Rachel Cunneen
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rachcunneen.bsky.social
Rachel Cunneen
@rachcunneen.bsky.social
She, her, hers
Teacher Educator @ UC
Researcher - Secondary English Teaching, Mythopoetics, Digital Literacies
Yoga Enthusiast
Mother - doing my best to advocate for chronic illnesses esp #POTS, #LongCovid.

Living on unceded Ngunnawal/Ngambri land
Pinned
This is a gentle, haunting, short film from my sister-in-law and friend, Jennie Feyen. It's won awards at the Sydney Science Fiction Film Fest and the Directors' Film Fest and was selected for screening around the globe. Watch it! It's only ten minutes long but you'll never forget it.
TOUCH
An isolated woman tries a newly developed therapy to overcome her fear of being touched. Writer-Director: Jennie Feyen Producer: Lauren McDonough
vimeo.com
Yeah. This is not good 🙄. Stay safe everyone - special thanks and love to our firies 🙏🏼
On days like today I keep an eye on the other place because a lot of services still don’t post here

Over 50000 lightning strikes in the last 12 hours in NSW
November 26, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Wish I was there 🛶
Go, you good people! #RisingTide
Rising Tide starts tomorrow.

'This November, join with thousands as we stop coal exports from the world’s largest coal port at Muloobinba/Newcastle, on Awabakal & Worimi land and water.'

www.risingtide.org.au/pb2025
November 26, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
Literary journals are breeding grounds of talent – including the new Splinter, rebooted Southerly, and First Nations journal Sovereign Texts, launching next year.
Meanjin was closed – but new Australian literary journals are springing up around the country
theconversation.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:45 AM
I've wanted not to think this for about two years now, but 🤷🏻‍♀️ I agree. The (considerable) caveat is that if even one of these tools were made by well meaning people in an environmentally sustainable manner, enabling great things for good reasons . . . that would be wondrous and amazing
The end goal is conformity.
November 25, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Hate hate hate that medical care for trans kids is ever regarded as anything other than medical. Why do uninvolved politicians insist on making simple realities so heartbreakingly difficult?

Trans people have always existed! And every single one used to be a child!
NZ is halting access to puberty blockers. What about the rest of the world?
New Zealand has become the latest country to halt access to puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria but are they following best health practice or an outlier?
www.abc.net.au
November 24, 2025 at 6:15 AM
I still believe powerful personal writing can disrupt draconian government policies. Read this (paywall lifted). 😢
November 23, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
Nearly every panel I spoke on this year ended with the same question: "What gives you hope?"

My friends, that question expired years ago. (If you need receipts, my book Saving Us is literally a 300-page answer.)

The real question is: How are you PRACTICING hope?

Because Greta is right ..
November 19, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
bluesky is like being stranded on an island with a bunch of cool people and pretty views and we built a little tiki bar and have campfires every night but you better fuckin like coconuts because that’s all we got
March 3, 2024 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
Today’s Wikipedia DYK section has been taken over for Trans Day of Remembrance. 🏳️‍⚧️
November 20, 2025 at 1:58 AM
I hear them every dawn and dusk. When they're not laughing, they kinda sound like a screeching human child. Love them anyway!
Dacelo novaeguineae - Laughing Kookaburra

Although introduced to WA, it’s hard not to like these lovely #birds with their raucous laughing call. This pair have nested in our garden for at least 6 years now and it looks like their nest box needs some roof repairs!
#auswildlife #wildoz #nature 🪶
November 22, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
🚨job alert🚨

I'm looking to hire at least one PhD student for next year, looking at decarbonization-oriented technology deployment within an ethical frame of resource allocation and justice outcomes.

Full ad attached! Pref for CEEES admissions; deadline is 1 January.
November 21, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
Without regulation and legislation in place, it's a free for all.
Is AI inherently bad? Of course not.

The question is: WHO controls it & for what purpose?

Does anyone believe that the richest people on Earth are investing hundreds of billions in AI to improve life for ordinary people, eliminate poverty & solve global warming?

I doubt it.
November 22, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
We’re in a war between authoritarian capitalism and the living world and the managements of our higher education institutions have picked a side.
November 21, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
Like it or not this technology is here to stay and if you don’t use it you’ll fall behind in your industry
November 16, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Tackling AGI and human literacy at the pointy end of a semester convening 100s of undergrads has hollowed me out. The essay below got my optimism flowing again - no small thing 🪴
November 17, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Re the emails-hardly the main point but I remember a certain cultural moment around 2000 & before phone keyboards when it was uncool NOT to have typos bc texting was hard. Educators worried that text-speak would hasten illiteracy. Could JE not write, or was he just using the register of the time?🤷🏻‍♀️
November 16, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Just reposting bc it's so beautiful. I've never seen a sunbird.
Timeline cleanse: A sunbird.

I am proud to say I’ve seen a sunbird in person. 😊
November 14, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
This entire thread. All of it. Read it. Now.
"What should poor people be allowed to eat?" seems to be a burning question for those who aren't poor, have never been poor, and can afford to eat what they like, but want to keep poor people from eating anything that tastes really good. "No fresh meat," said Iowa, a few years ago.
November 4, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
I literally did this the other day. You see, I'm an Australian Aboriginal. We call lots of people Aunty and Uncle. I couldn't remember whether a relative was my Great Aunt or second cousin. My little sisters are actually my cousins. One of my Aunties is actually my second cousin. Super normal.
Sorry I refuse to entertain the complete non-existent world where white people don’t know that countless cultures, including some of their own but certainly diasporic racialized ones, call their mom’s cousin’s friend’s sister they grew up with “cousin” and call close women elders “aunt/auntie”
October 29, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
28.10.2025

'If you've ever wondered what 185+mph winds sound like, here you are.

Category 5 hurricane Malissa is absolutely battering Jamaica at the moment.

Terrifying.'

via Met4CastUK [X] #ClimateCrisis #FossilFuels #Melissa
October 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
I discussed how climate change supercharged Hurricane #Melissa + Bill Gates latest climate comments with Chris Jansing on @msnbc.com: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ5O...
Michael Mann discussed Hurricane Melissa +Bill Gates climate comments with Chris Jansing on MSNBC
YouTube video by Michael Mann
www.youtube.com
October 28, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Rachel Cunneen
🧵 The Wayback Machine isn’t just web pages 💻 It’s a record of decades of projects, family histories, local sites & memories that may no longer exist anywhere else.

What does the #WaybackMachine mean to you? Tell us ⤵️
blog.archive.org/trillion/

#Wayback1T
October 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Watching the #NoKings from Australia. The numbers are FANTASTIC but one of the (many) things I love about it is that you're all so bloody hilarious. It could have been a grim, angry day but I keep seeing footage that has me in tears of laughter. Power to the (funny) people 🇺🇸 👏 🐸🦄
October 19, 2025 at 2:51 AM