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E M

@ecmcgrath.bsky.social
1.4K followers 2.2K following 115 posts

🗃️ 🗄️ 📜 Historian of Latin America, revolution, belonging. The Limits of Revolution: Worker Citizens in a Bolivian Mining City out March 10 from University of Texas Press! utpress.utexas.edu/9781477333297

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David Gerard @davidgerard.circumstances.run.ap.brid.gy · 19h
henstomper

oh my god the slot machine company says i have to keep putting coins in their machine or Im Gonna Get Left Behind. thats so scary. and it has to be true because they know more about slot machines than i do

oh my god the slot machine company says if we dont give them money to build the world's biggest slot machine the chinese are gonna build it first and win all the prizes. and then there wont be any prizes anymore
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TK @archivedspork.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A crazy thing about all this is UMN saw what cuts like this did to the UW system and benefitted from being the upper midwest public university that was still well funded
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Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness @tangledwilderness.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
You know in kids' media, where the villains are like "I love being mean! I hate smiles and laughter! I like things that are bad and ugly!" and you're like well that's fine for little kids but when they get a bit older and start reading YA they'll realize villains can actually be complex? Welp.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
So uhhhhhh… Apparently meta's muse "AI" is just straight up doxxing people to strangers on FB marketplace??? This has the potential to hurt so so many people, and I genuinely wonder how long before they roll out a fix for it.
Screenshot of a post from threads

matt.j.robb & 16h (€) So muse handled my Facebook marketplace today. Just found out it told people my address and agreed a lowball price and then they showed up without it even telling me until late tonight that it messed up.

Absolutely wild. 1/2

[Embedded image of a series of text messages from a meta muse "agent" given the call sign "Jarvis" (Parts of first message obscured by its logo have been replaced with brackets and ellipses and best guesses from context):]

Heads up, Usman is […] building right now for the MX Keys Mini [. He is sta]nding in front of the Shoppers Drug [Mart.]

$10 by e-transfer. The auto-reply told him to message when he's at your door.

10:28 PM Bad news on the MX Keys Mini pickup. Usman showed up at your building around 9:15 and waited, messaged a bunch of times, and nobody came down. He left angry at 9:38 and left a negative rating.

Worse, my auto-reply told him "Yep I'm here!" at 9:27 when you clearly weren't available, which is on me. That's a bad look and it made the no-show worse.

I've sent him an apology from your account owning it and offering to try again another day. But the negative rating is real, and I should probably stop the auto-replies from claiming you're home when I can't verify that. Want me to change the pickup replies so they don't promise you're there?

[reply, presumably from the threads user]: You gotta never do that ever again don't agree for pickup unless you check with me

[Response from Muse "Agent"]: You're right and I'm sorry. That should never have happened. It's locked in now as a hard rule: i will never […you]'re there unless you've explicitly […] that specific pickup. If someone proposes a time, I'll tell them I'll check and…  Screenshot of a tweet from Ray Wong @raywongy:
    Deleted Muse after seeing this post on Threads about how it told some Facebook Marketplace sellers the guy’s address and they showed up at his door

    Dangerous and creepy

    This would have been 1000x worse if the person was a woman
    4:35 PM · Sep 27, 2026
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samuel @quilombo.eurosky.social · 26/09/2026
A new protest demonstration has been called for today in Madrid.
Manifestación 28 septiembre. Ni una Maricarmen más: señalemos a los responsables. Sindicato de Inquilinas e Inquilinos de Madrid.
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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
BREAKING: 94 year old Jewish human rights barrister, Margaret Owen arrested under the Terrorism Act outside Andy Burnham’s Labour Party conference. UK taxpayers are funding these arrests while masked men terrorise the streets in coastal towns. Lift The Ban on Palestine Action.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
What's a good way to visualize how the AI boom/bubble is propping up the economy? Ah, thanks.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I-5
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Marielza @marielza.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
New assignment dropped: spread this info to every Brazilian. Nova tarefa, gente: espalhar essa noticia para a brasileirada toda!!!
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Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I don't mean what I'm about to say in a sappy way, but a fairly hard-nosed one: natural ecosystems are often remarkably good at recovering from serious local natural disasters *if they are given the chance.*
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026
Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“She nearly lost her home to foreclosure and her teenage daughter was entrusted with running her household. Her college-age son left a football scholarship to return home and help with costs around the home. Mason has three children and also raised four of her brother’s children.”
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Linnea Hartspooker @linneaharts.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Probably most of you are better at taking care of yourself than I am around certain subjects but exercise caution reading that Cornell story. I probably wouldn't have read it if I hadn't gone there and grown up in Ithaca
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Maya Dukmasova @mdoukmas.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
IT'S HERE! The @injusticewatch.org #CheckYourJudges guide is back to help you feel informed when you hit that looong judicial retention portion of the ballot! 61 Cook County judges asking for another term on the bench. You can find everything we dug up on them here! 2026retention.injusticewatch.org
2026retention.injusticewatch.org
Cook County November 2026 Judicial Election Guide
Injustice Watch's guide to the November 2026 Cook County judicial elections.
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Panamerican Dispatch @padispatch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Meta pulled down President Lula’s Facebook page and blocked his campaign from running political ads. @brasil247.bsky.social www.panamericandispatch.org/p/meta-block...
panamericandispatch.org
Meta Blocks President Lula’s Facebook Page and Campaign Ads
The page is now back online, but Lula's electoral coalition says Meta's actions harmed the president’s campaign.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say
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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 29/08/2026
My theory on this is that most people aren’t mad at “woke” or whatever, they just experienced an upheaval of society through COVID and its aftermath and can’t actually put their finger on what’s bothering them. Woke is just a scapegoat for “I want things back the way they were”.
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
@afp.com Man Shot By ICE Agent In Texas Detained With Bullet Inside Him: Lawyer
Garces Perez's attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said on X that her client was transferred to a detention center in Pearsall, located about 134 miles (215 kilometers) southwest of Austin.

