Martha Lincoln
@heavyredaction.bsky.social
Medical anthropologist, Assoc. Prof. at SFSU. EIC at @jvietnamstudies.bsky.social. Studying online health influencers. “In the dark times/Will there also be singing?”—Bertolt Brecht
Pinned
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
Same week that they put gold cursive on the side of the White House. Pure class war from this administration
This just into the newsroom
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court issues emergency order temporarily blocking full SNAP food aid payments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court issues emergency order temporarily blocking full SNAP food aid payments.
November 8, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Same week that they put gold cursive on the side of the White House. Pure class war from this administration
I hope Usha Vance has an incredible prenup
October 31, 2025 at 7:58 PM
I hope Usha Vance has an incredible prenup
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
AI companies: The future of humanoid robots is here
Humanoid robot:
Humanoid robot:
October 31, 2025 at 1:49 PM
AI companies: The future of humanoid robots is here
Humanoid robot:
Humanoid robot:
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
Zohran Mamdani spent last night with the late-night workers he said are often forgotten — can drivers at LGA and hospital workers on a 7-7 shift at Elmhurst Hospital, before walking to Kebab King and then having a midnight press conference in Jackson Heights
October 31, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Zohran Mamdani spent last night with the late-night workers he said are often forgotten — can drivers at LGA and hospital workers on a 7-7 shift at Elmhurst Hospital, before walking to Kebab King and then having a midnight press conference in Jackson Heights
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
"Under the plan... the Recreation and Parks Department would pay the estimated $4.4 million cost to have the 710-ton sculpture disassembled and moved to off-site storage for up to three years, while the artwork’s permanent fate is determined."
$4.4 million to think about it! [gift link]
$4.4 million to think about it! [gift link]
Exclusive: New plan seeks to remove controversial fountain from S.F. Embarcadero Plaza within months
The Vaillancourt Fountain could disappear from Embarcadero Plaza within months — at least temporarily — under a plan by San Francisco parks officials revealed exclusively to the Chronicle.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:22 PM
"Under the plan... the Recreation and Parks Department would pay the estimated $4.4 million cost to have the 710-ton sculpture disassembled and moved to off-site storage for up to three years, while the artwork’s permanent fate is determined."
$4.4 million to think about it! [gift link]
$4.4 million to think about it! [gift link]
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
While she completed medical school, she never finished residency, and is likely to face tough questions from senators about her qualifications and views on vaccines. n.pr/4oPHYiZ
Casey Means' confirmation hearing for surgeon general postponed
While she completed medical school, she never finished residency, and is likely to face tough questions. But her hearing has been canceled because she is pregnant and has gone into labor.
n.pr
October 31, 2025 at 2:54 AM
While she completed medical school, she never finished residency, and is likely to face tough questions from senators about her qualifications and views on vaccines. n.pr/4oPHYiZ
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
"When history is written as it ought to be written, it is the moderation and long patience of the masses at which men will wonder, not their ferocity." - CLR James, "The Black Jacobins"
Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana blames SNAP recipients for not stockpiling a month's worth of food.
He ends his tweet with "stop smoking crack."
He ends his tweet with "stop smoking crack."
October 30, 2025 at 11:27 PM
"When history is written as it ought to be written, it is the moderation and long patience of the masses at which men will wonder, not their ferocity." - CLR James, "The Black Jacobins"
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
"these arrangements are not 'partnerships' or 'collaborations' but contracts that bring profit and publicity to AI firms, while making universities complicit in the continued empowerment of tech oligarchy and expansion of their 'AI Empire' (Tacheva and Ramasubramanian, 2023; Adams, 2024; Hao, 2025)"
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
October 30, 2025 at 7:10 AM
"these arrangements are not 'partnerships' or 'collaborations' but contracts that bring profit and publicity to AI firms, while making universities complicit in the continued empowerment of tech oligarchy and expansion of their 'AI Empire' (Tacheva and Ramasubramanian, 2023; Adams, 2024; Hao, 2025)"
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
Israel has contracted three US public relations companies to help it win back American hearts and minds.
