Emil Mertzel
@emilmertzel.bsky.social
I help people design buildings in and out of the classroom. I like thinking about meaning, which makes me easily distracted. Fan of bikes and cars, go figure. (he/him)
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
no one has even bothered trying to convince us there’s a threat from Venezuela. no weapons of mass destruction. nothing. just a war of choice because why not.
US operations against Venezuela to begin within days.
Covert ops the first move.
Covert ops the first move.
www.reuters.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:48 PM
no one has even bothered trying to convince us there’s a threat from Venezuela. no weapons of mass destruction. nothing. just a war of choice because why not.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
oh ok
Texas A&M Was Wrong to Fire Professor Over Gender Lesson, Panel Rules
The firing put the school at the center of national debates over gender identity and academic freedom. A faculty panel ruled unanimously against the termination.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/u...
The firing put the school at the center of national debates over gender identity and academic freedom. A faculty panel ruled unanimously against the termination.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/u...
Texas A&M Was Wrong to Fire Professor Over Gender Lesson, Panel Rules
www.nytimes.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:42 PM
oh ok
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
#BREAKING: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Summers Will Not Finish Semester of Teaching as Harvard Investigates Epstein Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson
Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
www.thecrimson.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:30 AM
#BREAKING: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
it's always interesting when the bar for morality is "is it a crime or not" for some folks.
November 20, 2025 at 3:53 AM
it's always interesting when the bar for morality is "is it a crime or not" for some folks.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
Let’s not allow the drama of her now as an adult drive us to laugh at and make a spectacle of what is frankly child abuse.
November 19, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Let’s not allow the drama of her now as an adult drive us to laugh at and make a spectacle of what is frankly child abuse.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
do you believe in ghosts or are you like me, a person who finds themself saying all the time “I absolutely don’t believe in ghosts, but this place has ghosts.”
November 19, 2025 at 5:24 AM
do you believe in ghosts or are you like me, a person who finds themself saying all the time “I absolutely don’t believe in ghosts, but this place has ghosts.”
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air. (11/18/2025)
f the nyt
f the nyt
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air. (11/18/2025)
f the nyt
f the nyt
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
idk if it helps to think of it this way, but capital is not just in opposition to labor but fully radicalized against labor. they'll suffer if they think labor will suffer more. it's not about money. it's about winning.
So if AI succeeds loads of people lose their jobs as they're replaced by AI, and if AI fails, loads of people lose their jobs as the economy crashes?
It’s amazing how this story has gone from 0 to 60 in UK press. There’s been no mainstream coverage to date but this morning the story is leading BBC News site & bulletins.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
idk if it helps to think of it this way, but capital is not just in opposition to labor but fully radicalized against labor. they'll suffer if they think labor will suffer more. it's not about money. it's about winning.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
November 18, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
Hi @ktla.com, I broke this story for @lataco.bsky.social yesterday. We were the first news outlet to publish the surveillance footage and report that Rodriguez is a federal agent. Disappointing to not see a "first reported by" credit or link to our website in your story. Do better.
ICE agent arrested for pulling gun on Southern California teen, lawyer says
ICE agent arrested for pulling gun on Southern California teen, lawyer says
A 45-year-old Riverside County man, who reportedly works as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, is accused of illegally detaining a minor at gunpoin…
ktla.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Hi @ktla.com, I broke this story for @lataco.bsky.social yesterday. We were the first news outlet to publish the surveillance footage and report that Rodriguez is a federal agent. Disappointing to not see a "first reported by" credit or link to our website in your story. Do better.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
It's important to note, as I have multiple times, that it's possible to be Jewish - as I am - and still condemn Israel for genocidal acts. In fact, the history of Judaism makes it clear Jews are obligated to speak out. Never again *means* never again. #zachor
Antisemitism is a lot like Qanon child abuse conspiracies in that there’s this real and bad phenomenon and, parallel to that, what can only be described as a large scale mass psychosis about a mostly fictional version of the same phenomenon
November 16, 2025 at 9:13 PM
It's important to note, as I have multiple times, that it's possible to be Jewish - as I am - and still condemn Israel for genocidal acts. In fact, the history of Judaism makes it clear Jews are obligated to speak out. Never again *means* never again. #zachor
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
Remember the recent middle-of-the-night apartment building raid where children were dragged outside naked & zip-tied in the street while black & Latino residents were _sorted by race_ and piled into separate vans while their apartments were ransacked & robbed? That raid? So it resulted in 0 arrests.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should resign and be criminally charged, according to critics who seized on a report revealing that zero people who were arrested in a high-profile raid were charged with a crime.
'Noem should resign over this': Fury over alleged DHS 'child kidnapping and trafficking'
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should resign and be criminally charged, according to critics who seized on a report revealing that zero people who were arrested in a high-profile raid were charged with a crime.ProPublica recently reported on the DHS raid on an apartment building that was al...
bit.ly
November 16, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Remember the recent middle-of-the-night apartment building raid where children were dragged outside naked & zip-tied in the street while black & Latino residents were _sorted by race_ and piled into separate vans while their apartments were ransacked & robbed? That raid? So it resulted in 0 arrests.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 16, 2025 at 7:42 PM
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
Paul Krugman only reads blogs and that is why he, unlike everyone else who has been in punditry for decades, has never lost his mind
If you need me, tap me on the shoulder. I’ll be happily working all day listening to this on a loop.
November 15, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Paul Krugman only reads blogs and that is why he, unlike everyone else who has been in punditry for decades, has never lost his mind
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
If your church is turning away people who show up to your doors in good faith, you don't have a church. You have a very expensive book club with scarcely any wine.
November 14, 2025 at 4:45 PM
If your church is turning away people who show up to your doors in good faith, you don't have a church. You have a very expensive book club with scarcely any wine.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
www.yahoo.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:23 PM
THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS
Your own personal Jesus.
The app Text With Jesus uses artificial intelligence and chatbots to offer spiritual guidance to users who are looking to connect with a higher power: on.nbc10.com/7XM8xrf
People can text with Jesus on a controversial new app. How does it work?
Artificial intelligence app Text With Jesus lets users chat with biblical figures and it is raising debate over faith and technology.
on.nbc10.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Your own personal Jesus.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
Hey so “underage girls” are…children. The word you’re looking for is children. They’re not like, women-in-waiting or women-lite or whatever. They’re children. I think some of you are very uncomfortable with what that means for you but it is still true.
November 12, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Hey so “underage girls” are…children. The word you’re looking for is children. They’re not like, women-in-waiting or women-lite or whatever. They’re children. I think some of you are very uncomfortable with what that means for you but it is still true.
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected.
And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*
Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*
Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts
A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...
www.bloomberg.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM
NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected.
And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*
Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*
Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
A reminder that the President, an adjudicated rapist, a fraud, grifter, murderer, and felon, is also a pedophile.
November 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
A reminder that the President, an adjudicated rapist, a fraud, grifter, murderer, and felon, is also a pedophile.
My kid’s pic from upper manhattan
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM
My kid’s pic from upper manhattan
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
November 12, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Reposted by Emil Mertzel
my patience has increased but I will say, it is ok to have trouble reading, it is not ok to scream at people for things you imagined they said because you can't read what they actually said
November 11, 2025 at 6:24 PM
my patience has increased but I will say, it is ok to have trouble reading, it is not ok to scream at people for things you imagined they said because you can't read what they actually said