Профиль

I am excited and humbled to lead @4sweb.bsky.social, which I joined first as a graduate student, into its next half-century. The work of #STS scholars has never been more important, and I aim to continue to build the organization to support our research, education, and public and policy presence!

Every. Country. "A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included ⁠in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools." Another reason not to use AI. Don't be this State Department guy.

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conferenceState department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazilwww.theguardian.com

"Teachers will have an app or classroom panic buttons to summon the drones. Mithril Defense’s professional drone pilots can then fly them remotely." This is nuts. Not only will it criminalize more behaviors and normalize violence, but it will likely harm innocent people. Gift link: wapo.st/4bboTU0

Schools are adding pepper-spraying drones to help combat active shootersThe plastic, nonlethal aircraft, which can smash windows and ram attackers, will be at the ready in a handful of schools in Florida, Georgia and Colorado.wapo.st

Arundhati Roy's beautiful description of India's cockroach protests is inspirational for handling the Trump regime: "We saw Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, people belonging to every caste and class...[they] demonstrated for us, the possible India, the beautiful India of our dreams."

Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous • EQUATORThe student protesters who have swarmed Delhi are showing us a different future for Indiawww.equator.org

Look at Mary Barra's face as he goes on and on about how great he and tariffs are....

"The actual specifics of those new rules remain scant. But from conversations I’ve been having with people close to the process, it is widely expected that the administration will try to recategorize millions of immigrants (*both unauthorized & legal*) as not actually living here in the US."

Inside Trump’s Stealth Trick to Rig the Census—and CongressThe administration’s latest power grab is disguised as boring technical guidance.www.thebulwark.com

When I was in South Korea a few weeks ago, I was struck by how seriously they take their democracy, and in particular their freedoms of speech and protest--far more than the US (there are even histories of protest in their subway stations!) This story was lovely and provides some context.

A Family’s Daring Escape From North Korea ‘to Live and Stand Tall’ (Gift Article)Their resolve for freedom hardened during the pandemic, when they lived through a crippling food shortage and were forced to witness frequent public executions.www.nytimes.com

I spoke to STAT about the new Trump admin/OSTP/Kratsios strategy and why it's likely to harm science and public trust in scientific institutions.

I suffered through Kratsios' answer to Science: the Endless Frontier. The NYT summary is good, but there's more to it. And I should say that I welcome improvements to the scientific enterprise (which is why I'm participating in @alondra.bsky.social and Jenny Reardon's Public's Science project). 🧵

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities (Gift Article)Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.www.nytimes.com

"there’s a glaring problem [with polygenic risk scores]: The tools were trained overwhelmingly on the DNA of people of European descent, so they often fail to accurately assess risks for anyone else. For some conditions, the forecasts for people of color are almost no better than flipping a coin."

This Lifesaving Genetics Tool Works Best if You’re White (Gift Article)Genetic prediction models are poised to revolutionize medicine. But because they have been trained on European DNA, they threaten to widen health care disparities.www.nytimes.com

Watch out desis, they're coming for the Spelling Bee next.