Nick Wilson
@nickhwilson.bsky.social
Sociology (Historical, Political, Cultural, of Science, etc.)
Modernity's Corruption: https://tinyurl.com/y596p54t
After Positivism: https://tinyurl.com/3nrfakrj
nickwilsonsoc.org
Modernity's Corruption: https://tinyurl.com/y596p54t
After Positivism: https://tinyurl.com/3nrfakrj
nickwilsonsoc.org
Reposted by Nick Wilson
This is one of cultural consequences of financialization: boards are increasingly populated by finance and business type folks, and for their paradigm, value is perception (brand), not fundamentals.
Also, these elites have fewer connections to scientists and see them as labor, not knowledge.
Also, these elites have fewer connections to scientists and see them as labor, not knowledge.
Too many boards and presidents appear to believe that the value and legitimacy of their university resides in the brand when it, in fact, resides in knowledge and judgment, which in turn resides in the faculty and academic staff.
December 2, 2025 at 2:21 PM
This is one of cultural consequences of financialization: boards are increasingly populated by finance and business type folks, and for their paradigm, value is perception (brand), not fundamentals.
Also, these elites have fewer connections to scientists and see them as labor, not knowledge.
Also, these elites have fewer connections to scientists and see them as labor, not knowledge.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
It is my long held belief that Top Secret! is the better ZAZ movie than Airplane! even as so many people I know disagree.
November 15, 2025 at 1:45 AM
It is my long held belief that Top Secret! is the better ZAZ movie than Airplane! even as so many people I know disagree.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Why hello there former US Treasury Secretary, president of Harvard, and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers.
Sharing with alt so we can all bask in his hidden insights that we are NOT allowed to share.
And here's the source link:
oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
Sharing with alt so we can all bask in his hidden insights that we are NOT allowed to share.
And here's the source link:
oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
![Email from the linked document (around page 3 or 4). From: Larry Summers. Sent: 10/27/2017 3:10:13 PM. To: jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com) Subject: Re: Trending Now: Friends for three decades, Trump whisperer says he is 'stunned" by president's rhetoric
Importance: High
Body of the email reads: Softbank deputy guy i liked and seemed aware and honest re Son.
Lots of slathering to saudis. I yipped about inclusion.
I observed that half the IQ In world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population...
Mnuchin plumbs new depths.
War seems more likely than I used to think
DjT is world s luckiest guy in terms of opposition, economy etc. till think his world will collapse.
I'm trying to figure why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago and can't work at a network or think tank.
[Final statement in all caps] DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ozma3timm5c32fa7bimb4zaj/bafkreigqdvnbqlxeehcp2ivu2sn3amfrvu7quwr5gz3xpo7wvue2dnswdm@jpeg)
November 12, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Why hello there former US Treasury Secretary, president of Harvard, and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers.
Sharing with alt so we can all bask in his hidden insights that we are NOT allowed to share.
And here's the source link:
oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
Sharing with alt so we can all bask in his hidden insights that we are NOT allowed to share.
And here's the source link:
oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
Reposted by Nick Wilson
A subtle one that's easy to miss, but the fact that Andreesen and Musk both use "alpha" as slang for "information advantage" is a clear tell that their mental world is finance, not technology. They try to talk otherwise but they are investors not inventors.
*maximum alpha at 1.25x speed* continuously lives on in my head, unfortunately.
November 11, 2025 at 10:03 AM
A subtle one that's easy to miss, but the fact that Andreesen and Musk both use "alpha" as slang for "information advantage" is a clear tell that their mental world is finance, not technology. They try to talk otherwise but they are investors not inventors.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
The best comparison case for LLMs I can think of pre-coffee is pumpkin spice. LLMs are the pumpkin spice of the corporate world. Pumpkin spice can be lovely in very limited quantities and proper recipes. But not when it’s on absolutely every single friggin food group in the supermarket.
No one can tell me a single good use for it, for me. I have asked. Not a one.
What am I supposed to use it for? To summarize my emails? Too long, wrong. To write things? Too long, wrong. To plan trips? Planning is FUN and why would I outsource that? I played with it a bit six months ago, it was meh.
Also, I hate its enshittification of search results with my whole soul.
Also, I hate its enshittification of search results with my whole soul.
November 8, 2025 at 4:04 PM
The best comparison case for LLMs I can think of pre-coffee is pumpkin spice. LLMs are the pumpkin spice of the corporate world. Pumpkin spice can be lovely in very limited quantities and proper recipes. But not when it’s on absolutely every single friggin food group in the supermarket.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Here we go! www.trumpcancelledmyflight.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Here we go! www.trumpcancelledmyflight.com
Last night is gonna be a real thinker for Ezra Klein
November 5, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Last night is gonna be a real thinker for Ezra Klein
Reposted by Nick Wilson
this is the most successful a CIA officer has been at toppling a government in years.
