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Kendra, PhD

@dnakendra.bsky.social
3.1K followers 1.8K following 6.2K posts

Queer scientist mom r nerd gardner she/her. Officially unemployed! Open to consulting (bioinformatics/stats/workshops).

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Reposted by Kendra, PhD
Deb Haaland @debhaalandnm.bsky.social · 7h
My grandparents survived the terrible abuse of the Federal Indian Boarding School Era. That trauma wasn't isolated to the past—it was carried down through my family all the way to me. And there are so many families like my own across Indian Country.
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Meredith Rose @mrose.ink · 29/09/2026
So where does Congress get its information about complex topics? From lobbyists. Some of them--the most aggressive and well-financed--are from industry. Others are from professional groups or single-issue orgs. Some are from public interest nonprofits. And everyone rocks up with different facts. 8/
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Applied for a FAS job with the most annoying validator-if you typed the code at any sort of a normal speed it would hop to the next field and copy all previous letters. Is that the check? That you notice the fields are being filled with multiple characters?
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Here's the thing about letting a few unelected ivy league lawyers overturn laws that our elected representatives pass-we don't have to, so lets stop. Also, pack that court. By a lot. Not 13 justices, 100. And they have to come from a variety of backgrounds.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Praise the equinox goddess, middle kid has decided that he likes eggs again. It's been a rough few years of scrambling (ba da bump) to get him enough protein for breakfast.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hospital ai vs insurance ai is a beautiful computer centipede for siphoning money out of healthcare and into hospital and insurance profits. Centralized costing via universal healthcare would fix that.
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
the Trump admin just made its 40th application to the Supreme Court for emergency relief, since January 2025 for comparison, the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden admins made a combined total of 25 shadow docket applications over the course of 20 years ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/ketan...
ballsandstrikes.org
Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Getting Tired of the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Abuses
The conservative supermajority keeps refusing to take the real-world harms of its work seriously.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026
The before and after it's even more haunting.
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Circ @tinyicecat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This news is important because all the fucks out there actively attempting to wreck the world want you to think that the work is hopeless and just mitigating the worst case scenario. It's not. Fucking keep going.
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 26/09/2026
Microsoft's data center subcontractor in New Jersey illegally runs a bunch of gas "backup" generators on site, figuring they won't get caught or will just eat the wrist-slap fines if they do. Regulatory enforcement is so bad that a third party had to take drone images to get the state to act.
theguardian.com
New Jersey datacenter fined $1.1m after visual investigation showed dozens of unpermitted generators
State regulator’s record fine for DataOne facility in Vineland follows Floodlight investigation with the Guardian
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Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You don’t gut the country's capacity to measure what's happening in its schools because you care about improving them. Guardian article below.
graph of number of employees at NCES
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Mop Bucket @mopbucket.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Sure would suck if Gen Z learned prompts instead of job skills and then the AI bubble collapsed That probably won't happen though right
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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026
We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/
a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 25/09/2026
The Department of Homeland Security said it found 16,000 noncitizen voters in one state—but didn’t get a single name right. trib.al/lr22q1W
trib.al
DHS Witch Hunt Falls Apart as It Can’t Name a Single Noncitizen Voter
The Department of Homeland Security said it found 16,000 noncitizen voters in one state—but didn’t get a single name right.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Raskin made a holy shit observation on MS Now this afternoon: Since taking office, Trump has made a million dollars per hour for himself. Every hour, he has made more than twice the president’s annual salary.
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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The sunny side of this delusion is the computer gives you a flying car and makes it so you don't have to work. The blackpill one is that it wipes us out via some cinematic method TBD. Two futures you don't actually have to live in. Both are abdications, and embarrassingly childish on their face.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Great piece from @pemalevy.bsky.social and @ariberman.bsky.social on the Redemption-Era evils the Roberts Court has resurrected www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Jim Crow was on the ash heap of history. Then came the Roberts court.
The disaster the justices have unleashed has its roots in one of the darkest periods of our past.
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Michael McDonald @electproject.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Every. F*cking. Time. The. Same. Story. Make a big fraud claim that doesn't hold up on inspection. The goal is to create doubt, not provide truth www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
nytimes.com
From 15,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A lot of things make me feel kind of dumb, including how to take at face value the logic of “we are a multibillion dollar transnational industry building a vengeful elder god, and we definitely won’t stop unless you regulate us the way we want, which is a secret.”
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
some of it is about the nature of predatory inclusion. AI is the fulfillment of predatory extraction's end-game: to make more precarity while also making better, faster tools for financializing that precarity. Alphaschools expose that contradiction.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A recent survey found that 92% of U.S. adults have delayed or avoided medical care due to high costs. Meanwhile, a new study from Yale estimates that Medicare for All would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion a year. If this country was truly “pro-life,” we would have universal healthcare.
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Nick Holmes @thehandlab.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
too much?
An introductory slide from my Research Methods module, explaining how LLMs ('AI') work. The slide narrative is:
"
1. Experts like us
2. Create knowledge together
3. And share it. Often for free
4. Super-rich tech companies take our creations. Often illegally
5. Mince them into 'AI' slop + CO2
6. And $ell them back to us

