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jedbrown.org
Prof at #CU_Boulder developing fast algorithms, reliable software, and healthy communities for scientific computing. Mostly https://hachyderm.io/@jedbrown https://PhyPID.org | dad/alpinist/skier/runner | he/him
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The sources in the BP statement are well worth reading. We didn't end up citing this one (written days before McCartney and PK's biggest crowd ever) but it contains a succinct case study in patriarchal power, and also this passage: feminist.org/news/critici...

Oh, come ON. He was spokesman for Amendment 2, founded the Promise Keepers, scoffed at sexual assault charges against players, and forced players to pray before games and meals. But Todd Saliman, Justin Schwartz, Rick George, and the Board of Regents @colorado.edu want to put up a STATUE.

Perhaps relevant as scientists weather a range of attacks, our team (led by UW research scientist Rachel Moran) published a paper describing how a slew of public records requests impacted our work & what that means for collaborative research in adversarial spaces & times: dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

The realities of Heritage and US far-right political history would be outlandish for a movie script. And yet.

Israel has rapidly accelerated its destruction of Rafah in April and May. It's hard to understand the magnitude of this, even when spending time analyzing recent satellite imagery. From me, Samuel Granados, Aaron Boxerman, and @rileymellen.bsky.social Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

this just started and i'm already losing my mind and screaming Western white folk basically putting an AI avatar on stage and pretending it is a refugee from sudan — literally interacting with it as if it is a “woman that fled to chad from sudan” just fucking shoot me

Universities have historically been (unwitting to willing) agents of segregation and patriarchy. Recent decades have brought some progress (often more rhetorical than substantive). We now face an existential test in many dimensions, but I'd like to focus here on faculty promotion and tenure (P&T) 1/

This kicker is the whole ball game. This is why we cannot rely solely on talking about the ROI of universities to explain its value. Why we have to actually talk about the ways higher ed can be an active force for cultural uplift. That integration is one of the raisons d'être of US higher ed.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging." Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council. I wrote about my decision in TIME. time.com/7285045/resi...

There's a lot of chatter around the proposal being inserted into a budget bill that would put a moratorium on any AI legislation being passed by the states for the next 10 years. I thought I'd say a bit about why this is an absolutely disastrous move. www.404media.co/republicans-... 1/n

There’s a state interest in if and when you get pregnant, whether you stay pregnant, how you parent, and what gender your children are but it better not even think about criticizing the white male fragility machines.

The ChatGPT-driven disruption of education is often presented, including in today’s viral NYMag piece, as a surprise event for which ed workers were caught unprepared This ignores dynamics & decisions that, in some cases, go back decades, without which we could’ve metabolized ChatGPT competently 🧵

NEW: Whistleblower records show that the NIH axed research grants – even after a federal judge blocked the cuts with an injunction. www.propublica.org/article/trum... 🧵

My opinion piece in @coloradosun.com is live--I ask when people will speak out against the fascist authoritarianism of this current administration: coloradosun.com/2025/05/09/o... If you're inclined, please share widely -- the more we speak out, the more we can fight the fascism.

CU regents used this language to revise regent law in 2013 after Mark Bauerlein cried about his 1y visiting appointment not being extended (as Visiting Scholar of Conservative Thought). Never mind that he only got the job due to his right-wing ideology. connections.cu.edu/stories/rege...

Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.

Also, computer science is inherently political, assembling corporate and state surveillance, systems of algorithmic bias, censorship, etc. One must understand social and political conflict to build ethical systems and to thwart harmful ones. To teach apolitical fantasy is to abet tech CEO tyranny.

excellent reason to join your union or start one this May Day. CU, CSU, employees join @ucwcolorado.bsky.social

*The government run by the president who lied and said the 2020 election was stolen* cancelled this funding. The framing of these stories needs to be a lot more precise.“Misinformation on social media” is not the same problem as what we are confronting there.

This is one of the worst violations of research ethics I've ever seen. Manipulating people in online communities using deception, without consent, is not "low risk" and, as evidenced by the discourse in this Reddit post, resulted in harm. Great thread from Sarah, and I have additional thoughts. 🧵

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Yes, much like how statistics was founded as a subfield of eugenics to promote scientific racism, "AI" is often developed and wielded to implement racism while avoiding accountability. These mechanisms have been well-studied and it is no longer plausible that companies and researchers are oblivious.

A shameful last three months on the job for the NSF director, groveling and compromising all values, then leaving when even that wasn't enough (as we all knew from day 1). He could have been the sand in the gears, scaffold everything in founding values back to Vannevar Bush, and made them fire him.

let’s be clear that personalisation amounts to determining a person’s future based on recurring patterns of the past. if you belong to a groups that society has not been kind to in the past (black & brown, LGBTQI, poor, disabled, etc), AI personalisation ensures your future encodes past injustice

Faculty: please take note of this environment and review your department's reappointment and tenure guidelines. How will you support faculty who will be up for review without meeting historical funding norms? Revising those guidelines and recalibrating committee norms takes time so be proactive.