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Ariel

@sycoraxpine.bsky.social
1.2K followers 3.7K following 2.6K posts

Reader, amateur beekeeper, theatregoer, prof, chicken enthusiast, perpetually novice aerialist, feeder of two cats and one small (human) dragon

PostsRepliesMedia
Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 45m
If we want people to leave toxic, bigoted cults, then we really need not to greet the tales of the abuse they endured within those cults with abusive cries of "YOU CHOSE THIS FOR YOURSELF." You don't have to trust a person with your life not to compound their abuse and drive them back to toxicity.
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 7h
Almost every time someone tells me of a use case for every day (not hyperspecialist research) genAI, I think, this is just the destruction of a human connection you would have otherwise had. AI is the anti-community.
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 1h
The statistics cited here are especially grim given how few sexual assaults and coercions are reported in the first place (a rarity that is the result of this culture of impunity and even reward for sexual predation - see the election, twice, of Donald Trump).
usatoday.com
Cornell rarely expels students in sex assault cases | Exclusive
A third of undergraduate women say they've been sexually assaulted. But on average, Cornell reported expelling just one attacker per year.
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Crawford Kilian @crof.bsky.social · 2h
www.propublica.org/article/cali...
propublica.org
A Girl Nearly Died After Drinking Raw Milk. The State Did Little to Punish the Unlicensed Farmer Who Sold It.
California is teeming with black-market dairies, propped up by consumer demand fueled by misinformation. With evidence against one raw goat milk farm, regulators could have sought punitive action. But...
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Robert Paulett @robertpaulett.bsky.social · 2h
Sorry in advance to the Carnegie Mellon humanities faculty who will be laid off to boost the uni’s credit rating in advance of the debt restructuring that will be necessary in five years.
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 2h
Honestly, I think student journalism is a bright light in our dark time. (Get ready to defend it from the inevitable rightwing assault.)
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 16h
That's a $96,318 fine for being raped.
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Robert Paulett @robertpaulett.bsky.social · 2h
Glad someone is finally remembering higher ed’s true purpose: artificially inflating real estate prices in trendy urban zip codes.
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Global Project Against Hate and Extremism @globalextremism.bsky.social · 2h
Wild horses sold for $25. National monuments cut by 90%. Endangered species protections weakened. Sacred Indigenous sites damaged by border-wall construction. Project 2025’s public-lands agenda is translating into real losses of habitat, protections and sacred places.
globalextremism.org
No Accident: Project 2025 Comes for Public Lands
Project 2025’s vision for public lands is becoming policy. Wild horses are being sold into a slaughter pipeline, national monuments have been drastically reduced, endangered species protections weaken...
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Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 4h
It’s particularly cruel to do this to Garbo, who protected her privacy and peace but it’s not surprising she was chosen. After all, she told the world “no” and AI pushers love to run roughshod over consenf www.theguardian.com/film/2026/se...
theguardian.com
SKF advert review – let’s hope this dull AI Greta Garbo is not the future
Swedish-American actor exhumed for bizarre, humourless 99 seconds that give us another reason to resent AI
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 2h
Had she posted her papers on the arXiv at the time of submission, this would have really forced her PhD advisor's hand on giving her the PhD. But without public accountability, he actually got away with this. She eventually got a PhD in a different field, leaving astronomy. 🔭
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 2h
It turned out that she had submitted her main thesis results for publication, and the referee contacted her PhD advisor, and suggested they redo them with a slightly different technique. The PhD advisor agreed (fucker!!!!!!!!!!) and they basically stole her PhD. She left without a degree.
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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 3h
NEW ANALYSIS: Record wind and solar save UK from gas imports worth £5.9bn during Hormuz crisis 🌤️ wind/solar generation up 14% in 2026 to date 🏭 gas down ~10% 🚢 >100 LNG cargoes avoided
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APTN News @aptnnews.bsky.social · 4h
September 30 is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day. Today is a time to raise awareness of the ongoing impacts of residential schools and remember the children who never came home. How are you honouring the day?
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 4h
Imagine if every time a tech/LLM oligarch said "AI could destroy humanity/the world" or something similar, they replaced the word "AI" with the word "we" or "I." Imagine also if every time a CEO or politician used the passive voice we instead forced them to use the active voice. #mistakesweremade
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Emily Tesh @emilytesh.net · 8h
it has now been two months of suddenly having my reading mojo back. I have read or reread twenty-nine books. I can now share such revelations as 'it's been 13 years but Ancillary Justice is still a perfect book' and 'has anyone else heard of this Tchaikovsky chap?'
