Dana Cairns Watson
@danacairnswatson.bsky.social
I love to read but not sit still. I grow vegetables, support native ecosystems, swim, gaze at birds, and walk with dogs. I teach writing at UCLA to scientists, engineers, and future professional writers. I care about community and doing the right thing.
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
Donald Trump isn’t governing, he’s looting.
December 11, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Donald Trump isn’t governing, he’s looting.
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.
December 12, 2025 at 5:36 AM
25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
I’ve been fortunate on occasion to wrangle funding that allows me to put novels in the hands of students & say, “This is yours now. For good.”
There is simply no pedagogical tactic better than this.
And a school buying an iPad instead of 100 copies of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a damn waste
There is simply no pedagogical tactic better than this.
And a school buying an iPad instead of 100 copies of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a damn waste
December 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I’ve been fortunate on occasion to wrangle funding that allows me to put novels in the hands of students & say, “This is yours now. For good.”
There is simply no pedagogical tactic better than this.
And a school buying an iPad instead of 100 copies of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a damn waste
There is simply no pedagogical tactic better than this.
And a school buying an iPad instead of 100 copies of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a damn waste
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
On Aug 24, 1869, Ohio Rep. John Bingham, principal framer of the 14th amendment, gave a remarkable speech on “Equal Rights-Impartial Suffrage,” in which he said of those who sought to reject the principal of birthright citizenship, “no greater political atrocity than this can possibly be committed.”
December 7, 2025 at 1:52 PM
On Aug 24, 1869, Ohio Rep. John Bingham, principal framer of the 14th amendment, gave a remarkable speech on “Equal Rights-Impartial Suffrage,” in which he said of those who sought to reject the principal of birthright citizenship, “no greater political atrocity than this can possibly be committed.”
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
This has been true in higher ed as long as I've been in it: claims that programs need to be close or reduced due to "budgets" but the details show that the programs in question actually bring in money, meaning the actual reason is ideological.
“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”
December 7, 2025 at 2:50 PM
This has been true in higher ed as long as I've been in it: claims that programs need to be close or reduced due to "budgets" but the details show that the programs in question actually bring in money, meaning the actual reason is ideological.
Excellent article: www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 6, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Excellent article: www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...
December 5, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
There are well upwards of a BILLION dollars (of OUR money) this year funneled to projects designed specifically to make Trump feel Good about himself: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Trumps private and public furious response to the onrush of media coverage about his mind, health, age, sleep…
Trumps private and public furious response to the onrush of media coverage about his mind, health, age, sleep…
December 6, 2025 at 2:53 PM
There are well upwards of a BILLION dollars (of OUR money) this year funneled to projects designed specifically to make Trump feel Good about himself: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Trumps private and public furious response to the onrush of media coverage about his mind, health, age, sleep…
Trumps private and public furious response to the onrush of media coverage about his mind, health, age, sleep…
I am tired of so many mean, selfish people getting away with saying and doing horrible things. Every line in the sand has been crossed and recrossed over and over. When will we regain and demand sanity, our democratic principles, respect and empathy for others, honesty, and honor? Let’s start now!
December 6, 2025 at 1:20 AM
I am tired of so many mean, selfish people getting away with saying and doing horrible things. Every line in the sand has been crossed and recrossed over and over. When will we regain and demand sanity, our democratic principles, respect and empathy for others, honesty, and honor? Let’s start now!
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
WATCH: @climatechoirs.bsky.social flashmob at lighting of Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square
Norway's gift to the UK this year comes with strings attached - they are pressuring the UK to sign off on the mega-polluting Rosebank oil field.
#StopRosebank
Norway's gift to the UK this year comes with strings attached - they are pressuring the UK to sign off on the mega-polluting Rosebank oil field.
#StopRosebank
December 5, 2025 at 3:26 PM
WATCH: @climatechoirs.bsky.social flashmob at lighting of Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square
Norway's gift to the UK this year comes with strings attached - they are pressuring the UK to sign off on the mega-polluting Rosebank oil field.
#StopRosebank
Norway's gift to the UK this year comes with strings attached - they are pressuring the UK to sign off on the mega-polluting Rosebank oil field.
#StopRosebank
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
I ended up drafting an email that didn't really lean on research specific to grade school education, but expressed my concerns in the most basic terms.
I removed the personal details and have shared it as a template here for folks who might find it useful:
bit.ly/TeacherEmail...
I removed the personal details and have shared it as a template here for folks who might find it useful:
bit.ly/TeacherEmail...
![Dear [TEACHER],
I want to make sure we're on the same page for the rest of the year, because I was surprised and disappointed to hear that you uploaded student projects to ChatGPT.
We have always found [SCHOOL] to be a place that encourages students to express themselves creatively, to be responsible and aware of how their actions affect others, and to be intellectually honest – doing their own work, rather than copying from others.
I know ChatGPT has been heavily marketed as an educational tool, but everything about it is the opposite of those values. AI tools are built by training models on stolen work. They have huge and terrible environmental costs, because their data centers generate enormous amounts of pollution and are cooled with drinking water. They're also incredibly dangerous: tools like ChatGPT have taught children how to start fires and even encouraged them to commit suicide.
