Samuel ChaseLoved reading this.
| GitHub | https://github.com/moeriz85 |
Mohammad R. Ali
@mo_r_ali
- 10 Followers
- 67 Following
- 81 Posts
Epidemiologist at the Leicester Real World Evidence @ Uni of Leicester
#HealthInequalities #Multimorbidity #prevention #primaryprevention #secondaryprevention #MLTC
Elena Rossini ⁂Dear Fedi friends,
By now you might have seen the post announcing the release of my promotional video for the Fediverse. But in case you have boosts turned off, here we go: https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/
I posted about it this morning from my #GoToSocial account because I have a 5000 character limit there. And I had so many people to thank for their help. It really takes a village.
Thank you for all the wonderful feedback so far ❤️
Anko Brand Ambassador 🎇I need to be very clear, that the push towards "vibe coding" - that is, deliberately deskilling people - is because AI code assistants are an (increasingly expensive) subscription service.
If you know how to code, you can just write Python, C, Java, R, PHP, whatever for free and make things. You may not own the tools of production, but at least you're not renting them.
If you have been deskilled so you only know how to vibe code, you will be paying for that privilege forever.
This also goes, by the way, for researchers who are starting to be convinced they don't need to learn how to be scientists anymore, because "the AI" can just do the science for them. Nope.
Djoerd Hiemstra 🍉Holy sh*t. This is a real xkcd, not funny, disturbing, and also one that must be shared
Alissa AzarMahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest. This letter was dictated over the phone from the ICE detention facility in Louisiana:
My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.
Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the
Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his
family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing.
Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.
On March 8, I was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant, and accosted my wife and me as we returned from dinner. By now, the footage of that night has been made public. Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car. At that moment, my only concern was for Noor’s safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours — I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation. At 26 Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the ground and was refused a blanket despite my request.
My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free
Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January’s
ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.
I was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a family which has been displaced from their land
since the 1948 Nakba. I spent my youth in proximity to yet distant from my homeland. But being
Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders. I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention — imprisonment without trial or charge — to strip Palestinians of their rights. I think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was incarcerated without charge or trial by Israel as he returned home from travel. I think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was taken captive by the Israeli military on December 27 and remains in an Israeli torture camp today. For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.
I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate my oppressors from their hatred and fear. My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention. For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being
targeted.
While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled
my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean
Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining
pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns — based on racism and disinformation —
to go unchecked.
Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due
process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration's latest threats. My arrest, the expulsion or suspension of at least 22 Columbia students — some stripped of their B.A. degrees just weeks before graduation — and the expulsion of SWC President Grant Miner on the eve of contract negotiations, are clear examples.
If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change — leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice.
The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa-holders, green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.
Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.
Kee Hinckley“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”
-Elon Musk, Feb 28, 2025
“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
-Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/elon-musk-rogan-interview-empathy-doge/index.html
Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy
Americans are still in the dark about the scope and scale of what Elon Musk is doing with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which is working to drastically shrink the size of government by aiming to cut $1 trillion or more in government spending.
Timnit Gebru (she/her).Dear computer vision researchers, students and practitioners 🔇 🔇🔇
Remi Denton and I have written what I consider to be a pretty comprehensive paper on the harms of computer vision systems reported to date, from different angles, and how people have proposed addressing them, from many angles.
As we say in the introduction, this isn’t a paper from the lens of fairness in machine learning, although we touch on those works a little bit.
▶️ Link for PDF: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmxvk/revamp/79776912203edccc44f84d26abed846b9b23cb06.pdf
David ZipperIn Slate ,I explained that car bloat is now a global problem, not just an American one.
Worldwide, SUVs alone now comprise ~half of new car sales. The avg European car gets 1 cm wider every 2 years.
That's bad news for climate change, as well as for safety.
Gregg GonsalvesUnder the new administration, we are likely to see significant attacks on core public health functions in the United States. We need to organize coast-to-coast to figure out how to stem the damage and keep our communities safe and healthy. https://forms.gle/jSLhZXmma4YihfFH6
Defending Public Health
Under the new administration, we are likely to see significant attacks on core public health functions in the United States, through executive action, rule-making, legislation and the force of the bully pulpit of the White House. We need to organize coast-to-coast to figure out how to stem the damage and keep our communities safe and healthy. This is a first step: let's talk together and figure out what we can do. We will start with a Zoom call within the next few weeks.
Vance RicksNortheastern University has two open-rank, tenure-track faculty positions in AI governance -- emphasis on public policy dimensions, ethical, legal, and societal implications, and regulations of AI and related technologies!