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 7h
This is so baffling to me because nothing about my job or day would change except perhaps that I'd have to resolve less confusion and anxiety among my students.
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Rachel Moss @menysnoweballes.bsky.social · 7h
We have had some BRILLIANT abstracts but we do have space for more, so we're extending the deadline to the end of Monday - you only need to pop in a short abstract, & if you're UK-based we can help a bit with travel expenses. Come talk with us about a vital topic!
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 7h
Almost every time someone tells me of a use case for every day (not hyperspecialist research) genAI, I think, this is just the destruction of a human connection you would have otherwise had. AI is the anti-community.
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Tyler, from the Internet @tylerfromtheinternet.com · 26/09/2026
*smacks forehead* Ohhhhhhhhhh, guys. I get it. Okay! People don't hate the mass surveillance state as part of our carceral fascist society and lament the ease and access which people can now be a creep or worse. It's that they hate GLASSES! They just hate GLASSES! Let's just make it a necklace!
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Bob Berwyn @bberwyn.bsky.social · 8h
We're way behind on adaptation (and mitigation, of course) and it's costing lives ... insideclimatenews.org/news/3009202...
insideclimatenews.org
Mass Heat Wave Deaths in Europe Show Climate Extremes Are Outpacing Adaptation Efforts - Inside Climate News
As preparedness lags, many regions around the world could be overwhelmed by rising temperatures, climate experts warn.
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 8h
Trumpism is very invested in Newspeak. Doubleplusungood.
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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward
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Leah @leah.myatproto.social · 22h
(pounces on you at a cocktail party) Did you hear the good news about crabapples! #PlantSky 🌱 #ScienceSky 🧪 #Apples 🍏🍎 source.washu.edu/2026/09/wild...
source.washu.edu
Wild crabapples have genetic potential to improve domestic varieties
A plant scientist at Washington University in St. Louis studies genetics of native crabapple species to identify traits that will help production of domestic apple crops.
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Quinn Yeargain @yeargain.bsky.social · 22h
literally the only irreparable harm here is to the people who are fucking getting sent to countries they have no connection to
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Kristin Meekes @kmeekes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The pandemic should have led to clean indoor air, treatments for long covid and related illnesses, next gen vaccines, normalization of masking, mandatory respiratory protection in healthcare, sick leave, and a paradigm shift around what infections do to people
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 21h
🙄
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Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A phenomenal moment in the Senate. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta. Smith denies it. Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury. Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland. WATCH IN FULL, UNINTERRUPTED
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Dave Ghoul @daveghoul.com · 29/09/2026
This is pretty much me. I got Covid then health problems I had got worse *and* I developed new issues. Then my 2nd infection made all of that stuff worse *and* I developed more new issues. So yeah, Long Covid isn't just developing new health issues, it can also worsen existing issues.
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Kate Jewell @katejewell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What Kevin said. And public media (which can be housed at universities- esp regional publics)!
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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Elizabethan playhouses were supplied by a network of tailors, merchants & craftswomen. Their names survive in records, but little is known about their lives. I’m working on new research that brings the stories of these makers & traders centre stage. Here is the project in biscuit (cookie) form. 🍪
A photograph of eight rectangular biscuits (cookies) arranged in two rows on a square white plate. The plate is framed on all sides by a trailing vine pattern in green with pops of red. The biscuits are mostly in shades of ivory, cream, yellow, and grey, with a burst of vivid red and blue in one corner of the arrangement. Moving across the top row of biscuits from left to right, the designs include: neat lines of handwritten names in an early modern parish register; a section of a hand-drawn map from 1561 featuring St Paul’s Cathedral, with street names like ‘Carter Lane’ visible in a tiny spiky font; an extract of text from a funerary monument printed in an early modern book, ending ‘So transitory is our glory’; a section of embroidery from a funeral pall featuring metallic silver armour, crossed gold keys, and two hands holding up a crown. The biscuit designs on the bottom row include: horses prancing past shopfronts on Cheapside in the mid-sixteenth century; a receipt written in early modern secretary hand, which is difficult to read; a portrait of a stern-looking women dressed in a ruff, pearls, and sober dark clothing; swirling calligraphy and dense secretary hand featuring on a will dating from 1638.
