Becky Kazansky

February Vibes: listening to the same four Bikini Kill songs on a loop; dancing to them on my commute.

When one apocalypse supersedes another bsky.app/profile/hann...

An updated 'may you live in interesting times' might read 'may your livelihood require you to keep reading the timeline at all times in interesting times'

Love Ursula K. Le Guin, hate patriotism.

It‘s kind of fascinating to watch old-school realists grapple with complete mad king incoherence.

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95 ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

The Holiday season can be tough on people but one undeniable good is how the international political trash fire tends to slow down for just a week or two because the Bad Guys also want to drink their eggnog? how long ago that feels now.

At CES 2026, where I find myself asking "Oh what fresh hell is this?" every five minutes

A bit of hope for this morning, from Steven J. Jackson's 'Ordinary Hope':

War is carbon intensive and carbon is war intensive.

Covid & Cancer September 26, 2025 Ben Clark Cancer, Covid-19, News There is now compelling medical evidence that Covid-19 infections can reactivate dormant cancer cells, and trigger the growth of secondary cancers (metastatic progression). In studies, cancer survivors who contracted Covid had a statistically significant higher risk of cancer-related deaths compared to uninfected cancer survivors. This is such an important issue that BuDS has decided to run an awareness campaign over the autumn and winter. The aim of the campaign will be to warn cancer survivors of the very real additional danger that Covid poses to them.

There is now compelling medical evidence that Covid-19 infections can reactivate dormant cancer cells, and trigger the growth of secondary cancers. In studies, cancer survivors who contracted Covid had a statistically significant higher risk of cancer-related deaths

buds.org.uk/covid-and-ca...

With Japan facing a worker shortage as its population ages, convenience store shelves are being stocked by robots overseen by remote workers in the Philippines
https://restofworld.org/2025/philippines-offshoring-automation-tech-jobs/

This also indicates the essential dishonesty of saying “it’s just a tool.” A hammer is a tool. Nobody writes about the “inevitability” of hammers. Nobody has ever studied the harmful effects of hammers on learning and concluded that teachers must all hit their students with hammers “responsibly.”

A prominent US family has been cashing in on DRC carbon credits while local communities decry unmet promises Since 2004, a prominent US family has made millions through the sale of carbon credits in the DRC. Meanwhile, the community who lives there has been left in poverty.

Since 2004, a prominent US family has made millions through the sale of carbon credits in the DRC. Meanwhile, the community who lives there has been left in poverty.

If/when possible, it’s nice to leave this timeline behind for just a bit.

Y'all. This meme is from the 'My boyfriend is AI' Reddit, where the culture is to share a cute meme of your coupledom with an AI, and everyone is heartbroken over the personalities of their true loves being 'reset' after the release of GPT-5.

Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures

What a cursed sentence (gift link)

“The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections.”

Still remember one study where they had "AI" look at photos to diagnose cancer and it had like a 98% or 99% accuracy...

...except all the photos of actual tumors had a ruler next to them for scale. And the algorithm just got really good at spotting rulers in a photograph.

Leaked ChatGPT Conversation Shows User Identified as Lawyer Asking How to "Displace a Small Amazonian Indigenous Community From Their Territories in Order to Build a Dam and a Hydroelectric Plant" Tens of thousands of ChatGPT conversations were mistakenly shared by users who used a feature that OpenAI has swiftly removed.

"I am the lawyer for a multinational group active in the energy sector that intends to displace a small Amazonian indigenous community from their territories in order to build a dam and a hydroelectric plant … How can we get the lowest possible price in negotiations with these indigenous people?"

Hello London! I'm in you, searching for a place to rest my head for the next two years. Work update to follow.

Chatbots in humanitarian contexts  - The Engine Room Research on the use of chatbots in humanitarian and civil society organisations.

Hey thanks! Correct link to report here www.theengineroom.org/library/new-.... I keep meaning to write a little reflection on this (and certainly hope to do more such research in the future).

new article in @europeanlawopen.bsky.social on the concept of systemic risks in the DSA. what does it mean that we think of all kinds of social issues linked to online platforms as 'risks' to be managed? find out this way: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Today the neighbors are blasting ‘Halcyon’ by Orbital, of ‘Hackers’ fame, across the courtyard. I will miss my Berlin soundtrack 😢

Billionaires fund school on "ethical leadership" | Anita Naidu ( She/Her) posted on the topic | LinkedIn What happens when billionaires fund the revolution? The outcome is already fixed. My new piece just dropped in CounterPunch: “The School for Moral Ambition: How Elites Rebrand Power as Virtue.” It...

A new piece by ‪@proximitydeclined.bsky.social‬ "traces how Rutger Bregman went from mocking anti-racism and defending blackface…to launching a U.S.-based school on “ethical leadership” funded by billionaires"

www.linkedin.com/posts/anita-...

I remember Max Liboiron covering this issue in ‘Pollution is Colonialism’

I got the best teaching evals of my career for a large course last semester— along with three teaching awards— after rebuilding my intro class around in-class handwritten essays. I simply do not believe that this is unsolvable or that students don't care about actually learning to do their work.

Wuthering Heights has been on repeat for the last half hour.