nathan kim
@nathanckim.bsky.social
phd candidate Umich School of Information | with GEO3550, Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, DAIR Institute. tech, race/empire, capital, logistics
For a ruthless criticism of all that exists, towards a Marxism without guarantees, etc.
https://nathan-kim.org
For a ruthless criticism of all that exists, towards a Marxism without guarantees, etc.
https://nathan-kim.org
UM FOIA office denies my record dated... Nov 2026? one of the funnier denials given that
(query was in response to www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
www.justice.gov/epstein/file...)
(query was in response to www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
www.justice.gov/epstein/file...)
February 11, 2026 at 4:50 PM
UM FOIA office denies my record dated... Nov 2026? one of the funnier denials given that
(query was in response to www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
www.justice.gov/epstein/file...)
(query was in response to www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
www.justice.gov/epstein/file...)
Reposted by nathan kim
I presented @nathanckim.bsky.social and my "How Big Cloud gets Bigger" paper analyzing crunchbase to show how:
*Google/Microsoft/Amazon invest at rates rivaling the largest VCs.*
Big Cloud = Critical Infrastructure *AND* Venture Capital.
here are the slides:
*Google/Microsoft/Amazon invest at rates rivaling the largest VCs.*
Big Cloud = Critical Infrastructure *AND* Venture Capital.
here are the slides:
February 8, 2026 at 1:16 AM
I presented @nathanckim.bsky.social and my "How Big Cloud gets Bigger" paper analyzing crunchbase to show how:
*Google/Microsoft/Amazon invest at rates rivaling the largest VCs.*
Big Cloud = Critical Infrastructure *AND* Venture Capital.
here are the slides:
*Google/Microsoft/Amazon invest at rates rivaling the largest VCs.*
Big Cloud = Critical Infrastructure *AND* Venture Capital.
here are the slides:
funny letter, from a frustrated scientist reacting to the University of Michigan seeking to distance itself from the defense industry, 1972. From an ongoing project on UMich's relationship to national security since WWII
February 6, 2026 at 10:49 PM
funny letter, from a frustrated scientist reacting to the University of Michigan seeking to distance itself from the defense industry, 1972. From an ongoing project on UMich's relationship to national security since WWII
Reposted by nathan kim
As a VA nurse, Alex Pretti was a member of AFGE. This union also reps Border Patrol, and may have repped Pretti's killer. I talked to VA workers who are furious and want Border Patrol out of AFGE. "For a union member to kill another is a fundamental betrayal of what a union is supposed to be.”
Alex Pretti’s Killer May Be Part of His Union
Border Patrol agents belong to the same federal workers union as VA nurses, a situation some of Pretti’s colleagues are determined to change.
jewishcurrents.org
January 26, 2026 at 11:06 PM
As a VA nurse, Alex Pretti was a member of AFGE. This union also reps Border Patrol, and may have repped Pretti's killer. I talked to VA workers who are furious and want Border Patrol out of AFGE. "For a union member to kill another is a fundamental betrayal of what a union is supposed to be.”
Reposted by nathan kim
What all the crowd shots won’t show you is this energy extends to the rest of the metro. There are additional huge gatherings of people all around the cities, ICE watch is visible on so many street corners, walk a few blocks and you’ll pass people clearly in the middle of distro
This is the scene in downtown Minneapolis this afternoon, where thousands of people have braved -25F wind chills to protest ICE operations in Minnesota.
More: https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/a-sea-of-people-thousands-turn-out-for-anti-ice-march-in-downtown-minneapolis
Pic: Mike Auger
More: https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/a-sea-of-people-thousands-turn-out-for-anti-ice-march-in-downtown-minneapolis
Pic: Mike Auger
January 23, 2026 at 10:40 PM
What all the crowd shots won’t show you is this energy extends to the rest of the metro. There are additional huge gatherings of people all around the cities, ICE watch is visible on so many street corners, walk a few blocks and you’ll pass people clearly in the middle of distro
Reposted by nathan kim
The Tigray genocide was, in part, actively facilitated through social media platforms, @nuredinali.bsky.social writes, and inadequate content moderation was part of the problem. On Points, he lays out how better moderation can make a difference, and what it requires. datasociety.net/points/how-t...