Cut out the tech companies.
Read and think for yourself.
Talk directly to the experts - us.
"

I'm hoping that students might actually engage with the module materials and the expert lecturers rather than, I don't know, sitting in the dark on their own in their room staring into the shiny abyss.

(the implication that tech bosses should be put into a meat grinder is entirely unintended. i just wish they'd fuck off.)

(some of the icons may be copyrighted - many apologies to the creators if so: I got them from a google search so who knows what they've stolen. hypocrite much..?)
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
technologyreview.com
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
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Maurice Mitchell 🐺 @mauricewfp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
AI billionaires are using this tech to impoverish working people and keep the most vulnerable among us indebted forever. Both the Republicans and Dems are failing to lead in this moment. We need a party who will call this evil shit out for what it is. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/b...
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dr. rich traditions, JD @helldude.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
it's weird that ai got too dangerous to keep advancing right around the time money got more expensive to borrow
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CREW @citizensforethics.org · 22/09/2026
The Trump admin admitted that at least twice this term, it has cancelled federal grants and denied government services to states or individuals based on their political identity or voting record. That violates the Hatch Act. So we filed a complaint.
citizensforethics.org
Trump administration’s politicized federal grant decisions violate the Hatch Act - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
The Trump administration’s admitted cancellation of federal grants to states based on their political identity is a Hatch Act violation.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Senator Paula Simons 🇨🇦 @senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I keep meeting smart informed Albertans who tell me they do not intend to vote, because they don’t want to legitimize the process, or because they know the premier is not bound by the results. But what if making us give up on voting is the whole point? My argument to vote - no matter the absurdity.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
While we were traveling, we had to shelter in a dining hall during a tornado watch. The kids colored with another family that was using "adult" markers and coloring books. So, dw got some for the kids for rainy days. The baby has been working on this for 20min straight.
Child's hand holding a makrer over a mostly uncolored mandala. The parts that are colored use nearly every color.
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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026
I just honestly can't get over that Save Women Sports, an anti-trans group could only find five trans athletes competing K through 12. Five. The NCAA president testified a year and a half ago or so that there were less than 10 college level trans athletes. What the fuck are we doing, people
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
My 2 older kids have both gone to lottery based magnet public schools that were created to address CT's rampant school segregation. It's much easier for white kids in the suburbs to get into these school than Black and Latino kids from Hartford.
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I want the name of every consultant who convinces a Democrat to run an ad ceding ground to trans hatred, and I want them blacklisted by the party and noted so I can never give a cent to anyone who hires them ever again.
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Super Shoe @shoe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is incredible nitter.app/banteg/statu... H/t @gregdoucette.bsky.social
nitter.app
banteg (@banteg)
>be me >discover effective altruism >apparently normal charity is inefficient >why donate to random sad thing when spreadsheet can tell you optimal sad thing >fair enough >buy mosquito nets >save live...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Good to see this national AI conversation get going. But it’s still too much on Silicon Valley’s terms. The rest of us don’t have to act like everything is computer. We can talk real world instead of sci fi. We don’t need to put tech companies’ power and profit first, and societal impacts second.
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Ipsita Chatterjea (she/her) @ichatterjea.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
While others are trying to cow you into submission over skynet, United Healthcare will use repeated Medicare Advantage denials to speed up killing your elders by eliminating stable care without a fight every 5-6 days, w/ more work while waiting on an appeal and/or coordinating a return home.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Tragedy! Dairy bar is out of kid1's favorite flavor.
static.klipy.com
Inside Out Sadness Crying: I Miss You
Alt: Inside Out Sadness Crying: I Miss You
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 18/09/2026
honestly some of the most apocalyptic impacts of "AI" will be shit like this, and most of the doomsday dipshits predicting SkyNet can't be bothered to notice or care
arstechnica.com
UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges
For the largest health insurer in the US, AI's error rate is like a feature, not a bug.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Kid1 is 16 today. All they want for their birthday is a particular ice cream from the diary bar and beans and rice "with everything". I'm thinking red and green chile sauces (have everything for both), avocado, onion, tomato, cheese. What else could we put on beans and rice?
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Dan Larson @danlarson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Writers/Musicians/Artists told you from Day 1 that this was theft. Straight up. Always has been.
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Professor KPA 🗃️😷 @kpanyc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I spend all day reading about people in the early 19th c who just dropped like flies every day for lack of vaccines and antibiotics. There is no way to explain the rabidity of anti-vax and anti-abortion except that they want to kill certain people.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Baby just came downstairs very sad because she can't find her horsies because "bad mommy makes me clean up all my toys"
static.klipy.com
Hunter Franklin: What Kind Of Mother Are You?
Alt: Hunter Franklin: What Kind Of Mother Are You?
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Fixed the thing in the fridge that is dripping. But after sealing it up, realized the hardware ordered black sealant. Not just stuff that went on black then dried clear or white. Now have removed all the sealant and ordered it in white. Someday I'll fix the drip.
static.klipy.com
Philip Wang: We're Gonna Have To Redo It
Alt: Philip Wang: We're Gonna Have To Redo It
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17/09/2026
We really can't let ourselves get accustomed to this. He's telling the people of NC that he's going to let them die if they don't vote how he wants.
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Ryan Calo @rcalo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Banning "superintelligent" 🤢 AI plays right into industry rhetoric and keeps the focus off immediate, real world harms such as privacy, bias, and labor. Literally the same name of the silly Bostrom book everyone was reading 12 years ago.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This bullshit is exhausting.
2 skeets. The top is a nature article about AI "agent" that can collaborate and answer questions. The second is a quote tweet of TMLR's 10 paper experiment asking authors of papers that were going to be desk rejects questions about their papers-most failed that test.

