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Reid Pierce

@hisreidness.bsky.social
145 followers 140 following 2 posts

Avid reader. Curmudgeon. Often existing somewhere bw annoyed and enraged. W&M AMST PhD student interested in queerness/music/nightlife/politics. Free 🇵🇸

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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
We’ve been talking about this for years. None of these far-right movements are organic.
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
wikipedia has been ANNIHILATED with AI bot traffic for a while now (because LLMs can't get enough of it) which puts a huge burden on its tech and server costs. and now it looks like bots are making unauthorized edits to pages and trying to hack community tools diff.wikimedia.org/2026/10/05/o...
Wiki editing: We’ve identified edits to Wikimedia wikis that we believe are from AI agents operated by OpenAI. These edits were not published to pages with visibility to general readers; almost all of them were testing edits in “sandbox” areas of the wiki. It also included a few edits to the configuration for a citation tool, which we believe were potentially malicious edits that were intended to misuse this tool as a proxy for fetching data from remote services. While Wikipedia policies allow bots to edit when they are disclosed and approved by the community, none of those approvals were sought in these incidents.
Etherpad probing and use: Agents we believe to be operated by OpenAI made some unsuccessful attempts to compromise our public Etherpad, a note-taking tool we host as a community service. Agents unsuccessfully tried to use it to fetch data from other websites as a proxy. Other agents also likely operated by OpenAI took notes about their tasks, though this did not appear to turn into coordination.
Excessive data downloading: Agents we believe to be operated by OpenAI made millions of automated requests to our public APIs to access the knowledge on Wikimedia projects, crawled millions of pages (mainly from our projects Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons), and made hundreds of thousands of data queries to the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS). This traffic may have contributed to a partial outage on WDQS in May. Wikimedia’s volunteers are the ones who come in first contact with, and clean up the mess left behind by AI agents. Rising bot traffic and agentic activity is showing a real impact on the Wikimedia projects and the infrastructure that makes it available for millions of users globally. In 2025, the Foundation reported that its bandwidth usage had increased by 50% due to the surge of bot activity on its websites since 2024. At the same time, 65% of the most resource-consuming traffic on its projects was coming from bots.
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Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Academic freedom is when a foreign government dictates how and even whether a university investigates misconduct
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spooky halloween txt @metaltxt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Well, what I always say, "I just want everybody to be treated good." I try not to get into the politics of everything. I try to get into the human element of it. I have some of everybody in my own immediate family and in my circle of employees. I've got transgender people. I've got gays. I've got lesbians. I've got drunks. I've got drug addicts — all within my own family. I know and love them all, and I do not judge.

And I just see how broken-hearted they get over certain things and I know how real they are. I know how important this is to them. That's who they are. They cannot help that any more than I can help being Dolly Parton, you know, the way people know me. If there's something to be judged, that is God's business. But we are all God's children and how we are is who we are.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 15/05/2025
www.thedailybeast.com/cartel-makes...
thedailybeast.com
Trump Struck Secret Deal With El Chapo’s ‘Terrorist’ Cartel
The family members of infamous drug lord “El Chapo” were given access to the U.S., catching the Mexican president off-guard.
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH @geauxgabrielle.blacksky.app · 15/05/2025
The state of Georgia is keeping a deceased Black woman’s corpse hooked up to machines against her family’s wishes because she was 9 weeks pregnant and they cannot let them shut off the machines b/c it violates their anti-abortion laws “ITS TORTURE,” says her family www.11alive.com/article/news...
11alive.com
Family says woman declared brain dead but her pregnancy continues under state law
Adriana Smith's been on life support 90+ days with weeks to go in her pregnancy. Her family questions Georgia’s heartbeat law — and why they had no say in her care.
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Sure, AI may be an environmental disaster and produce mid outcomes in cases where it doesn't straight up lie, but at least it's extremely unprofitable.
fortune.com
As Klarna flips from AI-first to hiring people again, a new landmark survey reveals most AI projects fail to deliver
Just 1 in 4 AI investments bring in the ROI they promise—but CEOs just can’t resist the technology.
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
This is insane. Republicans have inserted language into the budget reconciliation bill that would ban states from regulating AI in any capacity for 10 years. from @404media.co www.404media.co/republicans-...
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para6 graph (2), no State or political subdivision thereof
7 may enforce any law or regulation regulating artifi8 cial intelligence models, artificial intelligence sys9 tems, or automated decision systems during the 10-
10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment
11 of this Act.
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
A report from the scene of a horrifying kidnapping on the streets of Worcester, MA today by @billshaner.bsky.social www.welcometohellworld.com/they-dont-ne...
welcometohellworld.com
They don't need a warrant
A federal kidnapping in Worcester
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
This abduction in a Charlottesville courthouse is the uncanny valley of arrests. I've watched video of literally thousands of arrests in the U.S. I have never seen this behavior. They don't announce themselves. No visible ID, badges, or insignia. The full face and head wrapping is bizarre.
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Gemma Clark 🧿🕯️ @gemmaclark.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
“Whenever people keep being given a platform to say they have no platform, or whenever people speak endlessly about being silenced, you not only have a performative contradiction; you are witnessing a mechanism of power.” You won’t be able to unsee this www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/anti...
opendemocracy.net
How anti-trans activists silence their opponents
People claiming to be ‘silenced’ are being featured in national mainstream media platforms. There’s a word for that
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
@gavinnewsom.bsky.social, victims of racism and illegal targeting are never just distractions. And we can go after the tariffs and the targeting both.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
difficult to overstate how bad it would be for this effort to succeed
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Chica Marx @mckenziewark.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
April 25 1pm | I'm at William & Mary College Williamsburg Virginina | Talking about RAVING
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 16/04/2025
Trans women are women.
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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 15/04/2025
The fundamental problem with the “alien enemy”-or-innocent binary in this story, as other binaries, is that it’s deeply flawed. Innocence should be irrelevant. Even Tren de Aragua membership should be irrelevant. What matters is that this is lawless invocation of a wartime power during peacetime.
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Oh dear you’re going to want to read this. Looks like DOGErs were caught exfiltrating NLRB data, likely on unions, for private (seemingly Elony) use. This is must read. What we’ve all suspected. But now details. www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...
npr.org
A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data
A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
What we saw today was two jumped up thugs and their bootlicking sychophants laughing at the US Constitution, the supreme court, and the idea that anyone can stop them from doing anything they want www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
theatlantic.com
The Constitutional Crisis Is Here
The Supreme Court told the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. So far, the administration is pretending to comply while re...
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MikeHallTexas @mikehalltexas.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Here’s a story about a kid-a legal immigrant to the US-who Trump deported to the worst prison in the world. The kid wasn’t in a gang & didn’t have tattoos. Your federal government in action: no due process, no common sense, no decency. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic... @texasmonthly.bsky.social
texasmonthly.com
The Austin-Area Teen Trump Disappeared to El Salvador
Eighteen-year-old Daniel Terán was taken from his home and shipped to a notorious prison on the charge that he is a gang member. The government hasn't produced evidence supporting the claim, says his ...
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
NEW: AI bots caused Wikipedia's bandwidth costs to increase by 50 percent last year, and are still growing exponentially. I wrote about its plan to fight back — and whether it will be enough. www.platformer.news/wikipedia-ai...
At the same time, the organization disclosed today in a new blog post, the situation is becoming untenable: AI-driven requests for Wikipedia content are growing exponentially, at significant cost to the foundation, and are not being paid by the companies responsible. Those companies are also serving information from Wikipedia without attribution, greatly reducing the chances that their users will visit Wikipedia and contribute or donate to it.

