Nic Helms

S.F. bookstores remove ‘Harry Potter’ over Rowling’s anti-trans fund Two San Francisco bookstores removed the “Harry Potter” series from its shelves after J.K. Rowling said she would use franchise profits to support anti-trans rights efforts.

San Francisco bookstores pull ‘Harry Potter’ books over J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans pledge

www.sfchronicle.com/...

#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA

I need to frame this in my office so I can point to it daily.

I do these lectures and people ask me, “BUT WHAT ABOUT AI?!”

Which A.I.? Where? When? Under what conditions?

Telling me it’s inevitable and it changes everything is like asking me to critique policy in a Grimm’s fairytale.

As best as I can tell, the board has been running Columbia, and the board didn't so much surrender to Trump as draw up a list of demands for him to issue. The board, Trump, and the Free Press are all on the same page.

Harvard has a $52 billion endowment. It can fucking stand up to Trump.

Opinion | Actually, A.I. Is Pretty Mid (Gift Article) A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.

Unsurprisingly, @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is spot-on in this analysis: “A.I.’s most revolutionary potential is helping experts apply their expertise better and faster. But for that to work, there has to be experts.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/o...

I always tell students that if you plan to get through university using LLMs for all your work, you are deliberately setting yourself up for failure after university.
Why would an employer hire/retain you if you are only able to produce the same banal LLM output anyone else would?

Presidents of R1s are run by board of Trustees who are conservative as heck and don’t want to see their corporate wealth deteriorate in the companies they hold. Presidents aren’t going to buck that.

Gayatri Spivak: ‘I’m not teaching to get students an income’ Winner of 2025 Holberg Prize rejects vocational focus of education and ‘trivialisation’ of humanities

The winner of this year’s @holbergprize.bsky.social tells @helenpacker.bsky.social why she rejects the vocational focus of education and the ‘trivialisation’ of the humanities

#AcademicSky #EduSky

A Pentagon-wide email recently went out warning about Signal's vulnerability A Pentagon-wide advisory that went out one week ago warns against using the Signal, the messaging app, even for unclassified information.

A Pentagon-wide advisory that went out one week ago warns against using the Signal, the messaging app, even for unclassified information.

Do I need to log off? I am not sure what you speak of, but I do not want to know.

Columbia's faculty doing what its administration did not: stand up for academic freedom. AAUP and AFT sue Trump administration for its illegal threats to cut off $400 million in funding to Columbia University.

“But if we work with him, he’ll leave us alone”

As federal cuts loom, NH lawmakers consider defunding state library and arts programs A wave of art organizations and libraries are rallying public support for continued funding.

A House committee working on state budget proposals voted in favor of eliminating funding for the Division of Arts, which helps provide funding to arts organizations and advance arts and culture in the state. They are also considering a proposal to shut down the New Hampshire State Library.

Genie: No necromancy, no mind control, no extra wishes, no radical reordering of the economic system

Me: Aww man

Genie: Yeah, I know

Me: Fine. Wish 1, Section 1

Genie: wat

Me: Anyone with a net worth >$1 million must be followed by a belligerent Bostonian who calls them a fuckin idiot 2x a day

You should stroll into class in shades, play Lil Nas X's 'Montero' video, and say "That's the lesson."

Or, you know, cut your bodymind some slack and cancel!

So glad I decided to go hard and attend the first day of the Early Modern Trans Studies conference today *after* the RSA / SAA twofer! It was a joy to see so many terrific papers and hang w the (rapidly expanding) premodern trans studies crew - and to taste the @badinfinity2.bsky.social book cake 🎂

NH teachers warn students will suffer from Trump's Education Department cuts Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut says the Trump administration's changes will strengthen local control.

Public schools in New Hampshire are primarily funded with state money but rely on federal dollars for about 5% of their budgets, according to the NH Fiscal Policy Institute.

“Send them to jail”: GOP officials keep saying Trump can arrest people for protesting "Free speech is great, but..."

“When it comes to protesters, we gotta make sure we treat all of them the same: Send them to jail,” Tuberville announced. “Free speech is great, but hateful, hate, free speech is not what we need in these universities.”

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

OpenAI’s Sora Is Plagued by Sexist, Racist, and Ableist Biases WIRED tested the popular AI video generator from OpenAI and found that it amplifies sexist stereotypes and ableist tropes, perpetuating the same biases already present in AI image tools.

You probably already know that generative AI amplifies stereotypes and bias, but how bad is it? For months at @wired.com we’ve been interviewing experts and testing OpenAI’s Sora.

www.wired.com/story/openai...

Columbia University’s Concessions to Trump Seen as a Watershed Threatened with losing $400 million in federal funding, the university agreed to overhaul its protest policies and security practices.

“Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, a nat’l faculty rights group, described the move as the greatest incursion into academic freedom & free speech since Sen Joseph R. McCarthy’s crusade against communism in the 1950s.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/n...

Early Modern Neurodiversity Studies, represent!

7: Neurodiversity & Shakespeare. Dr Wendy Lennon in conversation with Bridget Bartlett. Shakespeare, Race and Pedagogy Podcast · Episode

Thank you so much to @shakeracepedagogy.bsky.social for having me on! What a fantastic conversation!
open.spotify.com/episode/5RnZ...

The first and most important thing to know about last night's Exec order is that it's intended to break current law and allow people throughout the federal gov look at yr tax returns. Beyond that it's intended to compel states to turn over all their data to the fed govt.

Only every time I talk about plot!

Nic Helms holds up their book

Fantastic to chat with @docsprock.bsky.social one of the editors of ‘Water and Cognition in Early Modern English Literature’ in the book fair today 🌊🧠📚

The Neurodivergent Underpinnings of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Mythology — It Turns Out the Naming Rights! Membership Option Was For Real and Someone Is Now Five Hundred Bucks Poorer Presents Nat As both an autistic man and the corner of the phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl I feel justified in writing about the neurodivergent roots of the MPDG myth.

Just discovered the film critic who coined the term ‘manic pixie dream girl’ not only believes the term has become a reductive catch-all to describe autistic/ADHD/bipolar coded female characters, BUT has recently realised he’s autistic, ADHD & bipolar. Fun facts!

www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/...

I’m kind of fixated on why unis think capitulating now will “keep the feds from whacking them again.” That’s not how it will work. But I guess BIPOC& disabled ppl will
get sacrificed (again) on the altar of failed white strategy.