Helene

Would read!!

the most important thing to remember when you see eugenicists who don’t believe that autistic people should exist rambling about “the autism epidemic” is not that they’re wrong about the “cause” (although they are absolutely wrong about it); it’s that they are eugenicists

If you’d like to unpack all the lies being told to the public right now, here’s your fact valet —

Acetaminophen doesn’t cause autism&pregnant people w/fever or pain need it.

Leucovorin isn’t an autism treatment& the reason they’re trying to sell you that is explained in the attached thread& posts

Ask yourself, if this lie or unsubstantiated claim was true, would it justify their conclusion? If the answer is no, than this should not be the primary basis of the pushback

Cognitive scientists and AI researchers make a forceful call to reject “uncritical adoption" of AI in academia A new paper calls on academia to repel rampant AI in university departments and classrooms.

With students heading back to the classroom, a group of cognitive scientists and AI researchers has published one of the most forceful and evidence-backed calls yet to reject the "uncritical adoption of AI" in academia:

The president is sending the military to control American cities and if you're a reporter who's framing that illegal power grab as "pushing the boundaries of constitutionality" or "acting boldly to fight crime" or whatever, please go find another line of work where you won't get us all killed.

So cool!

Those are gorgeous!

Photo of a wooded hilltop with the sun shining brightly above the trees. Below, wispy mist hangs over an area of grass and shrubs.

Having to get out early means catching some morning mist in the hills before it burns off.

Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps Trump administration contract with Paragon Solutions gives immigration agency access to one of the most powerful stealth cyberweapons

Hey folks, please spread the word. I know it is hard in this hyper-connected digital age, but learn how to organize and communicate in ways beyond social media and apps.

If empathy is a sin, then let me be guilty of it daily. ❤️🌼

Photo of a porcupine partway up a tree trunk, looking at the camera with a halo of quills around its head.

Some days I, too, would like to just climb a tree and threaten to jab anyone who comes too close...

This newsletter has been off to an impressive start, and this week's issue is especially important to read before whatever BS statement RFK Jr comes out with about autism.

Photo of a barred owl perched on a dead branch, with woods in the background. The owl is hunched over and looks like a round blob with another round blob for a head.

Sometimes owls look majestic and wise. Other times, they look like lumpy muppets.

Digital illustration showing a variety of woodland animals in between text that says “respect the locals”. The animals featured from left to right are an American Robin, an orange fox, opossum, baby deer, and a grey squirrel on the deers back.

Respect the locals! 🦊🤎

If only!!!

Photo of a brown, black and white mixed breed dog, sitting up against the back of a red couch. Her ears are back and she is looking at the camera with a sweet expression.

Honey is here to sweeten up your scroll.

Important thread:

I don't even know what proper supports would look like in my life.

What could be more obvious than the fact that, whatever intelligence a computer can muster, however it may be acquired, it must always and necessarily be absolutely alien to any and all authentic human concerns? The very asking of the question, "What does a judge (or a psychiatrist) know that we cannot tell a computer?" is a monstrous obscenity. That it has to be put into print at all, even for the purpose of exposing its morbidity, is a sign of the madness of our times. Computers can make judicial decisions, computers can make psychiatric judgments. They can flip coins in much more sophisticated ways than can the most patient human being. The point is that they ought not be given such tasks. They may even be able to arrive at "correct" decisions in some cases-but always and necessarily on bases no human being should be willing to accept. There have been many debates on "Computers and Mind." What I conclude here is that the relevant issues are neither technological nor even mathematical; they are ethical. They cannot be settled by asking questions beginning with "can." The limits of the applicability of computers are ultimately statable only in terms of oughts. What emerges as the most elementary insight is that, since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now to give computers tasks that demand wisdom.

There’s an enormous amount of stuff in this book I’d like to highlight, but start with:

“What emerges as the most elementary insight is that, since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now to give computers tasks that demand wisdom.”

This whole thread of highlights from this book is worth reading (as is the rest of the book, I suspect).

Main message in Ron’s post is that it isn’t either-or. We affect the large scale through our work on whatever scale we work on. Rather than “forget the world, focus on you and yours,” it’s more like "this is *how* we save the world."

We and our direct connections *are* the world, together.

All i WANT iS A FUCKiNG WorLD WHere My frieNDs CaN LIVe WHERE PEOPLE ARE FED, LOVED, safe. WHeRe eVeRyoNe caN AGRee tHAT We SHOULDNT BOMb KiDS and THat the PLaNef is woRTH SAVING

it feels like such a simple ask.

A title page in handwriting-looking font saying: "A Letter To The Trans Teens Thinking About Giving Up // <3 // by Andy Izenson // #44 -- August 2025"

A screenshot of text reading: "Dear friend, Throughout all of human history, three things have always been true: 1. There are trans people. 2. There are boring assholes who try to make there not be trans people anymore. 3. They fail."

A screenshot of text reading: "I want you to know that whatever happens, there is a future for you, because there is a future for us. I don't know what that future is going to look like, but I know that you're not going to face any of it alone."

OK nerds, I have a challenge for you.

@tangledwilderness.bsky.social has just published my Letter to the Trans Teens Thinking About Giving Up as a zine. I want to see how many copies of it we can get into the hands of the people who need to read it, and I need YOUR help.

I've heard good things about that one, too, and it's on my list! I also enjoyed Medea by Eilish Quin, and while that was a different author, I found their approaches to these two figures compatible.

Photo of a paperback book lying on a wooden table. The book cover shows the stylized face of a woman in gold, looking directly out at the viewer. The title "Circe" is below that, with the author's name, Madeline Miller, and the words, "Author of The Song of Achilles."

Loved this retelling of Circe's story!

Photo of sunlight beams streaming down through layers of cloud. An uneven line of trees makes a dark silhouette at the bottom of the picture.

Beaming down.

"If you are struggling to fathom or reckon with what’s happening, begin here: who can you help protect, and how?"

Photo of a black and yellow tiger swallowtail butterfly half visible after crawling deep into a purple flower on a hosta plant. There are many other purple flowers and green stems around it.

Because everything seems grim right now, and I need a bright reminder from before the air quality turned to shit from wildfire smoke, here is a picture of a tiger swallowtail absolutely stuffing itself into a purple hosta flower.

#photography #butterflies #nature

Yep yep yep.