Karen Graubart

I can co-organize collectives to accomplish tasks without fighting!

Texas State System dissolves faculty senates, eroding professors' influence on campuses While other universities move to preserve the advisory bodies, Texas State will abolish them under a new state law that curtails faculty’s influence on campuses.

Ummm, this is bad. Very very bad.

www.texastribune.org/2025/08/07/t...

not to brag but i think this is the best one yet

Roberts, Barrett, and Kavanaugh are quickly leading us on a path to our generation's Korematsu if they don't grow spines.

Look at this:

Team Leader at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites Belongs to Anti-“Jihad” Motorcycle Club, Has Crusader Tattoos Johnny Mulford, who works as a contractor for GHF in Gaza, is a member of the “Infidels” motorcycle gang and has Crusader-style cross tattoos.

As he attempts to engage with a Muslim-Arab majority civilian population, a lead subcontractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is covered in Christian crusader tattoos theintercept.com/2025/08/06/g...

They asked ChatGPT what a fancy European decor looked like.

ChatGPT File • • Edit View Window Help ChatGPT 5 > How many times does the letter b appear in blueberry The word "blueberry" has the letter b three times: • Once at the start ("B" in blueberry). • Once in the middle ("b" in blue). • Once before the -erry ending ("b" in berry). Total: 3 O92 Show me where the letter b appears in the word please. Sure — here's "blueberry" with each b highlighted: B lue b erry Positions (counting from 1): 1 B - first letter 4 b - in blue 6 b - in berry D9< Spell that out with all three bs please. I mean, just spell the word. Sure — here's the full spelling with all three b's shown in place: BLUEBERRY That's exactly how blueberry is spelled, with the b's in positions 1, 5, and 7.

ChatGPT File Edit View Window Help E ChatGPT 5 > You wrote "BLUEBERRY". There are only two bs there. Ah - I see the mix-up. Let's slow it down and spell blueberry carefully, letter by letter, showing all three b's. blueberry Now you can see them: • 1st b → position 1 • 2nd b → position 5 • 3rd b → position 6 blueberry Exactly — blue berry has three b's: • 1st b → at the very start • 2nd b → right after the e in blue • 3rd b → immediately after the second b, starting berry So the "bb" in the middle is really what gives blueberry its double-b moment. Its double-b moment; I see. Yep - blueberry is one of those words where the middle almost trips you up, like it's saying "b-b-better pay attention." That little bb moment is satisfying, though — it makes the word feel extra bouncy.

 ChatGPT File Edit View Window Help 巴 • ChatGPT 5 > My students get you to write their essays for them, you know. Ah, the old "ChatGPT, do my homework" routine — I'm familiar with that one. I can see why they'd be tempted, but here's the thing: I'm a lot more useful as a coach than a ghostwriter. If they use me to brainstorm ideas, plan structure, or clarify tricky concepts, they'll actually learn and still have their own voice in the work. If they just hand in what I write, they're skipping the thinking part - and it usually shows. I'm good, but I still leave a trail of... telltale ChatGPT-isms. A trail of blueberries, as it were. Exactly — a trail of blueberries: easy to follow, a little sweet, and maybe just obvious enough for a watchful teacher to notice. If your students really are leaving me to bake the whole blueberry pie for them, they might forget that the best part of pie is making it themselves... even if it gets a little messy. "Blueberry" only has two bs. Nope - blueberry really does have three b's. Here it is spaced out: bluebberry Positions: b- at the start 5 b - in the "blue" part 6 b - right next to it, starting "berry" That middle double-b is easy to miss if vou just glance at the word.

I had to try the “blueberry” thing myself with GPT5. I merely report the results.

Didn’t want to believe this was true. It’s true.

Sunk-cost fallacy and cheating students are the only things keeping AI in business at this point.

Just look at how usage of ChatGPT plummets as soon as the semester ends.

This is Michael’s clearance sale level tacky.