Spinning genocide: How is Israel using US PR firms to frame its Gaza war?
Israel has contracted three US public relations companies to help it win back American hearts and minds.
bit.ly
October 30, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Israel has contracted three US public relations companies to help it win back American hearts and minds.
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
"It took imagination to build Alligator Alcatraz in five days, and it took imagination to terrorize communities in the way that they are now being terrorized. It’s not about realism versus imagination. It’s about competing versions of an imagined future, an imagined present."
I had such a meaningful night in Chicago with Eve Ewing at the National Public Housing Museum, and I'm grateful to @katieprout.bsky.social for this piece on the event and THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US—about housing, state violence, political imagination, and refusing the myth of dispassionate journalism.
Profiting off precarity - Chicago Reader
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, by Brian Goldstone, is an account of five Black families forced into homelessness.
chicagoreader.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:41 PM
"It took imagination to build Alligator Alcatraz in five days, and it took imagination to terrorize communities in the way that they are now being terrorized. It’s not about realism versus imagination. It’s about competing versions of an imagined future, an imagined present."
This is a beautifully written piece whose formal elegance underscores the author’s thesis:
”Developing our linguistic capacities — to master diverse concepts, to follow an intricate argument, to form judgments, to communicate those to others — is the development of our capacity to think.”
”Developing our linguistic capacities — to master diverse concepts, to follow an intricate argument, to form judgments, to communicate those to others — is the development of our capacity to think.”
A.I. could deprive students of “indispensable opportunities to develop their linguistic mastery, and with it their most elementary powers of thought,” Anastasia Berg writes. “This means they will lack the means to understand the world they live in or navigate it effectively.”
Opinion | A.I. Threatens Our Ability to Understand the World
Artificial intelligence threatens students’ most basic skills. If they lose their ability to understand what they read, will they lose their ability to think?
nyti.ms
October 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
This is a beautifully written piece whose formal elegance underscores the author’s thesis:
”Developing our linguistic capacities — to master diverse concepts, to follow an intricate argument, to form judgments, to communicate those to others — is the development of our capacity to think.”
”Developing our linguistic capacities — to master diverse concepts, to follow an intricate argument, to form judgments, to communicate those to others — is the development of our capacity to think.”
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
This piece is excellent.
“Real working-class politics does not assume the worst of working-class people’s impulses. It does not launder their concerns for political points. It certainly does not argue, directly or indirectly, that a little racism is a good thing for reaching them.”
“Real working-class politics does not assume the worst of working-class people’s impulses. It does not launder their concerns for political points. It certainly does not argue, directly or indirectly, that a little racism is a good thing for reaching them.”
Opinion | A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness
www.nytimes.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:53 AM
This piece is excellent.
“Real working-class politics does not assume the worst of working-class people’s impulses. It does not launder their concerns for political points. It certainly does not argue, directly or indirectly, that a little racism is a good thing for reaching them.”
“Real working-class politics does not assume the worst of working-class people’s impulses. It does not launder their concerns for political points. It certainly does not argue, directly or indirectly, that a little racism is a good thing for reaching them.”
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
guarding food from hungry people i hate it here!!
California police boost patrols at grocery stores as millions set to lose SNAP benefits
California police boost patrols at grocery stores as millions set to lose SNAP benefits
www.foxla.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:42 AM
guarding food from hungry people i hate it here!!
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
They called the “winking mechanism”:
Israeli officials “created a secret warning system: the companies [Google and Amazon] must send signals hidden in payments to the Israeli government, tipping it off when it has disclosed Israeli data to foreign courts or investigators.”
Israeli officials “created a secret warning system: the companies [Google and Amazon] must send signals hidden in payments to the Israeli government, tipping it off when it has disclosed Israeli data to foreign courts or investigators.”
Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders
The tech giants agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a lucrative contract with the Israeli government, documents show
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:53 PM
They called the “winking mechanism”:
Israeli officials “created a secret warning system: the companies [Google and Amazon] must send signals hidden in payments to the Israeli government, tipping it off when it has disclosed Israeli data to foreign courts or investigators.”
Israeli officials “created a secret warning system: the companies [Google and Amazon] must send signals hidden in payments to the Israeli government, tipping it off when it has disclosed Israeli data to foreign courts or investigators.”
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
October 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
Under Trump, the draconian future of homelessness policy is coming into focus: mass internment. Utah is building a 16-acre site to detain up to 1,300 homeless people inside locked "accountability centers." This is profoundly alarming.
Vital reporting from @ellenbarry.bsky.social and Jason DeParle:
Vital reporting from @ellenbarry.bsky.social and Jason DeParle:
In Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Under Trump, the draconian future of homelessness policy is coming into focus: mass internment. Utah is building a 16-acre site to detain up to 1,300 homeless people inside locked "accountability centers." This is profoundly alarming.
Vital reporting from @ellenbarry.bsky.social and Jason DeParle:
Vital reporting from @ellenbarry.bsky.social and Jason DeParle:
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
I like how Zohran Mamdani scandals are like "He called his old cousin his aunt one time" and Andrew Cuomo scandals are like "He sexually assaulted 13 women."
October 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
I like how Zohran Mamdani scandals are like "He called his old cousin his aunt one time" and Andrew Cuomo scandals are like "He sexually assaulted 13 women."
Matched w/ Chotiner on a dating app many years ago... the cold sweat when I realized it was *that* Isaac
October 28, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Matched w/ Chotiner on a dating app many years ago... the cold sweat when I realized it was *that* Isaac
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
Zohran Mamdani: *Tells a heartbreaking story about a traumatic reality faced by many New Yorkers*
CNN: "Okay, but was she *really* your aunt?"
CNN: "Okay, but was she *really* your aunt?"
October 28, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Zohran Mamdani: *Tells a heartbreaking story about a traumatic reality faced by many New Yorkers*
CNN: "Okay, but was she *really* your aunt?"
CNN: "Okay, but was she *really* your aunt?"
Anthropologists of kinship, it is your moment to pitch an op-ed
October 28, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Anthropologists of kinship, it is your moment to pitch an op-ed
Out this month from @oxfordunipress.bsky.social—“Crisis, Inequity, and Legacy: Narrative Analyses of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Really honored to have a chapter in this wonderful edited volume
October 27, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Out this month from @oxfordunipress.bsky.social—“Crisis, Inequity, and Legacy: Narrative Analyses of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Really honored to have a chapter in this wonderful edited volume
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
And Oxford has also drunk the A.I. cool-aid, at undisclosed cost, and without consulation with the University's governing body (Congregation).
W/ my collaborator Martha Kenney, spoke to Natasha Singer for this piece out today about Cal State’s sweeping, costly, and non-transparent “AI-empowered university” initiative.
October 26, 2025 at 9:02 PM
And Oxford has also drunk the A.I. cool-aid, at undisclosed cost, and without consulation with the University's governing body (Congregation).
Reposted by Martha Lincoln
“An artificial intelligence system apparently mistook a high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed.”
US student handcuffed after AI system apparently mistook bag of chips for firearm
Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspicious
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:58 PM
“An artificial intelligence system apparently mistook a high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed.”
W/ my collaborator Martha Kenney, spoke to Natasha Singer for this piece out today about Cal State’s sweeping, costly, and non-transparent “AI-empowered university” initiative.
October 26, 2025 at 4:11 PM
W/ my collaborator Martha Kenney, spoke to Natasha Singer for this piece out today about Cal State’s sweeping, costly, and non-transparent “AI-empowered university” initiative.