Lydia Patton

@profess.bsky.social

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Philosophy professor and farmer.

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Lydia Patton

I’ve been actively avoiding the news for my own mental health, but I spent last summer studying the Chevron defense and I cannot even begin to tell you how damaging it is to lose it. My environmental law prof is probably flipping her shit right now 😬

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Lydia Patton

My god, the Finns are right, sauna DOES cure everything!

This is so cool! Frog & amphibian have been dessimated by the disease chytridiomycosis, caused by a fungal pathogen. Researchers have realised that the fungi is heat intolerant so little brick saunas for frogs can help kill the fungi! Recovered frogs more resistant to further infxn 🧪

These frog 'saunas’ could help endangered species fight off a deadly funguswww.nature.com How a hot resting spot can help frogs survive chytridiomycosis infection, and the decades-long hunt for dark matter in black holes. Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 3 July 2024

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Lydia Patton

If you want some historical context on both the Heritage Foundation and the cyclical nature of counterrevolutions, here’s a piece I wrote about the case that put them on the map www.teenvogue.com/story/kanawh...

The West Virginia Textbook Panic That Turned Violentwww.teenvogue.com Bombs were planted in at least two schools and snipers fired on school bus escorts.

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Lydia Patton

Technically, he’s only prevented from doing it legally. It is apparently okay if he drone strikes the servers where the records are kept

Apparently the only thing a President is not allowed to kill is student loans

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A difference between me and many of my friends is that most of my friends believe that manners and decorum mean that a person will not participate in fascism. Maybe it is the lesson that my bitter Jewish grandmother taught me, but I've always believed that aristocrats can push us into the ovens.

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The landmark reversal nullifies all previously lawful forms of right and makes it very difficult for Americans to make ethical decisions or be generally decent human beings without facing criminal charges.

Supreme Court Overturns 'Right v. Wrong'www.theonion.com WASHINGTON—Striking down the judicial precedent that established the legal supremacy of right over wrong more than two centuries ago, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned Right v. Wrong.

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July 1st is the soft deadline for our Visiting Fellows Program for 2024-2025. Applications in by then will receive full consideration, but you may still be able to apply later; we will hold applications open until all spots are filled. deweycenter.siu.edu/visit/fellow...

Visiting Fellows Program | Center for Dewey Studies | SIUdeweycenter.siu.edu

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Lydia Patton

If you remove regulation, a lot of decisions still have to be made, so something has to replace it. What replaces it is corruption.

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Lydia Patton

Literally rule #1 on how to resist authoritarianism: DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE. snyder.substack.com/p/on-tyranny

“The Harvard decision has so transformed the legal landscape that some companies are abandoning diversity programs as a defensive measure even before any litigation is filed.” “defensive measure” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

DEI programs toppled amid a surge of conservative lawsuitswww.washingtonpost.com A year after the Supreme Court struck down race-based college admissions, a campaign by conservative legal groups is forcing public and private institutions to abandon diversity programs.

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Lydia Patton

Reminder that Aaron Swartz was facing 35 years in prison and financial devastation for trying to programmatically download and open the contents of JSTOR, which led to him taking his own life. But OpenAI is going to scrape all of academia and make billions by plagiarizing it.

New version of chatbot reaches level of function where it responds to all queries by making a little twisty-wrist gesture with pinched fingers and saying “But isn’t it more *complicated* than that?”

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Lydia Patton

June newsletter is out with info on the new Giere Society, UPSS call for abstracts, Outreach Prize and more. Many congrats to the newly elected Alan Love (President-Elect), and Governing Board members Mazviita Chirimuuta and Kerry McKenzie - all starting Jan 2025. mms.philsci.org/msg_detail.p...

Philosophy of Science Associationmms.philsci.org

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Lydia Patton

Today the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, being led by the nose by President Eli Capilouto, finalized the dissolution of the University Senate, putting the final nail in the coffin of shared governance.

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Lydia Patton

Updating CP Snow: “The Two Cancel Cultures”

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Lydia Patton

Horace Kallen figured out the USA had to decide between pluralism and the Klan over a hundred years ago.

