Sara Baker
@sarabaker.bsky.social
tech/data/gender research, writing, and advocacy; organizational strengthening; gardening in TN | ex @Engnroom @takebackthetech @apc.bsky.social | she/her
banner photo: purple graffiti on a white wall reading NO BORDERS, NO NATIONS
banner photo: purple graffiti on a white wall reading NO BORDERS, NO NATIONS
Reposted by Sara Baker
404 Media is making a print zine! About the surveillance technologies used by ICE. 16 pages, riso printed. Shipping early January. Features reworked versions of our best reporting and a few new things. We're very excited! And hope to do more if people like it:
www.404media.co/404-media-is...
www.404media.co/404-media-is...
404 Media Is Making a Zine
We are publishing a risograph-printed zine about the surveillance technologies used by ICE.
www.404media.co
December 8, 2025 at 3:42 PM
404 Media is making a print zine! About the surveillance technologies used by ICE. 16 pages, riso printed. Shipping early January. Features reworked versions of our best reporting and a few new things. We're very excited! And hope to do more if people like it:
www.404media.co/404-media-is...
www.404media.co/404-media-is...
Reposted by Sara Baker
I mean we are absolutely in a place now where the only solution to this information disorder is for everyone to constantly evaluate the source of information. Never trust a chatbot, but also don't believe a video unless you know and trust where it comes from.
Unfortunately... that's a lot of work.
Unfortunately... that's a lot of work.
December 5, 2025 at 11:18 PM
I mean we are absolutely in a place now where the only solution to this information disorder is for everyone to constantly evaluate the source of information. Never trust a chatbot, but also don't believe a video unless you know and trust where it comes from.
Unfortunately... that's a lot of work.
Unfortunately... that's a lot of work.
If you, like me, have long covid and want to help find a way to reduce symptoms, there are some spots left in this super smart randomized trial!
Fewer than 50 slots left in this Long Covid trial (down from 1000!)
They’re especially hoping to enroll folks from North Dakota, Mississippi and Puerto Rico, as well as more BIPOC participants.
To sign up: longcovid.scripps.edu/locitt-t/?ut...
They’re especially hoping to enroll folks from North Dakota, Mississippi and Puerto Rico, as well as more BIPOC participants.
To sign up: longcovid.scripps.edu/locitt-t/?ut...
The Scripps tirzepatide trial is in @wired.com today! Thanks so much for covering this @emilymullin.bsky.social!
The signup link for the trial: longcovid.scripps.edu/locitt-t/?ut...
The signup link for the trial: longcovid.scripps.edu/locitt-t/?ut...
December 5, 2025 at 6:16 PM
If you, like me, have long covid and want to help find a way to reduce symptoms, there are some spots left in this super smart randomized trial!
Do you wake up every day & think, wtf are we doing? Are you exhausted by going about your daily life while our government is doing fascism like it's 1933? Do you speak out, donate, help out but also weep, binge drink, get your meds increased? Wtf are we doing wtf are we doing wtf are we doing wtf
December 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Do you wake up every day & think, wtf are we doing? Are you exhausted by going about your daily life while our government is doing fascism like it's 1933? Do you speak out, donate, help out but also weep, binge drink, get your meds increased? Wtf are we doing wtf are we doing wtf are we doing wtf
Reposted by Sara Baker
Between living in a state of hyper-vigilance, enduring widespread loss, and bearing witness to purposeful cruelty while powerless to stop it, we are all experiencing trauma—even if we as individuals or as members of a vulnerable group are not being targeted directly.
Be gentle with yourselves.
Be gentle with yourselves.
December 5, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Between living in a state of hyper-vigilance, enduring widespread loss, and bearing witness to purposeful cruelty while powerless to stop it, we are all experiencing trauma—even if we as individuals or as members of a vulnerable group are not being targeted directly.
Be gentle with yourselves.
Be gentle with yourselves.
Reposted by Sara Baker
Sending all my love to NOLA.
Arrests begin in New Orleans immigration crackdown, pictures suggest – live
Images show federal forces taking people into custody in New Orleans, Louisiana
www.theguardian.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Sending all my love to NOLA.
