Sign in

Clare Sammells

@csammells.bsky.social
2.2K followers 2.2K following 950 posts

Anthropologist of Food, Tourism, and Latin America (Bolivia, Argentina, Antarctica). Lover of plants AND zombies. Barbershop singer. Assoc Prof at Bucknell U but all opinions are my own.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The White House accord on AI that was signed by all the big tech oligarchs today misspells United States as “Unites States.”
Document signed by Trump, Sundar Pichai
Google
Dario Amodei
Anthropic
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta

Greg Brockman
OpenAl

Elon Musk
XAI

Jensen Huang
nvidia “Unites States”
43566581819
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Bridget 🦋 🐸🌸📎🕊️💙 🇺🇦🇨🇦🌞📚🎶🌍🍀 @bawalker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Please share widely
055
Reposted by Clare Sammells
🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
121121715155
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This means eligible voters will be wrongly labeled non-citizens due to faulty and unreliable data and be purged from the rolls
34479260
Reposted by Clare Sammells
ProPublica @propublica.org · 23/09/2026
Vaccines were once so uncontroversial that McDonald’s restaurants put the childhood immunization schedule on their tray liners. Now, as the U.S. government sows doubt, preventable diseases could come roaring back. (Published March)
propublica.org
How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues
The health secretary is spreading doubts about vaccine safety and considering changes that could prompt manufacturers to flee the U.S. market. History has shown how plagues from the past can roar back...
862173852
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 23/09/2026
Big names in AI and Silicon Valley tech announced yesterday that they're launching a boarding academy for 16 to 22 year olds. (Would you trust the people in this scene with keeping an eye on minors?) theacademysf.com
Thrilled to announce our latest incubation: Horowitz Andreessen Academy.

Horowitz Andreessen Academy will be a two-year residential program in San Francisco for 16 to 22 year olds.

My biggest regret from my college experience is how divorced it was from the real world (both practically but also intellectually)

HAA is the opposite. Students will learn from real-world practitioners and intellectuals; including founders (Sam Altman, Brian Armstrong, Jensen Huang), investors (Elad Gil, Daniel Gross), and professors (Agnes Callard, Tyler Cowen), among hundreds of others. The Academy is the educational experience I wish I had.