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Lydia Patton

If we're talking history jobs (for it is the discourse in The Other Place), what you actually need to know is this: - In 2008, hiring for history profs dropped by nearly half and never recovered. - As a result, history departments are shrinking and history education in the USA suffers. 1/

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Our new Spring 2024 issue is out! Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/hopos/20... Articles on: Conceptual engineering; Neurath & H.G. Wells; Reading Bachelard; Sellars on analyticity; Kepler's geometrical epistemology; the Whewell-De Morgan debate; Kant's Prize Essay; Tetens & the phoneme

HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science | Vol 14, No 1www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Lots of confusion between “every great new technology was initially resisted” and “every technology that is initially resisted will be great.”

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The oil executives are now following through on giving Trump the billion dollars he asked for in order to destroy US environmental regulation and end decarbonization efforts — it also has meant Trump is raising more money than Biden for the first time. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/c...

Oil and Gas Billionaires Drum Up Dollars for Trumpwww.nytimes.com Fossil fuel companies enjoyed record profits under President Biden. But his decision to pause permits for gas export terminals has whipped up industry support for his challenger.

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Lydia Patton

CfP for the 2025 integrated HPS meeting. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have! #philsci

Integrated History & Philosophy of Science conference (integratedhps.org) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 27-29 March 2025. Submit 700wd abstracts to app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/75646... by 11:59 pm Anywhere on Earth (UTC -12) 18 August. #philsci #histsci

Integrated HPSintegratedhps.org

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Lydia Patton

Big water news. The conservative SCOTUS killed the national protections for vast numbers of rivers, streams, and wetlands in the Sackett decision. Now, Colorado, has used the state's rights provisions to re-establish those protections. Time for more states to do so. coloradosun.com/2024/05/09/c...

Colorado to shield thousands of acres of wetlands, miles of streams after U.S. Supreme Court left them vulnerablecoloradosun.com Colorado lawmakers back new permitting program overseeing construction, road building, other activities impacting state waters

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Lydia Patton

YouTube continuing to algorithmically serve vulnerable people dangerous and radicalizing content

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Lydia Patton

Speaking as college faculty...no. Rather, it is precisely **because** college students are forming strong bonds of community, interaction, and care that all of this is even possible. It's much of the rest of the US that's forgotten how to do that, and so looks on in terror.

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Lots of Kent State news popping up and I’m worried some people might not remember that about a week later, Miss. police fired guns indiscriminately into a Jackson State dormitory, murdering two students and injuring 11 others. It was overshadowed by Kent b/c Jackson was a Black research university.

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Jen Ebbeler

Added alt-text

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Lydia Patton

While Republicans blamed immigrants for a "crime wave," oil companies stole an average of $3000 from American families. While they blamed people wanting a living wage for inflation, oil companies price gouged us, causing 27% of all inflation.

An Oil Price-Fixing Conspiracy Caused 27% of All Inflation Increases in 2021www.thebignewsletter.com The FTC just found evidence that American oil companies colluded with the Saudi government to hike gas prices, costing the average family $3,000 last year. The question is, what can we do about it?

Open Letter regarding the Events of the Night of April 28th.

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Lydia Patton

Outside agitators: Donors (don’t live or work on campus) City and State Police (don’t live or work on campus) Politicians (don’t live or work on campus) Angry men big excited to fight and antagonize 20 year olds (most don’t live or work on campus) Orgs/groups w/ no formal ties to campus

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Lydia Patton

1/ If you don't know the history of the use of the term "outside agitators" to attack African-Americans and Jews when they work together for mutual liberation, maybe stop using the term.

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When cops and prosecutors tell you that you’re overreacting, maybe just maybe it’s time pump the brakes a little

Travis County Attorney Delia Garza says she isn’t finding the same "probable-cause deficiencies" that she saw last week when police arrested UT Austin protestors. Even if the arrests hold up, Garza urges the university to rethink its approach, saying that the present situation “isn’t sustainable.”

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automakers are spying on you, hiding that fact in a thousand pages of legalese, then selling data to insurers who are jacking your rates through the roof so glad we tackled that tiktok menace though

How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me)www.nytimes.com This privacy reporter and her husband bought a Chevrolet Bolt in December. Two risk-profiling companies had been getting detailed data about their driving ever since.