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whatulysses.bsky.social
c t
@whatulysses.bsky.social
grad student, bike goblin. prev: talky science words.
Reposted by c t
This is how they dismantle Medicare without saying they’re dismantling Medicare.
"Starting Jan. 1, in six states selected to take part in a federal pilot program, traditional Medicare recipients will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered --

private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny..."

www.kuow.org/stories/thou...
Thousands of Washington state Medicare users could soon have claims denied by AI
Starting Jan. 1, traditional Medicare recipients in Washington state will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered — private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny.
www.kuow.org
December 8, 2025 at 4:05 PM
professors will assign you the hardest piece of writing you've ever done and then invite you to get drunk in in your 2-hour class period two days before it's due (along with everything else you have due, and all the other professors inviting you to get drunk in their 2-hour class).
December 7, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by c t
I think it would be fun if writers who love language started intentionally writing more strangely as AI flattens written "content" into a mono-voice. it would cool I think if writers responded by focusing their individual efforts on cultivating a really unique voice that's hard to copy
December 6, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by c t
i’m at the brooklyn training. amazing energy.
@handsoffnyc.bsky.social is training thousands of New Yorkers on how to protect their neighbors from ICE. Today, they are currently running two trainings in Brooklyn and the Bronx, both of which hit capacity because interest was so high.

This is the way, y’all—we protect each other, and we know it.
December 6, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by c t
i’m no expert on this, but it seems like a state such as *checks notes* nebraska might need *checks notes again* earth/atmospheric scientists and their work
It's over.

Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.

www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.
www.dailynebraskan.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by c t
This is great. Very few people want to go to jail, get disbarred or die for this regime. Make them fight you. They will cave.

www.ms.now/news/minneap...
Minneapolis police chief warns officers: Stop unlawful force by ICE or lose your job
Chief Brian O’Hara says he’ll fire city police officers if they don’t intervene when immigration agents use unlawful force.
www.ms.now
December 6, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by c t
I wasn't thrilled when BIll agreed to this debate, but it did provide us with this absolute banger of an exchange showing the difference between science and firewalled faith in nonsense.
A few years ago, Bill Nye the science guy debated creationist Ken Ham about evolution. The last question was "what would change your mind?"

Bill Nye said "Evidence."

Ken Ham said "Nothing can possibly change my mind about this."

I think about that a lot.
December 5, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by c t
This is a gift. Thank you to @siembranc.bsky.social for sharing this new toolkit with what they did when Border Patrol showed up in NC: docs.google.com/document/d/1... - share far and wide especially with our comrades in MN and LA (New Orleans esp).
Toolkit: how we dealt with Border Patrol
In November 2025, Border Patrol announced it would be coming to Charlotte, North Carolina. We only had a few days’ notice. Just like in Chicago and Los Angeles, they weren’t coming to “keep the peace....
docs.google.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by c t
Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
~~ going to a science conference as a scientist ~~
December 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by c t
Geographers in December are like, “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away, this year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone spatial”
December 2, 2024 at 9:14 PM
I just submitted my first application for research funding for next year! There were travel dates on it! It's happening!
December 1, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by c t
A college student complaining about a grade on a paper is not national news. Not even close. The details have minimal import outside the class itself.

Well-funded political activists targeting profs and TAs—in this case because they're trans—with the help of elected state officials? National issue.
December 1, 2025 at 5:31 PM
wild horses (of the Assateague Island variety)
African buffalo
man-o-war
dung beetle
peregrine falcon ("the wild" as in on a mountain top, not a skyscraper)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Moose
Stoplight parrotfish
Box turtle
Elephant
Wild horse
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Caribou
Ravens
Seals
Kea
Turkeys
November 29, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by c t
So this is a thing you'll see a lot about immigration. The process is incredibly slow, the systems are overworked. If you have applied you will overstay before your decision is made. The system is designed such that you will be breaking the law, by their own design. This is arguably on purpose.
They overstayed their visas. That's not remotely a legal way.
November 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by c t
I usually create a thread of options for people who would like to donate to a Native cause or struggle, but it has gotten HARDER to fundraise on socials over the past couple of years, so I am zeroing in on one ask this year. Pls support Native organizing infrastructure: nativeorganizing.org/donate/
November 26, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by c t
From the MN Society for Professional Journalists: St. Paul police shot three photojournalists (MPR, Reuters, Sahan Journal) with "less lethal" munitions during an ICE operation yesterday. One had to go to the hospital. They say they were specifically targeted by St. Paul police.
November 26, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by c t
It’s insane that a tool like this a) exists and b) is useful.
Slop Evader is a tool from artist and researcher Tega Brain that lets you search the web for results exclusively before November 30, 2022—the day that ChatGPT was released to the public.
'Slop Evader' Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022
Artist Tega Brain is fighting the internet’s enshittification by turning back the clock to before ChatGPT existed.
www.404media.co
November 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
sibling with lifelong reputation for ranting about things perfectly playing my role again
November 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by c t
NEW: ICE had initially planned a limited pilot program to hire bounty hunters and private investigators for immigrant tracking.

The agency has now scrapped that plan and is going all-in, removing the program’s spending cap and offering up to $280M to any given contractor.

From @dell.bsky.social
ICE Offers Up to $280 Million to Immigrant-Tracking ‘Bounty Hunter’ Firms
Immigration and Customs Enforcement lifted a $180 million cap on a proposed immigrant-tracking program while guaranteeing multimillion-dollar payouts for private surveillance firms.
www.wired.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
flying Southwest today. I hate their open boarding policy and bought the ticket thinking it was already dismantled. learned they hadn't ended it but only after I checked in too late for a good place in the line.
November 25, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by c t
"device hoarding" is a phrase that would have made my grandparents become the Joker
stupid young people, stop buying a new phone every year if you don't want to be broke. wait no, not like that.
November 25, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by c t
I think there's an interesting study of media to be done looking at who gets labeled an "expert" and who gets labeled a "skeptic". Certainly for coverage of "AI", but I wonder if there are other topics that would make interesting comparisons.
November 25, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by c t
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
I am going to a conference immediately after spending Thanksgiving in a city I hate, and the conference will be a blessing because it is mostly not ~~tenure track academia~~.
November 25, 2025 at 4:37 AM