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Rob Truman

@robtruman.bsky.social
1.6K followers 3.4K following 81 posts

Law librarian and Oregonian. Currently drinking too much tea. Fan of books, Wingspan, hiking, and science fiction movies of questionable quality. This is just me; the office is @lawlib.bsky.social

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Reposted by Rob Truman
Glenn Fleishman @glennf.com · 18h
ElevationLab has released a product for killing the speaker in an AirTag. They should recall and discontinue it immediately. The intent is to improve theft tracking, but their precision tool also allows stalkers to more easily track people silently.
sixcolors.com
Silencing AirTags enables stalkers and domestic violence
ElevationLab has released an AirTag product I find appalling, and I strongly urge they immediately withdraw it from sale and recall all inventory. The AirTag Silencer is a simple device: remove the…
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MARC in a Cold Climate @marccold.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
nothing can go wrong if we tell the cataloger to teach a library instruction session for a comparative literature seminar on the Brothers Grimm, they said
A slide deck for a one-shot on the Brothers Grimm titled "My Mother, She Killed Me; My Father, He Ate Me; The Librarian Was Helpful, Though."
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 29/09/2026
If you’d asked me to parody how silly and broken legal journalism is, I genuinely don’t think I could have come up with “so the best-known ‘nonpartisan’ Supreme Court outlet is now run by an ex-Trump DOJ flack who had her longtime personal friend Brett Kavanaugh officiate her wedding”
ballsandstrikes.org
The Conservative Takeover of SCOTUSblog Is Just What the Supreme Court Needed
SCOTUSblog used to cover the Supreme Court. Now, it cheers for it.
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Rob Truman @robtruman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Attacks destroy ukrainian books market - an est. 15 million books have been destroyed by Russian attacks so far, many (most?) were Russian language texts www.nytimes.com/video/world/...
nytimes.com
Video: Russian Attacks Destroy Ukrainian Books
Our reporter Kim Barker goes inside a storied Kyiv book market that was hit by an air strike. Russian attacks have damaged millions of books in Ukraine in the last few months.
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Reposted by Rob Truman
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
What is being done vs #LongCovid and other post-viral serious chronic illness? Not enough. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
When do infections lead to long COVID? Scientists close in on triggers and treatments for post-viral syndromes
Hundreds of millions of people have long-term conditions as a result of an infection. Researchers are working out how to help them.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/08/2026
As LLMs get better at certain tasks and much more convincing, it's a useful exercise to ask about a subject you know intimately. Here, ChatGPT 5.6 diagrams the wrong game, doubles down, then finally admits its mistake. It cites a paper that doesn't exist, doubles down, and finally confesses again.
ChatGPT query: Diagram the enquist model of agonistic signaling

[poster output]User: This is fucked up. So you just made that up.

ChatGPT: Yes. I did, and you’re right to call it out.

My first description was not a faithful account of Enquist’s model. I supplied a plausible generic sequence for agonistic assessment—“initial assessment → signaling → reassessment → escalation”—without having verified that those were actually the stages or assumptions in Enquist (1985). Then, when you challenged the “prior information” point, I compounded the problem by giving another specific reconstruction instead of checking the source first.

I’ve now checked secondary material explicitly discussing Enquist’s 1985 model, and it describes the model as one in which players choose among possible displays/actions in an agonistic game, with the evolutionary question being when those choices can constitute honest signaling. That is importantly different from the staged assessment process I initially gave you.

So: do not use either of my previous stage descriptions as a representation of Enquist (1985). I should have looked up the paper/model before answering a source-specific question.ChatGPT: Yes. You’re right — again.

The poster actually says:

Enquist, M. (1985). “Communication during agonistic encounters.” In R. R. Hinde (Ed.), Advances in the Study of Behavior, Vol. 15, 65–106. Academic Press.

And that citation is not the original Enquist model paper I should have been using.

I made three separate errors here: I generated an unverified citation, then misreported what the poster said twice. That’s a basic source-handling failure.

If you want, I can now do this properly: verify the actual Enquist agonistic-signaling model from the primary paper and give you only the real sequence/stages, with no reconstruction.

User: The paper on the poster doesn't even exist.

