sara m. b. simon
@sarambsimon.bsky.social
phd student in us history (quantification & government data, esp. vital statistics) • former newsroom software engineer & data journalist • she/her • chicago
smbsimon.github.io
smbsimon.github.io
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
You've heard of the Friday night news dump. Here's the Friday night of Thanksgiving wknd dump. For special circumstances, like when the faculty assembly votes 595-4 against paying to end a shakedown and you do it anyway. Link to agreement here: bulkmail.northwestern.edu/trk/click?re...
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 12:34 AM
You've heard of the Friday night news dump. Here's the Friday night of Thanksgiving wknd dump. For special circumstances, like when the faculty assembly votes 595-4 against paying to end a shakedown and you do it anyway. Link to agreement here: bulkmail.northwestern.edu/trk/click?re...
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Northwestern and Columbia being famous for journalism and bending over for Trump seems a little too on the nose these days
This is the second largest payout from a private university to the Trump admin yet, second only to Columbia’s $200m
November 29, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Northwestern and Columbia being famous for journalism and bending over for Trump seems a little too on the nose these days
chicago news you can use: garfield's is selling a malort advent calendar
November 26, 2025 at 5:07 PM
chicago news you can use: garfield's is selling a malort advent calendar
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
This is what I spent most of last week working on with other people who cannot leave this stuff alone. Gotta put the facts in order in a stable place and then see what meaning emerges.
The fight against authoritarianism has many fronts. At Unbreaking, we choose to work against information overload and for collective understanding. On our Immigration timeline, we track major and representative events from across the US—now filterable by legal case:
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
This is what I spent most of last week working on with other people who cannot leave this stuff alone. Gotta put the facts in order in a stable place and then see what meaning emerges.
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner
Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Are any public historians teaching 250th courses and would you like to share syllabi and/or put a panel together for ncph in providence?
November 25, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Are any public historians teaching 250th courses and would you like to share syllabi and/or put a panel together for ncph in providence?
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
It is a fundamental crisis that faculty performance is in part evaluated by UP editors’ ability to find readers and those readers’ ability to follow through. One reader ghosts, the other’s mother dies, and poof! No contract for 3rd yr review.
that list of four potential peer reviewers you gave your acquisitions editor? one of them is retired, another is chairing their department and simply can't, the third is on leave and has an autoreply up for months, and the fourth replied within 20 seconds to say "no."
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
It is a fundamental crisis that faculty performance is in part evaluated by UP editors’ ability to find readers and those readers’ ability to follow through. One reader ghosts, the other’s mother dies, and poof! No contract for 3rd yr review.
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Zohran Mamdani just keeps making winning moves. Alondra on your technology committee is pretty much as good as it gets. Hot Damn.
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.
www.cbsnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Zohran Mamdani just keeps making winning moves. Alondra on your technology committee is pretty much as good as it gets. Hot Damn.
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
book machine day book machine day
Books We Love is back with a brand new batch of hand-picked titles. Mix and match tags like “Book Club Ideas” and “Eye-Opening Reads.” Find 380+ new 2025 reads, and stick around to browse more than 4,000 books from the last 13 years.
Books We Love
Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.
n.pr
November 24, 2025 at 12:48 PM
book machine day book machine day
built a successful career in journalism. pitched an idea to my editor, and he didn't love it. spent months trying to convince him, and he said people wouldn't find it interesting, probably no one would care. but i trusted my gut. five years later, it's now my dissertation topic
November 23, 2025 at 5:25 PM
built a successful career in journalism. pitched an idea to my editor, and he didn't love it. spent months trying to convince him, and he said people wouldn't find it interesting, probably no one would care. but i trusted my gut. five years later, it's now my dissertation topic
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
The big picture we must examine is why is there a market for free births and related quackery?
The founders of Free Birth Society are monsters but their marks are not entirely unreasonable for wanting the sovereignty & dignity they were sold.
Maybe the medical establishment can do better.
The founders of Free Birth Society are monsters but their marks are not entirely unreasonable for wanting the sovereignty & dignity they were sold.
Maybe the medical establishment can do better.
This is one of the most horrific and evil things I have ever read. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 8:26 PM
The big picture we must examine is why is there a market for free births and related quackery?
The founders of Free Birth Society are monsters but their marks are not entirely unreasonable for wanting the sovereignty & dignity they were sold.
Maybe the medical establishment can do better.
The founders of Free Birth Society are monsters but their marks are not entirely unreasonable for wanting the sovereignty & dignity they were sold.
Maybe the medical establishment can do better.
i had to read this a few times before i saw it, lol. which is why my proofreading process always involves asking the 'say' command on my computer's terminal to read my work aloud to me
A typo in the first sentence of a book is…not something I’ve encountered before.
