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shobhna

@slowsho.bsky.social
251 followers 593 following 115 posts

#FreePalestine shobhna.substack.com

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Reposted by shobhna
Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Judith Butler Apology Form
Date:
Reason for behavior:
( ) The media convinced me that feminism was solved in the 1980s
( ) I miss not thinking about gender
( ) I was jealous of their nonbinary swag
( ) I never actually read their work
( ) I didn't realize how much of society is built on gender
( ) Mercury was in retrograde
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( ) I will hereby respect Judith Butler and I will NOT talk down on the best feminist thinker of our lifetimes
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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
One of the things to come from GamerGate was the gamification of torturing real, live women...hounding them out of their homes, making them look over their shoulders for years. It was treated as a joke, nbd, the work of a few bad apples--as all terrorism against women is--& that failure leads here.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
NYT tech reporter sings the praises of Meta Muse. It can do everything for you! Even set your fantasy football lineups! My dude... you know that's called "cognitive surrender," right? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/t...
"To test Muse, I experimented with it nonstop for two weeks... I had it perform dozens of day-to-day tasks, including (...) setting my fantasy football lineups."
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shobhna @slowsho.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The war on drugs has been roaring in India, and like its American predecessor, has been a spectacular failure. Users are being violently rounded up, while commercial seizures are negligible. We're repeating mistakes the West was making 30 years ago. www.thenewsminute.com/kerala/opera...
thenewsminute.com
Operation Toofan: Kerala police struggle to deal with addicts
Kerala’s anti-narcotics campaign ‘Operation Toofan’, completed 100 days on September 9. The numbers are staggering: After the start of the campaign, till Septem
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
And every day there is more Fresh AI Hell. What's worse than polluting the information ecosystem with synthetic text dressed up to look like news? Dressing it up further as the work of fake Indigenous journalists: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
‘Very harmful’: website uses AI to generate northern Indigenous news ‘correspondents’ | CBC News
The website WE NEWS has three northern Indigenous 'AI correspondents.' Their profiles say they are 'a member of Yukon First Nation,' 'of Dene heritage,' and 'an Inuk raised in the North.' Experts in t...
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is a really important story. You know how over reliance on AI makes you lazy and stupid? This shows how that’s happening within the military — a military, it cannot be pointed out often enough, that’s growing ever more reliant on AI. The children of Shajarah Tayyebah Elementary paid the price
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
You Might Think White Supremacists are Distasteful; Here’s Why You’re Wrong part 315 of an ongoing series at the New York Times
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Screamer Jim @screamerjim.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My friends with young kids cry real tears whenever Ms. Rachel once again does not fail them. That’s real. And it matters.
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 18/09/2026
(It’s sad how you can clearly see how a lot of people think of society and institutions as an intramural match between different white people and an actual polity comprised of a lot of different populations.)
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 17/09/2026
“New students enrolling at the University of Texas at Austin can no longer major in studies focusing on Africans and the African diaspora, Mexican Americans and Latinos, or women and gender.” Puts a lot of “regain trust” rhetoric into proper relief.
texastribune.org
Majors related to race, gender cut at University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin rejected a department’s plan to keep the majors, a decision that came without public knowledge, an interim department chair told faculty.
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shobhna @slowsho.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In the Harper's Bazaar newsletter A Closer Read, Kaitlyn Greenidge talks to Marlon James about fiction about gay men consumed by women. I loved his answer so much, especially as someone who loves Heated Rivalry, the show: acloserread.substack.com/p/the-best-b...
Q: What did you think of A Little Life? Or The Great Believers? I know there’s been a lot of discourse around cis (seemingly) straight women writing about young gay men—whether they have the right to do so, whether they can “get it right.” On the flip side, what I loved about this book were the heavy citations of John Rechy and other queer theorists who dwell on gay male identity in ways that feel expansive, frankly dirtier, and more human. I am curious what you think of that rise in books about gay men—and gay men having sex—that are written by straight women … and the role of the author in all of this.

A: The last thing I want to do is come across as a hater, particularly for two writers I very much admire. I wonder if the bigger issue is in commercial fiction, meaning queer literature for straight women. Who’s to say if there’s anything wrong with that? I mean, you get your kicks where you get your kicks, but that type of fiction always de-queers the gayness, even when they amp up the sex. Why are none of these boys ever femme? Is this like lesbian pornography for straight men? The dirtiness of gay sex is washed out. Nobody needs to reckon with scatological facts, but also the grit and the realism are washed out as well. What always strikes me as remarkable, not just in the literature but in TV and film, is the miraculously pre-lubed gay ass. These men just jump in bed, ready to get busy. That’s wild, because every gay man I know, including myself, has at least six different versions of lube, and five of them are always the wrong one. You get the suspicion that gay sex for straight people still must allow for the fantasy of straight sex. The boys in Heated Rivalry are all gorgeous, but they are all jocks, and two of them have sex with women. The sex is curiously dickless because the sudden presence of genitals takes it out of fantasy and into actual sex, which is not what the straight viewer bargained for.