ChatGPT: Correct. That poster citation is fabricated. I generated a title and book chapter that do not exist.
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Rob Truman @robtruman.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“like trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the constitution”
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Rob Truman @robtruman.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
"Anyway, I’m sorry—listen to me go. I’ve talked about myself quite enough. What did you say you do again? A librarian? What’s that about?"
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 27/08/2026
"Now Young Learning Partners™ don’t have to worry about late nights in the library, because there is no library. Yes, centuries of knowledge have been erased, but on the bright side, no more paper cuts. Think of short-form video as a pain-free substitute for book learning." buff.ly/AGaHs7b
mcsweeneys.net
Our University Does Not Require Books, Paper, or Human Knowledge
“Such a radical shakeup in learning has never happened before, as far as I know. Is there even a way to learn about whether or not something has happened bef...
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“Writing is an integral part of judging—i.e., the exercise of judgment—not merely a record of it.” reason.com/volokh/2026/...
reason.com
"Signs of AI Authorship in Federal Appellate Opinions"
I'm delighted to pass along this extremely interesting piece, from Josh Morrow, a partner at Lehotsky Cohn LLP: I was…
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Patrick McCray @patrickmccray.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Revealing excerpt from @natashanyt.bsky.social's new book. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/b... This passage 👇 stood out for me. There's clearly a role for STS and history of tech people here:
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
it was National Romance Day at all the Portland queer bookstores so naturally Cat, Alice and I had to go to three in a row and support local businesses by spending way too much money (well, not Alice, she works in a library, so she bought exactly two things because “books are free”)
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404 Media @404media.co · 17/08/2026
SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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Maggie Hendricks @maggiehendricks.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
As many of you know, my wife is a trans woman. The last few weeks have shook me as I've always found the W to be the most welcoming place, and the anti-trans rhetoric has had me questioning things. With this shirt, Cheryl Reeve is reminding me what this league is about.
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Jeff (Hot Type) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
They hate education at *every* level. They hate children. Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It
The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth.
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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
yall (writers, researchers, etc) are using zotero, right. open-source bibliography software that saves all your sources & notes? i realize i sound like an insta influencer but it's the only thing in my life that is even slightly organized. i still have my notes from grad school!!
screenshot of a bibliography. A book called "At Home with Empire: Metropolitan Culture..." is highlighted. Notes on the side talk about the duality of domestic/foreign, home/other, and the family metaphor in imperial Britain. Ch. 3: A homogenous society? Britain's internal 'others', Laura Tabili
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Alyssa S. @drsepinwall.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Thanks to @wyden.senate.gov for signing yesterday. 🙏💪 Our Haitian friends and neighbors need us. Only 27 senators have signed on. We need to push all the Democrats and pressure Republicans. #ExtendTPS #SaveOurHaitianNeighborsFromDeportationAndDeath
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David Colarusso @davidcolarusso.com · 29/07/2026
It used to be that I'd skip over long threads or worse yet save them to come back to. Now I just unroll them with this simple tool. Case in point: colarusso.github.io/bluesky-thre... Also, useful if I want to capture the content of a long thread I wrote.
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Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Over at his personal blog, Emory Law Professor @matthewsag.bsky.social offers some very interesting thoughts on structuring law school exams in an era of AI and common extra-time accommodations. matthewsag.com/ai-accommoda...
matthewsag.com
AI, Accommodations, and Assessment Integrity – Matthew Sag
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Our wizard masters no longer feel the need to explain themselves when they issue edicts to us
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 28/06/2026
Once again, if you have never been to a WNBA game, I am pleading with you to go. The best vibes of any sporting event I have ever attended. The nonbinary lawyer who got presented with an award during a timeout for their work with LGBTQ kids seeking asylum got a standing ovation.
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Meghan Bartels @meghanbartels.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Thank you all for the kind words, they mean more to me than I can say. Here’s our union’s statement about what happened yesterday: bsky.app/profile/scia...
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Kendra James @kendrajames.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
The American Library Association is auctioning off a bunch of the classic celebrity “READ” posters along with a bunch of other full sized literacy posters. This is going to fix so many of my problems, I just know it. movieposters.ha.com/c/search/res...
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Brooklyn. 🏀 (via Paul Williams) 💕
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James Nalton @jdnalton.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
"The organization of the world’s biggest sporting event is in turmoil, bringing together racism, restrictions, discrimination, and visa selection based on ability to pay."
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Michael Okun @michael-okun.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
If human editors can’t control who reviews science, it’s no longer peer review — it’s a rubber-stamp machine designed for volume and profit, not quality. I have no intention of attaching my name to it. So I’m out.
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Rob Truman @robtruman.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
“The United States… is hosting its own Hitler Olympics.”
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
In Mississippi, lawyers on both sides of a court case were caught using AI, essentially two LLMs arguing against each other. The judge dismissed all lawyers from the case and canceled the trial: www.404media.co/judge-learns...
404media.co
Judge Learns Lawyers on Both Sides of Case Used AI, Cancels Trial, Kicks Everyone Off the Case
When two AIs argue against each other, the legal system loses.
