Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings
A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”
www.texastribune.org
December 24, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
🚨BREAKING: GRETA THUNBERG ARRESTED UNDER TERRORISM ACT FOR SUPPORTING 'PALESTINE ACTION PRISONERS'
December 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
🚨BREAKING: GRETA THUNBERG ARRESTED UNDER TERRORISM ACT FOR SUPPORTING 'PALESTINE ACTION PRISONERS'
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Sana points out that the ten Irish hunger strikers under Margaret Thatcher died after between 46 and 73 days without food. Some Palestine Action hunger strikers have now surpassed 50 days.
December 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Sana points out that the ten Irish hunger strikers under Margaret Thatcher died after between 46 and 73 days without food. Some Palestine Action hunger strikers have now surpassed 50 days.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Still working to get 100 plants for the Botany & Dragons Bestiary! Submit your favorite plant today! #iamabotanist
December 22, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Still working to get 100 plants for the Botany & Dragons Bestiary! Submit your favorite plant today! #iamabotanist
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
And here are a few more pics of William; these are much more recent. I met him much later than you. Note that in the first, you are also in the pic, @schwilk.org, taken by Jon Keeley, together with other fire ecologists. 🌎🔥
jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2025/12/10/h...
jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2025/12/10/h...
j.g. pausas' blog » Homage to William Bond
jgpausas.blogs.uv.es
December 22, 2025 at 8:59 AM
And here are a few more pics of William; these are much more recent. I met him much later than you. Note that in the first, you are also in the pic, @schwilk.org, taken by Jon Keeley, together with other fire ecologists. 🌎🔥
jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2025/12/10/h...
jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2025/12/10/h...
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Responsible researchers have the privilege to unhitch themselves from the "AI" brand at any time. Are you studying wildfire smoke or deforestation using satellite imagery? That used to be "remote sensing" and you can call it that again. Signal processing, image segmentation, structure-from-motion.
December 22, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Responsible researchers have the privilege to unhitch themselves from the "AI" brand at any time. Are you studying wildfire smoke or deforestation using satellite imagery? That used to be "remote sensing" and you can call it that again. Signal processing, image segmentation, structure-from-motion.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 21, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Snow record broken for Esfahan. Video from the Zayandeh Rood (river)
December 20, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Snow record broken for Esfahan. Video from the Zayandeh Rood (river)
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.
I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
December 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Reliance on chatbots and proliferation of fake, fraud, and frippery academic text is creating a huge amount of labour. There’s no extra pay for it.
bsky.app/profile/cjpo...
bsky.app/profile/cjpo...
This lengthy checking process is now a core, mind-numbing and soul destroying feature of marking of dissertations and coursework essays and the reason why our teaching team are discussing vivas and closed book exams...but hey, the tech bros promise that AI is making everything better. 😭
December 20, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reliance on chatbots and proliferation of fake, fraud, and frippery academic text is creating a huge amount of labour. There’s no extra pay for it.
bsky.app/profile/cjpo...
bsky.app/profile/cjpo...
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Yikes! Sometimes, you get a forecast that leaves no doubt you'll be reacting to instead of influencing events. A bit of good news: this will be about ignitions, which are often a product of human decisions.
If you're in the area, be smart & stay safe while keeping out of the way of firefighters.
If you're in the area, be smart & stay safe while keeping out of the way of firefighters.
IMPORTANT: NWS Boulder just issued a rare "Particularly Dangerous Situation" (PDS) Fire Weather Warning for Boulder, Hwy 93, and the Boulder + northern JeffCo foothills for tomorrow.
Winds: 85-110 mph. Bone dry.
This is a Fire Weather Warning with an exclamation point.
#COwx
Winds: 85-110 mph. Bone dry.
This is a Fire Weather Warning with an exclamation point.
#COwx
December 19, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Yikes! Sometimes, you get a forecast that leaves no doubt you'll be reacting to instead of influencing events. A bit of good news: this will be about ignitions, which are often a product of human decisions.
If you're in the area, be smart & stay safe while keeping out of the way of firefighters.
If you're in the area, be smart & stay safe while keeping out of the way of firefighters.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Infant Saeed Abdeen, only one month old, died this morning in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, Gaza, due to hypothermia.
The fourth child in just over a week to die after freezing in a displacement tent camp.
The fourth child in just over a week to die after freezing in a displacement tent camp.
December 18, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Infant Saeed Abdeen, only one month old, died this morning in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, Gaza, due to hypothermia.
The fourth child in just over a week to die after freezing in a displacement tent camp.
The fourth child in just over a week to die after freezing in a displacement tent camp.
15 or so courses now banned in Arts and Sciences alone.
“We want the Texas Tech brand and the degrees that we offer to have a high degree of value and marketability. And we want our graduates to make as much money as possible when they graduate.”
Hardly an elevated vision for Texas Tech.
Hardly an elevated vision for Texas Tech.
Interview with Brandon Creighton, chancellor of the Texas Tech University system, who is defending the new academic freedom restrictions at Texas Tech.