In 1984, the educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom published a paper about how the average student who received one-on-one tutoring focused on mastery techniques performed better than 98% of the control group. For generations, this was viewed as unrealistic to implement even if it produced the best outcomes.
1951224346
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Awful: Trump's Office of "Remigration" has just been exposed making sordid payments to authoritarian governments to take third-country deportees, leading to serious abuses. Dems tell me they will try to defund the agency if they win power. They should. 1/ New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
Stephen Miller’s MAGA Terror Campaign Exposed by Damning New Leaks
Sordid revelations about the white-nationalist-themed Office of Remigration should galvanize Democrats: If they win power, they must try to shut it down.
13127761316
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In an Uber. Driver having loud phone conversation with someone in Spanish. A little annoying, but it happens. He hangs up. Says, “Mi hermano. La Migra.” And starts weeping.
1665759953
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A recent survey found that 92% of U.S. adults have delayed or avoided medical care due to high costs. Meanwhile, a new study from Yale estimates that Medicare for All would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion a year. If this country was truly “pro-life,” we would have universal healthcare.
424126304285
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
ProPublica got the literal check Collins was bribed with.
8443461333
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Gwen Pearson @bug-gwen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Just encouraging all Mac users to contact Apple and tell them it's BS that Siri and Apple intelligence can no longer be fully disabled in the latest update (OS27). Reports vary by device, but between 10G and 30G of AI garbage models downloading. I just wiped and will be staying with 26 for a while 😡
17379136
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Aida 🇵🇷🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦🐾🌊🦋🗽💙🐸 @latina4jesusdshw.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Exactly! #Pinks #USDemocracy
6331166
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 20/09/2026
Amtrak didn’t tell us about this exposure, so heads up: if you took an Amtrak train last week through Chicago or anywhere on the Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight, or California Zephyr routes like we did, you may have been exposed to measles! Please let the train people in your life know about this
3813331152
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Democracy depends on a fearless and free press. Without press freedom, we do not truly live in a free society. This is why I urge the news media to boycott the White House in response to Trump's ban on CNN, MS Now, and Politico. Giving in to tyranny only invites more of it.
812060630
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Eoin Higgins @eoinhiggins.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
You’re right—that plane shouldn’t have gone there. That’s my fault, and I should have made sure there wasn’t a terminal in the landing path. Would you like me to call emergency services, or assist with lining up takeoffs?
26082431642
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise.
159190993840
Reposted by Clare Sammells
ProPublica @propublica.org · 20/09/2026
ProPublica’s analysis of CDC data found that the rate of deaths involving ectopic pregnancies has nearly doubled. The spike alarmed many experts. One said it should “be a never event.”
propublica.org
Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans.
With prompt and appropriate medical care, experts say, people shouldn’t die from an ectopic pregnancy. Women in Texas and Oklahoma have sued over delays in care, which, coupled with our new analysis, ...
6019761059
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Hands off Kennedy Center!
wapo.st
Thousands rally outside shuttered Kennedy Center, chanting ‘Hands off!’
The vigil took place at the end of a week that saw the doors to the marble building locked shut.
5968291991
Clare Sammells @csammells.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This. I thinm we should all be very suspicious of any news source that decides to stay in the White House after this.
000
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
We don’t need our journalistic watchdogs to have “access” to Trump Everyone in the press room should walk out in protest … and source up.
1563555809
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Remember: Telling lies that everyone knows are lies is a classic tactic of dictators to force their followers to side with them over the truth itself. But the public will not be gaslit. We will continue to spread the truth to our communities. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
13059331767
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
White House correspondents, D.C. bureau chiefs, and media execs: The German government expelled Dorothy Thompson from the country in August 1934. She's remembered and respected today for her important coverage and analysis over the next decade of the German regime. Be like Dorothy Thompson.
7544211047
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $8 trillion. The entire bottom 50% of American households is worth just $4.27 trillion. Read that back. Remember: Wealth can’t be separated from power. Power begets wealth and wealth begets power.
349103004254
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Who will show more commitment to, and solidarity in support of, First Amendment values: members of the White House Correspondents Association, or opening acts for Ed Sheeran?
371671366
Reposted by Clare Sammells
"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I'm quoting the conclusion rather than the opening - this is a good thread on the closing literary horizons of a conservative subculture, through the shrinking pool of Harry Potter, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. There's an irony that Lewis and Tolkien, at least, would scream at them to read more widely!
719115
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If you’re in DC, come defend the Kennedy Center tonight from 6:30-8:00!
16814
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Tonight! Hands around the Kennedy Center is Friday 6:30-8:00pm.
10501191
Reposted by Clare Sammells
KJ Charles @kjcharleswriter.com · 18/09/2026
I was looking at the website of a dedicated romance bookstore in Devon and saw they had a section called "Books written with AI that are actually worth reading", and when I tell you I was inhaling deeply as I clicked. Should have known better. Props to Moonlit Chapters in Barnstaple, good work.
post reading: Look, if your using Gen AI to generate content in any form, then you need to rethink whether this community is for you.

I've seen an influx of authors, readers and bookish businesses using Gen AI in some form on their socials (and websites)  and somehow i am flabbergasted every time.

We should all know by now that Gen AI steals from creatives. So using it while claiming to love authors is a choice. Using it as a bookish business when you are making money off of your love of books, is a choice.

And its the wrong bloody choice. And you should see yourself out.
533070
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If I was in charge of an educational institution and learned that a technology fostered “cognitive surrender” in young people, I’d like to think I would do everything in my power to keep it away from the young people who pay my institution to educate them. But I guess I’m just a weirdo.
Students are using artificial intelligence for everything, including cheating, and a recent M.I.T. report said the technology was creating
"cognitive surrender."
Philip Cheung for The New York Times
Many university leaders are embracing A.I. anyway. →
19396123
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17/09/2026
New in PN: Retire in peace "McConnell would never be allowed to drive a car, babysit young children, or file his own taxes. Why, then, should a cognitively incapacitated 82-year-old retain one of the most important positions of power within the national government?"
publicnotice.co
Retire in peace
McConnell is the latest example of an incapacitated politician refusing to let go.
1723258937935
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Yoz Grahame @yoz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
USWDS was created and maintained by people who genuinely care about making government websites work as well as possible for as many people as possible. It was an amazing thing to watch on its own. But then to see the adoption and contribution by teams all over the world - that was incredible.
13615
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 16/09/2026
He's not got any idea what he's even voting on. He has to be told how to vote. He's incapacitated. He's incapable of representing the people of Kentucky who are currently being taxed without representation.
67091703216
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 15/09/2026
Please admire this slop-guide to the U.S. government that my kid received in his ninth grade government class. “Watergsstate Impreachment Imeachment bolity Precedent”
A sort of map of US government, with lots of arrows and words. It’s labelled “SIMPLIFIED CONCEPT MAP: U.S. GOVERNMENT.”Close up of the diagram:

