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Posts by Penny Wheeler

7/7. It's worth dwelling on this point. It’s hard for Americans to process that their hard right politics is in large measure a Russian and Hungarian import — intellectually and also financially. We should take advantage of the defeat of Orbán to let this basic fact sink in.
bsky.app/profile/empt...

6 days ago 1426 538 19 12
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Whistleblower says Trump officials thought USAID did 'just abortions,' asked for 'Barney-style' slides before gutting agency, per new book Read an exclusive excerpt from Nicholas Enrich's "Into the Wood Chipper"

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health.

'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

1 week ago 9610 4174 153 386
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"Our interests in Europe and the UK are the same. Our values in Europe and the UK are the same. We need a UK voice in Europe. We really miss you guys."

President Alexander Stubb of Finland offers his view on Brexit.

Watch the event ➡️ bit.ly/4lGe54k

1 month ago 138 49 5 3
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The Jazz Pictures the FBI Silenced Fearing for her safety, Lisette Model buried her photos of artists like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, but a new book reveals them to the world.

"The Jazz Pictures the FBI Silenced---Fearing for her safety, Lisette Model buried her photos of artists like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, but a new book reveals them to the world" hyperallergic.com/the-jazz-pic...

1 month ago 22 7 0 0
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Ten simple rules for teaching data science A new paper from Tiffany Timbers (UBC) and Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel (Duke), and lessons I learned from my time with Software Carpentry

I wrote a short blog post about this paper, reflecting on my own time as a @carpentries.carpentries.org Software Carpentry instructor blog.stephenturner.us/p/ten-simple...

2 months ago 7 5 0 0

So, so sorry. What a dear little puppy!

2 months ago 1 0 1 0

MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates have the opportunity to do something so hilarious right now. There are 300 recently unemployed journalists who would love the opportunity to help them fight the darkness that is consuming our democracy.

2 months ago 53 13 3 0
Library of Babel Group logo with hexagon pattern.

Library of Babel Group logo with hexagon pattern.

Just a reminder to consider the Library of Babel Group. We have projects afoot and opportunities to network with like-minded folks. www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...

4 months ago 7 5 0 1
Monty Pythons - Meaning of Life - The Crimson Permanent Assurance
Monty Pythons - Meaning of Life - The Crimson Permanent Assurance YouTube video by Matt Laufenberg

For pirate inspiration youtu.be/aSO9OFJNMBA?...

3 months ago 1 0 0 0

Made a conscious decision to focus on AI/bigtech in early 2025 and I'm glad I did

It's a systemic attack on both the means of climate action (evidence-based facts, the written / spoken word, visual communication) and the ends (trying to stop fossil fuel use). I think it's starting to sink in, now

3 months ago 200 45 7 1
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Eight-hour day 1856: Melbourne building workers win an eight-hour day

or back to 1856 if set in Australia ;) www.nma.gov.au/defining-mom...

4 months ago 1 0 0 0
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Seven quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025 Here are the year's breakthroughs for the climate and nature you might have missed.

Some much-needed good news, including

• renewables overtake coal as source of electricity globally
• new oceans protections pledged in the High Seas Treaty
• landmark litigation to facilitate accountability for climate breakdown
• indigenous wins at COP

🌱❣️🌊

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

4 months ago 145 43 0 0
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Tymofiy Mylovanov on X: "Snyder describes an ongoing research project with unusual scale: 3 years of work by 100+ Ukrainian and international scholars writing a “longue durée” history of Ukraine, from geology and ecology to the present war. 2/" / X Snyder describes an ongoing research project with unusual scale: 3 years of work by 100+ Ukrainian and international scholars writing a “longue durée” history of Ukraine, from geology and ecology to the present war. 2/

A thread describing an absolutely fascinating project about the Deep History (and meaning) of Ukraine. x.com/Mylovanov/st...

4 months ago 0 3 1 0
2 candles alight

2 candles alight

#bondi

4 months ago 1 0 0 0
Poster pack held by a rural-looking man near a car. There is a steel plate water tank once used for the steam trains with the humorous ad “More water for Amgoorie Tea”

Poster pack held by a rural-looking man near a car. There is a steel plate water tank once used for the steam trains with the humorous ad “More water for Amgoorie Tea”

Now across the border in South Australia #liveness at #ASCILITE2025

4 months ago 4 0 1 0
Poster in rough packing leaning up against a vehicle at a station in western NSW, tank stands and sheds nearby

Poster in rough packing leaning up against a vehicle at a station in western NSW, tank stands and sheds nearby

Poster on way to #ascilite25 @wentale.bsky.social

4 months ago 7 0 3 0
The Treasurer of Australia walks in front of a painting which resembles a line graph tracking decline; the headline is "Inflation figures prove this is everyone's fault."

The Treasurer of Australia walks in front of a painting which resembles a line graph tracking decline; the headline is "Inflation figures prove this is everyone's fault."

