Emma Johnston was a visionary scientist, environmentalist and leader, with an abiding hope for humanity The University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, who has died aged 52, was driven by a deep love of science and a desire to safeguard the planet’s future.

Terribly sad and shocking news, so sudden and so young. May she rest in peace, cognisant of her profound impact on our world.

GSC SEMINAR: ‘Extreme Misogyny, Problematic Feminisms and Governmentality of Gender in Post-Socialist China’
Speaker: Dr. Ling Tang, Lecturer in Cultural Studes, University of Melbourne
Date: 2 May 2025 (Fri)
Time: 13:00-14:00

Online registration:
unimelb.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Farewell to Linda Williams We are sorry to learn of the death of Linda Williams, Professor in Film & Media and Rhetoric at University of California, Berkeley. She passed away March 12, 2025 at the age of 79 following a l…

Oh this is terribly sad. Vale Linda Williams, your work was so integral to my thinking and writing on the libidinal economy of the moving image. Rest in peace 😢

Looking forward to this one!!!!

My 3 good things today all happened on my run:
🦵 ran 5km! Nearly tripped over again on a different bit of pavement but caught myself this time.
🚘 ran past a house with 2 swasticars out front and hocked up a big loogie
🎧 my fav techno banger (Kisloty People) shuffled on to perfectly sync w my last km

All of these attacks were used by politicians on both sides and basically every media outlet to justify attacks on pro-Palestinian campaigners, pass repressive new laws and criminalise the anti-genocide movement. Now it’s revealed they were all orchestrated by one criminal syndicate

Just bleak as fuck: “It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment...Therefore, the award is terminated.”

I realize that a lot of this may seem dense and like it’s a bunch of finance shit. But it’s very simple: CoreWeave, a company that sells data centers for the AI boom, loses hundreds of millions doing so and is burdened with debt it cannot hope to serve. Nobody is making money in AI. Nobody.

Donna coded

Vale Sandra Harding, a giant of feminist science studies and the history and philosophy of epistemology. 1935-2025.

Dawn kisses from my sweet Aušrinė, goddess of the morning star

19thc/20thc eugenicists believed that philanthropy and welfare for the "unfit" were "dysgenic" forces--that these contributed to the overall unfitness of a population by "allowing" those they perceived as "unfit" to not only live, but procreate, when it was better to let those classes die.

The new technological infrastructure they develop cannot simply emulate the American model, but in another context. It needs to throw off its control on profit maximization, share price manipulation, and social control. Instead, it needs to embrace open protocols and federated infrastructures with a goal of maximizing the public good rather than creating the next unicorn. The solutions will not come from random coders, software engineers, or hackers though. Properly building out an alternative will necessitate an important role for government to finance development, direct key projects, and keep the public interest at the core of the work instead of letting corporations capture key infrastructures or tech savvy developers build things that only work for themselves. Such an infrastructure will likely be very different than the centralized systems we have today, where a few major companies try to control virtually our entire digital experience. The decentralization such a project requires will ensure that countries have more power to shape how digital systems work in their jurisdictions to better fit their cultural and social norms, but also to allow their citizens access to a wide range of culture, information, and communication tools. There will undoubtedly be challenges on that path, but sorting through them will be far better than remaining dependent on US tech monopolies or simply switching allegiance to those emanating from China.

Truly taking on the United States and its tech industry cannot be done in isolation. Countries must form a new alliance not just to develop an alternative tech infrastructure, but to fundamentally change who that technology serves — the public, not profiteers.

www.disconnect.blog/p/the-united...

A frequent response of Western governments looking to rein in countries acting outside international norms and rules is to hit their ruling classes with sanctions, as has been done in places like Russia and Venezuela. A rogue United States should be subject to similar treatment, and it shouldn’t just hit administration officials, but key private-sector figures backing what the Trump administration is doing. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has debased himself to get in Trump’s good graces, and would be on obvious target for such sanctions, as would far-right financier Peter Thiel and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. But no one is a more obvious target than Elon Musk, the billionaire once praised as a future-building genius who has now made his true nature undeniable to the public. Musk is actively working to remake the US government — in many cases to serve his own interests — and is trying to push his right-wing project internationally, including in Canada.

Canada and its allies should start looking at sanctions against US political and economic leaders, to make them feel the consequences of their actions. That should include tech billionaires, especially Elon Musk.

www.disconnect.blog/p/the-united...

The United States has gone rogue. There must be consequences. Countries must form new alliances and end their dependence on US tech in response to Trump’s trade war

The United States is a rogue state that’s now launched an imperialist trade war against Canada and Mexico.

It’s time for countries, especially its former allies, to form an alliance to make the US feel the consequences of its actions and to break their dependence on US tech once and for all.

Demi Moore can still win if she takes Pennsylvania

Arrived at work nice and early for the first day of semester and was greeted by a gorgeous (huge!) butterfly trying to get into my office building 🦋

Had a nightmare that Elon Musk was my boss and he was trying to hack me up with a chainsaw. Nearly escaped with my wit and ingenuity but then his minions stole my escape vehicle and I ended up also wielding a chainsaw, induced into lateral violence against my peers.

Reminder: we are being trained not to care about other people. It underlines the attacks on migrants, on DEI, on trans youth, on so-called "wokeness."

Sure there are legitimate critiques but this is not about critiques. It's about supercharging capitalism's culture of uncare.

It’s either that or the 5x scented candles and aroma diffuser pumping out Troye Sivan’s twink essence responsible for my newly positive mood 🤷‍♀️

🏋️💪 ok just did a 55min BodyPump sesh (at home) and feel like a brand nu bish. (Skipped the lunge track out of respect for my patella but even the squats seemed to not be a huge issue!)

I’ve setup downtime and added app limits to my phone, they’re so easy to override though. I think I just need to instil better self control 💪

My new casquettes arrived from AliExpress :)))))) 🧢 🚲

🚲🌧️ I just cycled home from doing groceries and missed a downpour by mere minutes
🦵🚲 my knee didn’t hurt or click that much while cycling, so I’ll probably be able to resume cycling to get around from this week
🧹🔋 I was able to vacuum my entire flat thoroughly, w the Dyson battery dying right on time

I find this deeply cringe but my therapists both chastised me for prefacing personal disclosures with “this is so cringe” so consider this therapeutic praxis: when im frustrated or devo I’m going to occasionally STOP, REFLECT, and list 3 GOOD THINGS that recently caught my attention. 🧵

Before anyone suggests charging my phone away from my bed: no, I can’t, I’m a pathetic little baby who can’t sleep without listening to Fall of Civilisations podcast overlayed with isochronic tones / binaural beats and rainfall sounds quietly on my little phone next to my pillow uwu

A part of this is due to *the horrors of our present predicament* of course. Another part is likely because I’m patiently waiting for my injuries to heal so I can get back to running and gym, which has been my salve for the last four months.

I really need better phone-bed nexus hygiene. Lately I’ve found myself doomscrolling in bed before I sleep, which gives me night terrors. Worse still I keep waking up incredibly early (3am, 4am, 5am). Too early to actually get out of bed, and so I doomscroll again, obliterating my optimism and mood.

I’m sorry, but repeating this framing without skepticism is collaborating with your source to mislead your readers. They have been working on humiliating Zelensky and catering to Putin since long before the inauguration. Nothing about this is a response; it’s the plan of an abuser and a charlatan.