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Joanna Nelius-Free

@joannafreewrites.bsky.social
455 followers 396 following 858 posts

AuDHD. Creative writing teacher. Tarot reader. Gardener. Still-recovering tech journalist formerly of The Verge, Gizmodo, PC Gamer, & elsewhere. "Dumb" tech fan. joannanelius.com

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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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Drinks I Give Up
ALT: Drinks I Give Up
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Or bring back the BBS! 😂
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
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Bill Murray Applauds Enthusiastically
ALT: Bill Murray Applauds Enthusiastically
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
LMAO
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Well hey there, pumpkin
A growing, green pumpkin the size of a golf ball rests on top of a piece of cardboard.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
"The agency also assured that the AI wouldn’t be directly integrated into day-to-day air traffic management." I don't believe this for a microsecond.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
static.klipy.com
J. Jonah Jameson's Iconic Laugh
ALT: J. Jonah Jameson's Iconic Laugh
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Jed Brown @jedbrown.org · 16/09/2026
Oh. That's a heck of a subsidy.
At MIT, Harvard, or any other school, supervising an undergraduate researcher is a lot of work, costs a lot of money, involves a lot of meetings, and the results are not reliably excellent. Asking Claude is easier, faster, and may produce better results. It’s also cheaper, which is no accident: Harvard allows every Harvard student and faculty member to request a Claude token budget of $2,500 per month, even as research funding is continuously threatened and the University lays off staff.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
You might say petty, but I say you're just telling it like it is; for all of the 2000s, and even the 2010s, the outside sentiment for English and creative writing majors like myself was "There's no money in that, learn to code instead." BOY HOW THE TABLES HAVE TURNED!
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"Monday, September 14, at 7 p.m. ET, the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom will be hosting “Accreditation and You,” a webinar to learn about the far right’s attempt to capture higher ed accreditation, what is changing and why it matters, and how you can join in the fight and take action."
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Pause AI in BC Schools @aicaution.ca · 11/09/2026
Every single time there's an article saying that AI bans are not the answer, check who it's written by. @science.org published this article from someone who works at an AI company. Maybe they might have a vested interest in AI? The article should be listed as an advertisement.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“We’ll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.” - Gloria Steinem
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Catherine Prendergast @badtoss.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Reading the ARC of it now and Sherlock Holmes fans--you are going to love it.
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Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"There's an ineffable aspect to my favorite pieces of software where I don't think of it is as feature matrix but rather as an interface made by a human for humans that's a joy to use. And when you build software with AI, it leads to worse software." brettcodes.com/im-done-usin...
brettcodes.com
I'm done using AI
Why I'm stopping using AI for coding (and anything else) after using it earnestly for a year and coming to understand the harms it causes on personal, societal, and environmental levels.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 31/08/2026
“Optimisation is so seductive because it’s framed as a rare opportunity to exercise freedom – the freedom to make your own choices and control your own outcomes – but it’s a suspicious freedom that enriches companies through the collection of your sensitive information.” #LuxurySurveillance
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Entertainment
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Side note: I would 100% take that Girls and Dolls class. It sounds really interesting!
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Why is Craig dressed like an English professor? Is it a cry for help?
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
In honor of Tim Curry, drop your favorite scene or moment.
static.klipy.com
Tim Curry's Iconic 'Frankly, Scarlet' Moment
ALT: Tim Curry's Iconic 'Frankly, Scarlet' Moment
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Something new from me that isn't a laptop review or a deep dive into hardware architecture; it's incredibly human. This is for you, dad. You were punk against the machine before everyone else realized there was a machine.
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Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton's family asked that, in lieu of flowers, fans make a donation to the singer's Imagination Library. Here's what the charity does ⬇️ www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
rollingstone.com
Turning Pages: Inside Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Core team of 15 staff and thousands of volunteers and partners help the country-music philanthropist deliver books to kids around the world.
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is what I’m talking about! Our institutions should be doing the work for us and not leaving us to jury rig together the collapsing infrastructure around us. More of this. chicagomaroon.com/53262/news/s...
chicagomaroon.com
Sosc Core to Institute AI Ban, Technology-Free Classrooms This Fall
All social science Core classes will transition to an “analog” approach for the upcoming academic year, restricting in-classroom technology use and banning AI-assisted writing and grading for students...
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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 08/08/2026
