Scout Calvert

If you want to understand why rich guys are turning back to eugenics and recreating the rhetoric and theology of slavery, it’s because they know on some level this level of wealth inequality is unjustifiable bsky.app/profile/marl...

We have two dominant visions for digital tech: one from major corporations that maximizes profit at any cost, and another based on cyberlibertarian ideals that assumes you must code to participate in society.

We need another: where the public sector builds and funds tech for the broad public good.

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

The interesting applications of AI are all, like, "we built an open framework that uses processors on recycled cell phones to identify and triangulate the location of rare bugs in tropical rainforests" while big tech is going "what if we burned down that rainforest to summarize your emails?"

I actually think it's time to bring back the approach of curated lists and webrings from the early web again. Huge opportunity space for hand curation of information

Like plagiarists, slopmongers will continue to exist—and they're worse. Adjust your level of contempt accordingly.

Treat a published work that was later divulged to be AI-generated the same way you would if you found out it was manually plagiarized from a different book. Same situation, just the plagiarism has been automated and averaged out a bit, and the plagiarist is also a scab and a cultural arsonist.

'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...

"It's another thing for The New York Times to report this. I think they put a stamp of legitimacy on medical falsehoods. They also legitimized anti-trans hate, really." Very important comments from @billiejsweeney.bsky.social. transnews.network/p/a-directiv...

Trump’s AI executive order advances corruption, not innovation | Governor of California

🤖 AI makes constant monitoring cheap and invisible.
👁️ Faces. 🎙️ Voices. 📍 Movements. 😶 Emotions. 🔗 Associations.
⚖️ What once required warrants becomes ambient.
🤐 People self censor.
✊ Organizing weakens.
🚨 Dissent carries quiet risk.

Meta made about $3 billion in China last year from ads for scams, illegal gambling, pornography and other banned content, according to internal Meta documents reviewed by Reuters.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Cooperative argumentation and argument repair are much better models for dialogue and reasoning together.

a cartoon of ralph from the simpsons sits on a bus with the words " chuckles i 'm in danger " below him Alt: a cartoon of ralph from the simpsons sits on a bus with the words " chuckles i 'm in danger " below him

Good morning ppl! Within the FDA, there is now not a single Director or up line above them with legacy knowledge of how the FDA was pre-trump. This is one of the greatest risk to the FDA right now.

The entire business model of R1 public universities rests on 4 revenue sources:

1. Federal grants
2. Private gifts/endowments
3. Tuition (esp. from foreign students)
4. State $

For decades, 📈 in 1-3 offset a secular 📉 in 4. Now, 1 & 3 are being decimated & 4 ain't coming back. The math is clear.

In a free country, traveling 🧳 should not be a crime or a reason for suspicion.

"Immigration Agents Are Using (Domestic) Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...

Whenever I see this article I’m going to share it, because everyone connected to higher ed needs to read this for a great if chilling overview of the bone deep infection that gAI has become in the system.

All my favorite things: riso! zine! resisting surveillance! independent media! melt ICE!

I really love this book we made. Hard to believe that it was actually released this year. It feels like it's been out for longer. You can also engage resources related to the book here: www.interruptingcriminalization.com/resources-al... - a friend sent me a short clip of him reading with his son ❤️

AI Slop Is Spurring Record Requests for Imaginary Journals The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives

“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”

Deregulatory Disclosure Regimes and Masked Absences in Fracking Chemical Data - Vivian Underhill, Gary Allison, Becky Mansfield, 2025 Vocal opposition to fracking (the practice of fracturing the subsurface to increase oil and gas production), from shale deposits in Pennsylvania to oil fields i...

New OnlineFirst (OA) article: "Deregulatory Disclosure Regimes and Masked Absences in Fracking Chemical Data" by Vivian Underhill, Gary Allison, and Becky Mansfield #FracFocus #agnotology #disclosure #environmentaldatajustice #fracking
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Been saying this. I think uni employees are also not really cognizing either.

You ever just sit down and realize that the rise of 21st century fascism is capital's answer to climate change?

The plans of the crematoria at Auschwitz do indeed show facilities designed for Zyklon B disinfection against typhus, with ventilation systems adapted for this purpose rather than mass executions. The cyanide residues detected are minute, consistent with decontamination but not with repeated homicidal gassings, as controversial independent analyses have shown. This narrative persists because of laws suppressing questioning, one-sided education, and a cultural taboo that discourages critical examination of the evidence.

French authorities are taking X to court because Grok is now doing straight up holocaust denial. Gas chambers intended for disinfection, cyanide residue tiny, ‘story’ persists because of taboo against critical examination. (Full translation in alt text)

My quote of the day

Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.

Grace Abbott

LOTS of amazing events coming up, Ottawa fam! Let's get together to make a different world, addressing things like death, cold, exploitative rent increases, Palestine, migrant justice, neoliberalism, the relation between enslavement & capitalism, and science. www.punchupcollective.org/reo-calendar/

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫

tech companies & executives are not scared enough of the consequences of harming people. they know they're ultimately very insulated from the blowback for wildly reckless experiments on people; that makes for a very unhealthy environment that we need to fix now

tech co's should be scared of people

A hearing is underway re: the American Association of University Professors et al v. Trump et al, Motion For Preliminary Injunction.