January 22, 2026 at 3:39 PM
The Tigray genocide was, in part, actively facilitated through social media platforms, @nuredinali.bsky.social writes, and inadequate content moderation was part of the problem. On Points, he lays out how better moderation can make a difference, and what it requires. datasociety.net/points/how-t...
Piece I wrote with some other organizers. Happy with the reception locally and the conversation had because of it. Please read!
whatsleftypsi.com/2026/how-we-...
whatsleftypsi.com/2026/how-we-...
How We Failed to Organize a Tenants’ Union — What's Left Ypsi
An abridged version of this article appears in the print edition of Issue V Introduction This reflection describes challenges and victories from the organizers of the Ann Arbor Tenants Union in our ef...
whatsleftypsi.com
January 19, 2026 at 12:20 AM
Piece I wrote with some other organizers. Happy with the reception locally and the conversation had because of it. Please read!
whatsleftypsi.com/2026/how-we-...
whatsleftypsi.com/2026/how-we-...
Reposted by nathan kim
Join us for BD&S 2026 Colloquium, Panel 1: Constructing Alternatives through Community Data & Data Activism
Jan 21 | 16:00–18:00 GMT (11:00 AM–1:00 PM EST)
uky.zoom.us/j/85254638887
#DataActivism #CriticalDataStudies #DataJustice
Jan 21 | 16:00–18:00 GMT (11:00 AM–1:00 PM EST)
uky.zoom.us/j/85254638887
#DataActivism #CriticalDataStudies #DataJustice
January 15, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Join us for BD&S 2026 Colloquium, Panel 1: Constructing Alternatives through Community Data & Data Activism
Jan 21 | 16:00–18:00 GMT (11:00 AM–1:00 PM EST)
uky.zoom.us/j/85254638887
#DataActivism #CriticalDataStudies #DataJustice
Jan 21 | 16:00–18:00 GMT (11:00 AM–1:00 PM EST)
uky.zoom.us/j/85254638887
#DataActivism #CriticalDataStudies #DataJustice
Reposted by nathan kim
I’ll respond to this disingenuous question exactly one time.
Maduro’s rule does is immaterial to the violation of sovereignty and international law that this strike represents. Go bother someone else with this nonsense.
Maduro’s rule does is immaterial to the violation of sovereignty and international law that this strike represents. Go bother someone else with this nonsense.
Do you dispute their description of maduro’s rule?
January 3, 2026 at 5:44 PM
I’ll respond to this disingenuous question exactly one time.
Maduro’s rule does is immaterial to the violation of sovereignty and international law that this strike represents. Go bother someone else with this nonsense.
Maduro’s rule does is immaterial to the violation of sovereignty and international law that this strike represents. Go bother someone else with this nonsense.
Writing down…. Underwear factories just like AI
December 30, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Writing down…. Underwear factories just like AI
I graduated in 2022. I used blue books every semester in 2018,2019,2020,2021, and 2022
It’s such a non-story to me like they are just part of being a college student that never went away nor were the subject of students’ biggest gripes
It’s such a non-story to me like they are just part of being a college student that never went away nor were the subject of students’ biggest gripes
Does anyone else bristle at this framing? WSJ says blue books are “torturing” students with hand cramps, and “nobody likes them.”
Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.
Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.
They Were Every Student’s Worst Nightmare. Now Blue Books Are Back.
Cheating with ChatGPT has become a huge problem for colleges. The solution is painfully old-school.
www.wsj.com
December 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
I graduated in 2022. I used blue books every semester in 2018,2019,2020,2021, and 2022
It’s such a non-story to me like they are just part of being a college student that never went away nor were the subject of students’ biggest gripes
It’s such a non-story to me like they are just part of being a college student that never went away nor were the subject of students’ biggest gripes
Reposted by nathan kim
Reposted by nathan kim
NEW: A variety of military and intelligence contractors have already signed on to help ICE's immigrant bounty hunter program. A review of procurement data shows 10 companies stand to make up to *ONE BILLION* dollars from the program by 2027. theintercept.com/2025/12/23/i...
