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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · 1d

Another little excerpt of CAT, out now from Bloomsbury 🐱

Pittsburgh Review of Books @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 9d

"Our first winter upstate, we hear a shifting and settling inside the wall. We know it is real—an animal—because our cat Toby goes and stands by that stretch of baseboard."

Rebecca van Laer with Object Lessons Impressions on the Cat. pghrev.com/cat/

Cat - Pittsburgh Review of Books

Our first winter upstate, we hear a shifting and settling inside the wall. We know it is real—an animal—because our cat Toby goes and stands by that stretch

pghrev.com

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Reposted by Rebecca van Laer

Kleopatra Olympiou @kleopatraolympiou.bsky.social · 8d

Can't possibly recommend Rebecca van Laer's CAT enough, and so thrilled to reread now I've grabbed myself a hard copy from the Gower St Waterstones. Cat people unite -- this is such a smart, sensitive, and thoughtful book. Read it!!

@bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

Hand holding up a copy of Rebecca van Laer's book 'Cat' in front of foliage seen through a window.

Shelf containing the Bloomsbury Object Lessons series, all with black spines and colourful titles. Rebecca van Laer's CAT is facing out to the camera.

Rebecca van Laer's CAT held in front of a triple window facing trees from above. The book cover shoes a pensive green eyed white cat.

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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 16d

“I do not think love comes easily to me—love for people, that is. For cats, who have been accused of loving back too little or not at all, it is a different story.” Rebecca van Laer on what humans can learn from our relationships with cats.

What Our Relationship With Cats Reveals About Ourselves

One fantasy that comes up again and again: I wish cats ruled the world. When we imagine this alternate reality, all our favorite projections blur together in a vague impression of what might be—a …

buff.ly

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Reposted by Rebecca van Laer

Orion Magazine @orionmagazine.bsky.social · 12d

Can memoirs about native and common wildlife spark more action and awe than the stories of the “charismatic megafauna” that so often act as poster children for the conservation movement? Rebecca van Laer investigates the new trend in publishing.

Animal Memoirs Gone Wild

What we can learn from more domestic forms of intimacy with nature

orionmagazine.org

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Sep 8

I've become the thing I hate most...someone bad at replying to email

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 30

How do you get your dad to stop sending you AI art

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 30

I once wrote a story about a girl and her cat and weeks later realized it was Miette fan fiction

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Dawn of The Discs @dawnofthediscsnews.bsky.social · Aug 29

A24 launching an AI division

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

#FilmSky #AISlop #a24

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 29

It’s not in any interview that has been published online. A simple google search reveals this.

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 29

Why does it feel like fall!!!

A white cat and a black cat sitting on a quilt looking out a half-open window

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 28

Found out my publisher hired my preferred audiobook narrator by Googling myself and finding a pre-order link at an Italian bookstore. This is how it's supposed to work, right?

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 28

So how often does PT make everyone ELSE cry

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 26

Hand-sold my book to my gynecologist. That is commitment 🐱

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Aug 26

👀👀👀👀

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Reposted by Rebecca van Laer

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · May 29

In case this isn’t obvious: In a healthy political system, if officials released a hyped report on health policy, and the document relied on scientific sources that didn’t exist, those officials would be expected to resign — quickly. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The Trump administration’s ‘MAHA Report’ cites nonexistent scientific studies

There's new evidence that the White House's “The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again” relied in part on scientific research that doesn't exist.

www.msnbc.com

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Reposted by Rebecca van Laer

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · May 24

welp I sent an email

Hi Tripp,
I'm a reporter with the Guardian US, based in New York. I hope this finds you well.
I'm reaching out about your most recent article and its inclusion of the claim, "Young Chinese women have small fingers." What is the source of this information? The full sentence attributes the claim that such small fingers make them "nimble" and therefore "valuable" to iPhone manufacturing to unnamed "supply chain experts", but it's unclear whether those same experts are the source of the claim that young Chinese women have small fingers in the first place. Are they? How do they know? Is there a study you can cite? And are we talking length? Circumference? Is it question of muscle strength? Or bone density? What is the normative range for finger size, to what extent do young Chinese women fall outside of it, and how do you - or your sources - know this?

Incidentally, how are you defining "Chinese" in this sentence? As I'm sure you and your supply chain experts know, China is a large country with dozens of ethnic minorities. It is hard to imagine that hand size is a trait linked to national identity, but the lack of specificity leaves the question open. Did hand size among Han Chinese living in Taiwan vs the PRC diverge after the civil war? Could this be a function of political economy rather than a genetic trait? So many questions. Relatedly, how are you defining "young"? Do Chinese women's fingers grow as they age? Or is size not actually the meaningful characteristic? It's hard to tell from the information you provided!
I ask all these questions because unless you have answers to them, I am afraid that you may have portrayed racist pseudoscience as if it were fact in an article for the New York Times. If that wasn't your intent, I hope you will reflect upon the long history of certain forces using race science claims to attribute suitability for certain types of labor to certain types of people, and amend your article.
Best,
Julia Wong

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Apr 9

Tried to reduce my em-dash usage; realized colons and semicolons are just as frequent 😅

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Electric Literature @electricliterature.com · Mar 25

The NEA's new compliance guidelines are anti-trans, so we aren't applying. Today, we're asking our readers to stand with us. Please donate to help us raise $15K to replace our annual grant by April 15.

Read the full statement from Halimah Marcus: buff.ly/PJ0P801

Why Electric Literature Isn't Applying to the NEA - Electric Literature

The NEA’s new compliance requirements are anti-trans, so we aren’t applying

buff.ly

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Reposted by Rebecca van Laer

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · Mar 23

Columbia University grad student whose ‘self-deportation’ was celebrated by DHS explains how she was hounded by ICE—despite ‘legal’ status and lack of involvement with encampment—and utterly abandoned to her fate by the university.

www.normanfinkelstein.com/letter-from-...

Letter from Columbia student Ranjani Srinivasan after fleeing the United States to Canada

Visit the post for more.

www.normanfinkelstein.com

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Mar 22

Congrats Amy!!

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Mar 22

All Columbia faculty should be on strike, full stop 💘

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · Mar 22

For folks who don’t know, ethnic studies programs like African American/Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies and the like come directly from civil right era campus activism. Attempts to disempower such programs should be framed as attacks on civil rights same as much else rn.

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Mar 21

This needs to exist!

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Rebecca van Laer @rebeccavl.bsky.social · Mar 21

Bard College dumping Conjunctions but buying Lapham's Quarterly....plot twist 👀

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Shelby Hinte @shelbyhinte.bsky.social · Mar 19

Day 2 of Howling Women blurb drops 🖤🌀

If you know me then you have probably heard me talk about how much I love @kevinrmaloney.bsky.social's work. His novel The Red-Headed Pilgrim is one of my favorite books, so I was absolutely floored when he read HW and said nice things about it.

bookshop.org

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ProPublica @propublica.org · Mar 18

THREAD: There’s a dire situation in Vietnam, at the largest Agent Orange spill in the country.

When Trump and Marco Rubio cancelled foreign aid, froze funding and began dismantling USAID, those who were cleaning up the Bien Hoa air base had to halt work. 1/

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