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Reposted by Eric Booth

Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 12d

OpenAI's VP for education recently said the company wanted to become "core infrastructure" for schools and universities. Any infrastructure, though, always depends on habituating users to its technical affordances - so I've been trying to track how it's doing that 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...

Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Eric Booth

Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 14d

My latest column for the Chronicle of Higher Ed is now live. It's an argument for including AI-critical voices in campus conversations and policymaking workgroups, and I'm proud to get this dissenting piece into the mainstream genAI/higher ed discourse. Please read and share if you're so inclined 🙂

Advice | Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons

Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.

www.chronicle.com

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 18d

Just like NOAA provides weather info for communities, NOAA should provide free, credible, & actionable information about a range climate impacts. For some climate hazards, they do. But not yet for future rainfall. Our new paper provides a workaround until they do. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · 22d

I'm very excited and honored to lead this year's Water Resources Management practicum @uwmadison.bsky.social on the 60th anniversary of this excellent MS program nelson.wisc.edu/the-commons/...

Celebrating 60 Years of Watershed Stewardship | The Commons Magazine

For 60 years, the water resources management practicum has trained generations of water leaders — and transformed communities, ecosystems, and policy along the way.

nelson.wisc.edu

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Reposted by Eric Booth

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

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Reposted by Eric Booth

John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · Sep 5

This piece from @vauhinivara.bsky.social is an object example of what journalists should be doing with these questions unlike the Hard Fork infomercialists. (Might need to sign in to read.) www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

How Chatbots and AI Are Already Transforming Kids' Classrooms

Educators across the country are bringing chatbots into their lesson plans. Will it help kids learn or is it just another doomed ed-tech fad?

www.bloomberg.com

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · Aug 28

Wonderful article about my friend and colleague @creekthinker.bsky.social , her research, and her amazing students! news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-s...

After the flood

UW students apply classroom learning to support a Wisconsin community in healing.

news.wisc.edu

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Aug 21

Good news: bipartisan legislation to reauthorize Sea Grant programs around the country (including the Great Lake states), due to the high value generated compared to the cost
ecomagazine.com/news/policy/...

US Legislation to Reauthorize the National Sea Grant College Program - environment coastal & offshore

Legislation was introduced to reauthorize the National Sea Grant College Program, a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 34 university-based programs in e...

ecomagazine.com

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · Aug 17

Thanks for sharing, Joe. I sure do miss Jim. I remember quite distinctly the first time hearing him describe the term "contour crenulation". He was always generous with his time and knowledge.

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · Aug 16

Took the family there a month ago. Devil's Kettle was a hit! Thanks for working up these 3D models and for the book recommendation. Wish I had it on our trip!

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · Aug 14

Yes, there is still lots to learn from this event. Certainly more rain to the north. Fun to learn about flood wave celerity.

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Reposted by Eric Booth

Joe Mason @moreorloess.bsky.social · Aug 10

Annual flood series for the Milwaukee River at Milwaukee, just downstream of I-43 bridge, 1915-2023. Top of the scale is 20,000 cfs, flood of record was 18,200 cfs. At 2:30 AM this morning it was at 19700 cfs, at 9AM, 19300 cfs, off-scale (too high for the gage?) in between.

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Wisconet @wisconet.bsky.social · Aug 10

Here’s the USGS chart.

Chart showing dramatic increase in water height in Lincoln Creek.

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Wisconet @wisconet.bsky.social · Aug 10

The official state 24-hour rainfall record is 11.72” from Mellon in 1946.

It will have to be decided if the MPS - Madison High School gauge/rain total gets investigated for a possible new record.

Rainfall totals from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District rain gauges.

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Wisconet @wisconet.bsky.social · Aug 8

Saturday and Sunday August 9-10 are Critical Weather Days for Wisconet because of the Moderate Risk (Level 3/4) of Excessive Rainfall.

Stay weather aware this weekend and don't attempt to drive through flooded roadways.

57% of flood fatalities occur on moderate/high risk days.

