Jennifer Slack

Emerita Professor  Cultural Studies, Technology, AI, Environment Pro-Democracy Anti-MAGA Pastel painter  Rural Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA

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Last Notes

2024-12-21 16:24:37 CET

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas received over $4,700,000 since 1991 in unreported gifts and travel.
This, according to a report issued after a two-year investigation by a U.S. Senate ethics committee.
Clarence Thomas needs to be removed for tax evasion, being compromised, and for unethical behavior .

2024-11-21 10:25:25 CET

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Biden at his worst.

2024-11-17 18:52:56 CET

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And get sorted out on the Middle East!

2024-11-17 18:48:05 CET

I wish Kamala Harris would immediately announce her intention to run for president in 2028 and begin an intensive educationally oriented campaign - re-orienting the DNC to education and away from fundraising.
She could become a familiar face: go on all the podcasts, attend events, build a media presence, and become a constant commentator on what we are about to go through. By 2028 she would become widely known and more ready to win.
#KamalaHarris #election2028 #dnc

2024-11-07 13:59:06 CET

Meet some of your sycophant overlords.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/441/781/621/558/212/original/896224fd80a4afe1.png

2024-11-02 23:49:14 CET

Much of this election is about women: women’s health; abortion; the first woman president; legislative representation of women (there are more women in the country than men & vote more than men; but few women are in government); adequate wages in “women’s work” (child care, home care, service industries, teaching); student loan forgiveness (more women than men go to college & women use it to get ahead & establish independence).
#Voteblue #womensrights #womenshealth #abortion #minimumwage

2024-10-30 18:18:46 CET

Our US Supreme Court and Republican Policies are murdering women.
It is as simple and straighforward as that. Women are dying from untreated miscarriages, untreated ectopic pregnancies, and a host of other untreated health issures related to pregnancy.
Vote for Democrats! Pressure the the Supreme Court! Pass laws legalizing abortion! Trust women and their doctors!
#trustwomen #VoteBlue #legalizeabortion

2024-10-30 16:30:07 CET

Elon Musk, the creepy new face of the Trump campaign, says, WITHOUT APOLOGY, if Trump wins, we will have to accept crisis: stock market crash, rising prices, supply chain disruptions, empty shelves, rising inflation. REALLY.
Then, he tells us, our business overlords will generously step in and raise salaries (ha!) and all will be put back better. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT, you are either safely wealthy and don’t care, OR you aren’t listening very carefully.
#elonmusk #Election2024 #voteblue

2024-10-13 03:54:17 CEST

The Cure for a Saturday Night Fever
#MakeAMovieUseful #HashTagGames

2024-10-09 01:25:45 CEST

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And I would not mind at all being wrong.

2024-10-09 01:23:53 CEST

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Yes, friend, we are in the same side.

2024-10-09 01:20:52 CEST

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I think we only disagree on if the strategy would worrk. I respect your position. I am just very skeptical about how the Trump team is using Melania. You may be right that this is a good opening for Democrats; I just don't think so. I think it is a trap.

2024-10-09 01:14:40 CEST

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in this election it matters enormously who the message comes from. For example, when Harris said she's going to deal with price gouging there's reason to believe her. When Trump says it, there's absolutely no reason to believe it's anything other than Campaign pandering.

2024-10-09 01:11:37 CEST

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If she changes some Republican women's minds, that would be great. But 1) I don't think they would be motivated to vote against Trump based on her position. Melania herself is encouraging people to vote for Trump. And 2) I see Melania as far more complicit - apparently - than you do. This is the woman who wore the "I don't care. Do you?" jacket and made a hundred other questionable choices when she might have done otherwise.

2024-10-09 00:59:46 CEST

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Melania may even actually support abortion. Who knows? She's just a totally unreliable and untrustworthy reporter. If it sells more books, who knows what she'd be willing to say?

2024-10-09 00:53:02 CEST

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I don't think that there's anything she could say to make me believe Melania. At the same time she's been saying this stuff about abortion and promoting her book, she's been featured in a bunch of ads saying ridiculous things in support of trumps campaign.

2024-10-08 22:41:18 CEST

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Melania's "position" contributes to the image that Trump is actually soft on abortion, a position he has been trying recently to push. Blaming the states is one way to do that. Being married to someone who supports abortion is another way. These distance Trump from what would likely be an abortion ban if he were elected. Sorry, it stinks to me. Think about it, has Melania EVER once BEFORE said anything publicly contrary to Trump? Why now? 4 weeks before the election?

2024-10-08 22:28:18 CEST

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You are assuming that is what she did. I, for one, am not convinced. You actually take what Melania says at face value?

2024-10-07 01:22:52 CEST

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This is really nice!

2024-10-06 23:07:54 CEST

Just imagine if we had campaign finance reform and all those millions of dollars spent on campaign ads went instead to help people recover from disasters like Helene.
#Election2024 #Helene

2024-10-02 19:09:15 CEST

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Very cool!

