Sherrill Stroschein
@sherrillstroschein.bsky.social
Political Science and other things
Pinned
Updated reading list, topic of non-democracies and hybrid regimes for class this year.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
Russia has given state honors to the Minister of the Interior of BiH's RS entity, a nod to the secessionist Banja Luka regime's ongoing clandestine support for the rat lines shuttling Serb volunteers to Russia's occupation forces in Ukraine. www.klix.ba/vijesti/bih/...
Ministar policije RS-a Željko Budimir dobio odlikovanje od Putina: "Radit ću na jačanju veza Srba i Rusa"
Ambasador Ruske Federacije u BiH Igor Kalabuhov uručio je danas u Banjaluci visoko državno odlikovanje Rusije Medalju "Puškin" ministru unutrašnjih poslova Repu...
www.klix.ba
December 26, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Russia has given state honors to the Minister of the Interior of BiH's RS entity, a nod to the secessionist Banja Luka regime's ongoing clandestine support for the rat lines shuttling Serb volunteers to Russia's occupation forces in Ukraine. www.klix.ba/vijesti/bih/...
As long as Labour just lets them take the piss by copying their lines, they will just get bolder in doing it.
Top Conservative peer urges Starmer to give Reform seats in House of Lords
Top Conservative peer urges Starmer to give Reform seats in House of Lords
Top Conservative peer urges Starmer to give Reform seats in House of Lords
www.independent.co.uk
December 26, 2025 at 10:40 AM
As long as Labour just lets them take the piss by copying their lines, they will just get bolder in doing it.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.
Harrison Pitt accuses the King of treachery. Pitt is a Senior Policy Fellow for Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, who also regularly co-hosts podcasts with his ally Tomlinson (who advocates banning all ethnic and faith minorities from public office). Like Lowe, Pitt is keen to dissolve boundaries/norms
December 26, 2025 at 9:08 AM
We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.
Congratulations to Stephen Macedo & Frances Lee, whose book In Covid's Wake has been recognized as:
⭐ A @newyorker.com Best Book of the Year
⭐ An @economist.com Book of the Year
⭐ A @wsj.com Best Book of the Year
Learn more about this eye-opening book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
⭐ A @newyorker.com Best Book of the Year
⭐ An @economist.com Book of the Year
⭐ A @wsj.com Best Book of the Year
Learn more about this eye-opening book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
December 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM
This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
If I haven't responded to your email, it's because I was first convincing an AI vending machine that it exists in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and then executing a boardroom coup against its AI CEO.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
If I haven't responded to your email, it's because I was first convincing an AI vending machine that it exists in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and then executing a boardroom coup against its AI CEO.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
It's so frustrating. The authors are in general very serious non-right-wing people who write terrific stuff in their areas. They bought into a narrative here and wrote a book that is careless in a way they'd never accept in their actual fields. But it's been influential bc of who the authors are.
December 24, 2025 at 10:03 AM
It's so frustrating. The authors are in general very serious non-right-wing people who write terrific stuff in their areas. They bought into a narrative here and wrote a book that is careless in a way they'd never accept in their actual fields. But it's been influential bc of who the authors are.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
What I think is unique about LLM-boosterism is how toxic it is. I honestly can't recall a tech where its supporters were so nasty towards skeptics.
AI critics: I don't think gAI is useful for x field/profession; in fact, it might be harmful, even
AI bros: you're just "stupid" "Anti-AI Luddites" who "can't read" and are "toxic" "troll brigades" (a selection of the fine epithets I have seen on here JUST THIS WEEKEND)
AI bros: you're just "stupid" "Anti-AI Luddites" who "can't read" and are "toxic" "troll brigades" (a selection of the fine epithets I have seen on here JUST THIS WEEKEND)
AI advocates: you really need to learn to stop coming off to subject matter experts in other fields as if you’re Kool-Aid manning into the room and going “you’re dumb not to use these tools for your trivially easy jobs”
you may think this is an unfair read on your intentions, but life is unfair.
you may think this is an unfair read on your intentions, but life is unfair.
December 24, 2025 at 11:03 AM
What I think is unique about LLM-boosterism is how toxic it is. I honestly can't recall a tech where its supporters were so nasty towards skeptics.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
The soles of the dead are coming back to life.
Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach
Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach
More than 400 leather hobnailed boots, thought to date back to the 19th Century, have been found.
www.bbc.com
December 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
The soles of the dead are coming back to life.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
Auditors and new officials have been turning over stones at the body in charge of Teesworks. Turns out the Tees Valley Combined Authority has been lending hundreds of millions of £ to connected orgs, without loan agreements, and those orgs are now struggling to repay
as.ft.com/r/ac457745-4...
as.ft.com/r/ac457745-4...
Auditors raise red flags at public body run by Ben Houchen
[FREE TO READ] EY said errors included ‘material misstatements’ in latest setback for Conservative metro mayor Lord Houchen
as.ft.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Auditors and new officials have been turning over stones at the body in charge of Teesworks. Turns out the Tees Valley Combined Authority has been lending hundreds of millions of £ to connected orgs, without loan agreements, and those orgs are now struggling to repay
as.ft.com/r/ac457745-4...
as.ft.com/r/ac457745-4...
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
December 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
The thing about trying to censor content is that it gets out
December 22, 2025 at 10:54 PM
The thing about trying to censor content is that it gets out
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research:
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
December 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research:
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
But “get the principals onscreen debating” has never been even remotely how 60 Minutes did journalism. What Weiss is saying here is “I’m burning down 60 Minutes and replacing it with Crossfire even if I keep the name.”