November 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
i had to read this a few times before i saw it, lol. which is why my proofreading process always involves asking the 'say' command on my computer's terminal to read my work aloud to me
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
Howard University AI Panel
YouTube video by Tiera Tanksley
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
friday night before thanksgiving, the perfect time to make sure your public library hold list contains all the novels you want to read over winter break
November 21, 2025 at 11:13 PM
friday night before thanksgiving, the perfect time to make sure your public library hold list contains all the novels you want to read over winter break
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
We were thrilled to be invited by the Department of Aviation to decorate a tree at out O'Hare! We hope you get to take a look in your holiday travels! Find us at Terminal 5 between gates M18 and M20. All images from our portal featuring members' collections!
November 21, 2025 at 9:55 PM
We were thrilled to be invited by the Department of Aviation to decorate a tree at out O'Hare! We hope you get to take a look in your holiday travels! Find us at Terminal 5 between gates M18 and M20. All images from our portal featuring members' collections!
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Come work for me! I'm hiring at @usdigitalresponse.org—somebody with experience as a government procurement FTE who wants to join me in providing pro bono support to governments in the U.S. who want to move to a user-centered, Agile software procurement approach. Remote, full-time, $145–165k.
Procurement Specialist at U.S. Digital Response
About U.S. Digital Response
U.S. Digital Response (USDR) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to helping governments and civic institutions respond quickly and efficiently to support the...
us-digital-response.breezy.hr
November 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Come work for me! I'm hiring at @usdigitalresponse.org—somebody with experience as a government procurement FTE who wants to join me in providing pro bono support to governments in the U.S. who want to move to a user-centered, Agile software procurement approach. Remote, full-time, $145–165k.
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
We are working on *lots of things* but last night we soft-launched a change I am psyched about that makes our timelines filterable. Now you can see all of a case's entries on a given timeline in one place:
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
November 21, 2025 at 6:20 PM
We are working on *lots of things* but last night we soft-launched a change I am psyched about that makes our timelines filterable. Now you can see all of a case's entries on a given timeline in one place:
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Have you ever asked students to keep a research journal or a research log as a step toward the completion of an essay? I'd love to see what the assignment looked like.
November 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Have you ever asked students to keep a research journal or a research log as a step toward the completion of an essay? I'd love to see what the assignment looked like.
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.
This is who it was:
This is who it was:
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.
This is who it was:
This is who it was:
validating thread for those of us english majors turned journalists turned budding historians
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
November 19, 2025 at 11:54 PM
validating thread for those of us english majors turned journalists turned budding historians
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
Several Chicago newsrooms have been quietly collaborating to bring big ICE stories to the forefront.
In this story today, we found that feds used chemical weapons on Chicagoans at least 49 times during immigration raids — even after a judge said to stop.
In this story today, we found that feds used chemical weapons on Chicagoans at least 49 times during immigration raids — even after a judge said to stop.
Feds Used Chemical Weapons On Chicagoans At Least 49 Times — Even After Judge Said To Stop
Contrary to federal claims about attacks on agents, most of these incidents appear to involve nonviolent protesters or bystanders.
blockclubchicago.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Several Chicago newsrooms have been quietly collaborating to bring big ICE stories to the forefront.
In this story today, we found that feds used chemical weapons on Chicagoans at least 49 times during immigration raids — even after a judge said to stop.
In this story today, we found that feds used chemical weapons on Chicagoans at least 49 times during immigration raids — even after a judge said to stop.
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
“‘With banknotes damaged, banks gone, and no way to get dollars in or out, I can only do commerce and import necessities using cryptocurrencies,’ said Rafat Naim, a food merchant in Gaza.”
jewishcurrents.org/cryptocurren...
jewishcurrents.org/cryptocurren...
Cryptocurrency Comes to Gaza
With formal banking infrastructure in ruins, Palestinians in Gaza are forced to rely on unregulated digital currencies for survival.
jewishcurrents.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
“‘With banknotes damaged, banks gone, and no way to get dollars in or out, I can only do commerce and import necessities using cryptocurrencies,’ said Rafat Naim, a food merchant in Gaza.”
jewishcurrents.org/cryptocurren...
jewishcurrents.org/cryptocurren...
Reposted by sara m. b. simon
I spoke to Mahmood Mamdani about his new book, his expulsion from Uganda, his son Zohran, and *that* NYT article.
Mahmood Mamdani on Zohran, Uganda and forced expulsion: ‘Who is part of the nation and who is not?’
After being expelled from his homeland in 1972, the academic has grappled with questions of political belonging – a major theme of his son’s mayoral campaign
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I spoke to Mahmood Mamdani about his new book, his expulsion from Uganda, his son Zohran, and *that* NYT article.
it's only monday
November 18, 2025 at 2:52 AM
it's only monday