Ruby Batz
@drarubybatz.bsky.social
Immigrant. Former preschool & special ed teacher. Researcher learning with children labeled as disabled, their families, and their teachers. Currently an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Reposted by Ruby Batz
Trump declares war on state AI laws, including a law I passed to ensure transparency of AI safety protocols. He’s doing so purportedly to promote U.S. AI “dominance.”
Of course, he just authorized chip sales to China & Saudi Arabia: the exact opposite of ensuring U.S. dominance.
Of course, he just authorized chip sales to China & Saudi Arabia: the exact opposite of ensuring U.S. dominance.
Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose.
www.whitehouse.gov
December 12, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Trump declares war on state AI laws, including a law I passed to ensure transparency of AI safety protocols. He’s doing so purportedly to promote U.S. AI “dominance.”
Of course, he just authorized chip sales to China & Saudi Arabia: the exact opposite of ensuring U.S. dominance.
Of course, he just authorized chip sales to China & Saudi Arabia: the exact opposite of ensuring U.S. dominance.
Reposted by Ruby Batz
The James G. Martin Center has released model legislation to put non-STEM faculty under the thumb of university boards and administrators. Look for red states to take this up soon.
jamesgmartin.center/2025/12/amer...
jamesgmartin.center/2025/12/amer...
American Higher Education Restoration Act — The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
This suite of reforms prioritizes excellence in teaching and ideological diversity and intellectual seriousness in faculty hiring.
jamesgmartin.center
December 10, 2025 at 2:04 AM
The James G. Martin Center has released model legislation to put non-STEM faculty under the thumb of university boards and administrators. Look for red states to take this up soon.
jamesgmartin.center/2025/12/amer...
jamesgmartin.center/2025/12/amer...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
"Our analysis shows that in the aftermath of extreme weather events, lower-income neighbourhoods are less likely to rebuild and do not return to their pre-disaster state, whereas higher-income areas rebuild and tend to improve...highlighting increasing disparities in their built environments."
Nature research paper: Built environment disparities are amplified during extreme weather recovery
go.nature.com/3YcD2ZS
go.nature.com/3YcD2ZS
Built environment disparities are amplified during extreme weather recovery - Nature
Higher-income neighbourhoods rebuild and improve after disasters while lower-income areas do not return to pre-disaster conditions.
go.nature.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"Our analysis shows that in the aftermath of extreme weather events, lower-income neighbourhoods are less likely to rebuild and do not return to their pre-disaster state, whereas higher-income areas rebuild and tend to improve...highlighting increasing disparities in their built environments."
Reposted by Ruby Batz
tapping the "please support billionaire free, worker run, reader supported news" holiday edition
Corporate-owned outlets that answer to billionaires are increasingly showing they’re not built for this moment. Independent media is filling the gaps and building something new.
Help us keep building for another year with a gift subscription to one of these awesome outlets:
Help us keep building for another year with a gift subscription to one of these awesome outlets:
Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 6, 2025 at 8:57 PM
tapping the "please support billionaire free, worker run, reader supported news" holiday edition
Reposted by Ruby Batz
SCIENCE SAVES LIVES.
Overall pediatric cancer survival rate increased from 63% in mid 1970s to 87%‼️between 2015 & 2021.
And this isn’t due to supplements, eating better or avoiding red food dye.
It’s due to science & industry working together to develop & approve therapies!
Overall pediatric cancer survival rate increased from 63% in mid 1970s to 87%‼️between 2015 & 2021.
And this isn’t due to supplements, eating better or avoiding red food dye.
It’s due to science & industry working together to develop & approve therapies!
December 6, 2025 at 7:40 PM
SCIENCE SAVES LIVES.
Overall pediatric cancer survival rate increased from 63% in mid 1970s to 87%‼️between 2015 & 2021.
And this isn’t due to supplements, eating better or avoiding red food dye.
It’s due to science & industry working together to develop & approve therapies!
Overall pediatric cancer survival rate increased from 63% in mid 1970s to 87%‼️between 2015 & 2021.
