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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 1d

Apparently all you needed to do to predict the NYC election results was read that one N.K. Jemisin novel.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 20h

Mamdani says in his victory speech, “we will hire thousands of teachers.”

This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.

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Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 1d

The BBC and The Times have decided to resurrect the victimhood of Clanchy. But the facts are the facts: Clanchy wrote her racist, Islamophobic, ableist, and Anti-LGBT thoughts for all to see, and when challenged attempted to deny it. (See full 🧵).
bsky.app/profile/snig...

Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 1d

I see the 2021 scandal around Kate Clanchy's book "Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me" is back in the news as Clanchy receives an apology from the publisher of that book. Here's a reminder of the racism, Islamophobia, anti-LGBT comments, and fat shaming from the book.

"Like all the Syrian kids, she is very pretty: pale skinned & dark eyed with a sensitive mouth & a tiny, high-pitched voice." p263

"Izzat so small & square & Afghan with his big nose &

premature moustache." p139

"Aadil always seems so grand: a tall Somali boy with a deep, African voice, & the almost aristocratically calm manner that sometimes goes with being extremely good-looking." p85

"Cumar is long & slender as many of the Somali kids are, with a thin nose, narrow skull, & very dark, almost black skin. Aadil is more muscular & square-set, with chocolate-coloured skin, a broad-based nose, & rounded head." p85

"Jonathon, six-foot five inches tall with a slow, resonant African accent." p78 & "Tall, strong, African Jonathon."

p243

"The small round Priti & her taller, silent cousin, Priya." p93

"She would call out to me for words, urgently, her black, almond-shaped eyes snapping, slim fingers blossoming."

p108

All so different from "my Nordic height & Celtic colouring".

Hijabs

Clanchy thinks about hijabs - a lot.

"I wonder again what Shakila does to her hijab, & why it seems to sit fuller & higher than the other girls' - a Mother Superior hijab, or one from Vermeer. It can't be starched.

Maybe it's draped over twisted horns of hair like Carrie Fisher's in Star Wars. That would go with her furry eyebrows, her slanting, sparkling black eyes, her general, Mongolian ferocity." p78

"Her high-set, starched hijab - did she have extra ears under there?" p109

"It is possible to wear a flirty hijab, like Samira's leopard-patterned one. & that Farida's dress may be loose & floor-length, but it still manages to show the beautiful lines of her figure when she hitches it tight around her as she sits by the basketball courts." p117

"If I could put a burqa on Susie & Kristell tomorrow, I would. A year or two of being invisible to the male gaze, of going home quietly to study, could only be liberating, & enabling too, of the rest of their lives... It's important to say that nothing that Susie or Kristell ever wear, however brief, entitles them to any abuse, ever." p165

LGBTQI+

Clanchy is supportive of gay pupils, although she's hampered by stereotypes & sees camp as a "statement of otherness". Nevertheless, she takes an 18-year old to his first gay club, which she admits wouldn't be acceptable now. She sends him in with the words:

""Liam,' I said, 'I love you. You have to promise me to always use a condom & never get AIDS." p33

But she's more dismissive of trans pupils. Like much of what she writes, I understand the concern she's raising, but the tone is trivialising:

"Are we all 'fluid' now? Perhaps. It is commonplace to proclaim oneself transsexual. & to actually be gay, especially if you are as pretty as Kristen Stewart is positively fashionable. A couple of kids have even changed gender, a decision so deliciously of the moment, so furiously defended by righteous students against non-existent opposition from staff that I worry only that they won't feel the freedom to change back if they feel the need." p34

Weight

All the critical comments about weight are applied to girls, & most are in a section about health. Clanchy tries to include a compensatory compliment, but there are weird sexualising & classist undercurrents:

"When Kristell arrived in Year 9, she had a bosomy, curvy figure, with a tiny waist & pretty ankles... She had a soft, breathy voice to match the Bambi lashes & fresh mouth."

p237

Later

"She has put on a great deal of weight, so that the pretty figure is blurred... The dark eyes gazing out of the fat pink cheeks are still so very lovely." p238-9

"Danielle really was special: she was exquisitely pretty in the dark & elfin, Audrey Hepburn mode. She knew it too; she was always finding occasion to take off her clothes & expose her pale, beautifully turned limbs." p233

Later

"As if refusing middle-class food along with middle-class ambition, Danielle put on weight... her new bosom protruding ever more bulbously... I was surprised how hurt I was to see it. It wasn't the flesh so much as the loss of grace." p234

I know what she means with this next one, & there is a valid point. It's probably intended to be self-deprecating & tongue-in-cheek, but...

"Lianne is stuffing fig rolls, my favourite, into her pretty fat face, & it is very hard indeed not to have one. I can manage it, I think, in the same way that I can manage to finish a poem, because I am middle class. Because, since I was a tiny child, I have been taught to wait for long-term goals." p235

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Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 1d

A white journalist at a white BBC has made what looks like a hit piece about a white writer charged with racism by a number of writers of colour. The twist? The BBC attacks the writers of colour.

