Is there an alternative at this point? I tried Brave on a recommendation and its got AI integrated from default with opt out required.

Always enjoy getting these simple words in this forum. Truly.

Much love and thanks!

I gave up on Academia after waffling around for a few weeks (and posts if you see my history). Despite not having my university job anymore, I lead a research project and helped organize a large network of scholars. In these roles, I finally witnessed the hubris and narcissism so many warned me about. It came to a head this week. People not offering meaningful collaboration, had my work stolen and used in a massive survey without credit, hierarchy suppressing knowledge, and exploitation. Two items really stand out as the nail in the coffin:

1. A scholar joining a panel I’m forming had really wonderful contributions to make. Now, they are trying to change its direction and want to present their own work. Caustic. I’m kicking them off. Before I could boot them, they signed me up to be a reviewer in their journal without my permission, and assiged me to review their work. What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. People. Violates every ethical checklist I can think of. Hard pass.

2. A great chat with a person who met in person with me to tell me why they didn’t give me a job. Yes, you read that right. In person feedback. But they explained why the decision was made, redirected me to contacts, and said I was an immensely accomplished person. It was validating and empowering. Best job rejection ever. The possibilities on the outside are there I just didn’t see them because I didn’t know about them.

Revolution is needed against this, with people not afraid to take the propagandists offline, strip their wealth to rebuild, and toss them and their supporters into confinement in a humane prison (you can’t be liberated only to become the oppressor and retain your freedom, see Freire) but with no connection to the outside world and no possibility of parole. Their crimes are so huge, its too dangerous to even consider. But no one seems to have the stomach to do what needs to be done, the real hard work of meeting violence head on with collective and organized action.

Until that happens, they’ll continue to win. And winning they are.

Keep writing and keep speaking. Those, though small acts, are acts against oppression. Every word typed or written, even if you’re the only audience, is an act of resistance.

This is my “once I get a job” project. I recently finished my own home box and it actually works. My next step was how to turn a Samsung pushing AI all over me into my own phone again. GrapheneOS and an old Pixel looks phenomenonal.

That’s why Evernote went the way it did? Oh, that makes me sad. That was an incredible resource in grad school. OCR saved my ass on my PhD exams. Hand written notes, scanned at the library copier, organized and OCR. Immensely useful for a test (take home) that takes three days and covers two years of classes.

I stopped using it about 5 years ago because it just started to feel off. Little things not working or a UI change I didn’t like. Plus the pricing was restrictive in a way I couldn’t justify it anymore.

Considering reddit is corporate bot slop now, I’m impressed they haven’t done a Zuck and shut it down.

The EU needs to take the gloves off or nothing will stop the madman and his madmen and madwomen. If there’s an economic war, fight it. Stand up. You can do it Europe.

Can’t wait for it to turn its latest travesty Suicide Goodnight Moon into an ad for rope.

Sure-

Response: I appreciate the reviewer’s concern about maintaining scholarly rigor in moments of political disruption. I have moderated claims throughout and grounded assertions in available sources and peer-reviewed scholarship. However, I respectfully maintain that the evidence available to any informed observer, including official government documents, Supreme Court rulings, mass resignations, weaponization of the administrative state, and documented administrative actions targeting career public servants, supports the analysis presented. Indeed, the revised manuscript does not call for abandoning administrative theory wholesale, but rather for extending and adapting theoretical frameworks to account for such new realities the theories were not formulated to explain. Critical scholarship must continue to acknowledge evidence as it emerges in-the-real. Accordingly, I have clarified the sections where the original wording could be read as overly prescriptive. I hope these revisions address the concerns raised. I am grateful for the opportunity to strengthen the manuscript and remain open to further suggestions.

Asking for a friend. How the hell can Non Danish/non EU folks help or contribute if or when that friend was a military person in a past career?

BG3 done? Time for a new play thorough /u/Chloyster

I’m in 15th century Bohemia, galavanting the countryside and getting into trouble as Henry of Skalitz.

KCD2. I also just finished KCD1.

Fuck. More power to you.

23 job applications out to door. Nothing yet. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to everyone else in the world. My old university gave me a courtesy appointment just to help me maintain my academic creds. Publish or perish, as they say.

Had a paper sent back to me. Reviewer told me that I’m “ill informed” and “overstated” the problems of the executive branch. That the US govt is working well. I had to dig deep into my academic shade throwing library to retort and felt great about my response. I think I captured the dumpster fire meme in academic prose.

Very focused on landing a job this week and fueled by coffee.

Quite. I fear what this loss of empathy will mean for humanity.

I’ll bite and share my experience. There is absolutely an issue. I’ve had applications for bank accounts denied, two people on hiring committees tell me I don’t belong here, a grant application simply withdrawn, another (confirmed insider knowledge) threw any application despite a valid work permit with any hint of US on the application into the trash. I have so many people ask me why I’m here, how I’m here, when I’m leaving. In professional settings and social. My partner, a entrepreneur, for the first time ever is having government entities stonewall her and representatives tell her off when she does any paperwork. She was in tears one day as she called to get some advice on a regulation and was told her business didn’t deserve advice. People. Are. Cruel. There is very little empathy left, and honestly, I get it. It’s not right, but I understand.

I want to integrate but there is absolutely an informal unwelcome mat being put in front of the door to Europe, and Canada.

I won’t be responding to posts as I am likely to get brigaded and trolled for writing the above. Americans wanting to get to safety, leave gun violence and fascism behind, and build a better world, are simply not welcome or have many barriers in place that didn’t exist before.

As a US researcher (social sciences) who left, I warned my EU colleagues not to go to our big conferences. They were floored. Many thought it wasn’t that bad, but the selling point that worked is, “do you want to risk being on the wrong side of an unaccountable border agent who hates how you look?” A gulag, literally a fucking gulag in a foreign country, could await. Its not worth the risk.

However, context. What I dont appreciate about these articles is that they assume a broad ban on the US because of morals, ethics, national pride, or solidarity. Nope. It’s risk. Hubris and prestige of a career trump all other things. That simple. These same researchers still go to Hungary and Turkey. Its really discouraging to me as a critical theorist.

I took some time off from the job hunt. I needed that and had a lovely holiday break.

“You’d think military officials would be delighted to find a contractor that isn’t trying to stiff them raw.”

That elicited a sensible chuckle.