Max B K Ash
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maxbk1.bsky.social
Max B K Ash
@maxbk1.bsky.social
Librarian, software developer, musician, queer as all get out.
Reposted by Max B K Ash
When viewing the fake article in Google scholar on my university network, there is a link to access the article via my uni's library. That link sends me to a library page that makes fake article appear real... Turns out library page is made programmatically from info on Google scholar 🤦
December 21, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.

Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.
October 28, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This whole thread is excellent
RFK Jr. is an ableist racist transphobic eugenicist who is making everyone less safe. So I wrote a satire about it.

"Mission Report From the Tiny Alien Piloting RFK Jr’s Body"

Mission Report 892:
Project Destroy Humanity v2: RFK Jr

To: Kelvian Central Control, Planet Kelvian D

1/16
October 22, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
If the impending freeze of SNAP benefits is what has you particularly animated, these questions might help. You can really substitute any issue and ask the same questions of yourself.
4 grounding questions [if useful at this moment]:

1. What resources exist so I can better educate myself [about x issue]?
2. Who's already doing work around this injustice?
3. Do I have the capacity to offer concrete support & help to them?
4. How can I be constructive?
October 22, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
I kind of loathe the 'not your grandma's knitting' shit, AND the 'see it's not just silly woman stuff' push, because I think actually what we need to do is to accept that traditionally feminine crafts are actually very complicated and skilled, rather than divorce them from femininity to accept that.
October 17, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
I've been told that Scabby the Rat is intended as a cartoonish, gross representation of our enemies and not, as I had assumed, a monstrous creature joining us in the war against management
October 16, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you
October 15, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
It’s been quite amazing to watch people call on CPD (of all entities) to fight on behalf of the oppressed. There is a reason why we don’t see police leading revolutions. They are a function of the state and will give deference to the feds, as required by law. youtube.com/shorts/WDHFe...
Can local police arrest ICE?
YouTube video by The TRiiBE
youtube.com
October 8, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
This is harrowing. This Oak Park Trustee says he was "pulled to the ground" by Gregory Bovino personally at Broadview and later put "on display" for Kristi Noem inside the facility grounds.

www.oakpark.com/2025/10/04/m...
Muñoz, OP township trustee, detained and released by ICE - Wednesday Journal
Juan Muñoz, an Oak Parker who serves as an Oak Park Township Trustee, was detained by ICE Friday as he took part in a protest at the immigration detention center in Broadview.
www.oakpark.com
October 5, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Also, don’t ask it to do time. It’s terrible at time.
it fundamentally fucks our sense of things that the robot is good at language and bad at math and fact
One of the disclaimers on Copilot is like "don't ask it to do math".

Imagine inventing a conglomeration of 0s and 1s that cannot do 0s and 1s
October 2, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
…& should be framed less as "how bad" or even "are we heading toward an AI bubble," but rather "here's the most solid indicator yet that this current paradigm of AI doesn't live up to the hype."

Because the study in question (👇🏾) finds "when developers use AI tools, they take 19% longer than [w/o]"…
Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity
We conduct a randomized controlled trial to understand how early-2025 AI tools affect the productivity of experienced open-source developers working on their own repositories. Surprisingly, we find th...
metr.org
September 30, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
People of Illinois, we need your help.

Get your cell phones out – record what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors.

We need to let the world know this is happening – and that we won’t stand for it.
September 30, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
That quote is not out of context, the full version is worse.
September 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
So top Portland cops wrote & *testified* that fed agents have been "instigating and causing" conflict.

They said agents were firing pepper balls unprovoked and "without any apparent warning"

When a Portland chief called a federal agent w/ Qs, the agent hung up.

www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/0...
September 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
# of paragraphs for news orgs to mention there's no discernable need to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon

The Guardian: 1st paragraph
BBC: 4th paragraph
AP: 5th paragraph
Time: 6th paragraph
Politico: 8th paragraph
NPR: 9th paragraph
CNN: 10th paragraph
NBC: 12th paragraph
Fox News: never mentions
September 27, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
I’ve known Steve for several years — he’s dug up a lot of stories of great importance to Chicago about a variety of topics, including CPD and now ICE.

Journalism is not a crime
NEW — Video posted to social media shows Unraveled Press co-founder Steve Held being detained by federal agents outside the Broadview immigration facility earlier this evening.

A collection of Chicago newsrooms is calling for his immediate release.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/chic...
Chicago journalist detained while covering protest outside Broadview immigration facility • The TRiiBE
Video posted to social media shows Unraveled Press co-founder Steve Held being detained by federal agents earlier this evening.
thetriibe.com
September 28, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Assata Shakur
September 26, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
Once again I beg you to consider my proposal that a rotating committee of librarians and stage managers be put in charge of the US.
September 26, 2025 at 12:50 AM
“As authoritarian regimes rise, they often rely on a women’s movement to keep society stable and operational on a household level, framing regressive policies in more approachable and alluring terms. […] Today, that role is being taken up by the digital “womanosphere”, also called the femosphere.”
“What fascisms old and new have in common is they tend to look to women to fill in the gaps that the state misses."

And, I'd add, they get women to fill these gaps by making patriarchy's coattails the only way means by which women can achieve security or esteem.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
From Nazi Germany to Trump’s America: why strongmen rely on women at home
Fascist regimes pushed narratives of domestic bliss, yet relied on women’s unpaid labor. In the US today, ‘womanosphere’ influencers promote the same fantasies
www.theguardian.com
September 21, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
Please do check out my full story here, full of sweet & chilling details of trans life in 2025:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

And if you appreciate my reporting, subscribe to my newsletter! You'll get regular links to my work, plus cut content, personal essays, & more iosphere.beehiiv.com
Trump’s war on trans people has left Americans seeking asylum — from America
Four trans Americans claiming refuge abroad tell Io Dodds why they no longer feel safe in their home country, from fears of martial law to being arrested in changing rooms
www.independent.co.uk
September 21, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
August 24, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
I’m sorry are they saying that the US government will have control over a social media site including the black box algorithm that determines what content people see? And it’s in the hands of a man so thin-skinned he celebrated the removal of late night comedy hosts?
September 21, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Learning things like this makes me so happy
TIL that a curfew is also a literal object! the word has its roots in the French couvrefeu - "cover fire" - and was used to denote a bell rung to warn people to cover their fires overnight to prevent the outbreak of flames between wooden houses. a curfew was a bell-shaped cover for embers!
September 17, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Reposted by Max B K Ash
BREAKING: Social Security Administration chief data officer and whistle-blower Charles Borges has resigned after bombshell report that SSA put highly-sensitive data at risk. He sent out an email to colleagues moments ago.

Here is the text of his email shared with me:
August 29, 2025 at 7:26 PM