Given the rise in colon cancer amongst younger people, every GP should be encouraging folks to get screened when they turn 45 or earlier if there's a family history. I certainly get asked about mammograms each year. The lack of conversation around this makes it seem both more scary and less urgent.
No doubt! I'm glad to hear some docs are asking (even if it's overkill in your case) and I hope that's more the norm than my doc's completely lack of interest. I mean, my dad had polyps but she never asked!
Out of curiosity, for people 45-50, are your doctors asking you about getting a colonoscopy? My (former) GP never once mentioned getting one and instead her hospital system mailed me one of those poop tests without my requesting it. Wasn't sure if it was just my doc or a more common trend.
Just got my first colonoscopy (routine & nothing concerning was found) and I want to tell everyone who has been avoiding it that it wasn't even 1/10th as bad as I'd built it up in my head. It now seems absurd how anxious I was about getting this. If you're 45+, getting checked could save your life.
MAHA's leaders claim they want to end sickness, but they intend to do it by ending chronically ill and disabled people's access to the care that keeps us alive.
The MAHA plan for ending chronic illness is simply ending chronically ill people.🧵
www.patreon.com/posts/156210...
New post: Neoliberal Time and the Promise of Slow Librarianship meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/20...
Illustration of a pink-winged eagle with a white head and talons clutching a rifle in one claw and a missile in the other. Its torso is a black shield marked with an eye inside a triangle, and three surveillance cameras rise from its neck against a pale green background.
"Palantir is creating digital infrastructure for the multiple forms of state violence & control... from the software facilitating mass deportations to the AI wielded in wars against colonized people."
@alfatau.bsky.social explains the drive for domination.
inthesetimes.com/article/pala...
New, from me: Take the Palantir manifesto seriously, if not literally.
It reveals that our tech philosopher kings want public money, but without public accountability. This creates a dilemma for governments unaligned with its techno-fascist vision. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...
I know I should have argued or at least asked questions ("how and why would we do that?" being a big one), but I have found myself often dumbfounded when my colleagues talk about AI.
The comment at our Fri. meeting that I thought would be totally non-controversial, that of course we wouldn't use a chatbot with our students, apparently was. Some of my colleagues argued that, while most chatbots suck, we (a bunch of ref/instruction librarians) could design a better one. WHAT?!?
I am forever saying that if refusal isn't a live option in any decision making process about "AI", then no ethical practice is possible. You've got to be able to stop if the thing is unacceptable.
Or, and hear me out, write how you want. Don't be cowed by LLMs. We do not have to cede territory to the Theft and Murder Machine. We don't write like LLMs; LLMs generate content that is a simulacrum of our work.
I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"
Page 1 of a legal Judgment document from the United States District Court, District of Oregon for Case No. 6:25-cv-02409-MTK, filed on 04/18/26. The plaintiffs are listed as "STATE OF OREGON, et al.," and the defendants are "ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, et al." The document is from United States District Judge Kasubhai. It outlines that final judgment is entered in favor of the Plaintiffs on Counts I, II, III, and IV. Item 3 states the Court holds unlawful, sets aside, and vacates the "Declaration of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services RE: Safety, Effectiveness and Professional Standards of Care for Sex-Rejecting Procedures on Children and Adolescents".
Page 2 of a legal judgment document for Case 6:25-cv-02409-MTK, filed on April 18, 2026. The text outlines a court order declaring that defendants lack the authority to unilaterally establish standards of care that supersede professionally recognized standards for gender-affirming care in the Plaintiff States. It permanently enjoins defendants and their agents, including the HHS-OIG, from enforcing the "Kennedy Declaration" against providers in those states. The document is dated April 18, 2026, and is signed by United States District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai.
Huge news: the court has entered final judgement in Oregon v Kennedy (HHS trans youth care ban) and has vacated the Kennedy declaration and permanently enjoined its enforcement to target gender clinics.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
A new piece from me at @atlantic: Modern medicine has diagnosis crisis, which isn't just about rare diseases — a huge number of people with #longCOVID, #MECFS, & more go needlessly undiagnosed b/c patients aren't listened to, as Alexandra Sifferlin shows: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
These celebrities with their ultra-neoliberal faux female empowerment messages make me incandescent with rage.
We just have to lean in Alex!!! LEAN IN!!!!
BREAKING: A record-high 40 senators just voted to block weapons to Israel, up from 27 last July.
There is much more work to be done, but today was yet another statement that the movement for Palestinian rights is growing in the halls of power.
I think a lot of Wes grads (at least in the 90s) also considered Hampshire. My parents were the reason I didn't apply, but Wesleyan definitely felt like a good fit for me too. It's such a tragedy for free-spirited kids to lose that option.
If you needed another reason to hate Target.
Absolutely heartbreaking.
Registration for 2026 CALM opens Monday, April 13 at 12 noon Eastern time 🎉
www.conferenceonacademiclibrarymanagement.com #LibCALM
🔥😍
Unambiguous evil.
Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman’s Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto
Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman’s Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto theonion.com/man-who-threw-molotov-co...
Been yelling about this *for decades*, literally, as I've seen my area of librarianship - systems - basically get whittled down to glorified vendor support/sales at many institutions. But hey man, everyone loves Libguides.
His taste in music is incredible. So many great acts on here. An absolute gold mine!
Usually, I am thanking past-Meredith for her foresight in doing things that benefit future Meredith, but I'm working on an upcoming presentation and just found a sentence ("It was amazing to see how") with no end and I have no idea what I was going to say there. What amazed me last-Tuesday?!?🫠
