Megan Clark, PhD
@theintrepidmeliz.bsky.social
now: VT end-of-life doula, life story interview service
then: Istanbul, PhD University of Chicago NELC/ling anth
printmaker
then: Istanbul, PhD University of Chicago NELC/ling anth
printmaker
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
The only possible conclusion to be drawn is the university leadership agrees with the Trump administration.
“Dartmouth College on Monday announced it had hired the Republican National Committee’s former chief counsel — an outspoken critic of birthright citizenship — as the college’s top lawyer and leader of its immigration office.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/03...
www.politico.com/news/2025/03...
Universities are caving to Trump with a stunning speed and scope
Some of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest institutions are swiftly bending to President Donald Trump, who is acting on longstanding conservative criticisms of universities as elitist and progressive.
www.politico.com
March 22, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The only possible conclusion to be drawn is the university leadership agrees with the Trump administration.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
"It didn't add up, how people were getting killed and wounded, and we weren't receiving any fire."
--Hugh Thompson, Jr.
this thread is important history -- do read it.
--Hugh Thompson, Jr.
this thread is important history -- do read it.
On 16th March, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jnr was flying helicopter recon for a US attack on My Lai, an alleged Viet Cong-controlled village in Vietnam.
But as the attack developed below, Thompson realised he was witnessing something something else:
A massacre.
He decided to act. 1/28
But as the attack developed below, Thompson realised he was witnessing something something else:
A massacre.
He decided to act. 1/28
March 17, 2025 at 11:19 PM
"It didn't add up, how people were getting killed and wounded, and we weren't receiving any fire."
--Hugh Thompson, Jr.
this thread is important history -- do read it.
--Hugh Thompson, Jr.
this thread is important history -- do read it.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
In the coming months, it will be important to remember that most of the narratives and explainers about why AI or AGI is inevitable go out of their way to ignore the financials. For good reason: they’re dogshit even in the best case!
March 17, 2025 at 11:19 PM
In the coming months, it will be important to remember that most of the narratives and explainers about why AI or AGI is inevitable go out of their way to ignore the financials. For good reason: they’re dogshit even in the best case!
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Waged employment is literally taxed more than earnings from capital. A lot more. And oddly enough, the rich keep getting richer while everyone else doesn't.
Our tax debate tends to obsess about whether tax should go "up" or "down". But what's really needed is a rethink of who & what we tax, and how.
The obsession with holding down a few headline tax rates is bending other parts of the tax system out of shape, in ways that almost always hurt the poorest
The obsession with holding down a few headline tax rates is bending other parts of the tax system out of shape, in ways that almost always hurt the poorest
February 18, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Waged employment is literally taxed more than earnings from capital. A lot more. And oddly enough, the rich keep getting richer while everyone else doesn't.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
PITCH: An updated version of the curse of Cassandra where she's describing things that are happening now, in front of everyone, but still isn't believed.
February 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
PITCH: An updated version of the curse of Cassandra where she's describing things that are happening now, in front of everyone, but still isn't believed.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Just a reminder that people used to put paint and formaldehyde into milk and there had to be a huge movement to get proper food regulation, and without it people will die www.eater.com/2020/1/28/21...
We Owe Food Regulation to a 19th-Century Chemist Who Poisoned His Colleagues
The Poison Squad, as they became known, was a group of men who willingly consumed dangerous substances to force the government into consumer protections
www.eater.com
November 7, 2024 at 2:22 PM
Just a reminder that people used to put paint and formaldehyde into milk and there had to be a huge movement to get proper food regulation, and without it people will die www.eater.com/2020/1/28/21...
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
"Elon Musk is going to pay for his tax cut with your Social Security."
@lindsayowens.bsky.social breaks down the billionaire's unprecedented takeover of key government functions, including trillions in Treasury Department payments.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/3/elon_musk_gov
@lindsayowens.bsky.social breaks down the billionaire's unprecedented takeover of key government functions, including trillions in Treasury Department payments.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/3/elon_musk_gov
February 3, 2025 at 6:24 PM
"Elon Musk is going to pay for his tax cut with your Social Security."