Reposted by Sara Baker
"Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement… The killing of the survivors by this moral slum of an administration should nauseate Americans. A nation incapable of shame is dangerous, not least to itself.”
December 3, 2025 at 7:03 PM
"Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement… The killing of the survivors by this moral slum of an administration should nauseate Americans. A nation incapable of shame is dangerous, not least to itself.”
Reposted by Sara Baker
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
December 3, 2025 at 2:14 AM
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Reposted by Sara Baker
14% swing from 2024 when all is said and done? Pretty good considering just how high-profile the race became in the last week
Turnout is currently *93%* of 2022, and it's also a 14% swing from 2022 despite similar turnout levels
Turnout is currently *93%* of 2022, and it's also a 14% swing from 2022 despite similar turnout levels
December 3, 2025 at 2:46 AM
14% swing from 2024 when all is said and done? Pretty good considering just how high-profile the race became in the last week
Turnout is currently *93%* of 2022, and it's also a 14% swing from 2022 despite similar turnout levels
Turnout is currently *93%* of 2022, and it's also a 14% swing from 2022 despite similar turnout levels
Reposted by Sara Baker
December 2, 2025 at 5:44 AM
For Tennessee:
1. Secret City, or, They Didn’t Know They Were Making an Atomic Bomb
2. A Memphis Balcony, 1968
3. Kingston Coal Ash Spill
4. Too Loud in Music City
5. These Mountains Are Hella Old
6. Why Are We Going to Jackson? There’s Nothing There.
7. The Cherokee Town Under the Lake
5. Dolly
1. Secret City, or, They Didn’t Know They Were Making an Atomic Bomb
2. A Memphis Balcony, 1968
3. Kingston Coal Ash Spill
4. Too Loud in Music City
5. These Mountains Are Hella Old
6. Why Are We Going to Jackson? There’s Nothing There.
7. The Cherokee Town Under the Lake
5. Dolly
Question: if Sufjan Stevens did an album about your state, what would there be songs about? (sorry, Michigan and Illinois, you have to sit this one out.
I'll go first for Maryland:
1. Baltimore
2. Harriet Tubman
3. The Snallygaster
4. The pursuit of John Wilkes Booth
5. The Chesapeake
6. Crabs
I'll go first for Maryland:
1. Baltimore
2. Harriet Tubman
3. The Snallygaster
4. The pursuit of John Wilkes Booth
5. The Chesapeake
6. Crabs
December 2, 2025 at 3:37 AM
For Tennessee:
1. Secret City, or, They Didn’t Know They Were Making an Atomic Bomb
2. A Memphis Balcony, 1968
3. Kingston Coal Ash Spill
4. Too Loud in Music City
5. These Mountains Are Hella Old
6. Why Are We Going to Jackson? There’s Nothing There.
7. The Cherokee Town Under the Lake
5. Dolly
1. Secret City, or, They Didn’t Know They Were Making an Atomic Bomb
2. A Memphis Balcony, 1968
3. Kingston Coal Ash Spill
4. Too Loud in Music City
5. These Mountains Are Hella Old
6. Why Are We Going to Jackson? There’s Nothing There.
7. The Cherokee Town Under the Lake
5. Dolly
Reposted by Sara Baker
there’s a scene in the new documentary where Elizabeth Taylor is talking about the stigma of AIDS and how she got involved in the movement and it’s fucking everything
August 10, 2024 at 3:21 PM
there’s a scene in the new documentary where Elizabeth Taylor is talking about the stigma of AIDS and how she got involved in the movement and it’s fucking everything
Most of my life is spent trying to get my kid to stop making so many mouth sounds.
November 28, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Most of my life is spent trying to get my kid to stop making so many mouth sounds.
Reposted by Sara Baker
This isn't any worse than any of the other illegal detainments but I love Marilyn and seriously with all my heart fuck these people sideways with a thorny rose bush.
ICE DETAINED MARILYN. Fuck these people. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
‘Northern Exposure’ actor gave ICE agents in Redmond her tribal ID. They called it ‘fake,’ she says
Indigenous actor Elaine Miles of "Northern Exposure" was detained by ICE at a Redmond bus stop. When she showed them her Tribal ID, they told her it was fake.
www.seattletimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:13 PM
This isn't any worse than any of the other illegal detainments but I love Marilyn and seriously with all my heart fuck these people sideways with a thorny rose bush.