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
December 18, 2025 at 3:38 PM
15 or so courses now banned in Arts and Sciences alone.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Whenever people want to justify the de facto single state reality of the occupied Palestinian territory I just show them maps like this and ask them what it means
![occupied Palestinian territory: Jordan Valley and Dead Sea Area - February 2012 [EN/AR]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vlpy6zuqqum5tumv7b6dw5fp/bafkreihj66x3xh6hfule67tkre2y43xuwovzy5miwmyvqk7heultril7qm@jpeg)
December 15, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Whenever people want to justify the de facto single state reality of the occupied Palestinian territory I just show them maps like this and ask them what it means
Thinking of William ... I scanned a few old slides. Here is William Bond with his daughters in Jonkershoek, May 1995. Discussing Protea neriifolia.
December 15, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Thinking of William ... I scanned a few old slides. Here is William Bond with his daughters in Jonkershoek, May 1995. Discussing Protea neriifolia.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Bondi victims include Holocaust survivor
Among the victims of the Bondi Beach attack were a Holocaust survivor, a young French tourist and a rabbi, multiple media outlets reported.
With replies by 🎓Cas Mudde, 🎓Ruud Koopmans, 🎓Victor Asal +140 more scholars.
Among the victims of the Bondi Beach attack were a Holocaust survivor, a young French tourist and a rabbi, multiple media outlets reported.
With replies by 🎓Cas Mudde, 🎓Ruud Koopmans, 🎓Victor Asal +140 more scholars.
Bondi victims include Holocaust survivor
Replies by 🎓Cas Mudde, 🎓Ruud Koopmans, 🎓Victor Asal, 🎓Brigid Laffan, 🎓Jonathan Wolff +138 more scholars
www.lightnews.app
December 15, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Bondi victims include Holocaust survivor
Among the victims of the Bondi Beach attack were a Holocaust survivor, a young French tourist and a rabbi, multiple media outlets reported.
With replies by 🎓Cas Mudde, 🎓Ruud Koopmans, 🎓Victor Asal +140 more scholars.
Among the victims of the Bondi Beach attack were a Holocaust survivor, a young French tourist and a rabbi, multiple media outlets reported.
With replies by 🎓Cas Mudde, 🎓Ruud Koopmans, 🎓Victor Asal +140 more scholars.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
🧵Omfg. In 1965, to keep an eye on China, the CIA hatched a plan to put a monitoring device on Nanda Devi, a difficult to climb mountain in India, overlooking China.
The device was powered by voltage generated by heat from radioactuve Plutonium.
They lost it in the icepack feeding the Ganges.
The device was powered by voltage generated by heat from radioactuve Plutonium.
They lost it in the icepack feeding the Ganges.
How Did the C.I.A. Lose a Nuclear Device in the Himalayas? (Gift Article)
A plutonium-packed generator disappeared on one of the world’s highest mountains in a covert mission that the U.S. will not talk about.
www.nytimes.com
December 14, 2025 at 4:32 PM
🧵Omfg. In 1965, to keep an eye on China, the CIA hatched a plan to put a monitoring device on Nanda Devi, a difficult to climb mountain in India, overlooking China.
The device was powered by voltage generated by heat from radioactuve Plutonium.
They lost it in the icepack feeding the Ganges.
The device was powered by voltage generated by heat from radioactuve Plutonium.
They lost it in the icepack feeding the Ganges.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Tomorrow's front page 📰
'The UK is letting these people die'
'The UK is letting these people die'
December 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Tomorrow's front page 📰
'The UK is letting these people die'
'The UK is letting these people die'
Political prisoners in UK on largest hunger strike since 1981. Imprisoned without trial. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
‘Death risk’ fear for Palestine Action hunger strike activists | The Observer
observer.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Political prisoners in UK on largest hunger strike since 1981. Imprisoned without trial. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Students do journalism, better than many leading papers, and get punished for it. We're vulnerable to Trump because management has weakened us from within.
UT-Dallas fired the editor of the student paper, then fired the staff when they went on strike to object, then banned their independent newspaper from campus, and now are trying to discipline the former student editor for fact-checking a letter to the editor? Glad @thefireorg.bsky.social is on this.
UT Dallas is Trying to Punish a Student Editor for Editing
UT Dallas has consistently been accused of free speech violations in recent years.
www.dallasobserver.com
December 11, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Students do journalism, better than many leading papers, and get punished for it. We're vulnerable to Trump because management has weakened us from within.
War profiteers still profiteering. Corrupt congress is in on the scam.
The idea was that no service member would ever be left waiting on a contractor to fly in from Norway to repair a simple part — which once happened.
Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products
Both chambers included Pentagon budget provisions for a right to repair, but they died after defense industry meetings on Capitol Hill.
theintercept.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:16 AM
War profiteers still profiteering. Corrupt congress is in on the scam.
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
Welcome to Bluesky @pujaroy.bsky.social! She's doing her PhD on flammability and dessication tolerance with @schwilk.org
December 10, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Welcome to Bluesky @pujaroy.bsky.social! She's doing her PhD on flammability and dessication tolerance with @schwilk.org
Reposted by Dylan Schwilk
"there's a new serif in town"
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:06 AM
"there's a new serif in town"