Map of Wisconsin showing the level 3/4 risk of excessive rainfall over southwestern and south-central Wisconsin on August 9.

Map of Wisconsin showing the level 3/4 risk of excessive rainfall over southwestern and south-central Wisconsin on August 10.

Chart showing that 57% of flood fatalities occur on moderate and high risk days.

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Emily Moin @emilymoin.com · Aug 4

Counterpoint: no we don't.

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lucaswaldron.bsky.social @lucaswaldron.bsky.social · Jul 25

Nothing like a Friday afternoon to drop a big graphics projects! If you're still online, check out our new @propublica.org story "The Drying Planet" -- you'll learn that groundwater depletion has become a bigger & bigger part of sea level rise (among other things!)
www.propublica.org/article/wate...

“Staggering” Water Loss Driven by Groundwater Mining Poses Global Threat

A new study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise.

www.propublica.org

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Reposted by Eric Booth

AAUP @aaup.org · Jul 22

Today, the AAUP released a new report, "Artificial Intelligence & Academic Professions." The report calls for policies that prioritize economic security, faculty working & student learning conditions as AI tech accelerates.

www.aaup.org/news/new-rep...
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New Report Calls for Faculty Control in AI Decisions

Today, the AAUP released a new report, Artificial Intelligence and the Academic Professions, sharing survey findings and calling for the establishment of policies in colleges and universities that pri...

www.aaup.org

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The Florida Trident @floridatrident.bsky.social · Jul 22

Back on track: Scientists restart work on next-gen rainfall project to defend against worsening flooding #DefendDemocracy #TeamTrident floridatrident.org/back-on-trac...

Back on track: Scientists restart work on next-gen rainfall project to defend against worsening flooding

A suspended federal project that promised to be a game-changer in protecting the public from worsening flooding is back in business today, with a team of

floridatrident.org

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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · Jul 16

The discourse surrounding precipitation changes in a warming climate (both public discussion and even scientific one at times) is complicated by widespread conflation of changes in averages vs extremes (and also actual vs *potential* evaporation/evaporative demand). [Thread]

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Reposted by Eric Booth

Ben Iuliano @beniuliano.bsky.social · Jul 15

Really proud of this piece pushing back against renewed enthusiasm for “land sparing” (i.e. industrial ag boosterism), written with some brilliant colleagues. Check it out!

journalspectre.bsky.social @journalspectre.bsky.social · Jul 15

This week we have members of the Agroecology Research-Action Collective ( @adamcalo.bsky.social , Maywa Montenegro de Wit , @beniuliano.bsky.social , @alastairiles.bsky.social ) taking on the productivist roots of the "feed-the-world" approach to food security.

spectrejournal.com/the-enduring...

The Enduring Fantasy of “Feeding the World” – Spectre Journal

Members of the Agroecology Research-Action Collective argue against the productivist logic underlying the "feed-the-world" approaches to feed security.

spectrejournal.com

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Reposted by Eric Booth

Gavin Schmidt @climateofgavin.bsky.social · Jul 15

The 28th st station is built on top of an ancient stream that drains the slightly higher ground to the east. (1865 Viele map via davidrumsey.com)

Close up of the 1865 Viele topographical map of manhattan showing the stream beneath 28th st and 7th avenue https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~305704~90076084:Topographical-Map-of-the-City-of-Ne

Stream flows east to west from higher ground btw 25th and 30th street and 5th and 6th avenues.

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · Jul 9

Yes, absolutely willing to connect you to Wisconsin water folks. But also very excited to learn more about your work and dream/scheme. Good luck with the move!

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Eric Booth @egbooth.bsky.social · Jul 8

This is such fantastic news! Congratulations and welcome to @uwmadison.bsky.social ! Looking forward to having you on campus!

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James Doss-Gollin @jdossgollin.bsky.social · Jul 8

#Flood modelers: lots of chatter RE soil profiles in "flash flood alley". Do we really think floods would have been meaningfully different if you dropped that much rain on those hills, but they had more/deeper topsoils? Of course the effect is not zero, but not convinced it's big.

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