Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme

Is Lakshya Jain the Matt Yglesias of Nate Silvers?

IMO one of the best parts of the original Iron Chef was the kismesissitude between Kenji Fukui and Yukio Hattori

Concept: a recommendation system that just browbeats you into logging off

when i say the Atlantic and the NYTimes deserve neither your money nor your respect, i also mean their newsletters, NYTimes cooking, NYTimes puzzles, crosswords, connections, and wordle, the wirecutter, the athletic, and all their podcasts.

both have anti-trans bias woven into their editorial.

Been seeing some folks getting more defensive when people ask them to consider moving off Substack or X

And gotta say being frustrated at the people pointing out that you are compromising your ethics bc you believe your ends justify your means sure is... something

It’s absolutely wild to see happen over and over again - that said, I never, ever lack for horrifying examples anymore when I teach the part of my Understanding Users class that’s about communicating with and learning from your user base

I really liked the choice element and how practical our system was… those two papers are still highly cited, and the class I designed and taught kept evolving over the years until it became my current doctoral seminar on social and critical computing

Oh this is fun… Northwestern had a very practice-based qual structure so you can actually read two of mine:

1) Self presentation wp.me/p2O4Fr-aT
2) Folk theorization wp.me/p2O4Fr-aO
3) Design and solo teach a seminar for undergrads on social computing and research writing

If a bunch of people who agree who hang out together is an echo chamber then sure, we’re all in echo chambers all the time. But what’s actually bad is a platform that the world’s richest man has weaponized to make people including “elites” who still use it bigoted and hateful and conservative

I mean, it is odd that everyone decrying this place as an 'echo chamber' is totally comfortable hanging out on the Nazi CSAM web site run by a white supremacist who fine tuned its algorithm to turn users fascist

I do appreciate cis advocates of trans healthcare, especially in these times, but I do wish more of them would let go of the "experts know best" framing. I'm aware it's safe, palatable, sellable, but there's a century of "experts" torturing, converting, and sexually abusing trans people. So.

everyday on X in '23: "jkr isn't harming trans ppl. you must provide evidence of it that i will willfully misinterpret. i'm an ally btw"

everyday on bsky in '26: "the nyt isn't harming trans ppl. you must provide evidence of it that i will willfully misinterpret. i'm an ally btw"

war, changes, etc

If only she’d speak up about literally anything else 🫠

the idea that people are out there Transing The Youths is just as stupid as the idea that people are intentionally handing out weed gummies at halloween

It would be delightful to see at least this level of support coming from you re: immigrants and trans kids

Direct the AG to take action against Fenway Health

Cancel all state contracts with ICE

Do it on your way to Dunkin

Yeesh

What our governor will stand up for: Dunkin

What she won’t stand up for: immigrants, trans people, her fellow lesbians, the rule of law

Cool to see the priorities laid out so clearly

proposing a rule that if any journalist doesn't have a transsexual friend whom they see regularly, they aren't allowed to write a single fucking word about our bodies, our healthcare, or our dignity

Transgender People, “Gay Conversion,” and “Lesbian Extinction”: What the Data Show A couple days ago (on Christmas, actually), The Telegraph ran a piece with the provocative title: “Lesbians facing ‘extinction’ as…

since The Atlantic is apparently reviving the "a was a feminine gay child, but if I was a kid today they would have 'transed' me" trope, here's an essay I wrote back in 2020 explaining why this is not true & there is no evidence to support it: juliaserano.medium.com/transgender-...

i feel strongly that anyone that thinks that there is a nefarious cabal of surgeons and doctors Transing people should be forced to try and schedule one (1) transsexual procedure

LLM makers makers do not want you to be able to understand. It's about turning the means of understanding and sensemaking into externalized products to rent.

PANEL 1: The IMPORTANT PUNDIT is standing on a soapbox with a megaphone on the street. One or two people are watching. He motions with his thumb behind himself. PUNDIT: Hello! WHAT IF Mattie had all of "her" skin ripped off in one big piece like a clementine? PUNDIT: This is "its" house by the way! PANEL 2: MATTIE, sitting on her couch with a book. The voice from the megaphone comes from outside. VO: What if someone did that. Just if anyone has a big knife, for doing the thing I talked about. I'm just wondering aloud! PANEL 3: MATTIE leans out the window, yelling. MATTIE: Get bent, asshole! PANEL 4: Back on the PUNDIT. everyone is raising a knife of some sort. PUNDIT: Can you believe that language? PERSON IN CROWD: SO uncivil. PERSON IN CROWD: Let's go up there with our blades

so uncivil | patreon.com/lubchansky

A bunch of unusually privileged US-based trans people who are journalists and who tend to let their shared class interests with professional journalists override any dedication they might have to improving the lives of trans people

So, the usual suspects

When I teach tech and society in the fall how much of it do y'all think I should dedicate to trying to get the young men to understand the online gambling stuff is how they'll wind up ruining their lives, and that it's designed to do so in order to make them easier to control?

Academia has a responsibility to speak truth to power. To act as a check on corporate greed and government overreach.

That’s the whole purpose of academic freedom. We’ve abdicated that responsibility.

TBH, estrogen levels and weight are now both in the same category for me - doctor asks, I just say "nah, you don't have a legitimate clinical reason to need that data" and if they press me on it I bail.

Let's just be honest: unless you get an unusually knowledgeable doctor with a heart of gold, DIY is functionally safer in America than doing it the "right way"

The real risk is being underdosed and having your levels used as a reason to refuse you care for other, ACTUALLY serious issues

Going to be sending this to certain eggs out of the blue, too, tbh

Just going to be sending this post to a lot of folks instead of writing out replies from now on

You are MORTAL how dare you spend your life like this

Like... why is any trans person spending a single second of their lives defending the New York Times or anyone who works there?

How incredibly privileged and out of touch do you have to be to be a TRANS PERSON using your LIMITED TIME BEING ALIVE to DEFEND the GODS DAMN New York FUCKING Times????