And this isn’t due to supplements, eating better or avoiding red food dye.
It’s due to science & industry working together to develop & approve therapies!
Reposted by Ruby Batz
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act just turned 50. But the Trump admin is threatening it. Congress must act to fully fund special education, protect these essential programs, and give every child the opportunity to learn and thrive in school.
December 2, 2025 at 12:30 AM
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act just turned 50. But the Trump admin is threatening it. Congress must act to fully fund special education, protect these essential programs, and give every child the opportunity to learn and thrive in school.
Reposted by Ruby Batz
It’s infuriating to me that I need to evaluate media to determine whether it’s AI generated now. The great “time saver” technology wastes incalculable time and energy for people who want to retain their grasp on reality
November 28, 2025 at 8:48 PM
It’s infuriating to me that I need to evaluate media to determine whether it’s AI generated now. The great “time saver” technology wastes incalculable time and energy for people who want to retain their grasp on reality
Reposted by Ruby Batz
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."
Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
November 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."
Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
Reposted by Ruby Batz
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
Reposted by Ruby Batz
" If you know someone who has been detained and released by ICE, our REBUILD Program provides FREE therapy to help them regain stability and support." www.darknessrisingproject.org/help-me-find...
REBUILD - Darkness Rising Project
Need help finding a Black therapist? We can help.
www.darknessrisingproject.org
November 22, 2025 at 10:32 PM
" If you know someone who has been detained and released by ICE, our REBUILD Program provides FREE therapy to help them regain stability and support." www.darknessrisingproject.org/help-me-find...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
Devastating essay about living with a terminal cancer diagnosis at 35, made more devastating by the author's relation to the health and human services secretary who's spent the past year cutting cancer research.
A Battle with My Blood
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.
www.newyorker.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Devastating essay about living with a terminal cancer diagnosis at 35, made more devastating by the author's relation to the health and human services secretary who's spent the past year cutting cancer research.
Reposted by Ruby Batz
An Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees a staggering reduction in homelessness. The program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years, and at the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees staggering reduction in homelessness
The state program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years. At the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
www.streetroots.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:35 AM
An Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees a staggering reduction in homelessness. The program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years, and at the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
Reposted by Ruby Batz
Trump continues to dismantle Department of Education
Labor will now administer K12 education grants including Title I
(bc of course education is for the purpose of labor)
www.ed.gov/about/news/p...
Labor will now administer K12 education grants including Title I
(bc of course education is for the purpose of labor)
www.ed.gov/about/news/p...
U.S. Department of Education Announces Six New Agency Partnerships to Break Up Federal Bureaucracy
ED announced six new interagency agreements to break up the federal education bureaucracy, ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, activities, and move closer to fulfilling the President Trump's...
www.ed.gov
November 19, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Trump continues to dismantle Department of Education
Labor will now administer K12 education grants including Title I
(bc of course education is for the purpose of labor)
www.ed.gov/about/news/p...
Labor will now administer K12 education grants including Title I
(bc of course education is for the purpose of labor)
www.ed.gov/about/news/p...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
Imagine the things we could do with our time if we didn’t have to do this bsky.app/profile/chan...
I did my job. And then I did a job that never should have been my responsibility afterwards, sending emails and having meetings about how this was allowed to happen in the first place. Other women scholars had to spend their time explaining to Aspen leadership why this was not ok.
November 16, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Imagine the things we could do with our time if we didn’t have to do this bsky.app/profile/chan...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
The book $2 a Day explains how post-1996 changes to cash welfare benefits made them so hard to access that plenty of eligible people just don’t try. www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
Living on $2 a day: Exploring extreme poverty in America
In their new book, "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America," academics Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer reveal that there are nearly 1.5 million American households with practically no ca...
www.pbs.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:27 PM
The book $2 a Day explains how post-1996 changes to cash welfare benefits made them so hard to access that plenty of eligible people just don’t try. www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
"Alice supported and took many people with Long COVID under her wing — I was honored to call her a colleague and friend."