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Full Professor in AI Governance
About the Opportunity The College of Social Sciences and Humanities and its nine tenure units are the home of the Experiential Liberal Arts. Through its research, teaching, and engagement missions, the college collaborates across the university, the Northeastern network, and partners around the globe. We are strongly committed to fostering excellence through diversity and enthusiastically welcome nominations and applications from members of groups underrepresented in academia. Successful faculty in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities will be dynamic and innovative scholars with a record of research and teaching excellence and a commitment to improved equity, diversity, and inclusion. Strong candidates for this faculty position will have the expertise, knowledge, and skills to build their research, pedagogy, and curriculum in ways that reflect and enhance this commitment. Northeastern University’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities seeks to fill two open-rank faculty positions at the tenure-track Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Full Professor levels in AI governance, with an emphasis on public policy dimensions and regulations of AI and related technologies and the ethical, legal, and societal implications thereof. Responsibilities Successful candidates will teach undergraduate and graduate courses and will be working on the advancement of Responsible AI/Democracy at one or more scales, including but not limited to global/diplomatic, national, municipal/local, and grassroots/community, and may have experience with the roles of the public, private, or non-profit sectors in this space. We have a special interest in those examining AI governance in the Global South. We welcome applicants from public policy, political science, international affairs, and related fields. Successful candidates will have demonstrated expertise in AI governance and a robust research agenda. They should also have significant experience in or commitment to teaching, and a dedication to education innovation, including interest in developing new curricula for training a next generation of professionals who will need to understand how AI is being used to shape society, the roles that AI systems can and do play in decision-making, and the values and priorities underpinning those choices. Successful candidates will contribute to the interdisciplinary mission of the college and university and the experiential liberal arts and will have a demonstrated commitment to fostering diverse and inclusive environments. Applicants will be considered as part of a single pool for both positions. Academic rank at the Associate and Full Professor levels will be commensurate with experience and qualifications reflecting a record of demonstrated teaching and scholarly excellence. Qualifications Ph.D. in public policy, political science, international affairs, or a related field in hand by the employment start date is required. For consideration at the Associate Professor level, applicants must have at least 4 years of relevant experience. For consideration at the Full Professor level, applicants must have at least 6 years of relevant experience. A record in teaching, research, scholarship, and service, for level of appointment at higher rank of Associate or Full Professor. Commitment to engaged and impactful research and innovation. Evidence of interdisciplinary expertise and capacity for collaboration across disciplines. Commitment to the continued development of Northeastern University’s signature experiential learning model. Experience working in policy or collaborating with policymakers a plus. Commitment to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Commitment to faculty development and mentoring, if a senior candidate. Documents to Submit Applicants should submit a cover letter that addresses the applicant’s interest in and qualifications for the position, curriculum vitae, a research statement, writing sample, evidence of teaching effectiveness, sample syllabi, a diversity statement, and the names and contact information for at least three individuals who can provide a letter of recommendation. In the diversity statement, please describe how you can support Northeastern’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Describe how your teaching, service, research, and/or leadership (as applicable) has supported the success of students and/or colleagues; and/or describe the impact others have had on you as relating to diversity, equity and inclusion. Review of applications will begin on December 1, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled. Please address nominations and questions to Dan O’Brien, Chair, Search Committee at d.obrien@northeastern.edu. Position Type Academic Additional Information Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer. Northeastern has a comprehensive benefits package for benefit eligible employees. This includes medical, vision, dental, paid time off, tuition assistance, wellness & life, retirement- as well as commuting & transportation. Visit https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/ for more information. Northeastern University is an equal opportunity employer, seeking to recruit and support a broadly diverse community of faculty and staff. Northeastern values and celebrates diversity in all its forms and strives to foster an inclusive culture built on respect that affirms inter-group relations and builds cohesion. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. To learn more about Northeastern University’s commitment and support of diversity and inclusion, please see www.northeastern.edu/diversity. Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experiential lifelong learning. Our approach of integrating real-world experience with education, research, and innovation empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create worldwide impact. Our global university system provides our community and academic, government, and industry partners with unique opportunities to think locally and act globally. The system—which includes 14 campuses across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, 300,000-plus alumni, and 3,000 partners worldwide—serves as a platform for scaling ideas, talent, and solutions. The university’s residential campuses for undergraduate and graduate degrees are located in Boston, London, and Oakland, California. Our research and graduate campuses are in the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant; Arlington, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Miami; Portland, Maine; Seattle; Silicon Valley, California; Toronto; and Vancouver. Northeastern’s personalized, experiential undergraduate and graduate programs lead to degrees through the doctorate in 10 colleges and schools across our campuses. Learning emphasizes the intersection of data, technology, and human literacies, uniquely preparing graduates for careers of the future and lives of fulfillment and accomplishment. Our research enterprise, with an R1 Carnegie classification, is solutions oriented and spans the world. Our faculty scholars and students work in teams that cross not just disciplines, but also sectors—aligned around solving today’s highly interconnected global challenges and focused on transformative impact for humankind.