Solidarity with all Black and Brown people fighting to be treated with dignity. Screw the racist BBC.

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innes @innes.bsky.social · 1d

ushering in an era of bold socialist leaders who support trans rights and make really great font choices

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old roadside pics @roadside.xor.blue · 1d

al's oasis billboard 1, oacoma, south dakota, 1980

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Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 1d

The billionaires can buy the newspapers and buy social media and buy attack ads, but they can't buy their way out of how much we fucking hate all of them.

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Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens @csmfht.bsky.social · 1d

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Found Star Trek Episodes @foundepisodes.bsky.social · 29d

#StarTrekDS9 "The Harbinger's Lullaby"

When Julian and his lover discover they are pregnant, Starfleet intervenes, fearing a genetically enhanced offspring. Dax, Kira, and Cassidy’s “girls night out” results in 47 torched Dominion stations. Vorta: Thom Yorke.

A partial clipping from an old TV Guide reads as follows:

Culkin) returns, this time trapped in the sewer of his town’s secret industrial plant, and forced to defend his turf from CHUDs and Morlocks.

7 PM channel 13 STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE(CC)—Science Fiction; 60 min.
When Julian and his lover discover they are pregnant, Starfleet intervenes, fearing a genetically enhanced offspring. Dax, Kira, and Cassidy’s “girls night out” results in 47 torched Dominion stations. Vorta: Thom Yorke.

[SCI] MOVIE(CC)—Horror; 2 hrs.
“Herbie’s Hell Derby.” Lindsay Lohan. Tim Cur-

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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 2d

It's not in this article but the government asserts that the sandwich was thrown at "point blank range", which implies subway sandwiches have defined effective weapon ranges of varying lethality, and I would like to see the government's chart of these ranges.

Josh Mankiewicz @joshmankiewicz.bsky.social · 2d

Trial Begins for Man Accused of Lobbing a Sandwich at a Federal Agent www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

Trial Begins for Man Accused of Lobbing a Sandwich at a Federal Agent

www.nytimes.com

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 2d

the skeleton of a sperm whale

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WHAT A FUCKING RECORD @whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 2d

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GIFS GALORE @gifs-bot.bsky.social · 5d

STARTREK/NCC1701.GIF

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GIFS GALORE @gifs-bot.bsky.social · 3d

SCI_FI/SPAC2010.GIF

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GIFS GALORE @gifs-bot.bsky.social · 2d

STARTREK/STTNG018.GIF

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 2d

As I regularly note, "AI" at this point is an umbrella marketing term for a bunch or generative/machine learning/other formerly differently-termed processes that (of course) have no actual intelligence behind them. It means nothing useful for how the underlying computing proceeds. Thus the quotes.

Rob Northrup. This Gun in My Hand podcast🕵 @deidzoeb.bsky.social · 2d

I love how you used quotation marks around "AI." If you've been doing that all along, I'm kicking myself for not noticing. It's a misleading or just lying marketing term and we shouldn't accept and repeat it without pushback. Generative LLMs are not AI.

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 2d

A handwritten note reads: “I think it’s important that people don’t feel alone.” The words "I think" are crossed out. The quote is signed “- lou reed.” Faint numbers “86 895” are written at the top.

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Comics in the Golden Age @comicsinthega.bsky.social · 2d

Share an awesome 70s movie!

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974).

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Quest 64 Official @quest64official.bsky.social · 2d

November 3 2000, Mario Tennis debuted on the Nintendo 64 in PAL territories!

The release of this game also marked the first appearance of an enigmatic fan favorite character, Waluigi! (If you turn on the console with no controller present)

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The picture is Luigi running with an N64 controller with waluigi flying across the sky holding the console

The text says please turn off your Nintendo 64 control deck and insert a controller

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Andrew Male @andrewmale.bsky.social · 2d

This New Yorker documentary about the 1988 UK government ban on broadcasting the voices of Sinn Féin and I.R.A. leaders is pretty good but they show *that clip from The Day Today with no explanation and no indicator that it is satire.

www.newyorker.com/video/watch/...

The Ban

www.newyorker.com

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DJ Ir0ngruve @dj-ir0ngruve.bsky.social · 2d

Adding into the mix that ChatGPT can dose everyone with billionaire’s disease

Social media post on black background:”Being a billionaire must be insane. You can buy new teeth, new skin. All your chairs cost 20,000 dollars and weigh 2,000 pounds.
Your life is just a series of your own preferences. In terms of cognitive
impairment it's probably like being kicked in the head by a horse every day”

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Minilla Jovovich 🍉 @minillajovovich.bsky.social · 3d

Amazon: "continue these series you've started!!!"

"The Stranger: Reckoning" by Chris Striker (book 2 of 2 of "The Stranger")

Wtf did I start reading? When did I buy this?

[Clicks book 1]

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus