Miriam Posner
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Miriam Posner
@miriamposner.com
14K followers 2.4K following 5.4K posts
Tired person, fighter. Labor, data, DH, obsolete software, database history, etc. Seeing Like a Supply Chain out from Yale UP in fall 2026. Speaking for myself, not my employer.
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miriamposner.com
USAC's executive team - President Diego Bollo, Contreras and Zhou - said they created the brief because they still wanted the lawsuit to include a student perspective. They added that the brief was fully student-initiated and led. "There are no undergraduate student entities as plaintiffs on the actual lawsuit," Zhou said. "We wanted to find a way to make sure that the judge was able to see the ways in which undergrad students have been impacted, specifically all of these organizations on campus who have been impacted by the cuts, and not just the cuts, but also the way that the pressure on the university has affected organizations as well."
November 8, 2025 at 5:22 PM
miriamposner.com
Say Chan:
The efficacy of such arguments to project and racially “dataify” the Chinese as uniquely virulent sources of moral and physical contamination that put healthy, civilized White natives at risk also turned the Chinese into what historians today describe as the most closely observed, documented, and photographed immigrant group in the United States of the day (PeglerGordon 2006, 2009; Shah 2001).
November 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM
miriamposner.com
This is going to be the most complicated day of all time, but I'm looking forward to the systemwide UC town hall today at 4. We'll be watching at UCLA's Center for the Study of Women from 4 to 5:30. Hang out with other people who GAF about the university. cucfa.solidarity.tech/fight-for-th...
Time Fri, Nov 07, 4:00pm - 5:30pm PST Location Virtual Event Fight for the Future of Higher Education: A CUCFA Systemwide Town Hall Gather with faculty from all 10 UC campuses to discuss: Trump Threats to Research, Teaching, Patient Care Erosion of Shared Governance & Working Conditions How Faculty Associations and CUCFA Can Respond What you can do next Speakers Nick Mitchell, UCSC Feminist Studies and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Chris Hansmann UCD Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies Steve Shoptaw, UCLA Health, Family Medicine/Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Anayeli Rosete, UCI SAFIRE Walter Leal, UCD Biochemistry Khalid Kadir, UCB Engineering Ussama Makdisi, UCB History
November 7, 2025 at 5:11 PM
miriamposner.com
Librarians continue to be on the front lines of the war against knowledge and humanity, with little help from those in power. From @404media.co www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
IT'S ABOUT MORE THAN THE BOOKS Last month, a company called the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database announced a new version of a product called Class-Shelf Plus. The software, which is used by school libraries to keep track of which books are in their catalog, added several new features including "Al-driven automation and contextual risk analysis," which includes an Al-powered "sensitive material marker" and a "traffic-light risk ratings" system. Librarians told 404 Media that Al library software like this is just the tip of the iceberg; they are being inundated with new pitches for Al library tech and catalogs are being flooded with Al slop books that they need to wade through. But more broadly, Al maximalism across society is supercharging the ideological war on libraries, schools, government workers, and academics. This story was reported with support from the MuckRock Foundation.
November 7, 2025 at 5:04 PM
miriamposner.com
While administrators have been negotiating in secret, faculty and staff have been fighting. It just could not be more clear who gives a shit about the university as an ideal and who doesn’t.
The university system itself did not join that case nor the one that was before Judge Lin on Thursday. But system leaders have spent months in talks with the government about a possible settlement. The system has said little about those negotiations, and it tried unsuccessfully to keep the Trump administration's U.C.L.A. settlement proposal out of view, fighting a public records lawsuit all the way to the California Supreme Court.
November 7, 2025 at 1:10 AM
miriamposner.com
But it was only minutes into a hearing on Thursday before Judge Lin, her voice crackling with anger, began depicting the Trump administration’s methods as potentially lawless and deeply detrimental.
November 7, 2025 at 1:07 AM
miriamposner.com
Pure evil actually
The foundations for The Line's first modules - perhaps the largest piles ever laid by man — are also visible, waiting to support the world's largest occupied building, if it ever arrives. The village of Qayal, which was a few kilometres from the "hidden marina", has been razed. Fifteen members of the Huwaitat tribe who protested against their eviction were sent to prison, some for up to 50 years, and three others were sentenced to death, according to human rights observers.