Example: Watergate Impeachment Key 2473 - Watergsstate Impreachment
Imeachment bolitiy Precedent
Legislative Checks
Executive
Veto
No
Executive Cheeks
Example:
Washington's 2-Ter-in Precedent
Example 3: Impeachment Precedent Key 2016 - Declares political inconinitional comnoladunt precedions hutsite avothov Uncostitutional: Bleachmens on the divisience of the Barizon Precedent
1821759391
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
AI advocates say we have no right to stop innovation in the free market. Hogwash. We don’t allow corporations to come up with new nuclear weapons or varieties of cocaine or biological pathogens. We protect the public from certain kinds of innovation. We need guardrails on AI before it’s too late.
932368763
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The amount of Amazon workers relying on SNAP and Medicaid has nearly tripled since 2020. — while Amazon’s annual profits soared by over 550%. It’s the same story everywhere: corporate profits are at record highs, while workers’ share of the economy is at a record low. We must unrig the system.
519153135863
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Who knew Trump was such a terrible businessman that he could destroy multiple cultural institutions in Washington DC within a couple of years?
021
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New from 404 Media: humans are reading ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI has hired an army of contractors who read real ChatGPT users' chats. I've seen internal docs, the review system, and real user prompts. Sometimes they contain very personal and sensitive information www.404media.co/inside-proje...
404media.co
Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats
Humans are reading ChatGPT users’ prompts to improve OpenAI’s models, and those chats can include sensitive, personal information, according to leaked internal documents and real prompts seen by 404 M...
561998986
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
this is so fucking crazy. huge huge huge scoop www.404media.co/inside-proje...
In a dashboard available to the workers, human reviewers are able to select which “task” they want to take on. Once they click that, they are presented with the real ChatGPT user’s prompt. 404 Media has seen multiple real prompts but is not quoting any of them for source protection reasons. Some of the prompts indicate the ChatGPT user does not expect that a human may end up reading their conversation, because they ask ChatGPT to keep the content to themselves.
281654513
Reposted by Clare Sammells
70's Superhero Billy Jack @billyjackliberal.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I'm not sure people heard what our crazy president said HE SAID "CHEAT LIKE HELL" The president of the United States of America just told his supporters to cheat and offered a $5,000 bribe. THIS IS NOT NORMAL!
55382492648
Clare Sammells @csammells.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Some books are worth going back to. I'm rereading Justin Cronin's "The Passage" and wow, what a beautiful series. #horror #vampires #fiction
020
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 11/09/2026
Just did a quick look around and I don't see very many headlines about the President of the US making people pledge allegiance to him personally while telling everyone to commit election fraud and "cheat like hell" to support his party. Seems like it should be a story?
5758191881
Clare Sammells @csammells.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Just another reminder that you can, in fact, opt out of most AI. It takes some work, because there is so much money and time being invested in putting it everywhere. But you can do it. While you're at it, stop shopping at Amazon and Walmart, too.
010
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Senator Mike Lee, ladies and gentlemen. The pride of Utah!
static.klipy.com
Idiocracy: President Camacho with his orb
ALT: Idiocracy: President Camacho with his orb
1838652
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Again, just this week, the @nytimes.com & everyone else ran front page stories & headlines about how the AfD in 🇩🇪 was a far right party. Not only do they still not refer to the Republican Party this way, despite all of 👇 happening daily, but 👇 doesn't even make the news. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
56221
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 10/09/2026
Billionaire philanthropy is PR: We don't want your charity—we demand you pay taxes •Record profits are stolen wages: $50B annually in USA •SNAP & TANF are corporate welfare: Corporations who pay a sub-living wage should be shut down Stop defending billionaires. Start taxing them out of existence.
11465153
Reposted by Clare Sammells
BarbJoan @bjgt.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is reprehensible. The Killing Fields are a network of sites in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge regime executed and buried an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people between 1975 and 1979.
021
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
An OB-GYN sued (often low-income, uninsured) patients for owing as little as $114. He charged them 18% interest. And oh, he had many of them *arrested* if they didn't follow through. That OB-GYN? Republican Senator Roger Marshall www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/u... Insane story by Sarah Kliff
nytimes.com
Roger Marshall Sued 700 Patients for Debts; 81 Were Arrested. Now He’s a Senator.
Patients sued by Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas were routinely charged 18 percent interest, The Times found. Some had bank accounts garnished.
22418242
Clare Sammells @csammells.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.
010
Reposted by Clare Sammells
Jay Troyer @gr8flbluejay.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Criselda Vasquez, American, The New American Gothic, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in, private collection The artist's father, portrayed in the painting, was kidnapped by ICE on 31 March 2026
201308675012
Reposted by Clare Sammells
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/09/2026
under remarked on aspect of trump is his deep hatred of natural beauty and the natural world.
16858921180