"He is being held at Pearsall for interrogation and still has the bullet lodged in his body," Lincoln-Goldfinch said, adding: "He's received no pain medication and had to sleep on the floor."

Lincoln-Goldfinch and local police said Garces Perez had been conducting a DoorDash delivery when he was approached by ICE agents, who shot him in the torso. He was taken to the hospital before he was discharged into federal custody.
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Caroline Baxter @convergingriskslab.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ideally, we would have nailed down what "human control" really means in AI before "soft-launching" an AI system to manage air traffic. "The FAA stresses SMART will not replace human air‑traffic controllers, who remain responsible for keeping planes safely separated." www.fox5dc.com/news/faa-set...
fox5dc.com
FAA set to test AI air traffic system at DC area airports, reports say
Big changes are coming to the region’s airports as the FAA launches a cloud‑based artificial intelligence platform designed to help get planes to their destinations on time. The system is expected to ...
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Christina Riggs @christinajriggs.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
📜🗃️🏺
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alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Anyone who wants to understand how policing works in the U.S. needs to read this incredible local investigation about what Minneapolis police did after feds killed Renee Good.
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Starbucks Workers United @sbworkersunited.org · 21/09/2026
It's official: Starbucks is gutting DEI policies company-wide to curry favor with Florida politicians as our union's call for a boycott grows. Vote with your dollar. BOYCOTT STARBUCKS.
Fox News headline: Starbucks agrees to DEI overhaul after blockbuster Florida legal showdown. The coffee giant will pay $1M and submit annual compliance certifications for four years under the agreement
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Mass Observation Archive @massobsarchive.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Remember this iconic cardigan? Well PhD researcher Neve from @manchester.ac.uk has written us an excellent blog post looking at this, and lots of other creative submissions, to our 1988 directive on clothes and personal appearance! massobs.org.uk/2026/09/21/e... #skystorians
Photograph of the back of a cardigan, with the wearer standing with their back to the camera. Across the back of the cardigan are white lines that look like yarn or string, there are then four kittens playing with the yarn. The bottom of the cardigan has a black and white border with white mice running along it.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This seems bad. www.denver7.com/news/local-n...
denver7.com
US Postal Inspection Service sends security guards to facilities nationwide, including Denver
New security guards are now at postal facilities across the country, including Denver. The Postal Inspection Service calls it a long-term plan. Colorado officials call the timing suspicious.
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Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 21/09/2026
A problem I have about the pervasiveness of GenAI outside of the basic ethical nonstarters is that I… I don’t want to live in a world where I have to doubt, scrutinize or investigate everything I see that isn’t happening right in front of me. I find it horrible, exhausting & time consuming.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The provost of Dartmouth, at which I teach, has been using AI to write both academic papers & national op-eds, according to brave reporting by @thedartmouth.bsky.social. Many students are already bitter about AI. This leaves us as faculty no ground to stand on. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
thedartmouth.com
Op-eds, academic articles by Provost Santiago Schnell flagged as ‘AI-written’ by ‘near-zero error’ AI detector Pangram
Schnell said he used artificial intelligence for “making writing processes more efficient,” but that AI was not a “substitute” for his own “intellectual judgment or authorship.”
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Henry Brannan @henrybrannan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New: Rented e-scooters are increasingly threatening blind Portlanders as companies' safeguards fail. @streetroots.bsky.social tests found the apps’ safe parking verification tools allow users to park the motorized devices entirely blocking the sidewalk. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...
streetroots.org
Rented e-scooters, e-bikes increasingly threaten blind Portlanders as safeguards fail
Street Roots tests found the apps’ safe parking verification tools from parking e-scooters and e-bikes entirely blocking the sidewalk
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 19/09/2026
Every now and then I see myself referred to as an "AI Denier" and I want to be clear I acknowledge "AI" exists, it's just I think it's a massive energy drain, created from theft, implemented poorly for inappropriate tasks by loathsome tech executives who get hard at the idea of the rest of us dying
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Kathleen Lenihan @kathleenlenihan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The entire article is fantastic, but the writer's definition of a trad wife is *chef's kiss* perfection. "Those are conservative women who dress like the women in The Sound of Music, but without the opposition to the Anschluss."
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Steven Lucy @slucy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Auburn Gresham twinsie
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Precisely this—the power attributed to technology makes it incredibly useful for laundering responsibility
