Matt Barlow

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC

'New research coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC has found that AI assistants – already a daily information gateway for millions of people – routinely misrepresent news content no matter which language, territory, or AI platform is tested.' 1/2

The journal Environmental Humanities is still looking for midcareer/senior #envhum scholars interested in becoming a co-editor-in-chief from January 2026. You can apply as an individual and we'll find an appropriate co-editor match for you.

See environmentalhumanities.org

Chicago Mayor Issues Defiant Call For A General Strike It was an audacious proposal, given that the U.S. has never held a true, nationwide general strike.

Whoa. Chicago mayor calls for a general strike; now we're talking

www.huffpost.com/entry/chicag...

I have spent the last few days installing this wonderful exhibition Ecologies of the Machine, curated by Tania Tovar and researched by Kim Förster. Reminded of how exhausting install labour is, and how rewarding it is. Exhib is up for the next few days at Pavillon 333, Munich.

Excited to be part of the team to help realise this exhibition in Munich next week, our first public event/exhibition as part of the new Chair of Sustainable Urban Environments here at TUM

Inspired by David Bond's provocation that the future of toxicity is replacing the history of empire as a vehicle for addressing the blind spots of liberalism, highlighting that theories of toxicity have paid such little attention to the political economy of petrochemical industries. #DGSKA2025

Really enjoyed my last couple of days at the @infranortherc.bsky.social conference 'Beyond Infrastructure: Un-built environments of the anthropocene' in Vienna. My first time presenting research from my PhD in Europe 💫

Wrapping up my time at Penn in preparation for my move to Munich... Reflecting on the books that have kept me company (and been staring at me!) over the last 10 months...

#WomensHistoryMonth: The City of Women Map is a fascinating visualization of women’s history and urban transportation. Created by Molly Roy, Rebecca Solnit, and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, the map renames subway stops after notable women with links to that area, offering an entirely new way to view #NYC.

DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.

BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

Tufts graduate student detained by federal authorities sent to Louisiana - The Boston Globe Masked plainclothes officers arrested Rumeysa Ozturk outside a Somerville home Tuesday evening.

The Tufts graduate student detained by federal authorities in Somerville has been sent to a Louisiana detention facility, despite a federal judge’s order telling US Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to remove her from Massachusetts without notice.

Harvard AAUP's Vincent Brown on the lawsuit filed yesterday
against the Trump administration's ideological-deportation policy.

‘Mine the volume’: Excess and the voluminous ecological politics of capitalist frontiers - Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Theo Reeves-Evison, Matt Barlow, Lydia E.S. Cole, 2025 Mining frontiers are moving ever further beyond Earth's surface, as new subterranean realms, the seafloor, the atmosphere and outer space increasingly come...

OnlineFirst - "‘Mine the volume’: Excess and the voluminous ecological politics of capitalist frontiers" by @yolandaariadne.bsky.social, @theoreevesevison.bsky.social, @materialbarlow.bsky.social, and @lydcole.bsky.social:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Excited to see this out in the world! This article is a result from my year of working alongside Ari, Theo, and Lydia. Here we attempted to grapple with the ways that capitalist frontiers have always been voluminous, and are increasingly moving more explicitly into "non-terrestrial realms".

Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...

Chilling report from Brown University.

Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities.

Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.

Thousands of protesters rally in downtown Los Angeles against Trump's immigration policies Draped in Mexican and Salvadoran and flags, roughly 1,000 demonstrators gathered near City Hall shortly before noon, blocking traffic at Spring and Temple streets

Thousands of protesters rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday against President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his aggressive deportation policies.

This is a concentration camp.

Everything We Know About Trump's Executive Order on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth From what it says to what it means for you.

Ok, here's what you need to know about Trump's anti-trans executive order targeting trans youth. Teamed up with @leximcmenamin.bsky.social to explain what it means for trans youth right now, with legal input from @aclu.org attorney @harperseldin.bsky.social

www.teenvogue.com/story/trumps...

BREAKING NEWS ALERT EPA fires science advisers 01/28/2025 07:24 PM EST Acting EPA Administrator James Payne has ousted all members of two of the agency's most influential science advisory panels, giving President Donald Trump's administration the opportunity to reshape them with its own appointees. In an obliquely worded email sent late Tuesday afternoon, Payne said a decision had been made to "reset" the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board "to ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission." EPA will seek nominations in the coming weeks, Payne added, with all members encouraged to reapply.

BREAKING: Acting @EPA Administrator James Payne has fired the agency's science advisors.

They will be replaced in order to, he says, "ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission," whatever that means.

Durham expects 200 jobs to go as it seeks to save £20 million University becomes latest to announce staff cuts, saying it cannot rule out compulsory redundancies

Durham University has become the latest Russell Group institution to announce plans to cut jobs, stating it needs to reduce staff costs by £20 million over the next two academic years

#highered #EduSky

Position: Research Associate in Indigenous approaches to quantitative research We are looking for two experienced researchers who are fluent in Indigenous approaches to quantitative methods. Experience can come from community research, graduate degrees, and/or research positi…

Really looking forward to working with someone on Indigenizing quantitative methods! The position is very flexible (FT or part time, remote or in person, can be made a postdoc) anticipating a range of researchers. #IndigeousSTEM

civiclaboratory.nl/2025/01/18/p...

Cardiff University job cuts as 400 roles go and courses axed – live Staff say they are in shock as nursing, modern languages, and music are among degrees being axed with 400 jobs academic jobs at risk

You can track the unfolding disaster at Cardiff University here LIVE, as one of the UK's constituent nations actually chooses to gut parts of its flagship HEI: www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...

Hello, so, I'm an anthropologist who has studied wildfires for over a decade and, just recently, handed in a book manuscript for peer review on the pathologies of wildfire management in Australia and, to a lesser extent, Canada and the US. It's called "How to Control Fire" (TBC).

The uneven extraction of wealth and resources from South to North never ended, and the funds the South now demands for climate are a mere token of the kind of reparations that would actually be just (not to mention effective towards creating an actually-sustainable global society)

I'm keen to encourage more reflection & discussion about universities role in responding to the #ClimateCrisis.

So, I've started another starter pack of key voices on this topic. Would love to add more people to it.

Suggestions are very welcome 🙂

go.bsky.app/R51quRA

Rivers in a changing world | Penn Today A new Academically Based Community Service class brings Penn and William L. Sayre High School students together to learn environmental science and engineering.

Interesting to see some collaborative river engagement/pedagogy happening at Cobbs Creek in West Philly, including a scavenger hunt to find human influences on the creek. penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-ne...

Uni staff told in video call 400 jobs could go to save £20m More than a quarter of jobs at a university could be slashed in a bid to save £20 million, KentOnline can reveal.

Another day, another university in crisis. This time it's Canterbury Christ Church, to lose say 400 jobs and over a quarter of posts. The reality of what is happening in UK Higher Education - and even worse, what is about to happen - is crushing. I'm so sorry. www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/n...

"Real impact on our economy will come from areas such as physics, chemistry, maths, engineering, and biomedical sciences"

People who think “the markets” will save us from climate change do not understand that capitalism created climate change.