November 6, 2025 at 8:46 AM
miriamposner.com
Like an iPhone but a city
Two photos: one showing a woman and man seated and mic’d, apparently on some kind of panel or broadcast. The second shows two phones side by side: a boxy Nokia phone alongside a strip of paper depicting a schematic map of a conventional city, and an iPhone alongside a strip of paper with…two linear protrusions. Caption: At a 2017 conference, MBS illustrated his vision for Neom by comparing two phones. A later display at the Neom Museum near The Line shows a Nokia 215 phone next to a traditional city layout and an iPhone next to The Line's vertical layout. © AlArabiyaEnglish/YouTube, Darren Spillett/LinkedIn
November 6, 2025 at 8:40 AM
miriamposner.com
Man don’t bring the poets into this, it’s your own godforsaken mess
Nothing like this had ever been tried before, and some of the Neom team sounded as if their main obstacle was conventional thinking. "I was in a conversation one day with two physicists, quantum physicists," Antoni Vives, then Neom's chief urban development officer, told Discovery. "One of them looks at the other and looks at me, and says: 'you know what, perhaps it's the time of the poets now. We need poets'"
November 6, 2025 at 8:24 AM
miriamposner.com
Oh ok
Qaddumi listened — and the work continued. Yet with an upside-down building, even simple things became complex. "When you flush the toilet, the stuff goes downhill, right?" the architect asked. "We've worked that out," Qaddumi replied, according to the architect. "We're going to have hundreds of shuttle cars running back and forth, picking up the sewage on retractable bridges."
November 6, 2025 at 8:18 AM
miriamposner.com
So many of us at UC are overwhelmed by terrible decisions we had no part of. We're trying to work as our budgets are decimated, our students are threatened, and our values are imperiled. The very best thing we can do for ourselves right now is to come together. cucfa.solidarity.tech/fight-for-th...
Fight for the Future of Higher Ed: A Systemwide Town Hall. Logos of the Council of UC Faculty Association and the AAUP alongside a schematic map of California denoting the locations of UC campuses. Time Fri, Nov 07, 4:00pm - 5:30pm PST Location Virtual Event Fight for the Future of Higher Education: A CUCFA Systemwide Town Hall Gather with faculty from all 10 UC campuses to discuss: Trump Threats to Research, Teaching, Patient Care Erosion of Shared Governance & Working Conditions How Faculty Associations and CUCFA Can Respond What you can do next Part of the AAUP National Day of Action
November 6, 2025 at 12:24 AM
miriamposner.com
Here is what you might say in an email. Please cc standup4PPFP@gmail.com and consider including your dean and chancellor.
Dear President Milliken, I write to insist on the continued funding of the hiring incentive associated with the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP). This program has demonstrated its efficacy for hiring exceptional scholars over the past 40 years. It is a primary engine for the transformation of the professoriate and knowledge in the UC system. The PPFP is one of the most competitive postdoctoral and hiring incentive programs in North America. It is an open competition that is in alignment with state law and does not use race, gender, national origin, gender or other protected classifications in its review and selection. The hiring incentive linked to the PPFP is a faculty-driven hiring process, open to all fields. More than 400 current faculty members were hired through this program. Nearly 100% have been tenured. Given the demonstrated impact of the hiring incentive on the scholarly reputation of UC, and given that the cost of the incentive represents a tiny fraction of the UC budget, budgetary prerogatives do not seem like a defensible argument for this decision. Cutting the hiring incentive would be an unacceptable concession to the Trump administration's demand letter and is taking place without transparency or consultation with faculty, deans, or other campus leaders. I ask you to halt this action and to consult with faculty and administrators with a long history of not only supporting but also benefiting from this program.
November 5, 2025 at 5:29 PM
miriamposner.com
You can be like, the average person doesn’t know who Kiarostami is, what are they talking about? But film is a visual language that people speak without knowing they’re doing it. You need to know what vocabulary is available.
