Hi writers! I’m looking to assign a couple of features for Slate before the end of the year. If you have anything in mind that you think would be a fit please send me a pitch! Jenée.Desmond- [email protected] or dm me. RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!

Get offline for a day. Create something. I'm serious. You cannot endure our current reality in ANY timeline if you are constantly scraping your raw nerves across the jagged edges of the evil that people do. You need tangible, embodied reminders that we endure through hope and love, not despair.

Pierrot, by Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1718-19, 📸 by @andyharnik

To my trans and nonbinary friends, I am so sorry that you have to deal with this hate. And I hope to see us reach the other side of it soon. And, we will reach the other side. This is horrifying, but it is ultimately the latest iteration of a time-worn tale. And their time always comes to an end.

It me

Good things are possible and we don’t have to settle.

This is SO CUTE

There are more of us than there are of them.

Happy voting day in the US! May your favorite candidate win, may the lines be long enough that you still have hope in democracy but short enough that you can get on with your day, and may your vote count as much as you deserve.

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

people and other creatures of bluesky: PLEASE use alt-text on your images! ESPECIALLY if you position yourself as some variety of expert on communication and sit in judgment on how other people do it!

SNAP fraud rates are less than 1% and falling every year we have data for HOWEVER: hundreds of millions is stolen *from* SNAP recipients every year! Because the EBT cards they use aren’t modernized and secure! And the program they used to repay recipients their stolen $ lapsed in Dec 2024!

Nerding out over this graphic, which I think is so fantastic. Is clear, simple, quick, and it has a call to action at the bottom. It’s also optimized to go with a post like this one: “help us tell the gov…”, instead of “hey FYI we’re doing something” I’m not surprised, from Oceana 👏

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

Well this looks AMAZING

Just filled out two online forms - an academic submission site and a trade publisher site - asking for the submitter's Twitter account, but no space to share other social media accounts like bsky. Friendly reminder that if you have backend control of these types of forms you can change this!

One of my favorite companies of all time is Hashatit - like “have at it”, but hashtags. Ha. I like to imagine the energy when they formed the company- not a brain cell in sight as leaders failed to think through alt ways to read their name Somehow, they seem to have gone under in 2023

I’ve been regularly volunteering at a food bank for about a year and please, if you want to help, consider donating cash. For $3, they can provide 15 meals and what they can do with the money you might spend on a few cans can be converted to vastly more in fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, or meat.

Ok on this one it could also be perimenopause OR the fall of democracy.

OMG YESSSSSSSSS People use LLMs as search engines. I just replied to an email this morning: what do I think of the descriptions of each thing in this list generated by ChatGPT of the top 5 things? I THINK I DON'T TRUST IT BECAUSE LLM'S ARE NOT DESIGNED TO RETURN LISTS OF THINGS THAT EXIST GAHHHHHH

One last random suggestion before my movie starts: It’s Sunday! If you’re doomscrolling politics, think about taking a little break. We need to pace ourselves to get through this shit.

Look. At. Him. Look at him!!!!

Vampire Crab

Similarly, there should be a word for “not setting an out-of-office reply as I travel to go to a conference because I’m sure I’m going to be checking email constantly but then I don’t reply to anyone for 2 months after because the conference put me so far behind”

There is a moment at this time of year when the word ‘apricity’ really comes into view. For those who don’t know it, it was recorded only once, in 1623, before slipping out of view. Apricity is the warmth of the sun on a chilly day.

The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast' 10/10 response, no notes

A moth got into the shelter tonight and it was the event of the season.

It’s been a rough day. Have a bog.

I am sharing this because I want to highlight the extreme need and desire the scientific community continues to demonstrate how it wants to learn and support Indigenous ways of knowing. We need bigger rooms. We need centralized locations.

I’m at the 1000 Ocean Startups annual meeting, so the quoted sentiment is from UN, World Economic Forum, innovation investors (philanthropy and VC), and former high-level ocean policy ppl We’re talking now about the #SciComm, marketing, and community building necessary to induce global change

“Given the state of the country now, we at private companies must double down on our commitments to EDI.” I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like if this was the prevailing attitude among science leadership. It was so simple! They just said it! And then backed it up with plans for action!

What’s it like to be a startup CEO at a week-long innovation conference? I don’t know, but I’ll find out this week at One Ocean Week Seattle! Networking is SO DIFFERENT when the purpose is building a whole company and the way to do that is “aggressively choose your own adventure”

This is fake (“gen” AI). If it tricked you, take a sec and recalibrate. Fake is harder to spot now. Be careful out there, friends

Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!

the whole article could have just been ten pages of “Brilliant Things Eleanor O’Brien Said,” and some gold was left on the cutting room floor, but this is such a banger of a closer and it’s so very much the theme of today

#NoKings in my NJ town had very “harvest festival” vibes, with lots of supportive honking and no hecklers. Wide range of ages. Many costumes- Ginsberg with an “I dissent” sign was my favorite. And some spicy signs! Like the bald picture of JD Vance with “we are all the couch” written on it ❤️🇺🇸 🚫👑

Excuse me: bb turtles

YOU CAN BLOCK THEM ALL Trolls seek power over you within the attention economy- do not give them any. I teach social media. There’s years of rigorous research on causes + consequences of trolling online. I like this note for its simplicity and recommendations: www.apa.org/monitor/2024...

just go to the protests take whatever precautions you personally feel comfortable with but these are massive, joyful events, go and have fun

THIS IS A GOOD POST

Headed to Seattle next week for another startup week with @rejectedbanana.bsky.social. We'll be attending lots of events, but locals will have the most fun meeting our smartwatch app at the Innovation Showcase on Thursday. We'll be bringing our pool koozies! maritimeblue.org/one-ocean-we...

Exciting news! SciCommBites is officially accepting applications for authors for our 2026 cohort. Learn more below and apply by November 30! scicommbites.org/applications...

A story in three parts

I have constructed a thousand stories in my head about this little moth, all pinned on that one leg hanging loose

BTS: I spent days thinking about how to have an interactive demo to show off our smartwatch app - downloading it on the spot would take time - sharing watches risks sharing germs - and what if a crowd came by, how could they all participate at once? I am so stinking happy w the pool koozies!

Our first-ever product demo went great! We're so pleased that so many people came to say hello last week in Los Angeles. It was also a delight to say hello to each other, honestly. @rejectedbanana.bsky.social and I live on opposite coasts and hadn't seen each other since February 🥹

Happy world hagfish day, nerds! Your car has just been crushed by hagfish: Frequently Asked Questions – Southern Fried Science

Timeline cleanse:

This is a great analogy

I am seeing a lot of people reposting Lakota Man today bc it's Indigenous Peoples Day. A reminder that he is not well liked amongst many (most?) Natives on social media. Many of us blocked him a long time ago. Some of the reasons why are in this article. www.dailydot.com/irl/lakotama...