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eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...
fnl.mit.edu
Lament for the MIT Libraries - MIT Faculty Newsletter
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Rob Truman @robtruman.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
“To work for a library in a city where somebody who is that publicly supportive of what reading and literacy can mean for someone is really inspirational.”
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
This is the University of Central Florida. So many people really have no idea how much kids hate this shit.
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Oakland Review of Books @oaklandreviewofbooks.org · 04/05/2026
Let us peer into the soul of the nation, via a staged non-discussion about a contentious tax measure for library funding in El Cerrito. And then let us heal: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/we-dont-deba...
oaklandreviewofbooks.org
We don’t debate the library tax
At the El Cerrito Democratic Club’s meeting to discuss Measure C, April 28, 2026
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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Um...so I accidentally stumbled onto the UVA law library's collection of 6,000 drawings by courtroom sketch reporter Ida Libby Dengrove, who worked in NYC mostly in the '70s & '80s, & they're kind of...amazing..?? This one is tagged "Clown Attack" (thread) archives.law.virginia.edu/resources/18...
Courtroom sketch of a woman holding a phone receiver, with clowns at her door
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 02/05/2026
This is one of the most quietly revolutionary things any city can do to improve kids' lives & outcomes. If you genuinely care about kids having access to education or safe after school spaces & activities, then fund your libraries, staff your libraries, & make every public school ID a library card.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 28/04/2026
NEW: A rule change pushed by White House officials would slash benefits or end support for as many as 400,000 Supplemental Security Income recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities whose parents or relatives receive SNAP benefits.
propublica.org
The Trump Administration Aims to Penalize Disabled Adults Who Live With Their Families
A rule change pushed by White House officials would slash benefits or end support for as many as 400,000 Supplemental Security Income recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities who...
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
“AI systems cannot reliably explain their own reasoning. While they produce plausible legal arguments, it’s not clear that the reasons are the motivations for their actual decisions” news.uchicago.edu/story/how-do...
news.uchicago.edu
How do AI 'judges' compare to human ones? It's complicated, says a UChicago scholar
In annual Ryerson Lecture, legal scholar Eric Posner examines AI's growing role in legal decision-making—and why human judgment still matters
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EmilyTav @emilytav.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
THANK YOU, @reckless.bsky.social for saying it. “… I'm just going to say it. AI does not have a marketing problem. People experience these tools every single day […] You can't advertise people out of reacting to their own experiences.” This entire monologue is 🎯 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
podcasts.apple.com
THE PEOPLE DO NOT YEARN FOR AUTOMATION
Podcast Episode · Decoder with Nilay Patel · April 23 · 19m
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The Wolf Law Library @wolflawlibrary.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
The Wolf Law Library at the William & Mary Law School is a library of wolves, raised by wolves, for the wolves!
Law library study aids, flanked by a toy wolf.
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 21/04/2026
🧵 The arguments behind landmark Supreme Court rulings have never been freely available… until now. More than 125,000 #SCOTUS records & briefs (1830–2019) are now open on the Internet Archive. Full announcement ⤵️ blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/u... @wolflawlibrary.bsky.social
The official seal of the United States Supreme Court, featuring a circular design with the words “Supreme Court of the United States” surrounding a central emblem of a balanced scale of justice and a laurel wreath, symbolizing law, authority, and fairness.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/04/2026
“To say that President Trump is corrupt is to somehow understate the size, scope and magnitude of his corruption. It is as if you were to describe a modern thermonuclear device as a ‘bomb.’ That is true enough, but it is not quite the truth. It does not capture the nature of the thing in full.”
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump Corrupts, and Absolute Trump Corrupts Absolutely
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Ken Tremendous @kentremendous.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Some job news: I now work in the newly-established Federal Department of Metaphors. How are we doing so far?
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Brad Meltzer @bradmeltzer.com · 18/04/2026
A thought for Superman Day. #SupermanDay #inspiration #fypシ
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Also, important obligatory update from Vermont: Today — April 14, 2026 — is @benandjerrys.bsky.social Free Cone Day, if you find yourself close to a scoop shop: www.benjerry.com/scoop-shops/...
benjerry.com
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 09/04/2026
Our PhD student Kennedy Orwa, who studies applications of AI to health care, was hastily deported today to Kenya along with his 13-year-old son without opportunity to speak to legal counsel. King 5 reports that he held a valid visa that was rescinded without explanation.
king5.com
UW graduate student deported through SEA as protesters demand answers
A union representing University of Washington graduate student workers says Kennedy Orwa’s student visa was rescinded without explanation.
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Garrett Bucks @garrettbucks.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
"I don’t know what comes next, but I am caught up in it. We all are. The man who threatened war crimes is still in power, in my country. Yesterday, I gifted him more money." thewhitepages.net/p/i-filed-my...
thewhitepages.net
I filed my taxes and waited to learn whether a civilization would be destroyed in my name
Connection/complicity
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Deb Golden @debgoldendc.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
But here's the part that would have me crawling into the sea if I were involved on the BOP side. The judge basically call the US prison system Soviet Russia.
Nothing seems to move the nation’s federal prison system operators to
improve their response to the urgent medical needs of the federal prison
population. Court orders go unread or ignored. OIG reports are dismissed,
recommendations unheeded. Sanctions brook no change. Outside medical
referrals are like Solzhenitsyn’s sick bay in the Soviet Gulag: a coveted but nearly
inaccessible refuge for which only prisoners near death qualify for admission.2