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If only bad actors and everyday people weren't spreading misinformation about the HPV vaccine.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'The Westminster government’s contribution to funding domestic undergraduates studying in England fell in real terms from £8.9 billion in 2012-13 to just £3.3bn in 2024-25, a drop of more than 60 per cent, an analysis has found.'
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folukeifejola @folukeifejola.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In Truth and Reconciliation, there is a reason "truth" comes before "reconciliation".
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
(Important to note here that women of color are disproportionately likely to be sexually assaulted in college. The “white women” people wag their fingers at are very often not white.)
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
That tactic gave quiet misogynists a “moral” reason to justify their public support of rapists at the expense of survivors. Once again, survivors who wanted their perpetrators gone were “vengeful” and “man haters.” But it was okay if the misogyny was directed at “white women.”
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The co-optation of the history of lynchings of Black men to protect the privileges of wealthy white male college students was racist. It’s one of many scenarios in which Trump (falsely) argued that a marginalized group had to lose their rights to protect another marginalized group.
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Since then, there has been a good deal of research on racial disparities in Title IX enforcement. No one found anything. (Myself included.) In fact, sexual assault is one of the only school disciplinary proceedings without a racial disparity.
gao.gov
U.S. GAO - K-12 Education: Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities
What GAO Found Black students, boys, and students with disabilities were disproportionately disciplined (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) in K-12...
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
During the Trump era fight over Title IX, there were a series of think pieces that insinuated that expulsion was an unfair consequence for sexual violence. Many of them cited an article by Caitlin Flanagan who announced without evidence that there were racial disparities in Title IX enforcement.
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
At the time, the general public was outraged to learn that most elite universities expelled zero students for sexual violence on an average year, which was presented in stark contrast to the numbers of students expelled for plagiarism.
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While we’re talking about campus sexual violence, I want to revisit the recent history of a topic where we have seen some of the biggest backslides: Expelling rapists from school.
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CAUT/ACPPU @caut.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New data shows tuition has gone up more than 20% in the last 5 years. Starting next week, we’ll break it down by province. With tuition going up and student financial supports going down, fewer Canadians can access education. Tell the government to stop cutting student supports.
Photo of professor standing at the front of a classroom teaching overlaid with a coloured gradient filter. Vines growing from the bottom of the image leading to illustrated icons representing different aspects of post-secondary education. Text that reads "Tuition fees are increasing."
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CAUT/ACPPU @caut.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Students should be able to attend college or university without taking on massive debt. @pattyhajdu.bsky.social, don't cut student grants.
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CAUT/ACPPU @caut.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Canada’s public colleges and universities are among the country’s most important economic and social drivers...Yet despite their importance, public funding for post-secondary education has failed to keep pace." More in @policyalternatives.ca's Alternative federal budget: buff.ly/va3A9Ae
buff.ly
Alternative federal budget 2026-27: Post-secondary education | CCPA
A budget that makes Canada stronger by committing to solidarity and dignity for all
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 28/09/2026
This is why the Vanderbilt/WashU report cannot be understood apart from both institutions‘ massive investments in AI. Their leaders needed to discredit those disciplines and forms of knowledge asking hard questions about the cultural, social, political, and environmental costs of AI.
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Gosh, what could be giving women the ick about Palantir Gary? "sometimes he makes up stories out of thin air to justify working for Palantir—like that line about the medical debt. His parents don’t have any, nor are they ill." www.wired.com/story/tech-b...
wired.com
Why No One Wants to Date Tech Bros
Once seen as nerdy but harmless innovators, men in tech are now widely regarded as red-pilled Elon Musk wannabes. It’s made getting laid a whole lot harder.
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Andrew Schreck @andrewschreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i don't think cis guys realize how much power they can shift in a conversation just by casually telling their friends
"that's fucked up, man" when someone says something
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Ariel @sycoraxpine.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Oh, FFS. Zoom going out of its way to make itself useless as a teaching tool.
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Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Russell Brand, who's awaiting trial in London next month on rape and sexual assault charges, will moderate a panel at DC's MAHA summit tomorrow on reforming a U.S. health agency
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