8:04 • Bluesky Borenstein cited a bevy of influences that run the gamut, from Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up and John Cassavetes's Shadows, to pop-y '80s films like Smithereens and Liquid Sky. Carol Reed's classic The Third Man became a key reference for shooting videos that needed to work in both widescreen and vertical video formats-they opted to shoot many videos in the old 4x3 aspect ratio to make things easier, adding, "Like any filmmaker, I have a hate/hate relationship with vertical video," which DiMieri seconds. Borenstein also references the films of Wong Kar-wai and Christopher Doyle's lush, urban cinematography. Then there are the less expected influences, like the Canadian mockumentary series Nirvanna the SUBSCRIBE TO SKIP ADS ADVERTISEMENT CLOSE defector.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:08 PM
miriamposner.com
Exciting candy discovery: matcha White Rabbits
A package of candy. Text on package reads: 大白宠 WHITE RABBIT 100辈苏酵 White Rabbit Matcha Creamy Candy •糖糖果 抹茶 MATCHA 争香山 150도
November 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM
miriamposner.com
Ha ha ha ha ha
The bug is breaking the "X" button to quit Task Manager, preventing the app from shutting down and instead keeping it running in the background. Repeated attempts to open and close the app result in multiple instances that can eat up your CPU and RAM resources.
November 2, 2025 at 4:05 PM
miriamposner.com
Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...
• Professors should never put a student's words or work into an AI software without their consent. • Professors should also be transparent about their Al usage with grading, curriculum building, and any other way they might use it in their teaching. • If a professor does use Al chatbots in the classroom, they should explain their reasoning behind this decision and how its usage will help students meet learning outcomes. • Professors should additionally respect a student's choice to refuse Al. To do this, it would be ideal that they have assignments that students can choose from that do
October 31, 2025 at 3:10 PM
miriamposner.com
Sounds right.
Rather than consider issues in light of actual facts, we suggest people with this mindset prioritize being independent from outside influence. It means you can justify espousing pretty much anything - the easier a statement is to disprove, the more of a power move it is to say it, as it symbolizes how far you're willing to go.
October 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
miriamposner.com
Losing my mind
ntroducing ChatGPT Edu for UCLA Faculty and Staff Chief Information Officer Lucy Avetisyan<ocio@bp.e.ucla.edu>
October 29, 2025 at 10:03 PM
miriamposner.com
And amidst all this a student brought me flowers, so truly, it isn’t all bad. ❤️🌹
A bouquet of multicolored flowers lies on a desk. Books are visible to one side.
October 28, 2025 at 7:09 PM
miriamposner.com
UC senate faculty, I know we are besieged right now, but I want to draw your attention to a wall-of-text report you likely got in your email, called the “Interim Report on UC Academic Disruption (UCAD).” Particularly this part. (Link: senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/under...)
Recommendations For the Divisional Academic Senates: • Review the Size of Graduate Student Cohorts: Coordinate decisions to resize graduate student cohorts holistically, at the campus level, rather than leaving decisions to individual programs and departments acting unilaterally. Campuses would benefit from a more coordinated and deliberate approach. It is noted that, for some programs, maintaining a viable cohort through yearly admissions cycles may not be possible. This may require shifts in both the teaching and research support provided by new graduate students as well as faculty's overall instructional commitments at the graduate level. Furthermore, there is a significant likelihood that the number of international students who have historically favored UC graduate programs may also decrease, leading to further pressures. 7 • Rethink Approaches to Faculty Recruitment: Campus departments and colleges/schools should consider placing greater emphasis on teaching professorships and joint appointments that can afford greater flexibility to academic units going forward. These positions can help sustain instruction during times of uncertainty, while allowing research-oriented faculty to maintain scholarly progress. At the same time, campuses should evaluate how expanded use of such appointments aligns with the University's research mission, expectations for Senate faculty teaching, and UC's commitment to ladder-rank faculty positions supported in whole or in part with state funds. • Review Instructional Offerings: Academic units should consider options for consolidating their instructional offerings through a variety of strategies such as increased use of relevant cross-listed courses, redesigning curricular requirements, and formal collaborations with units on other campuses to maintain the diversity of courses available to students. Overall, units, schools, and campuses should consider ways to streamline instruction while achieving financial sustainability and maintaining academic quality. • Prioritize Academic Quality and UC's Comprehensive Identity: When evaluating programs for resizing, emphasize indicators of educational quality (such as graduation rates, learning outcomes, or research output) in addition to financial efficiency. UC must strive to remain a comprehensive university offering a full spectrum of academic disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, STEM, and professional fields. Even as difficult choices are made, breadth of knowledge at UC should be preserved. This means ensuring that core disciplines are represented systemwide. • Increase the Role of Academic Program Reviews: Campuses should strengthen their program review processes for both undergraduate majors and graduate programs. Reviews should occur on a regular cycle and incorporate the new evaluation criteria (see the recommendation to the systemwide Senate below). Importantly, program discontinuation or merger should be an explicit possible outcome of reviews. Conversely, reviews should also identify programs that warrant expansion or increased investment due to high demand or ctrate٥ic ١moorancم
October 28, 2025 at 2:19 PM
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I bet they weren’t that shocked. (Now i know who Olivia Reingold is!) defector.com/free-press-r...
