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privacy, security, and compliance; university administration; the liberal arts
Pinned
it's not good for a profession when the highest mark of seriousness is pretending to be stupid
all these updates about whose name is mentioned most in the epstein documents are kind of meaningless because the non-epstein participants in the text messages aren't named, and that's where all the good stuff is
November 14, 2025 at 10:00 PM
it's really kind of a problem that aside from specialist press and sometimes local outlets, only the right-wing media picks up stories like this.
November 14, 2025 at 8:32 PM
it would make all universities and pretty much all STEM professors ineligible for federal grant support, and since it's retroactive, there would be no possibility of coming into compliance. If everyone is in violation, everyone is dependent on extortionary "deals," which is how a mafia state works.
This has gotten surprisingly little attention — it's not even on the front page of @science.org right now — but it's really hard to describe what the SAFE Research Act would do to US science and scientists without sounding insane

www.science.org/content/arti...
November 14, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by large language marge
a newspaper should not try to be arch and elliptical. that is what the new yorker is for
September 27, 2024 at 10:42 PM
one of my more unpopular opinions is that I don't think neologisms are effective at promoting gender equality and it's much better to simply shift the connotation of an existing word. chicagoans stopped having a problem electing women to the city council even when they were still called aldermen.
Very niche Chicago complaint but ... I hate the pivot to "alders" in discussing the city council
November 14, 2025 at 4:27 PM
elite american culture has come to see solar power and electrification in general as culturally chinese just as raging sinophobia has completely taken over both parties
the astonishing thing about this wave of denialism is that we have more or less decidedly hit the point where clean energy is the *cheaper* option by some distance
I'm kind of baffled how the "moderates" have apparently all decided to turn against climate policy at once, just as China reaches green electrostate liftoff mode. I thought these people were all about National Greatness and making Hard Choices
November 14, 2025 at 4:12 PM
The fact that the opposition to this insanity from Democrats on the committee and from AAU/APLU is articulated entirely in the language of national security, with virtually no attention given to academic freedom and human rights, is a terrible sign for the future of universities in this country.
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by large language marge
the classic economics pundit error is mistaking an accounting identity for a causal relationship. a less classic error is to try to abolish the accounting identity
November 14, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by large language marge
I like how chomsky was like "what you should know is that i, noam chomsky, author of 85 books about US foreign policy, relied on jeffrey epstein to explain the global financial system to me"
November 13, 2025 at 10:13 PM
social engineering is by far the weakest infosec defense point. to address this we will make the entire system vulnerable to social engineering attacks
November 13, 2025 at 7:22 PM
All these articles are very weird because they don't address the fact that it's already too late. The 2026 plans are set. They're designed for the expected risk pools they'll get with the unsubsidized premiums. Even if they extend the subsidies, they'll have to do a new round of open enrollment.
NEW: As health insurance bills rise, Republicans are still seeking an Obamacare alternative

There is no legislative product yet.

No consensus in the party about a plan.

But top GOP lawmakers and policy figures on Capitol Hill have begun discussing concepts.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
As health insurance bills rise, Republicans are still seeking an Obamacare alternative
Premiums for millions of Americans in red and blue states are expected to more than double on average next year unless Congress finds a solution.
www.nbcnews.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:48 PM
This exchange is magic. Epstein, a donor to the Santa Fe Institute, dimly recalls something about ants. Chomsky, sour and arrogant as always, hallucinates an opportunity to exercise his usual academic vendettas. Neither the finance guy nor the linguist seem to understand what an algorithm is.
In 2023, Chomsky told WSJ about his relationship with Epstein: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”

Epstein: you are of course welcome to use apt in new york with your new leisure time, or visit new Mexico again
November 13, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by large language marge
She was a prof of mine in the 90s and the one I was probably closest to.

What this drives home is that Epstein was an influence clearing house and it seems that in order to get that influence it wasn’t just okay to mention it, you had to *affirmatively pander to* his pedophilia. L
Interesting email here from Elisa New, Harvard professor and wife to Larry Summers, to Epstein, reflecting on Lolita.

"...it's about a man whose life is stamped forever by his impression of a young girl."
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM
kind of a slow news day but at least there's a new fall of civilizations episode
November 12, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Meanwhile, people I know have had their Meta accounts suspended within minutes after posting nonspecific complaints about ICE helicopters circling.
November 12, 2025 at 6:48 PM
at the time, his defense was that he had been merely speculating that men and women, "whatever the difference in means -- which can be debated," had different variance in IQ. Here, he is plainly stating he thinks men also have a higher mean, which was considered a bad-faith misreading of him in 2005
On Jan. 14, 2005, Larry Summers gave a speech at an NBER conference arguing biological “intrinsic aptitude“ factors explain why women are underrepresented in science & engineering,

then he apologized to head off controversy, but it’s obvious from this 2017 email he still regards women as dumdums
Here's the full Summers email, btw.
November 12, 2025 at 5:29 PM
secret incriminating messages hidden in the endless disclaimer signature like the gorilla on the basketball court
especially when at least 18k of those pages are the same ten-line "this email is super secret" disclaimer over and over again
November 12, 2025 at 4:52 PM
OPT is a bridge to the more famous H-1B. If they know they'll be kicked out of the country with no realistic path to remain after graduating, foreign prospective students will find it very unattractive to study at US universities, which is of course the point.
Immigration policy that broadly seeks ways to entice foreign graduates of US universities to remain in the US, the overwhelming mass of evidence suggests, would serve the national interest. Terminating Optional Practical Training would do the opposite, @mclem.org says.
New Immigration Rule Will End Or Restrict Student Practical Training
An upcoming Trump administration rule is expected to end or restrict Optional Practical Training for international students.
www.forbes.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:47 PM
I miss believing Bacurau (2019) was fiction
“There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
November 12, 2025 at 6:21 AM
I am absolutely a full-blown balanced literacy truther. I believe there's a shockingly large number of people who are subtly illiterate, can't follow meaning at the paragraph level, and insert random words into what they're reading based on what they already think a sentence probably says
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 11, 2025 at 8:56 PM
did CVS ever have an eccentric heiress who lived like Little Edie and went to war against Chicago's richest suburb over her beloved pet hogs? No. Walgreens survives in its niche because that is the energy it brings to the market.
CVS never could have fallen for the theranos scam. not because they're too smart for it, they just lack the kind of visionary stupidity it takes to go all-in on something as grandiose as what holmes was promising
November 10, 2025 at 10:31 PM
CVS is best thought of as a kind of interactive museum exhibit where you can experience everything that has gone badly wrong with American capitalism.
You almost have to respect how CVS keeps frantically changing their systems like every other month and each time it gets progressively worse
November 10, 2025 at 9:06 PM
An appropriate response to the administration would be that the courts have clearly established that ICE/CBP actions go well beyond "law enforcement activity" and their established pattern of indiscriminate violence absolutely constitutes a life-safety emergency wherever they show up
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 PM
last night on I-55 I passed a convoy of at least a dozen military vehicles. Seemed like a mix of troop transport, armored security vehicles, and heavy machinery. Most likely on their way to the National Guard facility in Broadview but I passed them just before the 1st Ave exit. Sick of this shit
November 9, 2025 at 6:17 PM
dang, I thought that FT article on NEOM would finally get into the details on the physical impossibility of engineering it. Somebody somewhere has tried to model what happens when wind hits a 170km x 500m wall, and I want to see it
November 9, 2025 at 4:35 PM