Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 1d

Berkeley has really publicized the Physics and Chemistry prizes, so I knew those two n

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 2d

They need to bring back interurban rail to the area. Connect Woodland and Winters to Davis (and Sacramento). Turn Esparto into a destination town!

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 2d

What a different era!

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 2d

Excellent question!

I forgot about that.

www.dailycal.org/archives/ber...

Bartlett needs to stop jumping on every techno-optimist fad (that he probably has some financial interest in) and actually use his power to help South Berkeley.

Berkeley's decision to incorporate blockchain into microbond financing program sparks controversy

Residents expressed concerns following an announcement by Mayor Arreguín sharing the city’s plans to incorporate blockchain into the municipal bond system.

www.dailycal.org

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 2d

"His vision for how AI could improve the process would be “YouGov on steroids,” where petitions could be sent on a mass scale"

Yes - rather than actually fix the process, use public money for AI vaporware from some startup that will further privatize the commons. That's so innovative, Bartlett!

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 2d

Council member Bartlett thinks AI is going to fix the city of Berkeley. This city doesn’t need vibes management. Give me a break!

If the civic tech movement has taught us anything, is that building internal capacity is better than selling out the public.
www.dailycal.org/news/city/ci...

‘The Berkeley Rule’: A councilmember’s attempt to nudge AI toward civic good

With the city of Berkeley facing substantial problems — including a projected $27 million budget shortfall — District 3 Councilmember Ben Bartlett wondered if the booming AI industry centered just

www.dailycal.org

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Reposted by Kendra K. Levine

redrum scare(d) corncob (no one said it made sense) @inquiline.myatproto.social · 2d

There's a link to sign the "USC must reject the compact" petition if you scroll down a little bit on this page:
www.uscaaup.org

USC AAUP

www.uscaaup.org

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Reposted by Kendra K. Levine

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 2d

The Administration

- raised taxes on clean energy with one big beautiful bill

- is stopping or making clean energy projects harder to be built

- is raising prices on materials with tariffs

- all while AI is spiking electricity demand

They are stopping supply while demand goes up

It’s a crisis

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Reposted by Kendra K. Levine

Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 2d

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

How much time did they spend training their bots that could have been spent untangling bureaucratic messes that they have more power than most to fix?

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

A Rod and Jeter debasing themselves as they try to act like humans while Big Papi and Vladdy Jr speak for the masses.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

Guards Ball!

a baseball player is standing in front of a sign that says guardians.tv

Alt: Gabriel Arias is standing in front of a sign that says guardians.tv, clapping and celebrating in 2nd base.

media.tenor.com

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

Detroit must never live down August.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

It’s funny - I really hate most of the Phillies players for various reasons, but I love Philadelphia fans and like to see them happy.

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

I’m still holding out for Mariners-Brewers I want my favorite Canadian (Josh Naylor) to get a ring.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

I didn’t say anything because I am but a humble librarian, and I knew they would roll their eyes at such a question. Or justify their use of AI because they are being efficient and innovative while also very busy.

It’s depressing that people who could improve organizations just accept the systems.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

You would think self reflection would raise that question and lead to better practices.

But instead they are getting paid lots of money to use AI to wire emails they expect people to read because that’s the system they’re leading us in.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

I was in a meeting were some university administrators (not mine) talked about using GenAI to write their emails, reports, and other documents.

I wanted to ask them what the point was. If they couldn’t be bothered to do it themselves, did it need to be done at all?

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Reposted by Kendra K. Levine

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

ABS and other tools like it in baseball are more than just balls and strikes.

A lot of smart people are embracing the imposition of AI slop different fields without considering how it feeds into larger dynamics.

Libraries licensing AI research tools are in this boat.

SERIOUS PROFESSIONAL, PH.D. @djmosfett.bsky.social · 3d

ABS, check-swing challenges, etc. are the functional equivalent of AI slop of baseball. It’s fascinating how many writers who correctly despise LLMs for the creation of slop somehow can’t understand why these things are a similarly bad idea.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

It will help heal the nation.

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

ABS and other tools like it in baseball are more than just balls and strikes.

A lot of smart people are embracing the imposition of AI slop different fields without considering how it feeds into larger dynamics.

Libraries licensing AI research tools are in this boat.

SERIOUS PROFESSIONAL, PH.D. @djmosfett.bsky.social · 3d

ABS, check-swing challenges, etc. are the functional equivalent of AI slop of baseball. It’s fascinating how many writers who correctly despise LLMs for the creation of slop somehow can’t understand why these things are a similarly bad idea.

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Reposted by Kendra K. Levine

AAUP @aaup.org · 5d

NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED!

Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold.

Please click below, sign, & share.

#DefendHigherEd

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts

The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

actionnetwork.org

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

They know Yankees fans!

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

It’s all parking, innit?
www.reddit.com/r/berkeley/c...

From the berkeley community on Reddit: What a week

Explore this post and more from the berkeley community

www.reddit.com

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Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 3d

I think ALIMS is the most public version of that data and it’s state by state.