@lindsayowens.bsky.social breaks down the billionaire's unprecedented takeover of key government functions, including trillions in Treasury Department payments.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/3/elon_musk_gov
@lindsayowens.bsky.social breaks down the billionaire's unprecedented takeover of key government functions, including trillions in Treasury Department payments.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/3/elon_musk_gov
Thinking about the barter potential of end of life care training and experience in aging low income rural communities…where people already can’t pay for respite care, let alone adequate regular support…
going after federal funding for senior living homes is really the quickest way I can imagine to cause mass chaos in the real economy that will rebound back tenfold on everyone else, “now we have to take care of gramma again, who does not know who she is” will be a real life-changing phone call
February 2, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Thinking about the barter potential of end of life care training and experience in aging low income rural communities…where people already can’t pay for respite care, let alone adequate regular support…
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
south korean politicians were literally scaling fences to protect their government and our senators are sending out pre-scheduled tweets about the super bowl while an unelected foreign billionaire seizes control of the treasury.
February 2, 2025 at 2:08 PM
south korean politicians were literally scaling fences to protect their government and our senators are sending out pre-scheduled tweets about the super bowl while an unelected foreign billionaire seizes control of the treasury.
I think Americans, blessed with relatively stable government for a long time, assume there is someone, some adult, who will step in and make things right before the President does anything REALLY bad.
There’s not.
There’s not.
February 2, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Brb, cashing out my piddling IRAs to buy gold…
hmm, where can i bet on the odds of a catastrophic economic collapse this year?
To continue this thread, note this WSJ piece from December that says Trump may abolish FDIC and instead have deposits insured by…the Treasury Dept. Meaning if there’s a run on the banks and you want your funds covered, you’ll need to go through Elon www.wsj.com/finance/regu...
February 2, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Brb, cashing out my piddling IRAs to buy gold…
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Unelected agents of a oligarch have seized core services of the state without legal sanction or authorization; yes, that's a coup
it's not hyperbolic to say we're witnessing a coup.
Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say
Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
www.reuters.com
January 31, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Unelected agents of a oligarch have seized core services of the state without legal sanction or authorization; yes, that's a coup
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Absolutely fantastic news as sickle cell gene therapy is to be rolled out for sickle cell academia with a one off treatment curing 97% of patients 🧪
‘Groundbreaking’ potential cure for sickle cell in England approved for NHS use
Clinical trials find one-time gene therapy exa-cel offers ‘functional cure’ in 96.6% of patients
www.theguardian.com
January 31, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Absolutely fantastic news as sickle cell gene therapy is to be rolled out for sickle cell academia with a one off treatment curing 97% of patients 🧪
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
@edzitron.com:
"Sam Altman is a liar...
All the king’s horses & all the king’s men don't seem to be able to get the Valley to spit out one meaningful mass-market useful product that actually changes the world other than damaging our power grid, stealing from millions of people, and boiling lakes.”
"Sam Altman is a liar...
All the king’s horses & all the king’s men don't seem to be able to get the Valley to spit out one meaningful mass-market useful product that actually changes the world other than damaging our power grid, stealing from millions of people, and boiling lakes.”
New midweek pod is up! @brookegladstone.bsky.social speaks with the great @edzitron.com about DeepSeek and the AI hype: www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...
Brooke Talks AI With Ed Zitron | On the Media | WNYC Studios
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, all the big tech firms were clamoring to make their own versions of the “intelligent” chatbot. Billions of dollars have been thrown into...
www.wnycstudios.org
January 30, 2025 at 12:55 AM
@edzitron.com:
"Sam Altman is a liar...
All the king’s horses & all the king’s men don't seem to be able to get the Valley to spit out one meaningful mass-market useful product that actually changes the world other than damaging our power grid, stealing from millions of people, and boiling lakes.”
"Sam Altman is a liar...
All the king’s horses & all the king’s men don't seem to be able to get the Valley to spit out one meaningful mass-market useful product that actually changes the world other than damaging our power grid, stealing from millions of people, and boiling lakes.”
Off-grid: exhales the deepest exhale.
January 27, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Off-grid: exhales the deepest exhale.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
NEW: Dozens of Native American residents of sober living homes and addiction recovery facilities in Arizona died as state Medicaid officials struggled to respond to a massive fraud scheme that targeted Indigenous people.
