Eric Van Wyk

In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen As a restaurant owner – I’m astounded at the rate of progress since microwaves were released a few short years ago. Today’s microwave can cook a frozen burrito. Tomorrow’s m…

This is the only thing you need to read about AI

The part about being too emotional and putting words in people’s mouths ESPECIALLY

Small child at a desk with a crayon seemingly pretending to draw with a tear in her eye.

Take Action Twin Cities Boulevard Contact Gov. Walz Directly Online Contact Form (cursor over button) Image of 94 near exit 233B

We need your help in continuing to put pressure on decision-makers to restore the boulevard options for the Rethinking I-94 project. @governorwalz.mn.gov has a say over which project options will move forward.

mn.gov/governor/con...

How much stronger would universities be in fighting the far right had they not acted like their race and gender scholars’ research and courses had no value. Welp…

Faculty Support of George Mason’s President Draws Federal Investigation

This is authoritarianism—the weaponization of the government to deter critics of the regime.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

Have always admired Alfie Kohn for his work and activism, but this makes me respect him even more. Tom Lehrer was a legend.

Gaza’s Children Are Looking Through Trash to Avoid Starving An aid worker explains how Gaza’s famine caused by Israel suddenly exploded.

Silence is unconscionable

nymag.com/intelligence...

Really sucks that those who suffered denunciation from the hegemoney when they called it genocide will now receive a second round of denunciation for being right too soon & too loudly from the hegemoney who now finds it convenient to admit it’s genocide.

Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97

A legend for sure. I remember listening to these in grad school and loving them. Still sound fresh and are still relevant. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

When We Get Komooted Following the sale of Komoot to private equity, Josh Meissner explores the broken relationship between corporate capital and our communities...

"the broken relationship between corporate capital and our communities". bikepacking.com/plog/when-we...

DEERHOOF ON IG: “Daniel Ek uses $700 million of his Spotify fortune to become chairman of AI battle tech company” was not a headline we enjoyed reading this week. We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”

deerhoof just announced they’re taking their entire music catalog off of spotify

At no point in this study did I use AI. This includes the literature review, logical organization, writing, analysis, and proofreading. I do not cite any studies that use AI, to the extent that it is possible to know.

Yesterday I used this "AI -Free Statement" in a conference talk for the first time. Still trying to figure out the exact language.

Feel free to borrow, modify, etc.

U of MN faculty voted no confidence in the Provost after she helped block a faculty appointment for political reasons; and replacement is selected through a secret search. Not a great way to restore confidence.

At least the flat-earthers aren't in a position to kill people with their ideological idiocy

YouTube video by R Hands Off National Day of Protest - Edmonds, WA

This is a video of PBS travel guy Rick Steves at the Edmonds WA Hands Off event, giving a speech which I think is one of the BEST explanations I've seen for the average person of what is going on now and it is 🔥🔥🔥. You are going to want to watch this. youtu.be/86hnPrWozUo?...

i'm going to practice employing systematic plagiarism to bolster academic integrity

I'm just a small-town professor. I'll never be a provost or chancellor. But here's some free advice: we're about to hold the most watched college sports event in 🇺🇸. Every college president should be all over TV, at every game, explaining why the March Madness of federal budget cuts is a huge crisis.

Share this.

U Board of Regents must not fold on defense of academic freedom Talking about it is one thing. Actually standing for it is another.

"Rejecting the...advice of shared governance bodies and neutering the faculty’s ability to collectively speak up, particularly at a moment when senior leaders may lack the courage or willingness to do so, would be not just wrong and misguided but a betrayal of their obligations to the institution."

I've been asked about software engineering and cyber security opportunities in Minnesota for two transgender people looking to leave Iowa after the state decided to remove civil rights protection for transgender people. If you know of such opportunities please let me know so that I can let them know

No time like now to join the AAUP! Just this decision alone makes your dues worth every penny.

"We believe that for science to maximally benefit society and inform policy, its core principles—integrity, transparency, inclusivity, and collaboration—must be upheld."

"At PLOS, we seek diversity because more expert voices make for better science."

Universities should do the same!

Hmmmm...

UMN-TC-AAUP University of Minnesota Twin Cities Chapter

It is always is a good time to join the @aaup.bsky.social and @umn-tc-aaup.bsky.social. But it seems especially important do so now. Click the "Join the AAUP" link at www.umn-tc-aaup.org to join the University of Minnesota Twin Cities chapter.

As the Trump administration & many state governments appear poised to accelerate attacks on higher education as a public good, the AAUP urges colleges & universities to resist the coming onslaught of political interference & defend the core values of higher education.
🧵
www.aaup.org/news/against...

Devastated to learn from my colleague Don Romesburg that the Sonoma State University Women’s and Gender Studies Department is being eliminated, and all its tenured faculty are being fired, as part of “budget reductions”. wgs.sonoma.edu

Thanks for all of this. Amazing out out of touch and downright deceitful MnDOT is.

The looters I want to talk about are the ones who stole our safe and stable climate from us. Millennia of planetary harm for individuals' profit. They set the fires.

Rethinking I-94 Policy Advisory Committee Meeting - Our Streets The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is hosting a virtual Political Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting on Rethinking I-94. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) intends to rem...

Just visited a kindergarten playground and the Merriam Park playground, baseball, soccer and skate park facilities that smell terrible, sound deafening and all overlook I-94. @mndot.bsky.social doesn't want to consider removing the highway. Come ask them why. www.ourstreetsmn.org/event/rethin...

Thank you Rough Draft for having me curate seven books on organizing and building democracy. Here’s what I picked! All titles are in stock at the Kingston store. bookshop.org/shop/roughdr...