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December 22, 2025 at 3:30 PM
But “get the principals onscreen debating” has never been even remotely how 60 Minutes did journalism. What Weiss is saying here is “I’m burning down 60 Minutes and replacing it with Crossfire even if I keep the name.”
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Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
60 Minutes was weekly viewing in my house as a kid. (Just one TV, watching was communal.)
I recognized early on that one of their go-to moves was to assemble a story so damning that the target would absolutely not agree to on-camera comment and then to draw damning inferences from that.
I recognized early on that one of their go-to moves was to assemble a story so damning that the target would absolutely not agree to on-camera comment and then to draw damning inferences from that.
Bari Weiss this morning on the 60 Minutes segment: "We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera."
Of course, most journalists know that oftentimes people who are the subject of negative reporting don't want to speak on camera or on the record.
Of course, most journalists know that oftentimes people who are the subject of negative reporting don't want to speak on camera or on the record.
December 22, 2025 at 3:30 PM
60 Minutes was weekly viewing in my house as a kid. (Just one TV, watching was communal.)
I recognized early on that one of their go-to moves was to assemble a story so damning that the target would absolutely not agree to on-camera comment and then to draw damning inferences from that.
I recognized early on that one of their go-to moves was to assemble a story so damning that the target would absolutely not agree to on-camera comment and then to draw damning inferences from that.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
…As Frankfurt says, the bullshitter is more dangerous than the liar, precisely *because* the bullsitter doesn't care about the truth. "Gen AI" doesn't *Care* about truth or falsity; it only cares— if it cares about anything— about telling you what you're most likely to accept, so you keep using it.…
December 22, 2025 at 4:21 PM
…As Frankfurt says, the bullshitter is more dangerous than the liar, precisely *because* the bullsitter doesn't care about the truth. "Gen AI" doesn't *Care* about truth or falsity; it only cares— if it cares about anything— about telling you what you're most likely to accept, so you keep using it.…
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
…"Gen AI" is a bullshit engine, in the strict philosophical sense of the term.
All it *ever* does is statistically correlate what you ask it for and how you asked it with the words, phrases, connotations it's been trained on, using the weights and instructions in its programming.
…
All it *ever* does is statistically correlate what you ask it for and how you asked it with the words, phrases, connotations it's been trained on, using the weights and instructions in its programming.
…
December 22, 2025 at 4:16 PM
…"Gen AI" is a bullshit engine, in the strict philosophical sense of the term.
All it *ever* does is statistically correlate what you ask it for and how you asked it with the words, phrases, connotations it's been trained on, using the weights and instructions in its programming.
…
All it *ever* does is statistically correlate what you ask it for and how you asked it with the words, phrases, connotations it's been trained on, using the weights and instructions in its programming.
…
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
So… these "questions of accuracy" were always going to happen once the Washington Post chose to make "Personalized AI Podcast" bullshit, bc statistically generative sycophantic bullshit engines are not, & frankly cannot be about "accuracy." You know that, right NPR? Please say you know that by now…
Questions of accuracy arise as Washington Post uses AI to create personalized podcasts
The Post calls the podcast an "AI-powered tool" that turns its articles into an audio news digest.
www.npr.org
December 22, 2025 at 4:07 PM
So… these "questions of accuracy" were always going to happen once the Washington Post chose to make "Personalized AI Podcast" bullshit, bc statistically generative sycophantic bullshit engines are not, & frankly cannot be about "accuracy." You know that, right NPR? Please say you know that by now…
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
What a mess! Wyoming has some of the least competitive ACA markets in the country. In places like Teton County, there has often been only one ACA insurer (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming). That lack of competition drives prices way up. This is ridiculous.
December 22, 2025 at 4:31 PM
What a mess! Wyoming has some of the least competitive ACA markets in the country. In places like Teton County, there has often been only one ACA insurer (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming). That lack of competition drives prices way up. This is ridiculous.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
This makes facially neutral policies--like poll taxes and literacy tests--that we know were adopted for discriminatory purposes legal. Organizations can now simply claim there was no discriminatory intent regardless of outcome. It's unconstrained institutionalized racism.
They're just taking an ax to the Civil Rights Act
Department of Justice Rule Restores Equal Protection for All in Civil Rights Enforcement
Today, the Justice Department issued a final rule updating its regulations under Title VI of the Civil Rights of 1964. This rule ensures that our nation’s federal civil rights laws are firmly grounded...
www.justice.gov
December 9, 2025 at 4:45 PM
This makes facially neutral policies--like poll taxes and literacy tests--that we know were adopted for discriminatory purposes legal. Organizations can now simply claim there was no discriminatory intent regardless of outcome. It's unconstrained institutionalized racism.
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
doi.org/10.1136/bmj....
Published 19 August 2025
Nick Tsergas, freelance journalist
(Not related to skin cancer prevention or sunscreens, in spite of the open graph image)
doi.org/10.1136/bmj....
Published 19 August 2025
Nick Tsergas, freelance journalist
(Not related to skin cancer prevention or sunscreens, in spite of the open graph image)
August 20, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
doi.org/10.1136/bmj....
Published 19 August 2025
Nick Tsergas, freelance journalist
(Not related to skin cancer prevention or sunscreens, in spite of the open graph image)
doi.org/10.1136/bmj....
Published 19 August 2025
Nick Tsergas, freelance journalist
(Not related to skin cancer prevention or sunscreens, in spite of the open graph image)
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
December 22, 2025 at 11:50 AM
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
Reposted by Sherrill Stroschein