November 5, 2025 at 1:13 AM
this is the most successful a CIA officer has been at toppling a government in years.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
NYMag blew up its story about ICE's increased presence at 26 Federal Plaza, and pasted it on a wall a few blocks away on Broadway
November 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
NYMag blew up its story about ICE's increased presence at 26 Federal Plaza, and pasted it on a wall a few blocks away on Broadway
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Abduction of Proserpina, by Giambologna, 1579 (from the @NortonSimon Museum in Pasadena), 📸 by @nturchiarophoto
November 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Abduction of Proserpina, by Giambologna, 1579 (from the @NortonSimon Museum in Pasadena), 📸 by @nturchiarophoto
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Statement from United University Professions President Frederick E. Kowal regarding the detainment of a UUP Upstate Chapter member by ICE:
Statement in following posts. (1/6)
Statement in following posts. (1/6)
October 30, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Statement from United University Professions President Frederick E. Kowal regarding the detainment of a UUP Upstate Chapter member by ICE:
Statement in following posts. (1/6)
Statement in following posts. (1/6)
Reposted by Nick Wilson
My father worked on an offshore wind farm. Woke up early every morning before dawn to wrangle the zephyrs out to pasture, then he had to milk the breezes. Sometimes one of the gales would get a little rowdy.
He died of whale-lung at the age of forty two.
He died of whale-lung at the age of forty two.
RFK Jr. directs CDC to study alleged harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reports reut.rs/4hxHgEh
RFK Jr. directs CDC to study alleged harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reports
U.S. health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff to probe the potential harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
reut.rs
October 28, 2025 at 8:35 PM
My father worked on an offshore wind farm. Woke up early every morning before dawn to wrangle the zephyrs out to pasture, then he had to milk the breezes. Sometimes one of the gales would get a little rowdy.
He died of whale-lung at the age of forty two.
He died of whale-lung at the age of forty two.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Here we go! Awesome new edition of GULLIVER’S TRAVELS from @beehivebooks.bsky.social! Kickstarter is live NOW!
⛵LIVE on @kickstarter.com! Lorenzo Mattotti & @pattonoswalt.bsky.social reimagine GULLIVER’S TRAVELS as a blazing art book. Swift's satirical tale takes aim at imperial violence, the savage pomposity of the "civilized" and the twisted heart of modern man... themes more relevant now than ever. ⬇️
October 28, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Here we go! Awesome new edition of GULLIVER’S TRAVELS from @beehivebooks.bsky.social! Kickstarter is live NOW!
Reposted by Nick Wilson
auntifa
October 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
auntifa
Reposted by Nick Wilson
When you don't use virgin olive oil in your kitchen
October 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
When you don't use virgin olive oil in your kitchen
October 28, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Couldn't help myself, sorry www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...
Letter | How Rigorous Was that Bias in Sociology Essay?
The essay didn’t practice what it preached, writes Jonathan Ben-Menachem.
www.chronicle.com
October 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Couldn't help myself, sorry www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...
Over to you @jaketapper.bsky.social !
President Trump said he had an MRI earlier this month, telling reporters Monday that the results had been “perfect” but declining to say why his doctors had ordered the scan. He also reiterated that he was interested in serving a third term.
Trump Says a Recent M.R.I. Scan Was ‘Perfect,’ and He’d ‘Love’ a Third Term
President Trump made the comments on the second day of his trip to Asia. The Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but Mr. Trump has suggested he might try to circumvent it.
nyti.ms
October 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Over to you @jaketapper.bsky.social !
Reposted by Nick Wilson
If I were running the DNC, there would be Democratic Party sponsored food relief banks across the country right now that specifically welcomed anyone regardless of party affiliation.
Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net
Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net
October 26, 2025 at 9:03 PM
If I were running the DNC, there would be Democratic Party sponsored food relief banks across the country right now that specifically welcomed anyone regardless of party affiliation.
Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net
Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net
So....later?
I’m on the way.
“No Worries!”
October 26, 2025 at 6:56 PM
So....later?
Reposted by Nick Wilson
get your math politics jokes here, folks.
If the administration approaches an infinite number of universities to sign on, but it still can achieve its goals if only a finite number of them do, I guess it really would be a “compact.”
October 22, 2025 at 11:17 PM
get your math politics jokes here, folks.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
In the latest episode of Moral Matters, the @AMSS_Section podcast, ASA member Nicholas Hoover Wilson @nickhwilson.bsky.social @stonybrooku.bsky.social discusses his book Modernity's Corruption: Empire and Morality in the Making of British India @columbiaup.bsky.social.
Modernity's Corruption with Nicholas Hoover Wilson
Moral Matters: Conversations with Sociologists on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity · Episode
bit.ly
October 21, 2025 at 2:21 PM
In the latest episode of Moral Matters, the @AMSS_Section podcast, ASA member Nicholas Hoover Wilson @nickhwilson.bsky.social @stonybrooku.bsky.social discusses his book Modernity's Corruption: Empire and Morality in the Making of British India @columbiaup.bsky.social.
Reposted by Nick Wilson
Lecturing active soldiers about being too fat while dropping standards so low for the ICE deportation force that a third of their recruits can't handle the easiest PT test I've ever heard of www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
October 20, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Lecturing active soldiers about being too fat while dropping standards so low for the ICE deportation force that a third of their recruits can't handle the easiest PT test I've ever heard of www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Known from The Bugle!!!!
Known from All Fantasy Everything and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
This weekend I’ll be telling jokes in New Orleans if that’s the kind of thing that’s interesting to you! Tickets: www.sportsdrink.org
October 20, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Known from The Bugle!!!!