OMG THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!

I would totally read a longform investigative article about this. If some publication wants to pay me to accept one of these MANY invitations and investigate the vast grift operation, I would LOVE to. Though I would probably need to take security with me.

Have you ever ACCEPTED one of these invitations to speak that ends up in our SPAM folders? Today alone I was invited to Helsinki (education), Prague (nursing), Bangkok (neurology), & Tokyo (infectious diseases), all of which by orgs outside my expertise! I so wonder what happens once you get there!

I used to say this about behavioral economists in the 2010s. Writing about a phenomenon as though they discovered it and fields like sociology and psychology and communication hadn’t already theorized on it for decades. Most of those folks are AI converts these days so this tracks.

I feel like if we could just magically see where all the money was going… from whom, to whom, for what in exchange, this moment of faux-populist techno-fascist anti-science MAHA experimentation would come to a screeching halt.

Figure showing number of competitive grants mentioning women from 2015-2025. The number was rising until recently, with a precipitous drop in the last year.

At the end of 2024, the National Academies put out a report concluding the NIH has woefully underfunded women’s health research, and they suggested $15 B should be invested over the next 5 years.

Here’s what’s happened instead. Hard to study women’s health if you can’t say “women.”

wapo.st/4euUt1c

Americans are more polarized in their trust in scientists than in virtually any other societal institution. — James N. Druckman.
(@umisrcps.bsky.social)
More, via Opinion Today:
opiniontoday.substack.com/p/260420-top...

Even the technical issues aside, one needs only to look at the people who wish to control "AI" and their worldviews to see that granting them gatekeeper status on labor, art, and knowledge is a deeply damaging thing to do

Like, AI literacy in any form will not protect black and disabled folks from the algorithmic bias, and the violence that emerges from it, of spicy autocomplete. Full stop. No amount of AI literacy can protect us in the deployment of the system because it is tracking the wrong problem.

So I am reflecting on AI as one does and I have come to realize that “learn to use AI” and “embrace AI” and “develop AI literacy” won’t fucking protect ua from existential and stochastic harms of AI, and my overlooking this as a vector for criticism is really something.

Anyone arguing that some flavor of AI literacy will protect women from AI deep fake porn is at best unserious and at worst desperate to protect their automated goon generator. This is prima facie not a literacy problem.

When I finish a project an I’m ready to submit, I want to like throw it at the editor and say, “here. its amazing. now you deal with it.” Instead it’s just TEDIUM! file formatting and statements of disclosure and ughhhhh. I need a helper.

No one tells you that submitting an academic manuscript is what will finally convince you you do have ADHD. Cause how tf am I supposed to follow all these tedious instructions? the thing has been “unsubmitted” & “returned” to me once already for failure to blah blah blah. Let’s try this again…

Trump, who said in the 2024 campaign that Kamala Harris would start World War 3, compares his war against Iran to World War II

It’s a completely different number!

Gil Duran tweet: TLDR: Fascism in response to Palantir's long fascists screed on X.

"Your Account is Suspended" Message on X

The CEO of Palantir posted a fascist manifesto on X.

I pointed out that it was fascist—which resulted in a permanent suspension from X (my second time!).

So, when you hear the tweeters complaining that BlueSky is intolerant, remember why many of us came here in the first place.

The Onion Has a New Plan to Take Over Infowars

Never give up, kids

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/b...

Rainbow coloured Infowars logo with an onion for the O

Here it is. 😍

Holy Shit

Also, his fraternity (SPD, the engineering frat) took first place for their Lion King performance and its sooo good! These are all engineers 😂😂😂 I love it! #UDel #BlueHens @coons.senate.gov and @mcbride.house.gov look what UD students do in their free time 💕
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8gxe1Wn/

Ps I would like to go on record as someone who didn’t understand the social & psychological benefits of Greek life until a) COVID destroyed our kids and b) my son joined the engineering fraternity. These organizations are wonderful and can be such assets to students and university life.

Media theory. At first, we talked about different approaches to theory,( post positive list, cultural, critical, normative) then we get into the internal mechanisms of various theories of media influence – many cognitive theories that account for how media might shape individuals and culture

Someday, with luck and hard work, she will have a name too.

Only one international student in this course.

SIGMA KAPPA 3X CHAMPS (my other one is shadowed for copyright) 🦋⭐️🙏🏼🩻 @UD Sigma Kappa #udairband #sigmakappaairband #udel TikTok video by Angelinavelardi

The MC in action introducing Sigma Kappa:
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8g9L4dw/

Handsome redhead kid taking selfie on stage with throngs of people behind him in giant auditorium

Two young dudes on stage addressing GIANT 5k crowd in auditorium.

Being a parent is… so much… and so goddamned cool. My kid co-MCed the huge 5,000 person “air band“ event at UD on Friday where all the fraternities and sororities do these wildly elaborate choreographed lip sync acts… and the pictures he sent us are insane:

Exactly!!!!

New Jersey. Statewide bell to bell ban went into effect last summer.

💯

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!
I am 50 and tired and America is challenging rn so… maybe all of that, too!