Moreover, during surges of interest in the site — after the death of a celebrity, for example, or in the wake of a natural disaster — bot traffic to other pages is now so significant that it is causing slower page loading times for human users.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Once thing we can say for certain is that Donald Trump has been convicted of more crimes than some of the people he is deporting to a black hole in el salvador with no due process or recourse www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
Trump’s Salvadoran Gulag
To be deported, one does not need to be a drug dealer or a terrorist; apparently, having tattoos and being Venezuelan is enough.
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
"Age verification" laws are actually "upload your ID or get your face scanned to access every website, ending anonymity and associating your identity with everything you do online" laws and if more people understood that they would not be down for this authoritarian nonsense
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WIRED @wired.com · 31/03/2025
Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data.
wired.com
How to Enter the US With Your Digital Privacy Intact
Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data.
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Clint Smith @clintsmithiii.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
They are arresting people on the streets, terminating their visas, and disappearing them for writing things they disagree with. This is where we are. Two months in. Right now. If you think they won’t begin coming after citizens soon, you are mistaken.
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Hobbit Korkie @korkie.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
None of the people kidnapped and sent to the El Salvadoran prison were Tren de Aragua. www.reuters.com/world/americ...
reuters.com
Venezuela minister says jailed deportees from US not tied to Tren de Aragua
Venezuelan's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Friday that no one among the hundreds of deportees to a Salvadoran prison, whom Washington accused of being members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, were related to the criminal organization.
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祖思薪 Eugenia Zuroski @zugenia.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Back up your data at home; delete it from your devices; turn off biometric unlocking; turn off your phone to cross the border
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
If you're critical of the US government and you are planning to cross the US border any time soon, today is a good day to review EFF's border search pocket guide: www.eff.org/document/eff...
eff.org
EFF Border Search Pocket Guide
border-pocket-guide-2.pdf
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Reposted by Reid Pierce
Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
My Name is Mahmoud Khalil and I Am a Political Prisoner | A letter dictated by Mahmoud Khalil over the phone from ICE detention in Louisiana. inthesetimes.com/article/mahm...
inthesetimes.com
My Name is Mahmoud Khalil and I Am a Political Prisoner
A letter dictated by Mahmoud Khalil over the phone from ICE detention in Louisiana.
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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
In America we have only the present tense. I am in danger. You are in danger. —Adrienne Rich
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
A Supreme Court Justice who rules that President Biden can’t forgive student loan debt without an act of Congress, and rules that President Trump and Not An Official Position Musk can cancel any Congressionally-enacted spending they personally dislike, that Justice clearly isn’t ruling based on law.
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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 02/03/2025
This is so horrifying & absurd
kpbs.org
German tourist held indefinitely in San Diego area immigrant detention facility
The young woman had planned to spend a month with a friend in Los Angeles and then fly home to Berlin. But she’s been in federal custody since late January.
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actioncookbook @actioncookbook.com · 13/02/2025
looking back, AOL had it right. 30 hours of internet per month was the right amount.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 20/01/2025
We have a socialist solution: This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for. This is what libraries are for.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 17/01/2025
“The thing that makes me worry is how much these people are giving up the very mental tasks that make them human.” chuckpearson.wordpress.com/2025/01/13/t...
chuckpearson.wordpress.com
The ethical case for resisting AI
I had my moment of reality regarding generative AI in my chemistry and physics classes this past term. I’ve always had the student frustration “I can’t Google your homework problems!” as a point of…
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
“In order to shoot off one email per week for a year, ChatGPT would use up 27 liters of water, or about one-and-a-half jugs… that means if one in 10 U.S. residents—16 million people—asked ChatGPT to write an email a week, it’d cost more than 435 million liters of water.”
fortune.com
AI doesn’t just require tons of electric power. It also guzzles enormous sums of water.
It also guzzles enormous sums of water.
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