10 Companies Have Already Made $1 Million as ICE Bounty Hunters. We Found Them.
And they stand to make millions more in cash bonuses for surveilling and tracking immigrants in service of ICE’s deportation machine.
theintercept.com
December 23, 2025 at 8:40 PM
NEW: A variety of military and intelligence contractors have already signed on to help ICE's immigrant bounty hunter program. A review of procurement data shows 10 companies stand to make up to *ONE BILLION* dollars from the program by 2027. theintercept.com/2025/12/23/i...
Reposted by nathan kim
The New School owns about a billion dollars worth of art, most of which is not on display. They could sell the two Warhols they own and raise $100 million tomorrow. But they’d rather close academic departments.
New School “administrators have started to implement a plan to close, overhaul or merge about 30 academic programs or majors; pause nearly all admissions to doctoral programs; and offer buyouts or early retirement to what professors say is about 40 percent of the full-time faculty.”
Falling Enrollment, Money Woes: The New School Seeks a Path to Survival
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 11:24 PM
The New School owns about a billion dollars worth of art, most of which is not on display. They could sell the two Warhols they own and raise $100 million tomorrow. But they’d rather close academic departments.
Reposted by nathan kim
Considering developments in Michigan as a case study, Nathan Kim and Ira Anwar say current state incentives for data centers reflect a false binary between new jobs and detrimental community impacts.
Michigan Offers Handouts for Data Centers Promising Jobs. Will Those Jobs Come? | TechPolicy.Press
Nathan Kim and Ira Anwar say current state incentives for data centers reflect a false binary between new jobs and detrimental community impacts.
www.techpolicy.press
December 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Considering developments in Michigan as a case study, Nathan Kim and Ira Anwar say current state incentives for data centers reflect a false binary between new jobs and detrimental community impacts.
It’s not even just that students are using ChatGPT. But that they leave the prompt in the answer they put online. And they copy paste an answer twice. And that they include the “Certainly! Here’s a …” in the answer. Etc
December 1, 2025 at 2:37 PM
It’s not even just that students are using ChatGPT. But that they leave the prompt in the answer they put online. And they copy paste an answer twice. And that they include the “Certainly! Here’s a …” in the answer. Etc
Reposted by nathan kim
NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: I finally have written up the extraordinary fact that the @federalreserve.gov has created an entire page specifically devoted to my FOIA requests entitled "Historical Board Documents". Also, my birthday sale is still underway!
www.crisesnotes.com/the-federal-...
www.crisesnotes.com/the-federal-...
The Federal Reserve Has Created an Entire Page Dedicated to My Successful FOIA Requests
Tomorrow is my 34th Birthday and as such this month's "Birthday" sale is still ongoing. Take advantage today!
Birthday Sale!
Longtime Notes on the Crises readers will remember that I hav...
www.crisesnotes.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:48 AM
NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: I finally have written up the extraordinary fact that the @federalreserve.gov has created an entire page specifically devoted to my FOIA requests entitled "Historical Board Documents". Also, my birthday sale is still underway!
www.crisesnotes.com/the-federal-...
www.crisesnotes.com/the-federal-...
Reposted by nathan kim
‘The new arrangement re-entrenches different forms of violence – dispossession, displacement, slow destruction – under cover of being provisional, with permanent advantages for Israel.’
Zinaida Miller on the Gaza ceasefire’s ‘Yellow Line’, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Zinaida Miller on the Gaza ceasefire’s ‘Yellow Line’, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Zinaida Miller | Temporary Measures
The Yellow Line is supposed to be temporary, but history suggests otherwise. Under ostensibly transient arrangements,...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
‘The new arrangement re-entrenches different forms of violence – dispossession, displacement, slow destruction – under cover of being provisional, with permanent advantages for Israel.’
