Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · 10d

lol I got the same from a colleague: "You're so smart to be wearing a mask. We're all going to get sick. This is a superspreader event."

Thanks, I guess?

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Sep 3

Paging @samlmontano.bsky.social

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Sep 3

!!!

Lisa Song @lisalsong.bsky.social · Sep 3

Holy shit:

Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors, who said that top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status.

www.hcn.org/articles/fir...

Firefighters question leaders’ role in ICE raid near Bear Gulch Fire - High Country News

Firefighting veterans believe the management team overseeing fire crews played a key role in handing team members over to immigration authorities.

www.hcn.org

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 31

It's managed to transpose the 38µg/m³ into thinking 38 is the AQI, which it's not... nor is it even the index we'd use here (which is the AQHI, or Air Quality Health Index).

But, sure, the dumb statistical scraper bot is happy to conjure up misinformation and then highlight it to mislead people.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 31

Fun example of "AI" being not just bad but dangerous: Google "AI" is happy to say that Toronto currently has 7 µg/m³ of PM2.5 and is "well below the threshold generally considered healthy." But, the source it links says Toronto is currently actually at PM2.5 of 38µg/m³, which ain't great.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 25

What a classic. And his son went on to be a prolific writer about tragedy fires.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 13

Looking forward to seeing you there and commiserating. En route now :)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 7

CONGRATULATIONS - I'm so thrilled for you!!

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 7

I’d be much more open to double spacing if I had literally ever seen a document by a double spacer that wasn’t riddled with an inconsistent pile of single, double, and triple spacing.

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · Jul 7

the reason for double spacing is gone! the only thing left is the headache other people get dealing with your double spaces

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jul 4

Let's check in on how abandoning the whole of idea of public health is going...

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 19

**Taps sign**

It ain’t “Artificial Intelligence,” it’s a low-accountability statistical model with a good marketing campaign.

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 19

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 19

ChatGPT: How do I tell my professor colleagues that LLM drivel they share with me is no more valuable or okay to normalize than the LLM drivel students submit on assignments?

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 19

**Taps sign**

It's still 'during COVID'.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 14

You should absolutely wear a respirator (N95, KN95, etc) when in large crowds to protect yourself and others.

But, hot take: if a protest is the only time you’re wearing a mask, you’re making it easier for anti-mask folks to stigmatize and ban. Show solidarity by wearing them elsewhere, regularly.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 12

159 Canadian Forces members were killed in Afghanistan, a higher per-capita fatality rate than Americans.

At least five of those were killed by Americans in so-called “friendly fire” incidents.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jun 11

HEGSETH: We wore a patch on our shoulder that said ISAF -- International Security Assistance Force. And you know what the joke was? That is stood for 'I saw Americans fighting.'

COONS: Let's just make clear for the record that our military partners in Afghanistan included many who served and died

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

USAID ?does/did? have a great wildfire program, but focused on other regions, not Canada. Canada/US partnerships are through other mechanisms (e.g., compacts, CIFFC, etc). Lots of tough questions to ask about how changes in US policy affect fire cooperation, but USAID impacts primarily elsewhere.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

Anyways, just wanted to highlight this article for doing a good job at presenting this. I think maybe @hspray.bsky.social is the journalist (maybe?) so kudos! And since CBC doesn't have a Bluesky presence, also want to highlight her good work to @hannahhoag.bsky.social and other awesome folks. (8/8)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

This matters because the public needs to critically evaluate different claims, like when a politician takes a shot by implying "the fires/outcomes are worse because they didn't call in the forces." That's often presented without context, so I'm really grateful it's contextualized here. (7/n)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

Maybe we as a society want to change that. Maybe we think the military should be in the business of firefighting (many in the Canadian Forces disagree, BTW!).

But, it doesn't serve robust debate when we perpetuate misunderstandings (e.g., soldiers can be dumped in as firefighters). (6/n)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

What this article does well is explain /why/ the military hasn't been called before diving into that debate: it's because the military has particular strengths (e.g., heavy lift aircraft for evacuations, able-bodied people for mop-up) and weaknesses (basically zero expert wildfire fighters). (5/n)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

But, when this is covered by journalists, it can often be treated as though it's a settled question: "well, we have a military that could help, and they haven't been called in, so why is that?"

The problem is it's not settled: whether the military would actually "help" is a debate, not a truth.

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

This is actually quite a live debate in the emergency management world - lots of forums & publications debating it! People hold passionately different views (e.g., "the forces are well equipped with strong young people" vs "they lack training or expertise for this specific work"). (3/n)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

One trope is this: wildfires are bad, so we should call in the military!

You hear this a lot from different advocates, politicians, and community members. It's based on a broader assumption that the military is inherently and objectively a catch-all for any disaster response.

(2/n)

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 10

One of my pet peeves with wildfire coverage is when media outlets uncritically parrot bad understandings of emergency management and how different levels of government work together to manage wildfire.

So, I want to highlight CBC doing it well! Brief 🧵 (1/n)

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Why hasn't Sask. called for military help? The province says it needs wildfire expertise | CBC News

Despite facing one of its earliest, most aggressive fire seasons, Saskatchewan has not asked the federal government for the military's help. Why not? Provincial officials say the military doesn't have...

www.cbc.ca

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Eric Kennedy @ericbkennedy.bsky.social · Jun 2

This is how I start the conversation about LLMs with my students: it’s like going to the gym and riding an e-bike on the treadmill.

Then, we figure out how to co-create a class where it’s safe to struggle at workouts together.

Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · Jun 2

Love the teacher who says it is like sending a robot to lift weights for you at the gym.

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · Jun 2

I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives:

www.404media.co/teachers-are...

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