By @maryhudetz.bsky.social & @azcir.org's @hannahbassett.bsky.social
By @maryhudetz.bsky.social & @azcir.org's @hannahbassett.bsky.social
Dozens of People Died in Arizona Sober Living Homes as State Officials Fumbled Medicaid Fraud Response
Arizona officials acknowledged that a fraud scheme targeting Indigenous people with addictions cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. But they haven’t accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the…
propub.li
January 27, 2025 at 12:10 PM
NEW: Dozens of Native American residents of sober living homes and addiction recovery facilities in Arizona died as state Medicaid officials struggled to respond to a massive fraud scheme that targeted Indigenous people.
By @maryhudetz.bsky.social & @azcir.org's @hannahbassett.bsky.social
By @maryhudetz.bsky.social & @azcir.org's @hannahbassett.bsky.social
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Erica is utterly brilliant and this is a gift worth opening.
I'm not teaching my grad course 'Civil Resistance: How It Works' this semester. But here is an abridged version of the course schedule, readings, and films I used the last time I taught it (in 2022). Just in case it's useful. drive.google.com/file/d/14RRJ...
Readings - Civil Resistance How It Works Fall 2022.pdf
drive.google.com
January 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Erica is utterly brilliant and this is a gift worth opening.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
AIs in the form of Large Language Models don't "understand" anything. An LLM is is a computer program that, given a sequence of words, does a large amount of linear algebra to guess the next word. That's it, that's all they do.
“I thought the AI chatbots would do a lot better,” said del Rio-Chanona, corresponding author of the study and assistant professor at UCL. “History is often viewed as facts, but sometimes interpretation is necessary to make sense of it.”
Where does one even start....🗃️
www.earth.com/news/ai-stru...
Where does one even start....🗃️
www.earth.com/news/ai-stru...
AI struggles to understand human history and fails miserably when tested
The study, which is the first of its kind, evaluates the historical knowledge of leading AI models such as ChatGPT-4, Llama, and Gemini.
www.earth.com
January 24, 2025 at 10:41 AM
AIs in the form of Large Language Models don't "understand" anything. An LLM is is a computer program that, given a sequence of words, does a large amount of linear algebra to guess the next word. That's it, that's all they do.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
Do not fucking do this, do not open your phone for the police, you will be giving them the right to look at everything on your phone.
“Residents will be able to present their driver’s license and State ID using their iPhone or Apple Watch by opening the ‘Apple Wallet’ application on their device.”
Illinois residents may soon be able to own digital driver's licenses and state IDs
Illinois residents may soon be able to present state identification by opening an app on their smartphone or smartwatch. Here's what you need to know.
www.sj-r.com
January 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Do not fucking do this, do not open your phone for the police, you will be giving them the right to look at everything on your phone.
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
remember, the blitzkrieg is intended to make you feel like there is nothing you can do about it; that’s the only reason to go forward in this haphazard and sloppy manner all in the first week
and the choice of that strategy tells you they are afraid you *will* do something about it
and the choice of that strategy tells you they are afraid you *will* do something about it
January 23, 2025 at 5:01 AM
remember, the blitzkrieg is intended to make you feel like there is nothing you can do about it; that’s the only reason to go forward in this haphazard and sloppy manner all in the first week
and the choice of that strategy tells you they are afraid you *will* do something about it
and the choice of that strategy tells you they are afraid you *will* do something about it
Reposted by Megan Clark, PhD
duping a lot of people into spending 10 minutes voting does not equate to being able to convince a lot of people to do the grunt work of a dictatorship
like even the gun nuts… are lazy… they want their George Zimmerman moment so they can launch a GoFundMe and a podcast, not a job
like even the gun nuts… are lazy… they want their George Zimmerman moment so they can launch a GoFundMe and a podcast, not a job
January 23, 2025 at 5:21 AM
duping a lot of people into spending 10 minutes voting does not equate to being able to convince a lot of people to do the grunt work of a dictatorship
like even the gun nuts… are lazy… they want their George Zimmerman moment so they can launch a GoFundMe and a podcast, not a job
like even the gun nuts… are lazy… they want their George Zimmerman moment so they can launch a GoFundMe and a podcast, not a job