Zinaida Miller on the Gaza ceasefire’s ‘Yellow Line’, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Zinaida Miller on the Gaza ceasefire’s ‘Yellow Line’, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
amidst all of the celebration re:Zohran there have been many criticisms of him being wishy-washy on arresting Netanyahu, apologizing to the NYPD, etc
Useful; we shouldn't have a naive "he is awesome and he will save us" stance -- but these say more about the left than anything about the candidate
Useful; we shouldn't have a naive "he is awesome and he will save us" stance -- but these say more about the left than anything about the candidate
November 5, 2025 at 3:15 PM
amidst all of the celebration re:Zohran there have been many criticisms of him being wishy-washy on arresting Netanyahu, apologizing to the NYPD, etc
Useful; we shouldn't have a naive "he is awesome and he will save us" stance -- but these say more about the left than anything about the candidate
Useful; we shouldn't have a naive "he is awesome and he will save us" stance -- but these say more about the left than anything about the candidate
I am extremely blessed to find myself constantly surprised (these days) by the everyday successes of organizing around me
Most of the time organizing feels like a set of actions we go through because of a blind faith that change is needed -- trusting the conclusions of movements and moments past
Most of the time organizing feels like a set of actions we go through because of a blind faith that change is needed -- trusting the conclusions of movements and moments past
October 28, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I am extremely blessed to find myself constantly surprised (these days) by the everyday successes of organizing around me
Most of the time organizing feels like a set of actions we go through because of a blind faith that change is needed -- trusting the conclusions of movements and moments past
Most of the time organizing feels like a set of actions we go through because of a blind faith that change is needed -- trusting the conclusions of movements and moments past
Every time I see a paper advertising like participatory AI for large language models I have to laugh, like “no slop for us, without us!”
October 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Every time I see a paper advertising like participatory AI for large language models I have to laugh, like “no slop for us, without us!”
Soyjak Michael Scott-esque trump admin attorney: I DECLARE!! It is OFF RECORD!!!!
Chad Anna Bower: I took screenshots which are all available at www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Chad Anna Bower: I took screenshots which are all available at www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Oh nooooo, Lindsey Halligan, this is not how any of this works
(15 screens into a Signal exchange) www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
(15 screens into a Signal exchange) www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
October 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Soyjak Michael Scott-esque trump admin attorney: I DECLARE!! It is OFF RECORD!!!!
Chad Anna Bower: I took screenshots which are all available at www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Chad Anna Bower: I took screenshots which are all available at www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Reposted by nathan kim
When the state brings violence into our neighborhoods — when it throws elders to the ground, fills bodies with bullets, jails people without cause, and takes children from their homes — we must be able to bear witness, writes Dean Jackson, but Big Tech firms are silencing dissent.
Under Trump, Big Tech Decides Who Deserves Protection and Who Gets Iced Out | TechPolicy.Press
Must the public make only meek requests for accountability and transparency? That is not democracy, writes Dean Jackson.
buff.ly
October 19, 2025 at 4:01 PM
When the state brings violence into our neighborhoods — when it throws elders to the ground, fills bodies with bullets, jails people without cause, and takes children from their homes — we must be able to bear witness, writes Dean Jackson, but Big Tech firms are silencing dissent.
I don’t hate the no kings protests! I think it’s awesome that millions are taking to the streets and seeking an outlet to express their anger, even if that frustration is expressed as rejection of Trump and not much else, plus a gratuitous support of law and order
October 19, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I don’t hate the no kings protests! I think it’s awesome that millions are taking to the streets and seeking an outlet to express their anger, even if that frustration is expressed as rejection of Trump and not much else, plus a gratuitous support of law and order
Are you a UM worker/student and want to hear better takes than the dude below on AI from university of Michigan faculty, students, staff?
then join the mass meeting on 10/28 at 7 to stop the UM-Los Alamos data center and its support of nuclear weapons!
bit.ly/UMichNoAIMeeting
then join the mass meeting on 10/28 at 7 to stop the UM-Los Alamos data center and its support of nuclear weapons!
bit.ly/UMichNoAIMeeting
There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
October 17, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Are you a UM worker/student and want to hear better takes than the dude below on AI from university of Michigan faculty, students, staff?
then join the mass meeting on 10/28 at 7 to stop the UM-Los Alamos data center and its support of nuclear weapons!
bit.ly/UMichNoAIMeeting
then join the mass meeting on 10/28 at 7 to stop the UM-Los Alamos data center and its support of nuclear weapons!
bit.ly/UMichNoAIMeeting