Arguing that LLMs are anything more than a load of numbers going into a complicated mathematical function and spitting some more numbers out. Yes they simulate. But they simulate *language*. They do not simulate the cognitive processes underlying communication.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
While I wholeheartly believe that knowledge work is not, nor will ever be, pointless, my newfound passion for gardening (an old-timey hobby) was born from a deep, personal existential crisis. But an "indescribable melancholy" is something I've felt for most of my life.
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lincoln carpenter, skeleton @lincolnhello.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
As part of our experimentation with new post formats at PC Gamer, I'm pleased to present this Causality Chain, which chronicles how Stephen King's childhood trauma led to Kiefer Sutherland ordering a fake horse to perform tactical shitting 64 years later:
pcgamer.com
How Stephen King watching a train hit a kid led to Kiefer Sutherland making his videogame horse crap on command: A PC Gamer Causality Chain™
Many of our greatest works are downstream of terrible woe.
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Mitch Dyer @mitchyd.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
this CEO comment is how you know with 1000% certainty Stella is right
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Jesus fucking christ
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Joy Brennan @joybrennan.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
In the future I want an academic discipline, and maybe also a religion, devoted to understanding and correcting whatever delusion we've sustained that allows so many to believe that because a computer program can churn out some complex prose, it must have cognition, subjectivity, & agency.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
So... does the Tdap I'm required to get as a teacher make me more autistic or does it just refresh my autism every 10 years? 🙃
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
My backyard 😁
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
One week later...
A large watermelon surrounded by vines.
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
not to be confused with quesadilla
Ķ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Quesadilla.
Ķ (k-cedilla) is the 17th letter of the Latvian alphabet.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Re GTA 6 trailer news: just when ya think Capitalism can't Capitalism any harder...
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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Professional writer organizations should not send out pro-AI propaganda in the form of tantrum-having "essays" to their members, and I don't think that's controversial.
terribleminds.com
Regarding The Pro-AI Tantrum In The HWA Newsletter
Today I, and every other HWA member, received the HWA newsletter in our inboxes. In that newsletter was an essay (“essay”) of pro-AI propaganda that made a number of specious points in …
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Us teachers don't need another reason to be anti-AI in the classroom, and yet...
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
MELONS! 😮
A close up of a watermelon growing on a vine outdoors.Another close up of a watermelon growing on a vine outdoors.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
What in the actual fuck
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
19th century VR
A woman looks at a photograph through an antique viewfinder.A woman looks at a photograph through an antique viewfinder.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Snowglobes
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Good.
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Etch @etchfilm.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Some stories stay with you. Others follow you home. @stephengrahamjones.com shares a real midnight encounter that feels like it wandered out of one of his novels...except it actually happened.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Just another LA car chase 🤣
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Yes. Once again thinking about Kate Losse’s work: modelviewculture.com/pieces/the-m...
modelviewculture.com
The Male Gazed
Surveillance, Power, and Gender
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
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Star Wars Jar Jar Binks Thumbs Up
ALT: Star Wars Jar Jar Binks Thumbs Up
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I don't post enough cat pics
A black and white tuxedo cat sleeping peacefully on top of a blanket.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
"Grid Failure" sounds totally like an aggrotech band 🤘
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Gardening level unlocked: Watermelon.
A side close-up of an open, yellow flower on top of a unfertilized watermelon ovary.
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Joanna Nelius-Free @joannafreewrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Writer: What do we fuck? Audience: DRAGONS! Writer: When do we fuck them? Audience: NOW!
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404 Media @404media.co · 24/07/2026
This is how cops are using Flock to track actual people, not just cars, with searches like “male with tattoos.” @josephcox.bsky.social breaks it down. Watch the full episode here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xSe...
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Patrick Pittman @patrickpittman.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
When my brain broke, I set about trying to fix it the same way I do with anything — by pulling it apart to figure out what's jammed. This started as a cultural history of writer's block, and ended up in the neuroscience of how creativity itself works (or doesn't): thestory.au/articles/wri...
thestory.au
Grief Breaks the Brain: A Writer's Long Journey Back to the Page
When tragedy destroyed his ability to write, Patrick Pittman went looking for a way back to the page. But is the cure for writer’s block in your heart, or in your head?
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