Carolyn Ownbey, PhD

They literally ruin everything they touch

In 2025 the small businesses of America are coming through to feed their fellow Americans at a cost to their bottom line while the federal government takes our tax money they agreed to use for this specific purpose and builds a ballroom. Please tell me again about the federal taxes we need to pay.

My first ever dream about AI included a covert counterespionage operation, a Victorianist, and a gigantic tropical fish costume.

… what.

Y’all do understand that Trump is putting that ginormous ballroom on the White House because he expects that he and his family will use it for many many years, right?

Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...

Wrote a thing on the hot summer of uni AI adoption for @defector.com

A huge thanks to @nathankhensley.bsky.social and @anniemcc.bsky.social. @brandyjensen.bsky.social is a legend. And anything smart in hear is thanks to hours of discussion, texting, and draft reading by @smosment.bsky.social

hahahahahahahahahaha

Chappell Roan Unveils Midwest Princess Fund for Trans Youth — and She’s Already Raised $400K Chappell Roan has announced her Midwest Princess Project for trans and LGBTQ+ youth, and the fund has already raised $400K.

Chappell Roan Unveils Midwest Princess Fund for Trans Youth — and She’s Already Raised $400K

tech lords like Altman pretty clearly don’t think most other people really “exist” in any meaningful way - certainly not in any way that requires them to consider anyone else’s subjective experience. They see most humans as a bunch of NPCs in a video game where the currency is money and attention

Trump: "I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like dead."

yeah thats the fuckin problem dumbass

SNAP benefits expire in one week.

I’ll also say that prop 50 appears to be a function of Newsom’s presidential hopes. He loves to be the mean girl who sticks it to Trump. Frankly, it’s the best thing about him.

BUT please, however you vote, do NOT equate it w/ whether Newsom should be president.

He should not.

Listen, I think there are in fact progressive arguments to be made for & against this proposition, depending on how you view history & how you envision the future.

But what most certainly does NOT need to be in there is a false statement telling folks they can’t do anything else. JFC.

Looking at the text of California’s proposed prop 50, and GOD Dems really can’t help but play for the side of fascism.

“The 2026 United States midterm elections are voters’ only chance to provide an essential check and balance against President Trump’s dangerous agenda.”

NO IT IS NOT.

A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses usually include an LED that lights up when the user is recording other people. One hobbyist is charging a small fee to disable that light, and has a growing list of customers ar...

Really strongly feel like it should be illegal to mod these spyware glasses so people can't see if you're recording in general but it should DEFINITELY be illegal to sell people the capacity to do that.

There is a reason they want photos of the demolition suppressed, particularly this photo (rather than the closer up ones that could really be of any building).

Hard to miss the symbolism, here. This is one of those photos that has the ring of History to it.

Thank you!! 🥹

And for a lot of folks like me, my work feels so important for this moment—it’s harder to make the choice not to… but it’s also harder & harder to do the thing.

That is a decision that I think more and more folks are going to make, and it is a GOOD ONE in so many ways. But the academy will suffer (is already suffering) for it.

So the question becomes, how worth it is it to expend the sort of energy [in this world historical moment when energy is scarce] that this takes if in a year or two one may have to transition out of the academy entirely? This isn’t just for junior TT faculty, but also adjuncts and other NTT folks.

Worth noting: folks who got a PhD in those yrs dealt w a terrible/increasingly unstable job market & ALSO instability on the tenure track if they were lucky enough to get it. I am one of those, & (long story) my long-term future in academia at this point is nonetheless potentially done.

PhD in 2017, here. My work is, broadly, about oppressive regimes and cultural forms. For me, it’s not self-consciousness or discouragement. It’s feeling like I need to realign my work to meet the moment. And the moment is an erratically moving target.

I used to teach a college level 'community organizing' class many years ago. After a class one day, a student came to me and said "it's so much work to organize. I thought change just happened." I think of that student often.

So if you don’t know the answer already, you’ll wonder if it skipped key data. If you do know the answer, you won’t need the AI.

Fabulous 🙄

Universities across the world seeing this:

"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"

The university as an institution does not function without faculty governance. You can call it a university but thats not what you have.

Islamophobia in the US is a bigotry that is fully normalized and mostly unchallenged.

The biggest difference is that the Romanovs used real gold while Cheeto Dorito is going opt for polystyrene and spray-paint.

And he likely still won't pay the contractors.

Knowledge is Worth Your Time Folks who hang out on Bluesky/Twitter may have caught bits and pieces of the discussions amongst academics about what to do about today's university students...

Wrote this yesterday chanda.bearblog.dev/knowledge-is...

i think it's great if ICE officers can only run 6mph. make it less actually. hire ICE officers who can only drag themselves oozily along like snails. hire snails actually. then squash them