Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminKatie Mack @astrokatie.com · 1hOne of the most harrowing things about academia, when you're a grad student, is how vulnerable you are to how you're perceived by more senior researchers. Your career advancement depends on confidential letters of reference & private discussions amongst faculty. You have no information or control. 436853
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 2hThis is marketing material, but it's a good indicator of how hungry the fossil fuel power generation industry is to seize on this moment and get huge numbers of gigawatts installed ASAP before the hype subsidies 12310
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 4hLearned a new term yesterday, #SovereignAI, which basically means an attempt to in-house (nationally, institutionally, whatever) and pull back from #CCCP supported services. www.redhat.com/en/topics/ai...redhat.comWhat is sovereign AI?Sovereign AI is about owning AI technology, keeping data local, and ensuring your systems reflect your unique values and legal requirements. 120
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminrev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 21heveryone else who stares into the hyperdimensional gem made of every word ever written goes mad. not me though. i'm still sane. maybe saner than everyone else, tbh. 615010
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminUniversity and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 9hUniversity of Brighton management has given notice to terminate its recognition agreement with UCU alongside collective agreements covering key terms and conditions. This isn't just about Brighton. What happens here could have implications for branches across the UK. 01816
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminKees van der Leun @sustainable2050.bsky.social · 15hData centres in the Netherlands used 4.6% of all electricity in 2024, and transmission system operator TenneT expects this to double or triple to 10-15% by 2030! That means that the next 6-11 TWh/year of renewables that will be completed, will go straight to the growth of data centres. 56744
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminAmrk @amrk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Peter Magyar is currently enacting a Liberal Currents fantasy where he amends the constitution to ban anyone associated with the old regime from ever holding office again and is somehow polling at 68% (he won with 53%) and I’m not saying that’s possible anywhere else but Dems should like, ask him 10695133
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminAnne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 22hThis is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...thecut.comWhat It Feels Like at Cornell Right NowAs a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big. 4629251033
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminNew-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Just saw folk who join the uncritical rush towards AI referred to as "LLMings", and I am stealing that.static.klipy.comVintage Pixel Game: LemmingsAlt: Vintage Pixel Game: Lemmings 10268113
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026strongly agreed. fines and criminal penalties should not merely communicate a finger wag but actually change the strategic situation of a would-be white collar criminal 15773155
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminMeredith Rose @mrose.ink · 29/09/2026...and, importantly, eliminating the Office of Technology Assessment, or OTA. What was the OTA? It was a small office, housed entirely within Congress, whose entire job was understanding complex technology issues and writing reports to explain them to legislators. 3/ 19514
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminDavid M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 29/09/2026And it might even be good business - www.startribune.com/iowa-republi...startribune.comPerry: Republicans fought ‘indoctrination.’ Now they’re telling students what to study.The conservative attack on higher education in states like Iowa is hard to watch. But it also provides an opportunity for blue states like Minnesota. 416734
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminSam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026probably fine that all these new ai agent rollouts are so cutesy and childish. probably a sign of innocuous, normal shit 524067
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Notable that these same faculty very much "understand" hierarchy and power relations when it comes to their interactions with peers and the university's senior management team. 🤔 ... 030
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminMatt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Right now they are a darling of MAGA politics & AI boosters. If even a few thousand students (& parents) put eyes on the platform, that's over (see @toddfeathers.bsky.social). I have heard @bakerdphd.bsky.social & @tressiemcphd.bsky.social say, We can't follow the money without a theory of power.wired.comParents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted OutIn Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school’s methods—surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers—to be an education in and of itself. 1172
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Has any other company ever used the sales pitch of "the Existential Risk of the product we develop means you should give us LOTS more money" before? It's such a weird marketing strategy when you aren't one of the "True Believers" in making the machine god. 010
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminUniversity and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 29/09/2026“People who work in universities are feeling absolutely betrayed by being dragged into this conversation as if their contribution is not recognised.” Migrant staff put down roots, build lives and make an enormous contribution to our universities and communities. 0146
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminNick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Friendly reminder that the heads of big tech companies often don't allow their own children to use the tech they push on everyone else. fortune.com/2026/02/21/p...fortune.comPeter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich | FortuneAs governments race to restrict minors’ social media use, the tech billionaires who built the platforms are imposing strict screen limits at home. 0164
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminJim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind 992116737
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminUniversity and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 29/09/2026“Hope and vibes are not enough.” UCU general secretary Jo Grady on why hope must be backed by serious investment. Our members are losing jobs, losing colleagues and seeing courses close. Post-16 education needs more than promises. It needs investment. 0138
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminChris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Let me give you the actual solution to this problem. Universities and colleges have to hire football players as union employees (AFL-CIO, same as the NFL), with no requirement to attend school. They get health and retirement benefits, and are limited to a five year employment contract. 26639132
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminTyler King @tyleraking.com · 29/09/2026A key component of the Cambridge Analytica outrage was your friends subjecting you to data theft without your consent or knowledge. Facebook is running the same playbook on your text messages. Even if you’re not on Meta properties, they’re ingesting your interactions. 131187607
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminWill Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026A field can be socially indispensable and poorly remunerated because of existing institutional arrangements—social work and education are obvious examples of this. Then, circularly, that low remuneration is cited as evidence that educating people to perform the work is a bad financial investment. 15831
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026as with the fossil fuel industry the reality of the crisis is a load bearing part of the strategy - exploited to lend urgency to plutocrats' preferred political response, which they position as sensible and responsible 325631
