D. J. Hicks
@danhicks.bsky.social
2.8K followers 890 following 6.1K posts
philosopher turned data scientist turned philosopher. enviro policy, data science, phil sci/STS, lefty stuff. UC Merced. they/them. Signal: danhicks.50
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danhicks.bsky.social
This is a thread to illustrate the nuclear block. I'm going to reply with a throwaway account, then block it, and screenshot the results from my alt account.
Reposted by D. J. Hicks
Reposted by D. J. Hicks
kjephd.bsky.social
💯💯💯

I was just thinking about this the other day. I'm not sure if I have ever seen a standard public opinion regression analysis of descriptively who opts for 'don't know/no opinion' on a variety of issues. Lower interest, cross-pressured, lower info respondents would make sense
rmkubinec.bsky.social
If I can make a comment on the analysis I'm seeing of U.S. polling, it's that people ignore the "don't know/no opinion category."

But that may actually be the important category as polarization + authoritarianism means people want to drop out altogether. I'd like more modeling of the don't knows.
danhicks.bsky.social
There's a link in the middle of that story that landowners were able to find enough farmworkers this year, basically by having ICE start harassing people in cities rather than orchards and fields: prospect.org/blogs-and-ne...
Who Picked the Crops?
Today on TAP: How ICE favored growers at the expense of farmworkers
prospect.org
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three-cats-photo.bsky.social
Jasper action shot. 31 May 2025. #cats
A big white cat is laying on a fluffy grey sleeping bag. He's cleaning his face or something, so his head and front paws are blurred with motion.
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ryanlcooper.com
"Either Trump’s Labor Department actually believes that Trump’s immigration enforcement is destroying the agricultural sector and threatening food security, or they are pretending this threat is real in order to crush wages for both foreign and domestic agricultural workers."
Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis
In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.
prospect.org
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kevinbaker.bsky.social
AI ethics crew defending racism because it has a thin anti-Ai veneer is really too much. Time to shut the whole project down, kick out the computer scientists and give it back to STS.
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banalplay.bsky.social
When your custom character appears in a cut scene
The Portland frog backing down an army of jackboots
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veronicaf.bsky.social
I went looking for a photo of Sugar earlier, because she was one of my favourite fosters and @lfgryph.com shared a kitten who looked very like her.

I'd lost most of my photos in the fire, but this one, my favourite photo, was still in my FB messages with the rescue. Look at her! 2023
A small tabby kitten is killing a red fluffy mouse and you are NOT allowed near it. She has her ears back in full airplane mode, and she was growling at me the whole time. Sugar has an offset white splodge to the left of her nose (photo right) and little white toes. She is adorable.
danhicks.bsky.social
The people (me) have spoken and they demand (don't have a problem with) Jasper content (taking bad pictures when he's trying to sleep)
A very extreme close up of a cat's face, like from two inches away
danhicks.bsky.social
I have no idea what this could possibly mean, unless you don't get to pet them every day?
danhicks.bsky.social
Not trans enough? But maybe you don't mean pre-Eternal November bsky
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kevinmkruse.bsky.social
"Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia" should be how Democrats begin every single comment to reporters these days.
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Ruben Gallego on whether Trump is talking to Democrats:

“Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia, so I think there's a he's probably talking to himself, or think he's talking to a Democrat, but I sincerely doubt that that's actually he's actually physically talking to a Democrat.“
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hlee.bsky.social
🚨 OCTOBER 18 🚨
www.nokings.org
No need to RSVP 👇
Plenty of need to show up
Reposted by D. J. Hicks
ramonalvarado.bsky.social
Download open source models, fine tune them or untune them with weird data, explore glitches and capabilities. Create local agents for garage projects, or like my friends say: make them feral.

#philtech #AIethics
ramonalvarado.bsky.social
I found that hanging out with artists and creatives helps transcend the whole “use or refuse” dichotomy and discourse. There are so many interesting and cool ways to appropriate this technology and push its limits and capabilities to take it into fascinating directions. Very similar to street art.
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sarahmackattack.bsky.social
BOOOO
🍅
🍅
🍅

We can do better than this dude. We must do better than this dude.
lgbtqnation.com
Gavin Newsom vetoes gender education bill, declines to sign other trans protections - buff.ly/MTUAV85
danhicks.bsky.social
One of the main reasons students don't like to participate in class is because of exactly this kind of anxiety. It's all kinds of no good!
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rahaeli.bsky.social
People once again need to internalize that "generative AI" is a small subset of machine learning, that machine learning is a critical tool that you cannot run a site without past a certain volume Bluesky has long since exceeded, and that it is FAR more reliable than user reporting.
danhicks.bsky.social
🧵
rahaeli.bsky.social
This is going around again and it is not true. Like every site on the internet, Bluesky uses machine learning to do a first-pass approximation of image classification to detect and label content. They have repeatedly confirmed outside services do not use Bluesky user data to train their models.
danhicks.bsky.social
Continually blown away by the students in the intro course this semester #philsci #sts
Screenshot of a Google Slide with the title "From Tuesday's exit tickets" and the following four questions: 

1. If scientists only report data, who should be responsible for addressing the ethical issues of scientific research and findings? 
2. Would we trust scientists more or less if they openly talked about risks or moral questions/concerns? 
3. Should scientists in certain fields be required to know ELSI? 
[Should students in your major be required to take this particular class?]
4. When it comes to the ethics of something, which it is not so obvious that it is unethical [or not,] who gets to [decide]?
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stewartcoles.bsky.social
Police will use violence even if protesters are nonviolent—and they know that people will therefore *believe* that protesters were violent and that police violence was necessary. State violence constructs reality.
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
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.
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olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
that said: I think the "it's not fascism unless they're good at it" brand of analysis probably isn't the move
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neongrey.bsky.social
all discourse aside, there is one machine with consciousness. it's printers. they are alive and conscious and they hate you and they'd take your arm clean off if you let them. never trust a printer.