Less than a month later, Reingold was back with another update: A different childhood best friend had just disinvited Reingold from her wedding: Just yesterday, my oldest friend broke up with me. A different one. I'm now down to three or four friends from before 2022, when I shocked my liberal circle by joining The Free Press.
October 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM
miriamposner.com
Bleak. BLEAK. www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
A classroom includes a table and shelving. On the wall, text reads: “Love School Learn 2X in 2 hrs. Learn Life Skills.” Caption: In a central room at Alpha School Brownsville, the school's promise is written on the wall. PHOTOGRAPH: BRENDA BAZÁN While parents are asked to consent to these surveillance programs, the school's handbook says that there is "no expectation of privacy" on campus. If parents want to restrict recordings of their children outside of the school, they have to manually opt out of the "anywhere" option- as Jessica Lopez learned midway through her older daughter's second year at Alpha. The girl says she remembers sitting on her bed one night working on schoolwork when she received a notification that she'd been flagged for an anti-pattern. She says Alpha's system sent a video of her in her pajamas, taken from the computer's webcam, that showed her talking to her younger sister.
October 27, 2025 at 1:51 PM
miriamposner.com
Aaaaarrrggh
Reuters headline reads, “Two federal judges say use of Al led to errors in US court rulings By Sara Merken October 23, 2025 1:29 PM PDT • Updated October 23, 2025.” A pop-up reads: “Get the key points from this story with Reuters Al”
October 26, 2025 at 4:17 PM
miriamposner.com
MONDAY
A photo shows people assembled on an outdoor staircase, holding signs, banners, and megaphones. Text: When We Fight WE WIN The UCLA Faculty Association and the Council of UC Faculty Associations are fighting back against Trump's attacks. We sued to get Trump's illegal $1.2 billion extortion letter to UCLA released to the public. We won. Join us for a rally at Tongva Steps at UCLA on Monday, October 27 at 12pm to chart the path forward. Let's come together-students, staff, faculty, alums, community members-to protect our University of California! uclafa.org --
October 25, 2025 at 8:54 PM
miriamposner.com
Why did the UC Office of the President fight so hard to keep Trump’s demand letter secret? It’s anyone’s guess, but these comments to the LA Times are suggestive: they may have wanted to strike a deal in the absence of enormous public pressure to resist the demands.
UC said in court filings that it would "suffer irreparable harm" to negotiations with the Trump administration if the document became public. It also said disclosure would hurt future settlement negotiations with other parties. University lawyers argued that releasing the proposal would invite "every member of the entire public to express each one's views on every settlement" for an "uncontrollable public fray" around negotiations. The UCLA Faculty Assn. said that the document's disclosure is required under the Public Records Act. The association argued that the information is a matter of public interest to faculty, staff, students, UCLA Health patients and Californian's whose tax dollars support the UC system. Faculty sued after UC and UCLA denied public records requests. UC said it was not bound by public records law to share details of confidential settlement discussions. "The intense public reaction to disclosure at an early stage of an initial proposal could easily end any opportunity for discussion at its inception and hamper the ability to fully and fairly evaluate a response," UC wrote in court filings.
October 25, 2025 at 6:23 PM