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminDominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Shot: "We asked 37 top academics and researchers who study education to rate a range of ideas for both effectiveness and cost, on a scale of 1 to 7." Chaser: "The panel included: Dominique Baker..." LOL y'all I read so many papers to complete this survey on k12 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...nytimes.com30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by ExpertsMath and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around? 825751
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Universities with "AI" service contracts should demand a detailed and without cost audit from these companies about regarding data access privileges to chatbot inputs & outputs. Is this what even the most blinkered SMT "AI" booster wanted? @aaup.org 000
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026This reeks of gender! And I really wish that wasn’t such a power explanatory tool in 2020s USA. 🫠 @inbedwiththeright.bsky.social 000
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminRebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Campus rape is really widespread; statistics suggest a significant percent of women who go to college will be raped there; feminism opened up a good conversation about it around 2012-13; it's weird when people treated Cornell like an isolated rather than dramatic example of a pervasive problem. 412404521
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026The last month should also be a wake up call to all the PhD students who are using LLM chatbots to write their analysis software (at a minimum). All that goes into the maw can & will be used without attribution. 🤷🏻 Hope you are OK with giving your work for free to a for-profit company. 010
Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Intellectual and academic exploration should be free to whomever wants it without fear of permanent financial servitude. It's time to unshackle ourselves from the Reaganite educational ideology of "debt as a disciplining tool." We want anyone to avail themselves of the opportunity. 130
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminLarryLegend @bwtrainer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026if someone tells you you don't need a union, you 100% need a union 13835263
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminMike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Once again, I gotta say: you cannot treat anything you’re feeding into an AI as anonymous. There are enormous ethics implications for, e.g. referees who are clearly uploading others’ unpublished papers without consent, let alone health care professionals or law enforcement 14750274
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminNoel Healy @drnoelhealy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026The assault on US universities didn't start in 2025. Our new paper traces the decades of corporate capture that made it possible, and why climate research is a primary target. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 12695300
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 27/09/2026And in *other* fora they're just sort of blurting out how renewable certificates are all greenwashing and they're going to use fossil fuels forever. Aside from the amazing activists who just stand up and shout to be heard, I don't see hard questions being asked of these ppl at climate week events 093
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminAlondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The idea that people want AI oversight to happen "all of a sudden" ignores years of research, warnings, and policy efforts. The delay hasn’t been a lack of awareness; it’s been because of years of industry lobbying against regulation, political resistance, and inaction. 37931244
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminKevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 26/09/2026Microsoft's data center subcontractor in New Jersey illegally runs a bunch of gas "backup" generators on site, figuring they won't get caught or will just eat the wrist-slap fines if they do. Regulatory enforcement is so bad that a third party had to take drone images to get the state to act.theguardian.comNew Jersey datacenter fined $1.1m after visual investigation showed dozens of unpermitted generatorsState regulator’s record fine for DataOne facility in Vineland follows Floodlight investigation with the Guardian 12371200
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminDan k5s @danafus.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Molly White wrote a great and very thorough article about migrating "Citation Needed" from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: www.citationneeded.news/substack-to-...citationneeded.newsMigrating from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: the detailsI migrated Citation Needed from Substack to self-hosted Ghost. Here is exactly how I did that. 23819
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminEugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026 899262535
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 25/09/2026It’s really stunning how the USA has so swiftly shifted from being one of the most techno-optimistic and tech-industry-loving countries on earth, to a country where most people seem to assume - not incorrectly, at least in many cases - that tech is out to get them. 641585292
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminPeter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Why is the answer to employers wanting more work ready graduates always that universities should provide more workplace training, rather than employers providing more training in the workplace? 27375111
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdmindorian @doriantaylor.com · 25/09/2026i am a big fan of alan cooper's inmates are running the asylum, in which he goes down the list of ways computers behave like awful people this btw is why i think it's very cool how the rust people were extremely proactive about errors and warnings in the rust compiler being as helpful as possible 161
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminDan Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Please relegate Citynytimes.comManchester City found guilty on almost all Premier League charges relating to financial breachesCity were charged by the Premier League in February 2023. 1101
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminSamantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 23/09/2026So I think maybe I just figured out why @timeshighered.bsky.social has not reported anything negative about James Orr. I could very well be wrong, but here we go: In 2024, THE signed an agreement with Hungary's Culture and Innovation Ministry which oversees Hungarian higher education.. 28153
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminAlexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026That's because the anti-intellectualism of the populists and Far Right is in direct contradiction to the basic foundations of any civilisation 523708641
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminElizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 25/09/2026destroying the local gentry has to be part of the political project of the 21st century 192
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminHere to Help! @justheref4thegos.bsky.social · 25/09/2026This book has been foundational in how I have viewed technology for the last decade. Highly recommend. 0227
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminJeffrey Vagle @jvagle.me · 23/09/2026More accurately, OpenAI developers and management built an automated system with unfettered access, unmonitored agents, prompting an LLM with zero safeguards and trained to be persistent until it drops, suggesting an increasing number of crazy activities, and running it for days without monitoring. 29636
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdminKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026Someone just reminded me that Huang recently used *this* metaphor to describe AI www.ap.org/news-highlig... 96417
Reposted by Generic white guy SysAdmintante @tante.cc · 24/09/2026I had a few thoughts on why techbros always say these embarrassing, weird things tante.cc/2026/09/24/the-testtante.ccThe TestJensen Huang, the NVIDIA CEO and wearer of the most midlife crisis looking leather jackets in the world, was on Ezra Klein’s podcast. Now I don’t really want you do go through all of what was being said in that recording/writeup. It’s painful. You feel your mental capabilities decaying with every minute of listening … […] 58649