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James Fallows Tierney

@jamesftierney.bsky.social
5.9K followers 3K following 774 posts

Associate professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law (Illinois Tech). I study financial markets regulation & law of capitalism. But this ≠ IIT. DSA Fund board and treasurer 🌹🤝, Rstats, NLP, Phish dad, etc. Semper ubi sub ubi.

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Reposted by James Fallows Tierney
Luis Villa @lu.is · 15h
Pour one out for open APIs.
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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
People are really mad at me being a big snob about liberal arts education but this was really a desperate plea for engineers to stop thinking every other field but theirs is for dumb babies.
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Heard the most wildly unprofessional comment from a professor to another professor at a conference today, along the lines of “you are going to have to explain to me why anyone should care about this topic. Because I don’t”
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Astute comment at the end of this that a big problem in the world of voluntary corporate accounting/standards is that it always had as a backdrop a belief that binding regulations might come in the future. And they are looking less likely. newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
Did the Forestry Industry Just Get to Write Its Own Emissions Rules?
Accusations of industry capture, allegedly secret working groups, and the resignations of two researchers—a scandal is rocking the world of carbon emissions accounting.
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post malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Is your Diabetes diagnosis really helping you?
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Pope reminds me of a version of Catholicism I knew growing up as a young man attending anti-war and anti-death penalty protests, where I met elderly Catholics who shared their version of faith with me. I learned that Catholicism was about love and mercy for the weak, the condemned, and the poor.
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 27/09/2026
I have a theory about how many of the world's problems are caused by people who were told they were the smartest people alive as kids, believed it, and then when they became adults and couldn't accept that maybe they weren't that special, started breaking shit if only to prove they were special
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This, from Dennett, I wish I'd taken to heart earlier in my life. www.themarginalian.org/2014/03/28/d...
How to compose a successful critical commentary:

1 You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”
2 You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3 You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
4 Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.
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Mike Ensminger Fan Account @laplanck.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This reminds me of a great story about philosopher Barbara Freeman I first learned of from @robinjames.bsky.social
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SHARON M. MEAGHER
phenomenon in our undergraduate and graduate training; we knew that we needed to demonstrate full command of the canon AND then do our work in feminism if we were to be respected or even if we were to survive in the profession. We therefore did not notice the extraordinary and unfair expectations that were being placed on us; there was an utter lack of reciprocity—no sense that all philosophers shared a responsibility to learn feminist philosophy.
But what helped me recognize these questions as an unjust burden was the way that Barbara Freeman, on the 1985 program, responded to what I started to call thereafter "the Hegel boy" question. After Freeman gave her paper, a man sitting close to the front raised his hand and said that he thought that Freeman had delivered a good paper but wanted to know how it was relevant to his research on Hegel. Freeman and her panelists were seated at a table on a dais. Freeman got up from her chair, walked around the table to the very edge of the stage, and, leaning hard toward the questioner, screamed, "WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HEGEL? WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HEGEL?
F***ING NOTHING!" Freeman then calmly returned to her seat, took the microphone, and answered the maris question in tremendous detail, proving that she could pass his test while at the same time exposing the absurdity of having to engage in such a translation project.
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ok so anyone who is treating Yudkowsky as an expert should be forced to explain Roko’s Basilisk and why he took it seriously
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Ann M. Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
i gotta be honest with you, from the start of this story i was kinda surprised that a career prosecutor w/ decades of experience would be implicated and this ... makes a lot of sense
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Heard the most wildly unprofessional comment from a professor to another professor at a conference today, along the lines of “you are going to have to explain to me why anyone should care about this topic. Because I don’t”
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Andrew Jennings @andrewkjennings.com · 25/09/2026
KalshiEX LLC v. Schuler Sixth Circuit holds that sports-event contracts are not "swaps" under the Commodities Exchange Act, and thus state gambling regulation is not preempted. I anticipate the Supreme Court granting cert on this issue and to reach the same conclusion.
opn.ca6.uscourts.gov
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.
A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with 
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thoughts and prayers for research data managers everywhere. You are not alone. We will get through this together techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell | Microsoft Community Hub
Lists, arrays in cells, and nested arrays introduce new ways to store and organize related information, helping you keep data together without sacrificing...
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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
tech ceos are openly salivating about the idea of kids losing basic literacy and numeracy. this tells you pretty much all you need to know
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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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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 24/09/2026
You don’t in fact gotta hand it to the admins who closed a host of programs at your university
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ok heard a great joke tonight Q: What do vegan zombies eat? A: GRAAAIIINNNSS
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My students in office hours brought up the new Andrew Garfield movie about Wat Tyler, which I am still salty is not called something like “Jack Straw”
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I posted to @ssrn.bsky.social my comment letter to the Department of Education on its recent notice of proposed rulemaking on accreditation reform. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Comment Letter on the Department of Education's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking "Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization—Proposed Accreditation Regulations, <span>91 Fed. Reg. 53,940 (Aug. 20, 2026...
This notice-and-comment letter is in response to the Department of Education's notice of proposed rulemaking titled "Accreditation, Innovation, and Moderni
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BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL AKA PRESIDENT FOOTBALL @edsbs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
YouTube comment that says “finally Nathan meeting someone willing to stay in character longer than he is“
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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
As shocking as this case is I know @czedwards.bsky.social is shaking their head at the same thing I am - this is some PISS POOR MONEY LAUNDERING. Check 1001 of a brand new account? Jesus we used to be a proper country.
A check made out for
$150,000 to Susan Collins’s
PAC, check number 1001
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ok heard a great joke tonight Q: What do vegan zombies eat? A: GRAAAIIINNNSS
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I posted to @ssrn.bsky.social my comment letter to the Department of Education on its recent notice of proposed rulemaking on accreditation reform. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Comment Letter on the Department of Education's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking "Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization—Proposed Accreditation Regulations, <span>91 Fed. Reg. 53,940 (Aug. 20, 2026...
This notice-and-comment letter is in response to the Department of Education's notice of proposed rulemaking titled "Accreditation, Innovation, and Moderni
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Saw an older lady at Trader Joe’s with a “what would Mamdani do” tshirt and folks, we love to see it
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Ann M. Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Well done, Joe - you should create one: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Paul Newman didn’t get haddock or cod, he got scrod.
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Tried to get a third grade classroom to vote by Roberts Rules this week. Friends don’t let friends try that again
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
G’mar tov to friends starting your fast.
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Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST @chathamharrison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
He should punish any Republican who doesn't spend the next six weeks focusing on defending him
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Sickos Committee @sickoscommittee.org · 20/09/2026
A guy marching electric bass! (And the hero marching an amp!) You love to see it.
Members of the Cavalier Marching Band. A marching electric bass player and a band member pushing an amp car connected to a car battery.
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Received a critical safety alert from my university to the effect of: “people are breaking into cars in the Mies campus parking lot: don’t park in the Mies campus parking lot”
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
either it is in principle possible to set up appropriate safeguards (in which case the "AI alignment" story is just as much about who gets to set them up and enforce them as it is about the content of the safeguards) or it is not (in which case we should be talking about transnational moratoria)
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
if you don't think the computer is alive you just haven't used it enough. you just haven't done it right. you just haven't done enough research and read enough posts by other people who think the computer is alive. if you just used it more you would agree that it's alive
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Mike Zaccardi, CFA, CMT @mikezaccardi.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
S-corps unite! More than half of the rise in the top 1% income share since 1985 (5.8 of 10.5 percentage points) flowed through pass-through businesses -Torsten at Apollo
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The first thing they should do is ban states from prohibiting direct manufacturer sales of autos, crippling the auto dealer lobby. The OP’s proposal is a good idea but is at least second in terms of economic-political impact
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Based upon their documented behavior over the past few years, the tech industry is less afraid of the potential ramifications of Artificial Superintelligence than they are of Lina Khan.
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Tim Lyons @picketer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
No notes.
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Highlight of my day: mystery reader in my son's elementary school class
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
My dog refuses to walk this evening because of thunder 8 hours ago.
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Shana @shanamd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I am SORRY for sharing something that was posted on the other place, but this is too good.
The future pope at a party with a caption “they don’t know I’m the future pope”
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James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Based on the dog's emotional state after this morning's thunderstorm, she may not walk for a week
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Peter Orlowicz @peterorlowicz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I know we're all bombarded with pleas for donations these days, but this one I really feel strongly about. It's not hard to imagine the extra stress and worry that would come with not being able to change your kid when they need it, or having to stretch one diaper wearing way too long.
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Hunter Dunn @hunterisntdunn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Roko’s basilisk isn’t real but the people who think it is are very real & will hurt you
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Standplaats Kraków could really use some cash! @standplaatskrk.pl · 15/09/2026
[a satirical Chicago CTA transit map showing a giant red circular train line extending high into the sky, deep into the earth's mantle, and through Lake Michigan.]

"CTA Unveils New Circle Line Design: New line takes advantage of newly discovered third dimension.

Stations along the route include the Jane Byrne Interchange, Sears Tower Skydeck, Bean Access via Structural Firepole, Wreck of the Silver Spray, Future Stadium of Upper Mantle Bears, Hole, and Lowest Known Wacker Drive.

Additional diagram notes indicate that the train is shown to scale, Navy Pier is intentionally ignored, the color red was chosen for the line to confuse tourists, and highlights the Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Sedementary Divide."
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Danny Wilf-Townsend @dannywt.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
After reading this, I wanted to know what the numbers would look like with more recent draft law review articles posted to SSRN. So I put a sample of 200 of them through Pangram 4, and found 57 papers with some AI use, 36 of which had >5% of their text from AI: wilftownsend.net/how-many-rec...
wilftownsend.net
How many recently drafted law review articles are written with AI? A quick examination.
AI use in legal scholarship may not be the most important AI topic being discussed these days, but it is having a moment in the corners of the world that care about these things. Julian Nyarko has an ...
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
“.. S&P 1500 Software revenue per employee has gone parabolic. If you are looking for evidence that AI is starting to impact the real economy, this is exhibit A.” (via OpCo desk)
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Arin Dube @arindube.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Adjusted for composition (demog. reweighing), this is what happened to real wages at the bottom (p10), middle (p50), and top (p90) using CPS data. Going up to p99 (using Soc. Security data) doesn't change this picture. Through 2025, at least bottom-half wage inequality compressed & remained so.
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