Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · 9h

EDI being questioned in the adjudication of Canadian grants. Often missing in such discussions is Employment Equity law and the court settlement over the CRC program. universityaffairs.ca/news/parliam...

Parliament reviews EDI for research grants - University Affairs

Witnesses testify for and against applying diversity criteria to scientific funding.

universityaffairs.ca

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · 10h

To all the nativists: xenophobia is bad for science. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated: see their journeys

The most common destination for eventual Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine since 2000 is the United States, Nature has found.

www.nature.com

Reposted by Howard Ramos

Dr Sho Jacobs 🍁 @shoshanahjacobs.bsky.social · 2d

We did the #HigherEd math:

35 hr/w x 40% = 168 teaching hrs/semester
- 36 hrs in class
- 24 hrs prep
- 12 hrs student hrs
- 15 hrs TA meetings
--------------------------
= 81 hrs for individual student support
/400 students per semester = 12 min/student/semester

Last year: 280 students = 17 min

4 7

Reposted by Howard Ramos

CSN-RÉC @csnrec.bsky.social · 7d

job

TENURE-TRACK ASSISTANT PROFESSOR POSITION IN HEALTH AND THE LIFE COURSE OR WORK AND THE ECONOMY

Department of Sociology, Western University

csn-rec.ca/job-postings...

#cdnsoci

3 3

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · 7d

Young people seem to be more likely to come across AI summaries in the searches. This is changing the "truth" across generations.

pewresearch.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Americans have mixed feelings about AI summaries in search results

One-in-five U.S. adults say they find AI summaries in search results extremely or very useful, 52% say they're somewhat useful, and 28% say they're not too or not at all useful.

pewresearch.us1.list-manage.com

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · 7d

We are on the verge of seeing another generational rift in communication that will likely be as disruptive as social media. A lot of young people are getting their news from AI chatbots.

pewresearch.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Relatively few Americans are getting news from AI chatbots like ChatGPT

About one-in-ten U.S. adults say they get news often (2%) or sometimes (7%) from AI chatbots.

pewresearch.us1.list-manage.com

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · 8d

JOB @westernu.ca -Sociology - Assistant Professor (Health and the Life Course or Work and the Economy). Please send widely to anyone that might be interested. Happy to answer any Qs about it if you DM or email.

csn-rec.ca/job-postings...

TENURE-TRACK ASSISTANT PROFESSOR POSITION IN HEALTH AND THE LIFE COURSE OR WORK AND THE ECONOMY - Department of Sociology, Western University

csn-rec.ca

4 3

Reposted by Howard Ramos

Steffen Pötzschke @stpoetzschke.bsky.social · 22d

While demand for timely data on migrants & refugees grows, recruiting them for surveys can be challenging. Could ads on #Facebook and #Instagram be part of the answer? In this piece, @somardrawoh.bsky.social & I unpack promises and the pitfalls.

[2/4]

1 1 1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · Aug 28

It sure ain't

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · Jul 12

Sort of like the boss!?!?

1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · Jun 19

Got paywalled when trying to read this, but take the numbers here with a grain of salt.

Lots of reactions against temporary migration over economic immigration in Canada.

But... couldn't see the data or methods so speculate a bit.

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · Jun 5

New Canadian border bill will have a profound impact on immigration and refugee claims.

www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

From increased police power to stricter immigration, here’s what’s in the new border bill

The government’s Strong Borders Act would let Canada Post and police open mail, create powers to cancel immigration en masse and more

www.theglobeandmail.com

1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · Jun 4

Not enough being done on looking at what training data builds the AI as well as the logic of the LLMs. Trained on average people data you get average type AI that is bad at math and as you see below, so so at reading too.

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Review | 5 AI bots took our tough reading test. One was smartest — and it wasn’t ChatGPT.

We challenged AI helpers to decode legal contracts, simplify medical research, speed-read a novel and make sense of Trump speeches. Some of the AI analysis was impressive — and some was downright dumb...

www.washingtonpost.com

1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 31

The disinformation being produced by AI is alarming, especially when produced by governments that legitimate it.

The MAHA Report’s AI fingerprints, annotated

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Analysis | The MAHA Report’s AI fingerprints, annotated

The Post reviewed the more than 500 citations in the MAHA Report. Here are the patterns of AI use we found.

www.washingtonpost.com

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 30

This more or less says a lot!

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 30

Enter the "Dark Enlightenment"?

3

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 29

In case worrying about tariffs was not enough, a bigger problem is fast approaching and humans are frogs boiling themselves in the water they have boiled. Why, cause earth could cross a key climate threshold in two years.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Earth could cross a key climate threshold in two years. Here’s why it matters.

A new World Meteorological Organization report spells the end of the world’s most famous climate goal.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Howard Ramos

Laura K. Nelson @lauraknelson.bsky.social · May 26

Attn: the special issue of SMR on Generative AI in Sociology is now online. The whole issue is fire, but the introduction by @thomasdavidson.bsky.social and Danny Karell is a must read, covering prompting, measurement, and simulations. It's a road map for soc sci research in the genAI era. +

Integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence into Social Science Research: Measurement, Prompting, and Simulation - Thomas Davidson, Daniel Karell, 2025

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers new capabilities for analyzing data, creating synthetic media, and simulating realistic social interactions. This...

journals.sagepub.com

2 41 89

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 25

Just what the world needs. Synthetic echo chambers of one. A whole new level of amusing ourselves to death.

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mark...

Zuckerberg’s Grand Vision: Most of Your Friends Will Be AI

Meta’s CEO is promoting a future where artificial intelligence is increasingly intertwined with people’s lives.

www.wsj.com

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 24

Looking for terminology for the times? Umberto Eco may offer some insight and language.
www.nybooks.com/articles/199...

Ur-Fascism | Umberto Eco

I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contra...

www.nybooks.com

1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 20

This will be Cambridge Analytica on steroids...!
AI is more persuasive than a human in a debate, study finds

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

AI is more persuasive than a human in a debate, study finds

When provided basic demographic information on their opponents, AI chatbots adapted their arguments and became more persuasive than humans in online debates.

www.washingtonpost.com

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 19

So, i guess that as of last night Canadians have more or less become Edmonton Oiler Fans...!?!?

1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 18

More seriously, these are the limits of predictive text models. LLMs are essentially fancy versions of that, which Tufekci reminds readers and subject to the prompts they get... from teenagers 😉

1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 18

Grok is an AI teenager and acting out?

1 1

Howard Ramos @somardrawoh.bsky.social · May 16

Hmmm, and Gen X was....!?!?!?

1