CouldThisHappen?
couldthishappen.bsky.social
CouldThisHappen?
@couldthishappen.bsky.social
Science/tech writer, professional plant fanatic (esp. orchids), space enthusiast, sci-fi geek, probable cylon, ice hockey fan, tree-hugger, animal lover, and lecturer of writing / rhetoric at Boston University. www.joellerenstrom.com
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind
November 27, 2025 at 4:32 AM
So ironic, given that I've never met anyone whose favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the turkey. It's just there because of tradition. The sides and desserts are always so much better. So why continue this stupid, harmful practice?
46 million turkeys, each a sentient being, killed every Thanksgiving.

Articles like this applauding the 'tradition', no thought for the suffering.

But you can start a new tradition, one that savours kindness, by having a plant-based Thanksgiving.
#plantbased

www.thebulwark.com/p/a-defense-...
A Defense of the Thanksgiving Turkey
The noble, beautiful, all-American bird pays worthy homage to our grand culinary inheritance.
www.thebulwark.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
Now that COP is over, rich countries can go back to not pretending. Until next COP when both them and their pet journalists can celebrate their climate leadership
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
In case you missed this, the BBC edited a historian's speech about Trump to remove the claim that he's "the most openly corrupt president in US history." This came after Trump had threatened a $1 billion lawsuit.

Elite capitulation continues.

Read all about it here:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
Trump Angrily Threatened to Sue BBC. Then Things Took a Darker Turn.
First, British Broadcasting Corporation execs resigned after Trump complained about a segment. Now the BBC edited out a line from a historian that was critical of Trump. Where does this end?
newrepublic.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
People who are ‘AI’ boosters and whine about ‘anti-AI’ sentiment bewilder me. You have Twitter and LinkedIn; you have politicians and journalists on your side; businesses are all pro-AI.
What exactly do you want?
Yall behave like it’s literal sacrilege to be critical of AI
November 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Large language mistake

Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.

www.theverge.com/ai-artificia... great read from @benjaminjriley.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Go vegan and bankrupt them all.
Tyson is one of just a few companies that controls the entire meat market.

Just last month, it paid $85M to settle charges it illegally conspired with other meatpackers to raise pork prices.

Corporate monopolies are great for executives and a raw deal for everyone else.
Tyson CEO Donnie King made $22.7 million last year.

The week before Thanksgiving, he told 3,200 workers in Lexington, Nebraska that they're losing their jobs.
November 25, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre.

I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC. /2
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Doing promo is a pain in the ass. I was asked "why not let ChatGPT do it?"

I said I hate promo.
I didn't say I hated myself.
November 24, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Dumpster fire regime.
absolutely incredible -- CNN host introduces a segment about Trump's "new healthcare proposal," but less than two minutes later breaks into her script to announce "breaking news" that Trump's healthcare proposal is being postponed
November 24, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
I’m still not numb enough to accept these things as normal.

I genuinely can’t understand how any church going Christian can support Trump and the MAGA movement, when so much of what they promote seems rooted in anger, hate and is aimed at causing needless suffering.
NEW: President Biden commuted the death sentences of most people on the federal death row before exiting office.

President Trump is now effectively looking to retaliate, and to detain those people in the most brutal conditions in the federal system. Bolts reports:
boltsmag.org/death-row-cl...
Death Row Prisoners Granted Clemency by Biden Brace for "Living Hell" Under Trump - Bolts
This story was produced by Bolts and published in partnership with The Nation. Inside the federal supermax tucked away in Colorado’s high desert, prisoners spend 22 to 24 hours a day... Read More
boltsmag.org
November 24, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
November 24, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.
The Economic Impact of Brexit
Other
siepr.stanford.edu
November 24, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Ohhh I see. They couldn't let Democrats get the credit for the extension, so they waited them out, re-opened the government, *then* extended the subsidies so Trump could get the credit.
November 24, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Please don’t look away. We can’t turn our backs on genocide. At the very minimum we have to bear witness

mondoweiss.net/2025/11/isra...
Israel kills 33 Gazans in a single night. It’s part of a new deadly status quo, Palestinians say.
On Wednesday, Israel killed 33 Palestinians, including 12 children, in its latest violations of the Gaza ceasefire. Those killed include Palestinian families trying to return home and others caught in...
mondoweiss.net
November 23, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
November 23, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
"For students, AI teaching appears to be less transformative than it is demoralising".

“I do not want to be taught by GPT.”

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
imagine you are a teenager and you already are at a disadvantage because covid happened while you were in school and you need to be prepared for the real world and this is what they give you
November 20, 2025 at 5:27 PM
In terms of one's students, yes. In terms of the US administration, university administrations, learning loss, ChatGPT, etc, a teacher starts off the year feeling pretty darn defeated already.
ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT
BEING AN EDUCATOR IS YOU GET TO START EACH YEAR UNDEFEATED.

#education #teachers #EduSky
November 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
After you help your boss convert a doc to PDF
November 22, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Stop what you're doing and watch this

AI is deeply racist, that's a fact

Apparently ChatGPT is the most racist entity since Jim Crow when evaluated for bias

It can't do basic math and gets stuff wrong a lot

And falsely accuses black people in classrooms and even at home

It's systemic

Watch it
You think LLM-based chatbots can help students learn? Think again.

Take a few minutes to listen to Dr. @drtanksley.bsky.social clear explanation why this is very bad, harmful idea, especially for Black students.

#Critical_AI_Literacy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mtc...
Howard University AI Panel
YouTube video by Tiera Tanksley
www.youtube.com
November 22, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Airstrikes don’t “test” a ceasefire. They break a ceasefire. Language isn’t that hard, media. Neither is professionalism and bravery.
November 22, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Notice Mamdani charmed Trump on live TV without backing down on any stances. He didn't water himself down, he didn't even take back calling Trump a fascist. Moderates would say butter him up, or try to appear more right-wing. Voters can see through that—and evidently so does he!
November 22, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposted by CouldThisHappen?
Laughing at Donald Trump saying he'd definitely feel comfortable living in Zohran Mamdani's New York on the same day that half the consultant brain-poisoned Democratic party voted to condemn socialism
November 21, 2025 at 9:08 PM