Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 8h

The pettiest cultural victories may be the most delicious

3

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 10h

Oh! You have good taste!

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 18h

No Blood Incantation!? They and the Denver metal scene are probably big enough by now to merit representation!

1 1

Reposted by Micah Corah

Cella (is on the job market) @cellllla.bsky.social · 21h

✨I’m on the academic job market ✨

I’m a PhD candidate at @hcii.cmu.edu studying tech, labor, and resistance 👩🏻‍💻💪🏽💥

I research how workers and communities contest harmful sociotechnical systems and shape alternative futures through everyday resistance and collective action

More info: cella.io

Cella M. Sum –

cella.io

2 25 42

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 1d

So, I know the kids all ignore folder hierarchy these days... But "save as" on Microsoft Office no longer defaults to the initial file location?

1 5

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 2d

Opened Facebook again to see how bad things got... My recipe slop metastasized into video 🤮

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 2d

Hasn't that already been around for a while?

2

Reposted by Micah Corah

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 2d

Y'all who keep lecturing protesters to "not give them an excuse" need to pause for a minute. Imagine yourself telling a DV victim, "Be sure not to mouth off or make any mistakes so he won't hit you. Don't give him an excuse! It's what he wants!" That's what you fools sound like.

14 1.3K 4.8K

Reposted by Micah Corah

Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 5d

Putting aside the question of AI personhood, a slur requires a history of dehumanization.

In order to fuction, the slur has to call into being that history of dehumanization for its injurious force. There is no such history for LLMs, regardless of claims otherwise.

8 69 240

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 4d

P.S. the quotes were about Holocaust denial. He doesn't need sympathy.

P.P.S. looks like the book sometimes screws up CU Denver and DU

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 4d

Reading a book on recent history and... The author quotes the Rate My Professor page of a (former) CU Denver professor as evidence that they are a *very bad person*...

So, that's a new kind of nightmare I get to have 😰

1 1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Finally, the start of this thread is buried... probably several hundred skeets back... Here's a link to the top:

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · Aug 19

I recently started reading "The Good Drone: How Social Movements Democratize Surveillance" by Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick. This book is at the intersection of drones---my research area--and my guilty pleasure of science and technology studies.
thegooddrone.mitpress.mit.edu
(pdf available as open access)

The Good Drone: How Social Movements Democratize Surveillance

thegooddrone.mitpress.mit.edu

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

If this all interests you, Choi-Fitzpatricks' book is available as open access:
thegooddrone.mitpress.mit.edu

The Good Drone: How Social Movements Democratize Surveillance

thegooddrone.mitpress.mit.edu

1 1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

I've also been reflecting on the politics technology around drones and cameras in parallel and included an addendum collecting my threads on recent related events and reporting:

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Addendum:

Now that I am at the end of this long thread on The Good Drone, I am reflecting on events and reporting I have encountered over the last few months that are relevant to the material. Here are some links to other threads I wrote on these topics 👇

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

I just posted my notes from the last Chapter of "The Good Drone." I'm finally bringing this long thread to an end 😅

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Chapter 6 discusses protest tech. This is the final segment on Implications and the last chapter of the book.

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Just this past week... Closing airspace to drones in Chicago... a direct illustration of politics around repressing drone journalism happening in the US

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 8d

Controlling speech and weakening universities are the goals. A system of financial threats are the goad and short leash.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 8d

"The Trump administration is laying out a set of operating principles that it wants universities to agree to in exchange for preferential access to federal funds."

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Recently, a number of indie musicians (and oddly several of my favorite artists 🥲) have also quit Spotify in protest of (now former!) CEO Ek's funding of the military drone company Helsing

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · Jul 28

The drama about King Gizzard pulling their music puts together a some of my favorite bands with one of my major research interests---drones and robots. So, I thought I'd throw out my two cents.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · Jul 27

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have pulled almost their entire extensive back catalogue from Spotify, following Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu in turning their back on the streaming platform due to military investments made by its CEO

buff.ly/leIMLuF

1 2

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

On Flock and drones.... illustrative of how surveillance technologies intersect

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · Sep 3

Flock bad.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Sep 3

Local man embraces fascism.

1 1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Snapped a picture of a Flock camera near me for another thread

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · Jul 15

Here is a picture of the Flock camera I pass whenever I exit from 6th Ave. toward the Mines campus

Flock camera (camera affixed to black mast, below solar array) facing road

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

A few threads on Flock:

First, some discussion of Flock and mass surveillance, responding to reporting by 404 Media

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · May 29

Does your business or homeowners association use Flock license plate cameras?

Maybe don't! ...that data is being used by ICE!

404 Media @404media.co · May 27

ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows

🔗 www.404media.co/ice-taps-int...

1 1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Regarding censoring reactions to Trump at the US Open:

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · Sep 6

Pretty good example of the developing roles of cameras in technology and politics today!

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · Sep 6

They do not seem to understand how modern media works. There will be 23000 video feeds in that stadium.

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Addendum:

Now that I am at the end of this long thread on The Good Drone, I am reflecting on events and reporting I have encountered over the last few months that are relevant to the material. Here are some links to other threads I wrote on these topics 👇

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

How do we engage with existing tools or tools in development apart from and without assuming inevitability of dominant forces and narratives? It is worth reflecting on how you or I and our technological repertoires fit relate to these questions!

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

Instead, Choi-Fitzpatrick brings a broad perspective on impacts, subversions, and pragmatic applications of technological tools at hand and means to leverage tools for social benefit.

1

Micah Corah @micahcorah.bsky.social · 5d

I went into this book in part with reservations about some of the technologies I am engaged with (drones and autonomous perception systems). Yet, this volume does not so much address the question of whether a technology should be broadly brought into being (maybe they shouldn't!)

1