing right-wing policies and right-wing candidates."

newrepublic.com/article/2039...

Every legal story now is either

Ancient Circuit Judge Delivers Crystal Clear 100 Page Rebuke To Trumpist Overreach

or

In Unsigned Shadow Docket Decision, 6-3 Majority Declares Trump Can Hunt People For Sport

we are approaching him giving himself a month on the calendar, right?

A thread . Please read . Because when Black women say this and have for years and get hit with

“You know who I am “ and “this is spreading awareness”

No it’s enabling abuse and exploiting “friendship”

fuckers

The Paradox of Global Warming and Colder Winters - WhoWhatWhy If the cold weather makes it harder for you to argue with climate change deniers about the existence of global warming, this story is for you.

How does global warming cause colder winter storms? whowhatwhy.org/2019/11/23/t...

Scholar friends, I’m going to be in DC the last week/end of February, Berkeley March 6-8, and Chicago for SCMS March 26-8. Would love to schedule some talks at nearby campuses about either the vibes book or alt rock/alt right stuff before any of those conferences.

oil, by kendall :3 11 track album

not many know what bandcamp friday means. what it means is when you buy my new album "oil" on bandcamp TODAY, you sign over the deed to your home to me and we become legally married, then divorced, and i get the car heylol.bandcamp.com/album/oil

The Words of the Week - Dec. 5 Dictionary lookups from social media, Southeast Asia, and the bayou

These are your words of the week

monsoon
war crime
misogynoir
affordability
pulldoo
www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the...

5 Oval shaped pins with gold outlines with an oval cutout in the middle with a yellow slideable star: Spoons: Lavender background Hunger Scale: Red background Migraine Scale: Blue background Speaking vs Non Speaking: Green background The first one has SHE, THEY, HE on top. At the bottom there's HER, THEM, HIM. White background.

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Some comments as I read the National Security Strategy, released last night in an attempt to divert attention from, or perhaps to justify, killing fishermen on the high seas.

What *Should* The United States Want?

This is an, um, interesting phrasing, especially with "Should" italicized.

Folks, I have worked my ass off this week. I'm sure many of you have too. To that I say, we deserve more LEISURE and EASE.

the savagery of responding to a chatGPT post in a philosophy class with analysis via several philosophical theories is *chef's kiss*

ALSO: my kid's brain is razor sharp and getting sharper while these other students are intentionally pithing themselves 🙁

...dissertation/comment about the ethics of using LLMs in a philosophy class... from the perspective of four different philosophical theories and all come up with: you're a loser and probably an immoral person if you use LLMs in philosophy class 🤣

My 22yo is taking a philosophy class & the students are barely participating, using AI to post comments in the class group "discussion", cheating not only themselves but degrading the class experience as well. One particular student is 100% using AI responses.

my kid writes a 750 word post...

Or better yet: make GenAI about an assault on civics. Because if you are selling a product that necessarily attempts to con one person into believing they are engaging with another person when they are not, you’re not just ruining education. You’re dismantling society’s foundations in social trust.

So the next time someone tries to draw you into a conversation about that piece they saw on 60 Minutes or read in the NYT about how educators are coping with/ combatting/whatever students using GenAI, don’t accept that framing. Make it about the industry that is impoverishing their education.

Framing GenAI as a battle between teachers and students is a red herring. Students and educators are on the same side. The real opposition are the data extraction firms and brokerages and their allies among the managerial class.

A disrespect for me as an educator means that a basic piece of sociality and trust has been broken and so I don’t owe anyone generous feedback. But I don’t need to be punitive either. That’s what those who are selling these products want. They want to exhaust us into resignation.

It is a waste of educators’ labor to worry about policing students’ work or jury rigging AI-proof assignments.There are desultory ways of going about responding to such papers. But that doesn’t mean acquiescence. That means working towards and demanding structural changes at our institutions.

I’ve been thinking about the intellectual and affective labor involved in reading AI Generated student papers. I’m forecasting a little of the proposal that @cnygren.bsky.social and I advance in a piece that’ll be out soon but here’s where I’ve personally landed (o speak for myself not for us both):

RFK Jr.’s CDC panel: No more hepatitis B vaccine for some newborns The CDC's vaccine advisory panel, stocked with anti-vaccine activists and loyalists to RFK Jr., voted Friday to stop recommending a birth dose of vaccine.

Kennedy's zombie ACIP panel just voted to restrict hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. Experts say it will harm children for no reason. www.ms.now/news/rfk-cdc...

ACIP member Dr. Cody Meissner:

"'Do no harm' is a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording. And I vote no."

herbie the elf shouldn't have quit at the toy factory, he should have made them fire him, filed an unemployment claim and let them contest it if they want to explain to BOLI that elf supervisors deny breaks contingent on performance

Kids have a right to vaccinations. Let's bring in the lawyers Children suffering from diseases that should have been consigned to history is a moral failure. Access to vaccines is a human right.

As ACIP does its best to destroy confidence in vaccines, we really need to use human rights laws to protect kids and ensure they have easy access to vaccines

www.statnews.com/2025/11/12/c...

Thank *you* for describing the nuances in how faculty are trying to navigate all this!

I assumed so (but I am working to reclaim the original meaning because I think it matters to see that kind of nuance in how we engage with technology).

These are just my experiences and I speak for no one but myself. I am frustrated that there appears to be a disconnect between institutional messaging and the diversity of faculty perspectives, but that's just higher ed higher ed-ing based on my experience in two different places.