And in a classroom setting, it teaches students that a machine can express their ideas better than they can. I told [ CHILD ] I was interested in seeing what they had to draw, and my heart sank when they told me "but I can't draw that pretty." Children deserve to draw what they imagine.
These environmental, ethical, and pedagogical concerns are why I don't want [ CHILD ] to use AI tools (or for you to use them on their behalf). For the same reasons, I respectfully ask that you stop using them in your classroom.
If you do plan to use AI this year, please send home a permission slip requesting consent. There are important privacy concerns when you upload student work into a for-profit service like ChatGPT.
Thank you,
[ PARENT ]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c2xl6zaxo623jzbjb43urymd/bafkreiesldew7oebm4hg2gymd4cftvwmrpbdw6m7eil2buiphw7db4ror4@jpeg)
December 2, 2025 at 4:39 PM
I ended up drafting an email that didn't really lean on research specific to grade school education, but expressed my concerns in the most basic terms.
I removed the personal details and have shared it as a template here for folks who might find it useful:
bit.ly/TeacherEmail...
I removed the personal details and have shared it as a template here for folks who might find it useful:
bit.ly/TeacherEmail...
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
#Oops: The seminal paper that has been used for 25 years to justify that the use of #Glyphosate is safe has been retracted.
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Concerns were raised regarding the authorship of this paper, validity of the research findings…"
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Concerns were raised regarding the authorship of this paper, validity of the research findings…"
December 1, 2025 at 1:11 PM
#Oops: The seminal paper that has been used for 25 years to justify that the use of #Glyphosate is safe has been retracted.
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Concerns were raised regarding the authorship of this paper, validity of the research findings…"
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Concerns were raised regarding the authorship of this paper, validity of the research findings…"
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt: ‘The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible & reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.’”(Hiltzik, LAT)Really?
December 1, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt: ‘The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible & reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.’”(Hiltzik, LAT)Really?
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
You know how billionaires end up with severe cognitive deficits as a result of becoming surrounded by yes men who constantly tell them their every idea is genius? What if we made a bot that just does that to everyone. I think that would be a good idea.
October 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM
You know how billionaires end up with severe cognitive deficits as a result of becoming surrounded by yes men who constantly tell them their every idea is genius? What if we made a bot that just does that to everyone. I think that would be a good idea.
This is really, really good. “Against the UncritiCal Adoption of ‘AI’ Technologies in Academia” by Olivia Guest, Marcela Suarez, and many others. philarchive.org/archive/GUEATU
philarchive.org
November 29, 2025 at 10:45 PM
This is really, really good. “Against the UncritiCal Adoption of ‘AI’ Technologies in Academia” by Olivia Guest, Marcela Suarez, and many others. philarchive.org/archive/GUEATU
Will this be in my newspaper tomorrow morning?
November 29, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Will this be in my newspaper tomorrow morning?
I miss walking through Paris from 9 am - 4pm while my daughter was at school. What a beautiful place. The architecture. The murals. The parks. Thanks for these.
November 29, 2025 at 2:13 AM
I miss walking through Paris from 9 am - 4pm while my daughter was at school. What a beautiful place. The architecture. The murals. The parks. Thanks for these.
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
This is why a con man shouldn’t have been allowed to become President!
This 👇
This 👇
November 27, 2025 at 12:33 PM
This is why a con man shouldn’t have been allowed to become President!
This 👇
This 👇
Reposted by Dana Cairns Watson
Open Letter on AI from the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice!
AI Open Letter — AECJ
Sign our open letter below to tell Amazon leadership that we need a more responsible rollout of AI. Every single signature makes our message stronger.
www.amazonclimatejustice.org
November 28, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Open Letter on AI from the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice!
Just a reminder in case you disapprove of the way Thanksgiving Holiday has been turned into Black Friday and a consumerist frenzy: don’t buy stuff this weekend. Hang out with friends and family and come up with ways to show how much you care about each other without a middleman.
November 28, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Just a reminder in case you disapprove of the way Thanksgiving Holiday has been turned into Black Friday and a consumerist frenzy: don’t buy stuff this weekend. Hang out with friends and family and come up with ways to show how much you care about each other without a middleman.
Defining “they” would be helpful here, but I do this you are on to something. And teachers should protect our students from the gutting of our education. Humans must be able to think and write and calculate without electricity.
This is why OpenAI is selling so aggressively to education at all levels—they want to create entire generations of users incapable of reading, writing and thinking without ChatGPT to hold their hands
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
To bear out this rosy projection, HSBC assumes that OpenAI will become "as ubiquitous [...] as Microsoft 365" (345mm users worldwide) while bringing in 10x the number of users (3bn).
November 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Defining “they” would be helpful here, but I do this you are on to something. And teachers should protect our students from the gutting of our education. Humans must be able to think and write and calculate without electricity.
I don’t think that this question is quite answered in here, but the article highlights why UC faculty and unions sued and rightly won. www.latimes.com/business/sto...
Commentary: The UC faculty just won a big court victory over Trump. But why didn't UC join their lawsuit?
The UC faculty went to court to fight Trump's funding cutoffs and won. Why has the university system tried to negotiate instead?
www.latimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I don’t think that this question is quite answered in here, but the article highlights why UC faculty and unions sued and rightly won. www.latimes.com/business/sto...