Reposted by Salomé ViljoenJohn Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead 10994742975
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenTPM @talkingpointsmemo.com · 05/10/2026Because of federal rules, children covered by Medicaid won't be able to access vaccines that are no longer recommended by the federal government, even as children with private insurance will.talkingpointsmemo.comRFK Jr’s Relentless Anti-Vax Push Will Disproportionately Hurt Children on MedicaidRobert F. Kennedy Jr. has already demonstrated his Department of Health and... 26178117
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenBarred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 05/10/2026for reference, in the Dobbs opinion, Alito was like, women generally don't _plan_ to get an abortion, so how could they have a reliance interest in abortion? which is kind of an extension of 'you want health insurance? what, you plan on being sick?' 431173241
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenPaul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I'm glad we're finally outsourcing the horrible bits of life like making plans with friends so we can have more time to consume ads. 434259
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Counterpoint: It would be great if people read some of the things that have been written about AI surveillance of workers! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hilke... www.cambridge.org/core/books/q... www.ucpress.edu/books/uberla... jacobin.com/2026/09/amaz...press.princeton.eduData DrivenA behind-the-scenes look at how digital surveillance is affecting the trucking way of life 433396
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenDon Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Pete Hegseth removing tenure protections shows precisely why they are needed. He wants to silence dissent by being able to fire anyone who questions his vision of the military. www.militarytimes.com/news/pentago...militarytimes.comHegseth halts tenure appointments for civilian faculty at military academiesMilitary academies will no longer appoint civilian faculty to tenured positions as Hegseth says it can contribute to “academic stagnation.” 22573262
Reposted by Salomé Viljoenc0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him. 2947671603
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenAdam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down... 724360643
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenDavid Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 24/09/2026to be clear, the admin is alleged to have deported AT LEAST 25,447 individuals TO COUNTRIES THAT ARE NOT THEIR OWN with, evidently, ZERO PROTECTIONS. this is a scandal and crime of historic proportions.forbiddenstories.orgThe Deportation Project MapBetween 2025 and August 2026, the Trump administration deported over 25,000 people to countries other than their country of origin. Very few of these removals were publicly announced by the US. The De... 3822401169
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenHannah BW @hbwhbwhbw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026new preprint: The Public Interest in Private Science. It explores how government grants & contracts became central ways to fund scientific research; argues that these agreements fail to effectively protect either scientific independence or the public interest; & sketches a few possible reformspapers.ssrn.comThe Public Interest in Private ScienceThe federal government primarily relies on grants and contracts to fund scientific research. This arrangement emerged as a political compromise after World War 1217
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 25/09/2026for their (error-filled) citizenship verification system, which states *definitely will not* be using to mass purge their voter rolls... 0102
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 25/09/2026today, SCOTUS essentially agreed that willful violations of the 1974 Privacy Act the Social Security Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act, resulting in the transfer of sensitive SSA data on basically every American, is fine...as long as you're handing that data off to ICE 33918
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenHannah BW @hbwhbwhbw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026If ever there were a post to force tenure and hiring committees to confront hard questions this might be it 1235
Reposted by Salomé Viljoenjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 25/09/2026really fascinating to see isgur conduct this interview as if conservative election mistrust has materialized out of nowhere or as if liberal claims of voter suppression are totally baseless. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/o...nytimes.comOpinion | How Worried Should We Be About the Midterm Elections?And how we learn to trust elections again. 501721229
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 24/09/2026anyone with a child knows "we'll see" is just a euphemism for "it's not happening" 030
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 24/09/2026good to know his justification for massive fossil fuel expansion was just "trust me bro, and later well...we'll see" 2156
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenMax Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 24/09/2026One of my most galaxy-brained takes is that politicians and political groups should talk more about workers’ share of national income. It's one of the clearest, simplest ways to describe how billionaires and corporate elites captured so much of the economy--and something policy can change.axios.comU.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new lowLabor's bargaining position has worsened markedly in the last half-decade. 27730263
Reposted by Salomé Viljoenlastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026The old line that analytic philosophy is answering questions that come naturally to toddlers via methods that come naturally to lawyers remains undefeated. 7557105
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenEric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026On two fronts—WH press access and third-country removals—the administration appears to be ignoring court orders. 23401208
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenDon Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Remember when they said (lied) that USAID was corrupt? $400 million was handed out to 30 countries, with no real oversight and with workarounds to bypass human rights safeguards typically given to U.S. foreign assistance payments. Immigration is just a giant trough of corruption right now. 10611249
Reposted by Salomé Viljoenderek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 23/09/2026trump can solve this by renaming "disapproval rating" to "approval rating" 633021281
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenAnthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 21/09/202612. it is usually better to focus on people, and why people are doing things a) why are tech CEOs saying these things? b) why are bosses so excited about it? c) why do we write, draw, and make art? d) what is the fucking point? 629154
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenAnthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 21/09/20267. "some people find LLMs useful" is a different claim than any of the following: a) LLMs are good at doing the things people use them for b) LLMs are well suited to the tasks for which they are advertised c) LLMs "can do" something 329552
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenJeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Last week all my students hand-wrote their own pledges, according to their terms, to write in my courses without AI. Some of them were quite moving—their anger at AI’s attempt to steal their educations, their determination to learn & create anyway. 6794182
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 21/09/2026like, I know you're claiming responsibility for it, that's the problem bud! 010
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I find it genuinely odd that people think claiming "full responsibility" for 100% AI written text is an adequate response? 282
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenJoseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026We’ve got an Ivy League provost over here who can’t use his own brain to write an OpEd, he needs ChatGPT to help him with his sentences and thoughts. He needs the bot to write emails clearly. I’m so disgusted and also laughing so hard somehow 611535
Reposted by Salomé Viljoendavidrlurie @davidrlurie.com · 18/09/2026Voters are angry and concerned about the consequences of the emerging AI economy (including rapidly growing wealth disparities, inflation and invasions of communities by tech lord infrastructure); and Trump's blithely dismissing Americans' concerns. The emergent issue's sitting there for Ds to seize 36819
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 18/09/2026This framing is revealing re: who these university leaders view as their adversaries or "opposition to be convinced". The people saying "let's slow down" on AI are her own students and faculty. The people saying "go go go" are doners and AI billionaires. 030
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 18/09/2026what I find frustrating about this isn't so much where she lands (some balanced approach to AI) but the presumption behind how she frames getting there. Just once I'd love a leader who says "The right answer to AI is not just 'yes.' It can't be." 020
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 18/09/2026This is why I hate "just a tool" so so so much. You can make a calculator without access to every calculation. You can make photoshop without access to all photos. Someone show me a genai tool that didn't require all of our labour in its production. It's plagiarism software. 3540701431
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 18/09/2026ugh! www.wired.com/story/a-trum...wired.comThe Census Bureau Is Overrun With Staffers From a MAGA Think TankThe US Census is home to vast troves of sensitive data on nearly every person living in the country, which is used for apportioning and drawing congressional districts as well as allocating federal fu... 030
Reposted by Salomé Viljoensarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 17/09/2026hugging face is the most terrifying indicator of where the ai race is, in the sense that the industry is facing completely solvable collective action problems while guided by entrenched, unoustable leaders with the foresight and moral fortitude of above-average pigeons 8720126
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Republicans really just rattling the shiny keys of islamaphobia and trans bashing and hoping its enough to make their voters not look around 081
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenNicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026A decade ago, if you aimed to predict Supreme Court decisions, which has proven a better heuristic? 1) Follow legal text and precedent according to a logically consistent judicial philosophy 2) Ignore or distort law to maximize GOP/right-wing power while mitigating risks of future court expansion 19892116
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenJosh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The professors and instructors who turn classrooms back into spaces for reading and discussion, are going to leave the biggest legacies in this world. Everyone one else will disappear into LLM wallpaper proxies and derivatives.  427754
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 15/09/2026it would be cool if this kind of thing had consequences 093
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenStephen James @stephen5150.bsky.social · 14/09/2026yahoo.comElon Musk is Running a Fake Voter Registration Site Designed to Steal and Sell DataMusk's "VoteSafe.org" is a scam that doesn't actually register voters 14304243
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenDenny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026a nice little summary of our Moment gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/o... 15517
Reposted by Salomé ViljoenNed Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Yes, every billionaire is a policy failure. You know who else is a policy failure? Your Berkeley hippie grandpa who pays $100 in annual property taxes on a $2.5 million house and uses the leftover cash to sue people who try to build apartments in his neighborhood. 237763
Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 11/09/2026really!!?? disappointing, but I am here to welcome all converts. the language of the letter is also very good 100