Geoff Ball
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geoffball.ca
Geoff Ball
@geoffball.ca
34 followers 21 following 4 posts
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Reposted by Geoff Ball
medievaliste.bsky.social
AI is not inevitable. If we had sane people in government that were not in thrall to billionaire tech CEOs, LLMs could be regulated, forced to obey existing copyright laws, and banned from places where their use is inappropriate, such as college classes. This should be a moderate position.
February 12, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
karlykingsley.bsky.social
A woman could be arrested for seeking reproductive healthcare, but known pedophiles walk free just because they have a sizeable bank account. How are we “protecting women and children” again?
February 12, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
corrina.sheshed.rocks
Trump tried to corner Canada.

PM Mark Carney didn’t blink. He didn’t fly to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring!

Instead he did what no Canadian leader has done in our lifetime.
He told the president of the United States to go to hell!

Now that’s how you handle a bully!

#SheShed
#DefendersOfDemocracy
February 11, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
aeajournals.bsky.social
Before W.E.B. Du Bois became a civil rights leader and sociologist, he was a young graduate student writing about cutting-edge economics. We spoke with Daniel Kuehn of @urbaninstitute.bsky.social about how Du Bois anticipated key ideas in marginalist wage theory. www.aeaweb.org/research/du-...
W.E.B. Du Bois and the history of marginalism
Daniel Kuehn discusses key insights in marginalist wage theory developed by W. E. B. Du Bois when he was a Harvard graduate student.
www.aeaweb.org
February 11, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
joanwestenberg.com
The reason Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon don't feel like Old Twitter is simple sociology: Community is path-dependent.

You can move the people, but you can't move the history.

www.joanwestenberg.com/communities...
Communities are not fungible
There's a default assumption baked into how Silicon Valley builds products, and it tracks against how urban planners redesign neighbourhoods: that communities are interchangeable, and if you "lose" one, you can manufacture a replacement; that the value of a group of people who share space and history can be captured
www.joanwestenberg.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:23 AM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
andreadevon.sheshed.rocks
This wasn’t just a halftime show.
It was history. Resistance. Truth.

Colonialism. Gentrification. Exploitation.
The banned flag. The broken power grid.
A call for sovereignty.

Bad Bunny said it clearly:
Seguimos aquí. 🇵🇷

#BadBunny #SheShed #Voices4Victory
www.instagram.com/reel/DUi5tO0...
February 9, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
atrupar.com
loved every second of Bad Bunny. That message of inclusion and a celebration of cultures like Puerto Rico’s is just what America needs right now. Plus, his music just gets you in motion. 10/10
February 9, 2026 at 1:36 AM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
jessicacalarco.com
This is torture. The US is torturing children. Children whose words and whose art contain infinitely more humanity than the people keeping them detained.
propublica.org ProPublica @propublica.org · 4d
5/ “I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals…going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…”

From 12-year-old Ender, detained 60+ days
Page 1 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “Hello I am Ender and I am 12 years old, I have been at this center  for 2 months. I arrived here for an immigration appointment and I don’t think they should grab immigrants who are innocent, like instead of grabbing criminals because I mean they prefer to lock up children than look for people who really shouldn’t be in the U.S. They told me I could only be here 21 days but I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals, going outside and that the majority of guards never pay attention to people, eating dinner  always the same as the day before, seeing people cry every day for the same reasons, trying to sleep in that horrible uncomfortable bed, going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…” Page 2 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “…going to wait for the bad answers from the judges, hearing the bad news from people who no longer have hope, having to share a room with minimum 3 families, and all that so they send us back to our countries.” Below the text is a drawing in pen of three women, titled “My family” and labeled with “Mama,” “Sister,” and “me” in Spanish.
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
evansutton.bsky.social
Pressure works. OpenAI employees, and workers across tech, have been pressuring the bootlickers at the top to speak up. People like Altman don't like this kind of pressure. They literally want to become CEO-kings, and already think of themselves that way at their own companies. This is a big deal.
paulwaldman.bsky.social Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 16d
"President Trump is a very strong leader, and I hope he will rise to this moment and unite the country." Such a courageous statement from Sam Altman to OpenAI employees.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/b...
I love the US and its values of democracy and freedom and will be supportive of the country however I can; OpenAI will too. But part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach. What’s happening with ICE is going too far. There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what’s happening now, and we need to get the distinction right. President Trump is a very strong leader, and I hope he will rise to this moment and unite the country. I am encouraged by the last few hours of response and hope to see trust rebuilt with transparent investigations. As a company, we aim to stick to our convictions and not get blown around by changing fashions too much. We didn’t become super woke when that was popular, we didn’t start talking about masculine corporate energy when that was popular, and we are not going to make a lot of performative statements now about safety or politics or anything else. But we are going to continue to try to figure out how to actually do the right thing as best as we can, engage with leaders and push for our values, and speak up clearly about it as needed.
January 28, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Geoff Ball
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
These are the reported tentative Democratic demands for funding DHS:

- DHS required to cooperate with state probes
- CBP stays at border
- Warrants for arrests
- IDs, bodycams
- ICE out of churches, schools

NOT ONE OF THOSE THINGS FIXES THE BEHAVIOR BELOW.
minnmax.com MinnMax @minnmax.com · 17d
"You raise your voice, I erase your voice."

ICE in Minneapolis are erasing your rights.
Please share our new video of what's happening in our city. youtu.be/W1dyNcRGRXY
January 27, 2026 at 7:39 PM
geoffball.ca
I struggle when someone recommends a podcast and it already has 800 hour-long episodes because I don’t have the time to get through all of those but now I have to.
July 21, 2025 at 5:28 AM