Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Sheila Liming @seeshespeak.bsky.social · 3h

“… the gross repeal of a right that took decades to build is at risk of going unreported … Without culture, our capacities for self-government atrophy, our local communities wane, our intellectual and emotional lives wither and default to AI slop, and our paths to meaning and fulfillment close.”

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 4h

Culture might seem a less consequential right than free assembly+ its infringement makes less spectacular news than repressive violence. But the repeal of the right to culture is grave.

honored to be with @isanchezprado.bsky.social in @hyperallergic.com today!

hyperallergic.com/1049388/how-...

How to Protect Your Right to Culture

The United States government’s coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.

hyperallergic.com

3 10

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 14d

"This technology that is ruining education has incredible potential to save education, if only I could figure out how to use it better to improve my students’ education."

I Need AI to Write Better Lesson Plans So My Students Stop Using AI to Write Their Papers

I care deeply about my students’ learning, but with all the new technologies available to help them cut corners, I worry that they’re not doing the...

buff.ly

1 36 130

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Jennifer Thorvig @absurdities.bsky.social · 20d

I love how we're going to see 500 articles on this and the answers are just:

- More people are getting accurate diagnoses
- We finally have a significant number of women in medicine and they're diagnosing women and girls

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 20d

A new @nature.com feature on autism with real data and facts
Published today, written before the Tylenol debacle.
' Kennedy and the HHS are “going to falsely
declare the cause for autism — and that that
gets in the way of a great deal of progress”.'
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

2 59 170

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 @susankayequinn.bsky.social · 21d

They've lost the 9yos

JA Westenberg
@Daojoan@mastodon.social

My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.”

Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner

Kiddo: that’s AI
Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

110 2.9K 11K

Jeff Kessler @jckessler.bsky.social · 20d

Union activism is my biggest motivation right now for this reason. Lots of university leaders are so far removed from faculty experience. One example being university's uncritical adoption of AI and EdTech subscriptions that go counter to dept. curricula and faculty autonomy. Happy to chat more.

2 14

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 28d

LOL

1 7 41

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 28d

AI is a lack of consent machine

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 28d

“Technology firms behind artificial intelligence–based note-taking software — marketed to therapists as a time-saving administrative tool — have quietly included provisions in their terms and conditions that allow patients’ therapy records to be sold and manipulated to train other AI applications.”

Your Therapists’ Notes Could Become Fodder For AI

Tech companies are marketing AI-based note-taking software to therapists as a new time-saving tool. But by signing up, providers may be unknowingly offering patients’ sensitive health information as d...

jacobin.com

88 170

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Bryan Edward Stone (שָׁלוֹם) @bestonetx.bsky.social · Jul 23

I have books on my shelf right now that are nearly 300 years old. There is absolutely no way that any digital media that exists today will be accessible in 300 years.

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · Jul 21

Any updates on the "downsizing" of space for physical books in academic and public libraries?
theconversation.com/turning-a-pa...

Turning a page: downsizing the campus book collections

Keeping a printed book in a campus library comes with steep costs. How are campus libraries evolving?

theconversation.com

12 72 230

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · Jul 22

Good, practical shit from @astra.bsky.social & @debtcollective.bsky.social with the added elegant diagnosis: “This is class war, pure and simple.”

WTF is happening with SAVE, PSLF & SCOTUS?

If you have student debt, here's a helpful update from your friends at the Debt Collective

open.substack.com

9 17

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Jun 19

Ed Tech is a Trojan horse for tech elite capture of public resources. Every time.

Rachel Ernst @rachelernst.myatproto.social · Jun 19

Twenty years in education and I have seen so many things that were going to "save teachers time" and then it got weaponized into "if you don't use this, you're ruining your students' future" and usually when that mindless zealousness comes around it's less than a year for that tech to collapse.

9 440 1.5K

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · Jun 4

probably my favorite prose about LLMs recently

no. @joles.bsky.social · May 5

applying for jobs again

screenshot from an online job application form. the question reads "Can you describe specific ways you have integrated AI tools into your development workflow? Please include any custom setups, automations, or use cases beyond single prompt usage" (a red asterisk indicates that this is a required question).

an answer has been typed in the textbox below the question:

"there is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thousand voices. it will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. it will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. it will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask.

it feels no joy and no sorrow, it knows no right and no wrong. it knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same.

it offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. “you simply must visit the monster—i always just ask the monster.”

there are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn’t mean it has no price

for when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. and when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face."

4 16 170

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · May 13

Sure, AI may be an environmental disaster and produce mid outcomes in cases where it doesn't straight up lie, but at least it's extremely unprofitable.

As Klarna flips from AI-first to hiring people again, a new landmark survey reveals most AI projects fail to deliver

Just 1 in 4 AI investments bring in the ROI they promise—but CEOs just can’t resist the technology.

fortune.com

47 2K 5.4K

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · May 9

Rage Against the Machine: You use the term “journey” to describe your training for a charity 5K, changes to your skincare routine, your evolving relationship with gluten, the fact that you occasionally take a yoga class, and your secretly failing marriage.

