Sounds great!

If LinkedIn is one of the social media sites most wallowing in AI slop, then perhaps Graeber's point that many white collar jobs in capitalist economies, are no more than "bullshit", is truer than ever.

Love this! Does it lead to some great discussions about the different kinds of social connections created on vision-centric platforms (powered by algorithms) and poetry, kin-based community?

This is certainly true here in Aotearoa/New Zealand where dramatic changes to the funding landscape have removed nearly all funding for social science and humanities unless it is pro market/industry

The ongoing extension of the term "sovereignty" in this field dilutes some of the more important work being done by concepts such as "story sovereignty" in safeguarding cultural rights of indigenous and marginalised peoples

"I chose the title Dissimulation because it describes the process of using false appearances to hide a form of reality. It brings to mind a sense of trickery and illusion, which I think is quite apt when we are thinking about what is often called Artificial Intelligence"

A great take! In a different piece, could consider thinking about alternative conceptions of "need" from indigenous and de-colonial perspectives as well :)

My family tried to eat fewer ultra-processed foods for five years. Here’s what we learned Cutting UPFs from our grocery list was expensive, laborious and time-consuming

For the past five years, Jen has sent me (and her larger circles of friends) an annual email tracking her food expenditure. Cool to see the fruit of this record keeping coming out in this analysis about UPFs and food justice. www.theguardian.com/global/2026/...

Its interesting the role that language can play in perpetuating historical biases. And also cool to see people deliberately trying to use other languages to side-step these issues. e.g. Here in Aotearoa some people rely on te reo Māori (language) to help them think critically about genAI.

"Whether or not we pay attention to the world’s “scentscape,” heat and pollution are causing it to shift. As temperatures rise, man-made substances release more scent molecules, and biodiversity loss due to climate change threatens the plants that scent the environment".

Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest battles Meta over fake ads Australian billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest is asking a US federal court in Silicon Valley to hold Meta accountable for scam ads using his likeness without permission.

Meta should be accountable for the content it is paid to amplify: "argues that Meta's artificial intelligence tools optimised and personalised fraudulent ads before distributing them, thereby making Meta an active participant, rather than a mere intermediary". www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...

"A study by researchers at the University of Oxford found that LLMs routinely conduct their core reasoning in English, even when prompted in other languages. They translate the output at the final stage. A user receives flawless text . . . but the underlying logic originates elsewhere".

" Sama has been sued repeatedly for its low pay and the fact that many of its workers suffer PTSD from repetitively looking at graphic content. For years, a giant sign outside its office read: “Samasource THE SOUL OF AI.”

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

Behind bars: Inside the prison filled with Sydney’s violent men In movies and TV shows, prisons are the setting for crooks to serve out lengthy sentences. But in Sydney, a different story is playing out.

NSW taking DV more seriously, leading to large inmate numbers for DV + a shift in culture : "“It was wrong to hit a woman – that was a rule that once applied inside,” he says. “But generations have changed and, unfortunately, in here there’s not that stigma around it.” www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

Bets on US-Iran ceasefire show signs of insider knowledge, say experts Number of new online accounts on Polymarket platform betting a total of $70,000 suggest ‘some degree of inside info’

"Polymarket, whose investors include a venture capital firm owned by Donald Trump Jr, has faced criticism and regulatory scrutiny over potentially facilitating war profiteering and insider trading".

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Women are less likely than men to receive CPR. This surf club is looking to change that NSW Ambulance data shows women are 10 per cent less likely than men to receive CPR from a bystander in public, and 50 per cent less likely to get defibrillation .

NSW Ambulance data shows women are 10 per cent less likely than men to receive CPR from a bystander in public, and 50 per cent less likely to get defibrillation .

The impact on victims is dire: “One lawyer relayed that a dispute that historically would’ve cost a client about $2,000 wound up costing over $20,000 as the opposing party filed AI-generated motion after AI-generated motion. . . what should’ve been about $5,000 in client fees to over $70,000"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuDA... "Here a whole island once

You were once green globes of roots pandanus and whispers of canoes "

Cylindrical glass beads in bright shades of blue and turquoise with white horizontal stripes

Glass beads were a luxury product in Bronze Age central Europe. These 3,000 year-old beads were found in the pile-dwelling settlements of Sipplingen and Hagnau-Burg at Lake Constance. They were probably made in the Alpine foothills from raw glass imported from Italy.

📷 @almbawue.bsky.social
🏺

"More than 40 percent of the videos that followed in a fifteen minute session appeared to have AI visuals. That’s striking: instead of recommending more traditional children’s content, the algorithm, seemingly by default, gravitated towards AI."

"This is not the story of accidents. Rather, it chronicles how a refugee crisis has metastasized into something more insidious — an infrastructure of permanent crisis."

"Pakistan’s bar associations announced a three-day strike in protest. Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists described the trial as a miscarriage of justice. Legal observers pointed to what they said were clear violations of due process."

Woolworths forced to rein in chatbot that claimed to have angry mother Woolworths has been forced to tweak its AI-powered virtual assistant after users reported bizarre interactions with the chatbot.

"Even when connecting me to a human it made fake typing sounds"
www.smh.com.au/business/com...

<em>American Anthropologist</em> | AAA Anthropology Journal | Wiley Online Library As anthropology reckons with its past, present, and future, anthropologists increasingly seek to challenge inequities within the discipline and academia more broadly. Anthropology, regardless of subd....

"Writing in community is a collaborative form of writing that centers care, abundance, joy, and personal satisfaction over the individuality currently rewarded by the academy. . . .engenders consensus, circumvents normative hierarchical research" anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Being “left behind” is straight up 19th cent #socialevolutionism. It’s giving “three stages of development” vibes. It’s a “Morgan, Spencer and Tylor go into a bar”-joke without anybody laughing. It’s myth without structure. It’s #anthropology without humans. It’s bullshit without Graeber #ContraAI 🤖

Lots of Little Fires | Social Innovation and Advocacy through Storytelling Lots of Little Fires creates video stories with community leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand to shift funding, policy, and power. Stories led by lived experience that change how decisions get made.

Too good not to share: These affirming videos for social change from here in the Waikato, New Zealand: "Every story here shows something that actually shifted. Actual change. These are the fires already lit. Some are roaring. Some are still catching." www.lotsoflittlefires.co.nz

"Flood, fire and heat risk now feed into mortgage underwriting, bond ratings, supply-chain planning and insurance portfolios (Condon, 2023). That is a powerful reason for the corporate lineage to invest—and to treat its best climate knowledge as a proprietary edge".

"In Mandarin, Malfoy 马尔福 (Ma er fu) contains phonetic elements that resonate with words associated with horses (马, ma) and good fortune (福, fu). Hanging Malfoy upside-down on a door or wall extends the same pun, suggesting “good horse fortune has arrived” in your home"