Thousands of #PennState faculty vote #union, one of #Pennsylvania's largest union elections

https://www.wgal.com/article/penn-state-faculty-alliance-union-vote/71315574

#unions #PSFA #SEIU #UnionStrong #democracy #education #capitalism #exploitation #ClassWar

RFK Jr. is spreading doubts about vaccine safety and considering changes that could prompt manufacturers to flee the U.S. market.

History has shown how plagues from the past can roar back when trust in shots — or access to them — falters.
https://www.propublica.org/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-agenda-childhood-plagues?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Health #PublicHealth #Vaccines #Children #History #Science #RFKJr

"These companies have primarily made their chatbots “smarter” not by writing niftier code but by making them bigger: ramming more data through more powerful computer chips that use more electricity."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/04/ai-data-centers-energy-demands/686064/?gift=IaTMqerMHTZL-ib0ALx6bWD9eABk8EFIwj_d2aNSQBU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

#technology #AI #LLMs #environment

On reflection, I think the worst part of Cory Doctorow’s argument in favor of LLM use is this:

« Doubtless some of you are affronted by my modest use of an LLM. You think that LLMs are "fruits of the poisoned tree" and must be eschewed because they are saturated with the sin of their origins. I think this is a very bad take, the kind of rathole that purity culture always ends up in.

Let's start with some context. If you don't want to use technology that was created under immoral circumstances or that sprang from an immoral mind, then _you are totally fucked._ »

This is a form of argument beloved by awful people. I can’t be pure and perfect, they say, so there’s no point my trying to make better or less damaging moral choices.

Stop buying from Amazon? Walmart and Target aren’t perfectly moral. Stop driving an SUV? Your car pollutes too, and so do buses. Stop using Twitter? Facebook and Bluesky are far from morally perfect, and mastodon.social has poor moderation. And so on.

I see this kind of excuse all the time online. It’s a cousin to both whataboutism and Mister Gotcha. It also rests on a false premise. The idea that anyone is expected to achieve complete purity is a straw man. You’re not having sainthood demanded of you, people are just hoping you’ll consider *reducing* the amount of immoral and damaging behavior you engage in *when there are perfectly viable alternatives*. Sure, we can argue about whether the alternatives are truly viable, but the idea that if you can’t be perfect you may as well not even try to be better? That’s moral bankruptcy.

Mocking the desire for people to behave more ethically as “purity culture” is like mocking it as “virtue signaling”. It says things about the person doing the mocking, none of them good. It’s also deeply hypocritical coming from someone who has gone out of his way to avoid using DRM. Isn’t that “purity culture”?

YES! This is AMAZING! 🎉

Keep pushing against abusive practices, and keep fighting for your privacy rights!

IT WORKS! ✊🔒

https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/24/discord-just-canceled-its-planned-age-verification-rollout-for-now/

Edit: Just to be clear, I still encourage everyone to move to better platforms and delete your Discord accounts (even if there was no age verification at all). Discord isn't a privacy-respectful platform.

But this small victory means we should keep pushing for better privacy practices, everywhere.

This means they are listening. This means you have the power to make things better, for yourself and for others.

Celebrate that. And keep pushing back.

#Privacy #AgeVerification #Discord #PrivacyWin

we have a phrase in the labor movement: "don't panic, organize"

if we apply it, it works every time

it quells existential dread, builds solidarity, and makes things better for the working class

remember, "rebellions are built on hope"

don't let THE MAN get u down

we can do amazing things if we bring our care, joy, kindness, and equanimity to the fore

There's a photo going around of ICE arresting a 5-year-old boy, and shipping him to a facility in another state.

This is horrific! It's absolutely inexcusable to arrest a 5-year-old child!

🤔I just have a few questions... what if the child is Black though? Is it still cruel?

Is it also cruel to send Black kids as young as 7 to juvenile detention facilities in other states, so that their moms can't even visit?

https://publicintegrity.org/education/criminalizing-kids/young-kids-arrested-at-schools/#

Let this build empathy inside you.

Recognize that this situation is horrific when ICE does it to immigrant children, and when cops do it to Black children.

Recognize that ICE agents doing these acts to make MAGA happy is bad. Cops doing this to make Dem voters happy, is also bad.

When I say that we don't need School Resource Officers in elementary schools arresting 5-year-old Black boys, understand what that means in practice.

This isn't sadder when it happens to kids that aren't Black.