What Your Favorite ’90s Band Says About the Kind of Bored Suburban Mom You Are Today

Our 4th most-read article of 2024. - - -Veruca Salt: Like Captain Ahab, you are defined by an all-absorbing monomaniacal obsession: to find comfor...

buff.ly

2 19 92

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · May 7

Can you blame the students who believe them?

All this is to say, the AI crisis did not begin with ChatGPT4, & it could be solved by public investment that expands & stabilizes educational workforce, lowers/elminates cost of education for students, supports literacy/numeracy & adult education.

3 9 89

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Ryan Casey @ryancasey.dev · May 8

This is a really beautiful piece from @mcsweeneys.net about the inherent value of neurodivergent people. RFK Jr. is dead wrong in the way he demeans and diminishes people with autism.

www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-...

An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Who Thinks My Daughter is a Tragedy

Dear Mr. RFK Jr., (The “dear” is tradition. Don’t mistake it for affection.) You said autistic children are a burden. That they ruin families. That...

www.mcsweeneys.net

24 230 700

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Apr 16

It works. The government here largely works. Because we are so spoiled by how well it works, we are letting a fool convince us it is broken.

Bennie Thompson @benniethompson.bsky.social · Apr 15

In 90 years of social security, we have never had a check bounce or be late, but they want you to believe the system is broken.

25 1.9K 7.6K

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Venus Bivar @vbivar.bsky.social · Apr 15

Very thoughtful piece on Junot Diaz by @rafaelwalker.bsky.social .

Rafael Walker @rafaelwalker.bsky.social · Apr 15

I've been uneasy about Junot Díaz's treatment by the mainstream media for a while now, but seeing him get nixed from the Norton anthology was the last straw for me. I've put my thoughts down here. Thanks, as usual, to my editor, Len Gutkin!
www.chronicle.com/article/juno...

Opinion | Junot Díaz’s Forced Disappearing Act

The great writer has been exiled from the Norton anthology.

www.chronicle.com

3 5

Jeff Kessler @jckessler.bsky.social · Apr 15

Illinois is not, yet. I am going to try to get this on the UIC Senate Agenda.

1 1 1

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Apr 15

big 10 people! whip your senates! alums! call your presidents, provosts, general counsels, and get in formation!

Chronicle of Higher Education @chronicle.com · Apr 15

Faculty senates at Rutgers University, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the University of Indiana at Bloomington, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have passed resolutions calling for the creation of a mutual-defense compact. chroni.cl/4cBFrnu

These Faculty Senates Are Trying to Band Together to Stand Up to Trump

The idea of a compact among institutions is based on the idea that there’s strength in numbers, and it comes amid frustration that few presidents are speaking out against the administration’s actions ...

chroni.cl

2 16 47

Jeff Kessler @jckessler.bsky.social · Apr 11

This is difference between talking about digital literacy over AI literacy.

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · Apr 11

Curtailing people’s ability to read widely and carefully, to locate, assess, and compare different sources for themselves, and to write in their own voice about what they find and what it means, is arguably more effective than censorship. It is also one of the most obvious effects of generative AI.

5

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

Talia Schaffer @taliaschaffer.bsky.social · Apr 9

Hooray! More like this please! Can there be an Ivy Leage defense compact, a state schools (in each state) defense compact, etc? Universities, take advantage of the existing ties, athletic leagues and library connections and local consortiums, and build your own coalition.

Michael Yarbrough (he/him) @mwyarbrough.bsky.social · Apr 9

Update! The senate at Indiana U-Bloomington has passed an identical resolution to the Rutgers Senate's calling for a Big Ten defense compact!!

And the Rutgers Senate is meeting tomorrow in a special emergency session to plan next steps. Read their open letter to President Jonathan Holloway below.

5 15

Jeff Kessler @jckessler.bsky.social · Apr 7

It was a starving grad student; but also the printers have been broken since 2019.

1 24

Jeff Kessler @jckessler.bsky.social · Apr 7

"Faculty-lounge progressivism" is definitely written by someone who has only attended elite private colleges and has read absolutely nothing about the academic labor movement.

6

Reposted by Jeff Kessler

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Apr 7

"Hi, I’m out of the office. If you have anything urgent, please get in touch with the fact that there’s probably nobody better suited than me in our organization to handle that matter, and I’m taking a day off to think about love, survival, and time."

Copy and Paste Any of These Out-of-Office Replies for Your Personal Use

I am out of the office today and Friday to solve every existential quandary I’ve been putting off arguably since 2023 when, as far as I can tell, I...

www.mcsweeneys.net

20 95

Jeff Kessler @jckessler.bsky.social · Apr 7

“We have more power now on our campuses than we’ve had in recent memory,” said Ian Gavigan, national director of Higher Ed Labor United, or HELU...“And we couldn’t actually be better positioned to fight back against the kind of authoritarian attacks that we’re seeing.”

As Universities Yield to Trump, Higher Ed Unions Fight Back

From lawsuits to protests, labor organizations representing faculty, grad students and other workers are resisting. Discussions about what to do next continue.

www.insidehighered.com

3 3