Kristen Bottema-Beutel

The constituency of Americans who see DEI as detrimental to the country is vanishingly small, the sort of constituency that can easily be ignored if politicians want to ignore it.

Autism researchers form independent committee as counter to Kennedy-appointed group Autism researchers and advocacy leaders on Tuesday said they would form a new, independent committee to help guide autism research priorities, providing a science-based alternative to official ​U.S. i...

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee's anti-science agenda presents opportunity for bridge-building for long-divided autism community. In honor of International Women's Day I'm calling for new Independent Autism Coordinating Committee to add autistic women 1/ www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Shoving AI towards disabled students is what universities do *instead* of making course material accessible!

If you ever want to read a paper for free and can't find it otherwise, email the lead author and politely ask for a copy. You will not be bothering the person. You will in fact make their whole entire day. I have had scientists get so excited I asked they sent me everything they ever published.

“If [wealthy, powerful people] can get us to accept that the future’s already settled, AI is already here, the end is already here, then we will create that for them. My most daring idea is to refuse.” — @tressiemcphd.bsky.social

Commands around the world, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, use Anthropic’s Claude AI tool, people familiar with the matter confirmed. Centcom declined to comment about specific systems being used in its ongoing operation against Iran. The command uses the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios even as tension between the company and Pentagon ratcheted up, the people said, highlighting how embedded the AI tools are in military operations.

The WSJ is reporting that AI, specifically Claude, was used in targeting for the attacks by the Epstein Empire.

That would mean the use of AI led directly to the massacre of 115 schoolchildren and 20 volleyball players.

www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.

A potted plant with bright purple-pink teardrop shaped leaves in a sunny window. It is clear from the photo that the owner’s plant-care skills are very advanced.

My inch plant looking pretty fabulous

Best quote of the semester from a doctoral student in our dissertation seminar:

“I am very confused. But I think something good will come of it.”

This is a Nazi move. Stripping people of rights, invalidating their IDs, setting them up for criminalization and imprisonment.

If you don't support trans rights, you support fascism.

Letter | No, Mellon Is Not Part of Some Woke Conspiracy Tyler Austin Harper mischaracterizes good grantmaking, writes Michael S. Roth.

THE PRESIDENT OF WESLEYAN ATE TYLER AUSTIN HARPER UP LOL

“Harper follows in the grand tradition of Senator Jesse Helms in mocking areas of research he expects will be unpopular with the general public.”

www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...

Really having trouble getting past the rage I feel thinking about the same people who use women’s sports as a political cudgel against trans folks also using them as the punchline for their jokes.

The Epstein files document what many women researchers have long experienced but rarely seen laid bare so starkly: exclusion operating behind closed doors, shaping who gets funded, invited, mentored, and taken seriously. How many of these networks, norms, and gatekeepers remain in place?

epstein and the epstein class were so fucking desperate for validation they funded a cranberry bog of academics to explain why they were the master race, but yeah sure. it's women who only care about being admired

To: Jeffrey epstein[jeevacation©gmail.com] From: roger schank Sent: Mon 1/4/2010 12:15:13 PM Subject: there is a simpler explanation about women and intelligence intelligence comes about in part from real focus (goal-directed (this is why you have the absent minded professor caricature) it is a rare woman who is not first and foremost focussed on what thinking and feeling about her hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why hates you or why you dont own a kelly bag roger schank http://www.rogerschank.com/

Relevant to today's conversation about AI's inherent sexism, here's an email from cognitive psychologist and early AI theorist Roger Schank, arguing to Epstein that women can't be truly intelligent, because they care too much about what other people think.

This #BlackHistoryMonth, I am teaching Bean about Black heroes.

This week, the hero is Brad Lomax, a disabled member of the Black Panther Party who was also part of the 1977 504 Sit-in protest re disability rights. +

UCSD center director VS Ramachandran receives lab funding from Epstein Emails released by the Department of Justice indicate that Jeffrey Epstein provided funding for a UC San Diego lab led by Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran, director of UCSD’s department of psycholog...

Oh my goodness, the UCSD neuroscientist who advanced an extremely ableist line of research on autistic people (that they have "broken mirror neurons") took Epstein money, I just can't even believe it. [pretends to be shocked] ucsdguardian.org/2026/02/17/u...

Maybe I’ll just keep posting this every time we learn of another violation of our 1st amendment rights (from our actual government) to remind us of the 152 prominent writers who were so bothered by “cancel culture” (post #metoo and #blm that they wrote an open letter about it back in 2020.

Waiting to see how long it takes institutions reinstate the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs they shut down, re-hire those they pushed out, and rewrite all the language they rushed to change.

Something tells me it'll likely be a long wait.

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.

This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

post by Rutger Bregman (@rutgerbregman.com‬) reads: Absolutely brilliant piece about the Left's TOTAL blindness on AI. Their dismissal of AI risks mirrors how climate deniers treat CO2. Will probably get a lot of nastiness for this on Bluesky, but I guess that's part of the same problem.

i shouldn’t give this piece any more attention than it has already garnered but i feel like it is worth pointing out some flaws in the argument/unquestioned assumptions

thread 1/

I am not exaggerating when I say this. This will kill autistic people, particularly #ActuallyAutistic children.

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

Come be my colleague! We are hiring a 1-year professor of the practice in special education at Boston College. You can find the call for applications here: apply.interfolio.com/180766

As Trump continues to threaten cities, Wu, local officials play defense - The Boston Globe This confrontation has been brewing for months, given President Trump’s war on cities and their foreign-born residents. But it feels closer than ever.

Cities must stand together to defend our communities & our values. Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, Chelsea, Lynn & Newton all issued Executive Orders protecting residents from unconstitutional & violent federal operations. Proud to stand alongside city & state colleagues, DAs & advocates 🙌

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Our new paper led by @sarah-foster.bsky.social

Non-autistic observers attribute more negativity to autistic emotional expressions & more positivity to non-autistic ones, despite the autistic & non-autistic groups reporting feeling the same emotion & intensity

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Dear Ms. Wolfe, Petitioner-Appellee Rümeysa Öztürk submits this Rule 28(j) letter to advise the Court that on January 29, 2026, the immigration court held that the Department of Homeland Security had not met its burden of proving removability, and the immigration court thereby terminated removal proceedings against Ms. Öztürk.' This development underscores the dangers of the government's interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the government's view, it could punitively detain any noncitizen in retaliation for her speech for many months, so long as it simultaneously institutes removal proceedings—no matter how unmeritorious—all without any federal court review of the lawfulness of detention at any time. To be clear, the termination of Ms. Öztürk's removal proceedings does not moot her habeas case. (By contrast, as Ms. Öztürk has argued, this appeal is moot. Br. 18-20.) Without habeas jurisdiction and the bail order that is currently in place, any government appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals would again subject Ms. Öztürk to re-detention. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.6(a). For that reason, she continues to suffer the threat of continuing "now-or-never" First and Fifth Amendment harms. Br. in Opp. 55-57.

NEW: An immigration court has terminated removal proceedings against Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, finding that DHS did not meet its burden of establishing that she was removable, her lawyers tell the Second Circuit. live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io/app/uploads/...

OK "god bless america" and then naming every country in the americas from south to north is absolute king shit

"God Bless America:" then he lists most of the countries in the hemisphere starting with Chile I think? this rules

So Super Bowl ads are just AI and gambling, got it.