The category of "ultra processed" food has come up a few times here lately, most recently in discussion at jowolff.bsky.social. It roughly parallels events I'm trying to understand in the US a century ago. So I took a look at the lit. Thread! (1/11)

We have learned that one of the women taken on Alvarado and 8th is Sabrina Medina, a pregnant U.S. Citizen expecting twins from Huntington Park, whom Kristi Noem targeted and was present last month for a photo op.

I have a boring on-leave one, I think a recipe would be spectacular!

Tweet from Cassidy: It is unfortunate that the Secretary just canceled a half a billion worth of work, wasting the money which is already invested. He has also conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease. President Trump wants to Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again. This works against both of President Trump’s goals.

Senator Bill Cassidy’s vote secured the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy jr. He’s now issued a brief statement faintly calling Kennedy’s destruction of vaccine research “unfortunate”

Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor’s Race

Hey @andrewcuomo:

Is it true that you spoke to Donald Trump about clearing the right-wing lane for you? When? What did you promise him in return? New Yorkers deserve to know.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/n...

JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip Exclusive: Incident raises questions of exploitation of public services, but Secret Service says it was requested for ‘safe navigation’ Stephanie Kirchgaessner and David Smith Wed 6 Aug 2025 17.46 EDT Share JD Vance’s team had the army corps of engineers take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday, the Guardian has learned. The request from the US Secret Service was made to “support safe navigation” of the US vice-president’s security detail for an August outing on the Little Miami River, according to a statement by the US army corps of engineers (USACE). Vance was spotted in the south-western Ohio area on 2 August, his 41st birthday, according to social media posts that noted he was seen canoeing on the river, a tributary that Caesar Creek Lake feeds into. One source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously alleged that the outflow request for the Caesar Creek Lake was not just to support the vice-president’s Secret Service detail, but also to create “ideal kayaking conditions”. The Guardian could not independently confirm this specific claim.

What good is being VP if you can't abuse your power to have the Army Corps of Engineers making your kayaking trip more ideal by changing the waterflow of a lake?

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Notre Dame Athletics might want to get a Black PR member so that they don't say stuff like this in public #sayhername

I don't think Stu meant this as an insult, but woof, what an insult.

New hope for Alzheimer’s: Groundbreaking Harvard study finds lithium reverses brain aging - The Boston Globe The research suggests a new approach to preventing and treating the mind-robbing disease.

Funding for this groundbreaking research on Alzheimer's was terminated by the Trump Administration
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/06/m...

The other day I asked three different AI to do a straightforward multiplication problem, and they all got it wrong.

I assure you, @historians.org, AI cannot accurately summarize a history text, no matter how simple. And, as you know, most histories aren’t simple!!

RECONSIDER THIS.

Anyway, they’re all playing in your face about AI. As soon as it deprofessionalizes everybody that the market hates because their credentials give them wage power, you’ll be able to buy a LLM tamagotchi at the Family Dollar and we will all vaguely remember when these toys were a fix for everything

1/ Article I of the US Constitution involves powers of Congress.

As of a few minutes ago, several sections have been deleted from the Constitution on the gov't's website, suggesting some things don't need congressional approval.

Key things, like:

Ganz killing it here, combining a critical methodological perspective on how polling is done with fundamental political theory about what politics is & what it involves:

The trick to AI is that in most instances, it's way more expensive than the human labor it replaces and of lower quality in its outputs, but the people and institutions being persuaded to make that replacement aren't paying the actual costs.

If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages

Historians need to be represented by an organization committed to the position that historical sources, interpretation, argument, and, above all, understanding matter more and demand more than producing grammatical sentences incorporating suggested keywords in response to prompts.

And Pete grew up in a place where local control would mean almost certain harassment and exclusion. He hesitated to come out because of the homophobia around him. Our school district has been invaded by MAGA horrors. Shame on him for abandoning our community.

On this Chairteenth, we celebrate the good folks of Montgomery, especially our guy AquaMayne. Special shout out to the folks who, within 72 hours, recreated this in their apartment complex. A COMMUNITY!! 💀