Text below

"Complete multi-step task
Getty
A Agent
is an autonomous software sys uses artificial intelligence to r ant make decisior
Al tool turns any paper into an 'agent' that can collaborate and answer complex queries The Paper2Agent system makes it easier for researchers to reproduce p...
6 www.nature.com
From Discover Dr. Scandal Piñata @dr-g.myat... 40m What are we even doinq anvmore
ml Transactions o... @tmlrorg.... 3h TMLR has faced a deluge of submissions, necessitating stricter desk rejection policies due ta imited reviewer capacity
Co-EiC Nihar Shah reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk reject. Could they answer questions about their *own * submission? medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask
->
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I haven't been able to log into my kid's school portal since roughly april. I've emailed the person in charge of this interface tens of times, they've responded a couple of times. Do I copy the superintendent (as far as I can tell, their direct supervisor)?
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Being home right now means i can walk middle kid to school rather than drive. For the past week, I've stopped fighting the baby's not wanting to walk by just throwing her on my back. 1 (or 2) 25min walks a day with >30lbs on my back is going to get me into some kind of shape.
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Kendra, PhD @dnakendra.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Queer Science! 1 day *free* conference for high school students. Participate in science and engineering activities, see UConn labs, hang out with queer scientists. Oct 17. Food is provided. Info and registration vergnano.institute.uconn.edu/programs-opp...
If you know any queer teens in the CT/MA/RI region and they're at all interested in STEM. We queer scientist and engineers at UConn are hosting our 4th Queer Science conference. Its 1 day (oct 17) and completely free. We'll even feed the participants breakfast and lunch!

Info and registration. https://vergnano.institute.uconn.edu/programs-opportunities/queer-science/
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
They absolutely want the conversation to be "will this become as a god and judge mankind?!" instead of "what are we doing about all the guys using it to generate CSAM?" Advertisement, and a way of shifting the conversation from real world harms to their cocaine-fueled delusions of grandeur.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
Laws are not pre-existing agentive structures, waiting in the firmament to be discovered and then causing effects in the world by the mere perception of them. Laws are made by people and people can unmake them. That is what Congress is and is for. This can be changed, again.
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