laurasell.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives: www.404media.co/teachers-are...

submitted 14 hours ago • 87 comments

Author Jojo Moyes on AI.

submitted 3 days ago • 4 comments

I do feel like "is what's on the computer actually real life" is quickly becoming the organizing question of our time www.semafor.com/article/06/0...

submitted 15 hours ago • 20 comments

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." —Louis Brandeis

submitted 1 day ago • 176 comments

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

submitted 2 days ago • 457 comments

We watched two movies this weekend, Paddington in Peru and Fountain of Youth, and the one with talking bears was less far-fetched.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

submitted 3 days ago • 4 comments

As of today, Elon Musk is thought to be responsible for the death of 300,000 adults and kids due to the illegal closure of USAID (source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...) That's a 103 deaths per hour, each day. And it will get worse. His legacy is one of death, destruction, and failure.

submitted 4 days ago • 109 comments

I spent five weeks talking to federal workers about knowledge loss and brain drain across the federal government, and its implications, both right now and for decades to come. Their stories are frightening, but I think it's important to know what we're facing: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

submitted 4 days ago • 35 comments

Some UNC-Chapel Hill faculty say they are concerned about a recent Board of Trustees decision—or, rather, non-decision—on faculty tenure and promotion cases. www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

submitted 4 days ago • 12 comments

“The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive attack on knowledge itself, a war against culture, history, and science,” @adamserwer.bsky.social writes. “If this assault is successful, it will undermine Americans’ ability to comprehend the world around us."

submitted 6 days ago • 33 comments

I still think the best idea for progressive donors is to just revive every alt-weekly in the country and staff them with 10 reporters each.

submitted 6 days ago • 226 comments

Any librarians following me? Come meet me and my colleague Robert Thompson tomorrow online and learn about our environmental humanities titles.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

President Trump pardons Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Virginia’s Culpeper County who was convicted of bribery and fraud.

submitted 6 days ago • 21 comments

"This is what we were voting for!" From a friend in academia: >>I was with a public health professor from [major university] last weekend and he said that NIH is now euthanizing whole cohorts of animals from animal studies because there is nobody around to feed them<< Great work.

submitted 9 days ago • 313 comments

ACTIONS MEET CONSEQUENCES… North Carolina voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024—now he’s denying the state’s FEMA request. Again. Reminder: Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) voted against FEMA funding on September 25, 2024.

submitted 10 days ago • 313 comments

"House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history," writes Jonathan Chait:

submitted 11 days ago • 33 comments

Alison Bechdel is reading Urvashi Vaid's "The Dream of a Common Movement," and so should you! via @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/the-annotate...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

#PublishingJob Acquisitions Assistant University Press of Florida Gainesville, FL (remote applicants will be considered) $15-$16/hr 👇

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

This is—it bears repeating—ethnic cleansing and a war crime. It feels utterly pointless to say, and roughly equivalent to screaming into the void, but the United States should not be supporting or providing any aid to a state that has ethnic cleansing as a policy position.

submitted 12 days ago • 107 comments

The AI slop summer book preview/supplement in the Chicago Sun-Times is about what's happened in media more than what's happening with AI. This Slate piece gets it and I have some thoughts from the perspective of someone who writes about books for a major Chicago newspaper. slate.com/technology/2...

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

I sincerely hope that these examples shine a greater light on the utter depravity of how US jails and prisons operate OVERALL. Because I've traveled miles to see incarcerated people and been REFUSED for no reason AT ALL. This happens A LOT.

submitted 12 days ago • 13 comments

RIEDL, on the House Budget: “.. [It] will cost more than the 2017 tax cuts, the pandemic CARES Act, Biden's stimulus, and the Inflation Reduction Act combined.” @yahoofinance.com 🇺🇸

submitted 12 days ago • 61 comments

-Three of the 215 House Democrats have died this year, all from states that Trump won (TX/AZ) or have a Republican Governor (TX/VA). -Six House Democrats have died since April 2024. -The last eight House members to die in office have been Democrats, going back to 2022.

submitted 12 days ago • 22 comments

I said it would get worse very quickly. By tomorrow we will have completed the most dangerous & frightening 24 hours thus far of Trump 2.0. Just to name a few: 1. Defiance of a court order by sending migrants to Sudan without due process (despite clear DP decision SCOTUS) & Dist. CT. order.

submitted 13 days ago • 166 comments

In the GOP budget plan, 18.3 million kids could lose access to free school meals to give tax cuts to billionaires. We don't suffer from scarcity. We suffer from greed.

submitted 13 days ago • 17 comments

So far today I've received 28 pitches for upcoming books. By 28 different publicists representing 28 different authors. There is so little space to cover any of them. Which is why this AI-created and unedited by humans summer reading list is such a slap in the face.

submitted 13 days ago • 6 comments

Multiple Trump cabinet members sold stocks just before or on "Liberation Day," when tariff announcements sent stocks plummeting. If public officials used privileged info to trade stocks, while they’re supposed to be working for you, make no mistake — it's legalized corruption.

submitted 13 days ago • 51 comments

Another way to let the government know you want to be able to get a COVID vaccine this fall.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

If you don’t want to take the booster don’t. But to prevent adults from having the choice is depraved.

submitted 13 days ago • 269 comments

This is crazy. I only had COVID once, before vaccines, and since then I've gotten my annual vaccine and stayed healthy. I'd like to continue that. I guess I'll call Kennedy's office and the FDA.

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

The GOP's massive bill would give the Treasury Secretary the power to strip tax-exempt status from any non-profit they say is working against the country’s interests. No trial. No oversight. Just a political hit job in disguise. www.friendlyatheist.com/p/buried-in-...

submitted 13 days ago • 84 comments

In four months, President Trump and a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk have hacked off chunks of government in the name of efficiency, with tactics rarely seen in public or private industry. Many federal workers said they believe cruelty is part of the plan.

submitted 13 days ago • 33 comments

I went into my library's database of Chicago area newspapers to confirm this isn't fake, and it's not. @chicago.suntimes.com Why the hell are you using ChatGPT to make up book titles? You used to have a books staff. Absolutely no fact checking?

submitted 13 days ago • 19 comments