Ivan J. Ramirez

CU signs $2M OpenAI deal for ChatGPT access Students and faculty will gain access to ChatGPT Edu starting in March under a three-year deal.

My employer, Univ. Colorado will pay OpenAI $2M/year under the banner of “equity”. That’s 54 full scholarships / year. Plus, our IT will be able to read our chatGPT logs, and our chats can be requested under public records law. No thanks. Surveillance is not equity

www.axios.com/local/boulde...

Project 2025 says (re: weather & climate) that "emphasis on prediction & management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable." But it's clear that broader federal bureaucracy is being forcibly dismantled to prevent anticipation or mitigation of foreseeable future harm.

State Dept. orders nonprofit libraries to stop processing passport applications Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean and John Joyce have proposed bipartisan legislation that would allow nonprofit public libraries to continue to serve as passport acceptance.

The SAVE act will disenfranchise millions, mostly women

It requires ID that matches your birth certificate or passport

If you’ve had a name change, your birth certificate won’t match

The State Dept is banning libraries from processing passport applications

They don’t want certain people to vote

Excellent book! One of my favorites last year.

Some good news today!! Also Denver Public Library is amazing!

Not surprised about the prize though - the book is really good!!

Revealed: US climate denial group working with European far-right parties Representatives of Heartland Institute linking up with MEPs to campaign against environmental policies

Heartland Institute ^ is one of Atlas Network’s hundreds of partners that has worked hardest to destroy consensus on climate.

Merchants of Doubt describes many Atlas partners’ work. Protecting dirty industry is a big job & it pays.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Hey folks, tried putting together a letter in direct response to the NSF unprompted decision. Feel free to offer suggestion or to add your name as a signatory, and thanks to those that did it alredy! Current text follows (errors all mine!)...

brave students standing up for their neighbors

NY officials raise rainbow flag at Stonewall in rebuke of Trump administration New York politicians defiantly raised a rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument amid a boisterous, cheering crowd.

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Feb 12 AP:
After Natl Park Service takes pride flag down from flagpole at NYC's Stonewall National Monument, city leaders -- including Manhattan Borough President -- and 100 activists & residents show up to raise it again.

Even when we shut these concentration camps down, the damage itself cannot be undone
Every day it continues, our future generations are further damaged

Google is stifling anti-ICE speech in the workplace as 1,200 employees call on the company to cut ties The search giant has made it harder and riskier to protest its policies. Workers are still fighting back. Plus: A community takes down a data center, QuitGPT, and the 5 worst Super Bowl AI ads.

At Google, speech critical of ICE is censored from the company's internal platform, employees who speak out are served with warnings, and leadership refuses to acknowledge a petition that's now gotten 1,200 employee signatures.

Inside the worker-led push to get ICE out of Google:

The E.P.A. Is Barreling Toward a Supreme Court Climate Showdown

Public opinion is not cited in this @nytimes.com story, but repealing the endangerment finding would likely be quite unpopular. Our most recent survey report finds that 74% of American registered voters support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/c...

it's wild how much time and energy is dedicated to threatening people with AI destroying their livelihood as opposed to actually demonstrating how AI could benefit anyone. it really is all about sticking it to those smug [checks notes] passenger attendants

Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude

Trump Admin Removes Pride Flag From Historic Stonewall National Monument

The Trump administration removed a Pride flag at the NYC monument honoring the Stonewall uprising, a key turning point for LGBT rights in America

Read Read chapter Reference Guide on Climate Science: The 4th edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence updates the topics covered in the 2011 3rd...

The chapter is still available on the version of the report posted to the National Academies website:

Elevating the Discipline: Creating Pathways for Geographers as Public Scholars Geographers are well suited to be public scholars, due to their specialized training and interdisciplinary perspectives, which equip them to “ground-truth” and convey knowledge on a wide variety of...

Here is the link: doi.org/10.1080/2469...

Full article: Elevating the Discipline: Creating Pathways for Geographers as Public Scholars

Climate science removed from judicial manual after GOP complaints Republican attorneys general argued the new chapter would put judges “firmly on one side” of climate lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.

More disturbing news today about the removal of scientific evidence from decision-making processes in our federal government. Censoring educational materials about the climate crisis will not make it go away - it will just make our public institutions less equipped to deal with it.

Florida Introduces “Sanitized” Sociology Textbook The volume was created after a state review found that existing course materials violated a law prohibiting general education courses from teaching about systemic inequality. So far, at least two univ...

College sociology textbook specially written to placate Florida censors, omits any mention of systemic inequality. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

#rp #graspingattheroots #blackenvironmentaljustice #climatejustice | Tishman Environment and Design Center #rp Climate Justice Alliance 🎬 Coming February 7, 2026 Grasping at the Roots — a love letter to the Black Environmental Justice movement — will be available to stream for free. As temperatures rise ...

www.linkedin.com/posts/rp-gra...

Disrespect for the Rule of Law Undermines Science and Fundamental Social Norms - AAG AAG - Disrespect for the Rule of Law Undermines Science and Fundamental Social Norms - All -

"Disrespect for the Rule of Law Undermines Science and Fundamental Social Norms"

"[The] hard-fought gains for a more peaceful, humane and sustainable world, in which many geographers played a critical role, must not be relinquished."
by @williamgmoseley.bsky.social

www.aag.org/disrespect-f...
🧪

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

At the event, some faculty members were upset about how Stephanie Arado, a U violin professor, was treated after she wore a black tunic with “The Evil Must End Now” on the front and “ICE Out” on the back...Then U police officers told Arado that she had to leave Northrop

Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...

these conditions are horrifying. this is an amazing story of community organizing strategy and commitment, as well as another example of the criminalization of mutual aid @lataco.bsky.social

Tenure Will Be Eliminated at Most of Oklahoma’s Public Colleges, Governor Says Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, directed the state’s two-dozen regional universities and community colleges to phase out the practice. Existing faculty members will be grandfathered in.

Breaking, from me: An executive order from Oklahoma's governor directs most of the state's public colleges to "phase out tenure." #AcademicSky #HigherEd @chronicle.com
www.chronicle.com/article/tenu...

Donate to A cry for Emergency help from an ICE victim, organized by Samson Williams My name is Samson Williams, and I am a second-year MPP student at the Hump… Samson Williams needs your support for A cry for Emergency help from an ICE victim

The wife of one of our master’s students was detained by ICE last month. She was released, but was so traumatized that she has left MN out of fear. He is now caring for his two daughters alone and had to bring his toddler to class yesterday. Please help him out if you can 🩵

gofund.me/6222f0e3d

After 6am this morning in Whittier, Minneapolis—FOUR BLOCKS from where Pretti was murdered.

18 agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) markings smashed an apartment window, ran in, and came out with one man.

The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023.

The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets.

https://ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3

Remember her name: Aliya Rahman

Her testimony is everything and it deserves to be heard, by everyone. Decide for yourself.

It’s powerful. It’s gut-wrenching. And no one should have to survive what she did.

ICE MUST GO‼️