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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
lol it is NO coincidence that my list is racially and gender diverse. The people who understand the harms of something usually exist at the INTERSECTION OF IDENTITY. And yet those are the people who continue to be ignored. STOP IGNORING MARGINALIZED VOICES ON AI!!!!!!!
democracynow.org
“Deep Unlearning”: Timnit Gebru on AI Hype, Ethics & Algorithmic Racial Bias
We speak with Timnit Gebru, a leader in the field of AI ethics, about how artificial intelligence is entrenching societal biases and inequality. Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Dist...
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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
lol there are a lot of people talking about AI who, frankly, shouldn't so here are people to listen to and then some: @timnitgebru.blacksky.app @alexhanna.bsky.social @rajiinio.bsky.social @ruha9.bsky.social @emilymbender.bsky.social @karenhao.bsky.social @dairinstitute.bsky.social
rollingstone.com
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI
Rumman Chowdhury, Timnit Gebru, Safiya Noble, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Joy Buolamwini open up about their artificial intelligence fears
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
If you cannot be trusted to stand up for transgender Americans when they’re facing what some experts call a genocide, I don’t trust you to stand up for anything.
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 06/09/2026
We know how to teach books in the age of AI: small classes, close reading, research-engaged learning (which is how you ’let students see you struggle’). The issue is nobody will hire and pay the requisite # of faculty to offer this.
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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
My heart goes out to the millions of people struggling to remember how to write "Thanks! Sounds great!" in an email.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Again. Again. It was just the usual white supremecist double standard the first dozen times. After Arday‘s sad, avoidable tragedy it feels like more than the usual distraction. They want to gaslight us to death. www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke...
dukechronicle.com
‘Insane data’: Duke professor Dan Ariely accused of additional research fraud
New evidence released Monday shows that Dan Ariely, professor of business administration in the Fuqua School of Business, likely tampered with or fabricated data in an influential research paper from ...
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I am perfectly open to the idea that some of the data center panic is overblown, what I am telling u is I don’t care
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Canadian Dimension @canadiandimension.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"The university is not just in crisis. The university is the crisis." Rinaldo Walcott (@blacklikewho.bsky.social) argues that Jason Arday's death lays bare a broken academic system built on unequal power, gatekeeping, and the grinding machinery of institutional recognition.
canadiandimension.com
The university is the crisis
The crisis of the university is its inability to be honest about the nature of its self-induced crisis. Its leaders or senior managers often share the perspectives of those who wish the university to ...
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Sam Thielmonster @samthielman.com · 02/09/2026
People forget how racist Hilary’s 2008 campaign against Obama was because Obama decided not to make a big deal out of it in the name of party unity but this rot is very old
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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
It's OK at doing code for you? Great. What does that have to do with how it keeps popping up to demand to rewrite a paragraph that's already written and edited?
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Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 31/08/2026
I fear we have no choice but to stan this child
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Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
not that they’re doing it correctly or well or rigorously or competently, but it is funny how these guys spend all their time doing gender studies
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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Some of you were not raised by the acclaimed director of "Mississippi Masala" and it shows
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More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
BREAKING: The union of Starbucks workers is officially calling for a boycott of the chain. @sbworkersunited.org has over 12,000 unionized baristas, and they're calling on customers to stop visiting Starbucks until they get a fair union contract.
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Bill Corbett @billcorbett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
If you buy STARBUCKS coffee, please stop! Starbucks workers have been jerked around by the company for many years and are calling for a BOYCOTT. If you don’t buy Starbucks and / or don’t like their coffee, like me, cool cool cool but no need to comment please. Just spread the word. Thank you!
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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
All rich kids should be socialists. It is good actually. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/never-apol...
hamiltonnolan.com
Never Apologize For Being a Class Traitor
All rich kids should be socialists.
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gita “the formalist” jackson @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
What I’m seeing is: being very vocal about the damage thar hateful bigot worm person JK Rowling has done to the world in her pursuit of eradicating trans people is damaging the Harry Potter brand. So definitely keep doing that.
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shobhna @slowsho.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Oh my god
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Post-Left Watch @postleftwatch.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Zaid Jilani is such a piece of shit.
Zaid Jilani: "The other thing is hate crimes are so rare that I don't think it's a big problem in America"
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shobhna @slowsho.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The number of Indian/South Asian names in this list is not surprising but is infuriating. The hubris of the model minority savarna who thinks this will never happen to *them*.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
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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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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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
buy books borrow books talk about books you love lend books to friends books are great
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 14/08/2026
This is the coverage of Arday **just in the Telegraph** in the UK. This is only the first four pages of results, just in one outlet.