Very funny 🤣 -- great crypto-chart @crikey.com.au fyi @infobeautiful.bsky.social

4 months ago 1 0 0 0
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Fifteen Years

i’m not crying you’re crying

xkcd: Fifteen Years

4 months ago 5034 1345 77 142
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Canola fields in bloom to illustrate springtime in eastern Australia

Canola fields in bloom to illustrate springtime in eastern Australia

Winter is coming ... end of UK summer time means #lthechat is at a more Australia-friendly time

5 months ago 4 0 1 0

Huge congrats to a real ed-tech hero, @linkletter.org, who survived a five-year legal odyssey after he posted a critique of Proctorio on social media. linkletter.org/update-33-th...

I so admire Ian's bravery in the face of corporate bullying. Kudos and congrats, Ian!!!

5 months ago 23 6 0 0
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How to turn off Gemini in your Gmail, Docs, Photos, and more - it's easy to opt out It's a little hidden, but there is a way to remove Gemini from your favorite Google services.

Turn off Gemini in Google!
It's been turned on by default.

Go to your Drive, click the gear icon, click settings, go to "manage apps" and uncheck that nasty "use by default" box.

www.zdnet.com/article/how-...

5 months ago 1001 701 4 14

Telling moment: I was walking back from the rally, but a couple miles from it, carrying nothing but my gigantic American flag. An eight year old on his bike sees me with it and yells "No Kings!!" with absolute conviction.

My friends, they have lost the flag.

6 months ago 10894 1752 141 88

Class is in session! Thanks, @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social, for this analysis of the importance of this moment.

"This is how you visually dismantle fascist iconography." Yes!

6 months ago 86 22 2 1
Video

#nokings
Portland frog brigade

6 months ago 18973 4670 300 511
Sara Whitmer
• • •
1h • 8
I'm sure many of you have heard by now that earlier this week, IU k*lled the print edition of its student paper, the IDS. The issue that was supposed to print this week contained criticism of the Whitten regime and IUs further slide into scist control, and they couldn't allow that to happen during Homecoming, when all the rich alumni are in town.
Enter Purdue! The Purdue student paper, The Exponent, owns its own presses. Yesterday, in an act of tremendous solidarity with their biggest rival school, they printed the forbidden issue of the IDS. They then drove it to Bloomington overnight and stocked all of the IDS boxes on campus, just in time for Homecoming.
Solidarity is what makes us stronger, and solidarity will be what ultimately allows us to triumph, if we can ever truly get it together. I hope everyone has a fun, safe day if they're going out today, and I hope we can think about what acts of solidarity we can begin taking to really make this movement MOVE - beyond a permitted expression of upset into more active resistance.
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12 comments

Sara Whitmer • • • 1h • 8 I'm sure many of you have heard by now that earlier this week, IU k*lled the print edition of its student paper, the IDS. The issue that was supposed to print this week contained criticism of the Whitten regime and IUs further slide into scist control, and they couldn't allow that to happen during Homecoming, when all the rich alumni are in town. Enter Purdue! The Purdue student paper, The Exponent, owns its own presses. Yesterday, in an act of tremendous solidarity with their biggest rival school, they printed the forbidden issue of the IDS. They then drove it to Bloomington overnight and stocked all of the IDS boxes on campus, just in time for Homecoming. Solidarity is what makes us stronger, and solidarity will be what ultimately allows us to triumph, if we can ever truly get it together. I hope everyone has a fun, safe day if they're going out today, and I hope we can think about what acts of solidarity we can begin taking to really make this movement MOVE - beyond a permitted expression of upset into more active resistance. 75 12 comments

Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!

6 months ago 6719 1768 137 400
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Giant copy of the Constitution being carried down Pennsylvania Avenue.

6 months ago 18080 4765 208 412
Screen cap from linked article, with heading Significance and then text:

Large Language Models (LLMs) are used in evaluative tasks across domains. Yet, what appears as alignment with human or expert judgments may conceal a deeper shift in how “judgment” itself is operationalized. Using news outlets as a controlled benchmark, we compare six LLMs to expert ratings and human evaluations under an identical, structured framework. While models often match expert outputs, our results suggest that they may rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification. Our findings suggest not only performance asymmetries but also a shift in the heuristics underlying evaluative processes, raising fundamental questions about delegating judgment to LLMs.

Sentence starting with "While models often" is highlighted in blue.

Screen cap from linked article, with heading Significance and then text: Large Language Models (LLMs) are used in evaluative tasks across domains. Yet, what appears as alignment with human or expert judgments may conceal a deeper shift in how “judgment” itself is operationalized. Using news outlets as a controlled benchmark, we compare six LLMs to expert ratings and human evaluations under an identical, structured framework. While models often match expert outputs, our results suggest that they may rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification. Our findings suggest not only performance asymmetries but also a shift in the heuristics underlying evaluative processes, raising fundamental questions about delegating judgment to LLMs. Sentence starting with "While models often" is highlighted in blue.

I'd love to see someone try to estimate just how much time and money has gone into research that is either fully undermined by reliance on LLMs or fully pointless --- because obvious if you start from an understanding of what LLMs actually are.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

6 months ago 480 126 15 14
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I thought you were a dozen people!

6 months ago 2 0 1 0

This is wild. I’ve never heard this story before.

6 months ago 12 3 0 0
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When Anti-antifa means Pro-Nazi (video) Notes from a Presidential "Roundtable"

USA Government is targeting people who just want things to be normal.
Who was Who in Weimar Germany (video) open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

6 months ago 1 0 0 0