Reposted by Sara Baker
A *huge* vaccine victory. I've been writing on this for years; Australia has seen remarkable progress in cervical cancer prevention with the HPV vaccine. I love seeing science triumph like this.
Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au
November 27, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A *huge* vaccine victory. I've been writing on this for years; Australia has seen remarkable progress in cervical cancer prevention with the HPV vaccine. I love seeing science triumph like this.
Reposted by Sara Baker
This is who we're deporting while we're importing sex traffickers like the Tate brothers and white supremacists who are nostalgic for Apartheid.
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:58 PM
This is who we're deporting while we're importing sex traffickers like the Tate brothers and white supremacists who are nostalgic for Apartheid.
Reposted by Sara Baker
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
Reposted by Sara Baker
the baby (17 months) raised both her hands and said “WEADY?” so I said “ready!” and then she slapped me in the face
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
the baby (17 months) raised both her hands and said “WEADY?” so I said “ready!” and then she slapped me in the face
Reposted by Sara Baker
Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive.
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
If You Use Gmail, You're Going To Want To Turn Off This 1 Automatic Setting ASAP
Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.
www.huffpost.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive.
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
Reposted by Sara Baker
hive-mind, know of any research/academic work that has detailed the various ways social media/large platforms have made audits/critical investigation of these platforms practically impossible. exuberant API fees, access only to partial data even when you can pay fee, retaliation again auditors, etc
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
hive-mind, know of any research/academic work that has detailed the various ways social media/large platforms have made audits/critical investigation of these platforms practically impossible. exuberant API fees, access only to partial data even when you can pay fee, retaliation again auditors, etc
Reposted by Sara Baker
Like many places these days, Scotland lets the public name their snow plows. But they take it up a notch and offer a live tracking map so you can follow Thistle Grit Through, Robert Brrrns and Ice Sweeper Willie on their rounds
www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac...
www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac...
November 21, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Like many places these days, Scotland lets the public name their snow plows. But they take it up a notch and offer a live tracking map so you can follow Thistle Grit Through, Robert Brrrns and Ice Sweeper Willie on their rounds
www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac...
www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac...
Reposted by Sara Baker
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
![Excerpt from a BBC article: ""We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day," says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name. "On Sundays we work around three hours less."
She is in an alleyway, where a dozen people are huddled around a row of bulletin boards.
They are reading the job ads on the board, while examining the stitching on a pair of chinos draped over it.
This is Shein's supply chain. The factories are contracted to make clothes on order - some small, some big. If the chinos are a hit, orders will ramp up and so must production. Factories then hire temporary workers to meet the demand their permanent staff cannot fulfil.
The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term contract - and the chinos are an option.
"We earn so little. The cost of living is now so high," she says, adding that she hopes to make enough to send back to her two children who are living with their grandparents.
"We get paid per piece," she explains. "It depends how difficult the item is. Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan [less than a dollar] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour.""](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks3gpa6ftoyaq7hmf6c4qx4c/bafkreiber7g4o5pujmzmjjzsp5dkz7blfexburuwjispfpv6dki7akjb7a@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
Reposted by Sara Baker
Extremely important investigation.
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 7:56 PM
Extremely important investigation.
Reposted by Sara Baker
If our HS history curriculum weren't a worthless fact-to-fact journey through the wars and great men with occasional detours into sidebar discussions of the working conditions of poor people and the subjugated, we'd already have this class. It would be called "History."
I wanna invent time travel and then require every high school student to take a class called "All The Shit We Fixed Before You Got Here" where they tour smog-filled US cities, polio wards, pre-vaccine hospitals, buildings with no safety regulations, kids working in mines, etc.
November 19, 2025 at 8:45 PM
If our HS history curriculum weren't a worthless fact-to-fact journey through the wars and great men with occasional detours into sidebar discussions of the working conditions of poor people and the subjugated, we'd already have this class. It would be called "History."