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Jason Arday found dead
2 hours ago — Mr Arday was found •unresponsive• at an address in Battersea. south London. on Froy
afternoon. He was uter pronounced dead at the scene. A Read rnore
Jason Arday says he was an illiterate, mute child. His .
6 hours ago — Jason Arday says he was an i&erate. mute child. Cambridge's youngest-ever black
professor in 2023. Arday attended from the age of four to 11
r— mm-WI 3
A PhD is no longer a sign of brilliance — take it from Dr Arday
1 day aeo — Juon Arday resigns from the Unwersity of Cambrdge after The Telegraph reports he had
falseb• claimed to have pubåshed a book
We are all Jason Arday now
S days ago — Jason Arday resons from the University of Cambridge after The Telegraph reports he had
falsew cGimed to have published a book Aug 7.2028. Read more
Cambridge professor claimed he was on Seven Up..
2 Aug 2026 — He was not bom until 1985. Prof Arday is at the centre of a row about academk
plagiarism after The Tekgragh that he had been accused
The Jason Arday 'memoir' that now appears to be more .
7 days ago — Instead of tales of triumph over adversity. the now-fomer Cambridge professors
autob"qraphy is a case study in self-rnythobgising,
Arday failed to mention 'months-long coma' in autobiography
8 days ago — Jason Arday toz publishers he was k•ft a three-month coma fohwhg a car gash. but
never wrote about the ordeal his memoirs_
Jason Arday is living proof that you reap what you sow
6 Aug 2028 — The Cambridge professor feed plagiarism alegations and made fantastical clä'ns about
his life. so what did he expect woUz happen? Read rmre
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Arday 'accused student of Miite privilege' after she
4 days ago — Forrner Cambrdge professor alleged* htplied that Roehamptm student was racist after
cornplaint about essay SOOre.
Jason Arday is rnerely a symptom of the Leffs corruption
Aug 2026 — Lab-curs on school standards is on the same toxic assumptions that created his
academic career.
Cambridge hired Arday after 'listening to black stu…
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Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Worth reiterating every time that this is not some cancel-culture purity test: JK Rowling has pledged more than a billion dollars of her Harry Potter money towards bankrolling anti-trans lawsuits. This finances that.
deadline.com
Nicholas Hoult In 'Harry Potter' Season 2 As Gilderoy Lockhart - Excl.
Nicholas Hoult has joined Season 2 of HBO Max's 'Harry Potter. He will play Gilderoy Lockhart, portrayed in the second movie by Kenneth Branagh.
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
READ THE WHOLE FUCKING ARTICLE AGAIN Build cognitive endurance again Sacrifice ease to not support environmental racism again Rely on your own skills and limits again.
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abdullah @ashihipar.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Dr. Abdul El Sayed, Melat Kiros and Darializa Avila Chevalier (the latter two are PhD candidates) examples of academics who successfully went out of the ivory tower and talked to regular people and resonated with them. but you'll never hear of this as an example of higher ed being engaged.
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Delilah S. Dawson @delilahsdawson.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Getting real sick of slop midwives pleading for a 'respectful discussion' of AI as relates to the arts. Your use of AI to 'make art' is not respectful. It benefits from stolen art, destroys the planet, and does not make you an artist any more than someone driving 26.2 miles is a marathoner.
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
@abdulelsayed.bsky.social triumphing over something like $60 million, $32-ish million of it AIPAC money, is not a "narrow" victory, it's a people's earthquake. This kind of spending is oligarchy in action, to smother democracy through its formal channels, and is getting normalized. Still he won.
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M. E. O'Brien @genderhorizon.com · 05/08/2026
Fighting for and winning the right to free movement of all people is fundamental to any chance survival of our species and our world. Borders will increasingly mean extermination, genocide and treating people as expendable
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jae holzman @jael.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
the biggest and best movie of the year revolves around the perils and horrors that come with sacrificing a trans life in the name of a short term victory
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shobhna @slowsho.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
They made the movie A-rated in India, thank fucking lord. I've seen babies at insanely loud movies and wanted to throttle the parents. As a parent of a toddler, I'm sorry but no movie is important enough to both endanger and temporarily traumatize your kid.
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scha·den·freu·de @blisterpearl.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Top panel is tiny planet Mercury in relation to the HUGE Sun.
Bottom panel is a similar image, a tiny "close ad" button in relation to the fingertip labeled "my finger" which fills nearly the entire panel.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
"We had to go to extraordinary lengths to find clean water to feed into the machine, because all the water that comes out of the machine is irretrievably polluted. But we persevered."
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