2024-09-24 18:10:04 CEST

I suggest if you have the option to post some weird thing about Trump or something useful about Harris, choose Harris. I know the dumb Trump stuff is seductive, but that's part of our problem.
#HarrisWalz2024

2024-09-15 03:00:02 CEST

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This is such a beautiful image!

2024-09-11 15:21:32 CEST

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This is worse than creepy; this is rapey.

2024-09-04 13:23:42 CEST

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Are you going to write about this issue?

2024-09-03 21:41:59 CEST

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Good for you and the way you have dealt with your circumstances. I have been able to support myself since I was 17; that's how I have managed, but was always able to work. I have -- at last -- retired and have reasonable ss and savings. My husband and I are thankfully fine. I worry very much about those in more challenging circumstances.

2024-09-03 16:08:50 CEST

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I am not sure how they so conveniently ignore Trump's many "sins." (Their term)

2024-09-03 16:06:58 CEST

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Yes, absolutely. An insistence on a single (male) family earner in a trad family would severely disadvantage many families financially and have serious implications for the production of all manner of (necessary) goods and services. These people don't think things though.

2024-09-03 04:53:28 CEST

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Ha!!!
I have enjoyed our conversation, but I have a long travel day tomorrow and have to get up early. Off to sleep . See online again sometime!

2024-09-03 04:50:09 CEST

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Very true. Excellent argument. I agree.
But what about , say, a white engineering student, who can't write well at all. Maybe they have some kind of language disorder. Would you want them to have access to an LLM? From there you could think about the international student who is trying to find their way in the mainstream world of business. (And now we are treading on hotly contested ground in the discipline of Composition. I know. But these problems don't go away.)

2024-09-03 04:32:45 CEST

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This just appeared
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/071/276/341/467/943/original/198d16376b3f31d1.png

2024-09-03 04:20:37 CEST

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What do you make of the argument that to be against using LLMs is ableist? That one actually has me thinking hard.

2024-09-03 04:00:16 CEST

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so do you think that people involved in NaNoWriMo think that using a LLM is NOT using AI and therefore they think it is fine? That would be interesting

2024-09-03 00:53:34 CEST

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That is a very different argument than your original and emphatic "LLMs are NOT AI." Parsing what something (like AI )"is" is never "just" semantic, but deeply contextual. Where one is located - industry, academe, journalism, general public, etc - gives rise to different meanings. But AI, LLMs and ML all "learn" and "create" in some sense outside/apart from what we typically understand as human learning and creativity. That is the disrupter.

2024-09-02 23:38:17 CEST

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One correction: LLMs (large language models) are indeed a form of AI ( artificial intelligence).

2024-09-02 21:11:11 CEST

Corrected: Moms For Liberty quoted Hitler prominently and cited him. They apologized, saying they should not have quoted him. How could they not have known that was a really bad idea? Besides, they didn't seem to have any problem with the quote itself: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future” OWNS the youth?
#momsforliberty

2024-09-02 16:07:22 CEST

Why, I quit the New York Times exhibit 2 from The Morning, September 2, 2024:
Trump "often" wanders? Often? Really? Try always. And "wander" sounds so innocent. The man can't keep a thought straight.
"He insists"? So believe Trump? The consummate liar?
If "there is an art to stitching them together" it is an abstract art at best / one that allows for myriad interpretations / right up this creepy guy's alley. But really, who could possibly consider his drivel art?
#NYT
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/068/322/953/084/426/original/3751c7bf95d4f655.png

2024-09-02 16:01:27 CEST

Why I quit the New York Times. Exhibit 1 from The Morning Sept 2, 2024.
Hamas didn't "give evidence," but the wording suggests we should simply believe the Israeli military - without evidence?
#NYT
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/068/304/521/730/945/original/f9fb66b049881afe.png

2024-08-31 13:55:29 CEST

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Maisy is a gorgeous cat and obviously deserves all the space she desires.

2024-08-26 19:10:45 CEST

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A gorgeous photo!

2024-08-17 17:11:05 CEST

Shiitake heaven. I know what we're having for dinner!
(Alt text: five vertical logs above several horizontal logs all nicely peppered with brown shiitake mushrooms - perfectly ripe for harvest. All carefully cultivated and leaning against a barn wall.)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/977/997/831/569/158/original/2d1f8e5cafcb0ee4.png

2024-08-16 17:16:23 CEST

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How cool!!

2024-08-03 13:25:15 CEST

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Maisy is a beauty!

2024-07-29 01:28:01 CEST

It is high summer here on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA.
(Alt: flower and herb gardens with the house off to the right. Purples, yellows, lots of different greens. A brilliant blue sky with clouds in the background.)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/866/695/309/513/156/original/11ff694a544d1aac.png

2024-06-16 17:27:49 CEST

A wet cool June here on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Lots of mosquitoes and black flies; lots of biting flies on the beaches. Outside garden plants growing very slowly, some even rotting. The trees, onions, garlic, and perennials are very happy.
Alt: Enjoy these tiny baby blue forget-me-nots (with yellow centers) being pollinated by a copper colored butterfly, which is actually called an American Copper).
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/626/982/972/529/956/original/be485d12ed2cd377.png