@mileswgriffis.bsky.social in @thesicktimes.org's obituary for the great Alice Wong: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...
@mileswgriffis.bsky.social in @thesicktimes.org's obituary for the great Alice Wong: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...
Alice Wong, disability activist and luminary, dies at 51 - The Sick Times
Alice Wong platformed and uplifted people with Long COVID in her final chapter as a lifelong disability advocate and storyteller.
thesicktimes.org
November 16, 2025 at 12:09 AM
"Alice supported and took many people with Long COVID under her wing — I was honored to call her a colleague and friend."
@mileswgriffis.bsky.social in @thesicktimes.org's obituary for the great Alice Wong: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...
@mileswgriffis.bsky.social in @thesicktimes.org's obituary for the great Alice Wong: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
Alice Wong, a writer and activist who was born with muscular dystrophy and who fought relentlessly for equal rights and access for people with disabilities, died on Friday. She was 51. nyti.ms/4r9WqEr
November 15, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Alice Wong, a writer and activist who was born with muscular dystrophy and who fought relentlessly for equal rights and access for people with disabilities, died on Friday. She was 51. nyti.ms/4r9WqEr
Reposted by Ruby Batz
A nice obituary for Alice, who was going to be recognized as one of The Post 50.
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
Alice Wong, disability rights advocate and wordsmith, dies at 51
Alice Wong, a transformational leader for disability rights and justice, who founded the Disability Visibility project to magnify disabled culture, died Nov. 14.
wapo.st
November 16, 2025 at 12:22 AM
A nice obituary for Alice, who was going to be recognized as one of The Post 50.
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
Reposted by Ruby Batz
Do not be misled into passivity either by a false security (they don't mean me) or by despair (there's nothing we can do). Each of us must find our work and do it. —Audre Lorde
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Do not be misled into passivity either by a false security (they don't mean me) or by despair (there's nothing we can do). Each of us must find our work and do it. —Audre Lorde
Reposted by Ruby Batz
I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit
this should not be controversial 🫠
this should not be controversial 🫠
November 10, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit
this should not be controversial 🫠
this should not be controversial 🫠
Reposted by Ruby Batz
jesus christ
Devastating— “I’m afraid for my parents to leave the house. They treat us like dogs because of the color of our skin. I shouldn’t be scared, I should be focusing on school.”
A 16yo American living in fear of the Trump regime’s ICE goons terrorizing brown people pleads for help.
A 16yo American living in fear of the Trump regime’s ICE goons terrorizing brown people pleads for help.
November 6, 2025 at 4:09 PM
jesus christ
Reposted by Ruby Batz
The government of Jamaica has set up a portal for contributing to official relief efforts. I will update this thread if anything analogous opens up for Haiti, Cuba, or the DR
supportjamaica.gov.jm
supportjamaica.gov.jm
Support Jamaica
supportjamaica.gov.jm
October 28, 2025 at 5:08 PM
The government of Jamaica has set up a portal for contributing to official relief efforts. I will update this thread if anything analogous opens up for Haiti, Cuba, or the DR
supportjamaica.gov.jm
supportjamaica.gov.jm
Reposted by Ruby Batz
If you haven't read this yet and study education, I would strongly recommend that you do. The treatment of students is appalling and I need to see these test scores (and information on the sample that took them) before I believe any of their claims.
www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out
In Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school’s methods—surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers—to be an education in and of itself.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:32 PM
If you haven't read this yet and study education, I would strongly recommend that you do. The treatment of students is appalling and I need to see these test scores (and information on the sample that took them) before I believe any of their claims.
www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
Reposted by Ruby Batz
This is one of the best analyses of the total grift and scammery of AI in education I’ve seen, and it is a MUST Read: “Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI - defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...
defector.com
October 24, 2025 at 11:26 PM
This is one of the best analyses of the total grift and scammery of AI in education I’ve seen, and it is a MUST Read: “Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI - defector.com/higher-eds-r...