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The most important task of democrats is not to change the minds of far-rightists — they are a minority and hard to change. The most important task of democrats is to change the minds of people who believe “the left” or “the establishment” are worse than the far right.
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Bethany Letiecq @bletiecq.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Academia in the unregulated AI era. We need boilerplate language specifying draft manuscripts cannot be uploaded into an LLM @aaup.org @local6741.bsky.social Adding to list..
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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It’s very simple. A reality TV host became dictator because he turned down a role for Sharknado 4 and that’s why the king of outer space, who cheats at Diablo, got to kill Africa. Now the economy is controlled by a sex cult that has something to do with Harry Potter fanfic because of robots.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I say this both as a disabled person and as someone who does disability studies, we don't get to be uncritical of the technologies that use our bodies and identities to silence dissent around Big Tech, even if they are useful for some of us. Thats not how any of this works.
“I have really thought it was responsible,” Currier told me. I asked Currier about privacy concerns around Meta glasses; he told me he was not “real invested in knowing what any sort of policy or answer should be moving forward,” but feels the positives outweigh the negatives.
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Dave Willner @dwillner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Certain kinds of smart people tend to have a "sexy apocalypse" problem when it comes to thinking about risk. E.g. skynet turning everyone in paperclips, while bad, is also *kind of cool and fun* at the same time. Where the reality is that most actual disasters are both stupid and disappointing.
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E M @ecmcgrath.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
She's from Madison, so I assume she's grown up in a housing coop converted from an old fraternity house and normally spends her summers making puppets and practicing her stilt walking for the Willy St Fair
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Jason GRIZZLED Bittel @bittelmethis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
BREAKING NEWS: New cat species just dropped! 🧪 What is a tilcayo, exactly? Well, it's a small wild cat in the genus Leopardus and a member of the tiger cat species complex, but it is NOT a tigrina, oncilla, kodkod, Geoffroy's cat... www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
nationalgeographic.com
Meet the First New Cat Species Discovered in 100 years
A small, spotted tiger cat from Bolivia may just be the beginning of a wave of new small cat species.
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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
…
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"Ich askid ChatGPT," Well Ich askid the stones, and the forest, and the starres, and the mountaynes, and the moone daunsinge above, and what thei seyde was learninge, and dreames, and growinge thinges, and makinge art, and a flawed honest worlde wher we talke to each othir and care about each othir.
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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Liliana Hassaine wrote a novel from POV of Bertha/Antoinette from Jane Eyre and I've yet to see any mention of Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea" in the breathless French-language coverage. The coverage is a recreation of the erasure and invisibility of women from the margins that Rhys depicted.. #Lit
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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
unsolicited advice to other mid-career folks: set aside a few hours each week to sit down and read new text, or old theory. I'm doing it to prep for my PhD course, and I missed this SO much.
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My latest newsletter is a friendly bit of political advice for Democrats.
stringinamaze.net
Don't Surrender On Trans Rights
Many Democrats are running scared on trans issues. They shouldn't be.
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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Quiznos is partnering with Blackwater to crush insurgencies in their supply chain.
A notification reads "Chipotle is partnering with Palantir to track food safety risks at its stores"
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scwiba @scwiba.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This man won his primary by 30 points.
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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Eels weren't the only eels sold in pre-modern London...the city also ate lots of small saltwater fish called sand-eels. In 1373 William Fisshe became London's official "Meter of Eels." He had to measure all imported sand eels using "a bushel set aside for the purpose as of old." 🗃️🧪
Meme. Photograph of two otters on a beach or river bank. Behind them, out of focus, you can see trees and such. The two otters -- we'll call them Kismeth and Sizemark -- are both staring off over your left shoulder, and their expression is terribly intense. Sometimes otters are fun loving. Sometimes they're cuddly, swim-on-their-back friends. But these otters are scowling, with hard eyes and flat-back ears. Their whiskers are alive with tension, and there is a hint of impending destruction in their spring-wound muscles. Shit is about to get real.

They are looking past you, at a spot over your left shoulder. This suggests that you may not be aware of the danger yet. Now...don't panic, and don't make any sudden movements. But you should probably look. Turn, very slowly, and *casually* glance back there. What is stalking you and these otters?

Nothing? Sure. It's probably nothing. No need to trust the otters.

Meme text reads:
"We're here to apply
for the job of eel meeter"
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