2 See generally Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICHDepartment of Justice attorneys must be mindful in dealing with the
Bureau of Prisons to ensure they comply with their duty of candor to the Court.
A client who repeatedly fails to comply with court orders and OIG
recommendations falls into the “trust but verify” category of governmental
agencies. There can be no presumption of regularity. The Bureau of Prisons will
emerge unscathed, while the Government’s lawyer—and most importantly, the
inmate—will carry the scars of its misfeasance. See United States v. Bardell, No. 6:11-
cr-401 (M.D. Fla. 2011); OIG Report at 47, 50–51.
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Rachel Santarsiero @rsanta.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Honesty hour: it was incredibly disorienting to put this chron together (mostly due to moments like "SignalGate was WHEN?!"). But perhaps the most surreal (and devastating) part is that these entries barely scratch the surface of all the data / info losses we've faced--some we may never know about.
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Emily Nussbaum @emilynussbaum.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Lovely piece by @marjorieingall.bsky.social: arcmag.org/a-tribute-to...
arcmag.org
A Tribute to Workers, Written in Chalk | ARC: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
When my daughter Josie was seven, she became obsessed with a battered paperback in her school library. It was an illustrated novel for children about the Triangle Factory Fire. (I know, who the heck w...
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VT Dems @vtdemocrats.org · 18/03/2026
We are heartbroken by the passing of former Vermont Democratic Party Chair Terje Anderson.
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Andrew Karre @andrewkarre.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
🧵 “The program, which launched last month, gave half a dozen LA County civil court judges access to AI software called Learned Hand.” Can we agree that naming AI after people without any acknowledgment—much less consent—is bad? (I didn’t find any acknowledgement on Learned Hand’s web site.) 1/3
apple.news
AI pilot program in L.A. County courts will help judges craft rulings in some cases — Los Angeles Times
A select panel of L.A. County judges now have access to an artificial intelligence tool that can help them summarize motions and draft rulings in civil court. The tool, Learned Hand, is already in use...
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