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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺

@katetopper.bsky.social
705 followers 623 following 482 posts

Birds, ancient art, and sometimes other things. 📷: Me and a good dog in Rome/Cal Anderson Park, Seattle

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Reposted by Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺
Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:
Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads: 

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."
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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
tracking the Ring
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Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
You need to be well wrapped up when you're out in the fields sowing seeds in October. #medievalcalendar BnF NAL 3055; Livre d'Heures de Jean Sans Peur, duc de Bourgogne; XVe siècle; f.10r @gallicabnf.bsky.social
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Urvi @theurv.com · 28/09/2026
There were more men in a single documented gang rape at one school than the number of competitive trans athletes nationally. But I’ve heard a lot more politicians being asked about protecting girls from one of these scenarios and not another… I’ll let you guess which is which.
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is brilliant!
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Brenda Hiles @beehiles.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
An alligator glides past an observation deck in Sunset Beach, N.C., on Monday, as an alligator-shaped cloud drifts out to sea.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Some of you sneering about those who mask/care about masking, have you considered that one day you might also have to care about masking again in a non-pandemic sense? Would you like to see yourself relentlessly mocked by journalists, politicians and ordinary folk on social media?
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TashasEv @tashasev.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Seriously this is just how she is
A large fluffy white dog sleeping on a raised cot with her mouth slightly open and, you guessed it, her tongue dangling out from the side
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Let's hear it for keystone species of all kinds!
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Elizabeth Zelle @kohizeri.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"the assessment did not consider the crocodiles" is my new metaphor for people choosing to just ignore the data point that doesn't agree with them
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Kris Winters🏳️‍🌈 @krisw058.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
If genai went away today, the only difference in my life would not having to scrutinize so many pictures and video clips. It would actively make things better if it all went away.
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Nikes | AlexLeeDee @alexleedee.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 11/09/2026
I also find it hilarious how universities are justifying these expenditures using the language of 'equity.'"If we don't buy these tools for everyone, then only the rich kids will be able to afford them, and that's unfair." But you don't buy books assigned by profs for anyone? Why not subsidize that!
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Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is I. Have never even been to the website, for the same reason that I wouldn't eat an arsenic sandwich.
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Nope, and I've never used any of its competitors, either.
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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Elephant with salt. The elephant is late 15thC Deccan, while the mounting was done in Lisbon about 1550. (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Kunstkammer)
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
You call it asking your students a series of probing questions designed to draw out their beliefs and assumptions, I call it
A sign for Socrates Junk Removal
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Elise A. Mitchell @bydreamphd.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’ve had this convo privately enough times in the last week to go public: I don’t think there is any valuable way to use AI in a history classroom.
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Walking Eagle News @theeagleist.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
BREAKING: sucks to have stuff renamed by white people, doesn’t it?
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Becky Hammer @beckyhammer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I've been tasked to cover data center issues at work recently and I've learned some interesting things about data centers' environmental impacts that I thought I'd share Some really unexpected stuff beyond the energy/water stuff most people know about at this point
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Frog and Toad Bot @frogandtoadbot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
“Well then,” said Toad, “a little more sleep will not hurt me.”
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Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I'm sure she got advice on her image, on how it might be better to reject her LGBTQ audience. She didn't. She knew what it was to be powerless & poor & she didn't want *anyone* to live that way. A lesson for people w aspirations to public life: Hurting others doesn't have to be part of the equation.
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Karl Galle @karlgalle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Back to the 1920s with a new economy of underground speakeasies but for shops serving cappuccinos and clandestine photocopied course packs. 🤔 👀
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I never get tired of these.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Some of us are using his body to produce content for clicks and profit on Twitter and to get eyes on endless op-eds and "journalism," or ears to listen to podcasts etc. Is it a subject worth discussing? Yes. But this is morbid.
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Abra / Jessica Conwell, Carmella Creeper's Gender Doula🏳️‍⚧️ 🇲🇽🌼 @pairofclaws.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
"If we want people to stop using AI, we need to help them come up with alternatives for what they use it for." THINKING. WITH YOUR BRAIN. THAT'S THE ALTERNATIVE.
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Jen @cassiciacum.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
It frankly very noticeable that Dems refuse to do this (and have refused for decades). What is the first thing conservatives do when they take over a higher Ed institution? Change the core curriculum and attempt to limit what is taught in those classes.
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Rachel Ernst @rachelernst.myatproto.social · 20/08/2026
I cannot begin to count the amount of technology tools I have been told in the last 20 years that I need to teach my students how to use because they were the future. 95% of them are gone. A tool is a tool.
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
🧵
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
In the Renaissance people theorized, since the Aeneid is great, if you wrote poems made only of words & phrases from the Aeneid rearranged they should be great too, since a great source regurgitated should yield greatness. They produced NOTHING we still read. Thinking about that a lot lately.
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I've seen a lot of "advice to writers on how to counter accusations of AI." Let me remind you: the onus is on the accuser to prove the accusation. Most accusers aren't detecting AI. They're detecting the source material used to train AI. Our voices were stolen. Do not fall into this trap.
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Shaily Patel @vox-magica.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
the point is that the fix cannot be on individual faculty. we need our institutions to recognize that gAI is, essentially, anti-knowledge and therefore anti-education. we need radically new models of higher ed, frankly. not schools partnering with OpenAI.
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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Believe me, AI turds, disabled people have done all this embodiment work over and over whether we want to or not. You’d know if you listened to us instead of condescendingly offering a computer program to simulate art.
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 08/04/2026
all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant
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Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
one of my favorite things when buckaroos do bad things is we are given opportunity to find grace. it is a loaded word because there are religious connotations but as a non religious buckaroo i find the concept so powerful: not just forgiveness but grace. thankful for those moments when they come
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Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.
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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 10/03/2026
Honestly, I am absolutely disgusted by academics suggesting that AI can do the reading and writing for you. At a certain point, what you're bragging about is fraud. And in a broader sense, what you're contributing to is the erosion of knowledge and the destruction of trust in academic publishing.
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Martin Nutbeem @martinnutbeem.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Imagine if worms in hats did drive apple-cars about though.
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
I need to see one of these guys in person one day.
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
I don't know how much good these petitions really do, but I don't think they can hurt. Please sign and share!
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Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
21st century humans: can't understand why ancient Mesopotamian diviners thought they could predict the future from wordplay-based omens. Also 21st century humans: "This AI told me how to fix my lawn mower once, this computer is basically God now."
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Humans can be pretty excellent.
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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Perseus Rescuing Andromeda, by Paolo Veronese, 1576-78, 📸 by @JOHNRU55ELL
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
It is one thing for professors to resist AI in education; it is far more powerful when students do. Only a coalition between the two groups of students and teachers —and not the antagonistic one between “cheaters” and “cops”—will be powerful enough to create a movement.
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Kate Topper 🏳️‍🌈 🏺 @katetopper.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Fantastic article. This, in particular, cannot be said often enough: "A liberal arts degree ... is not meant to be efficient."
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Katie Cook @katiecandraw.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
In today's installment of Old Lady Yells At Clouds:
I note saying that I believe that even if you think you have no artistic skill, I'd rather see your effort than your A.I.
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Mikki Kendall @karnythia.blacksky.app · 24/01/2026
You could actually structure your moral code around the idea that law enforcement doesn't exist to execute people. You don't have to create perfect victim narratives, you can just refuse to accept that the state gets to kill people.
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Mikki Kendall @karnythia.blacksky.app · 22/01/2026
I fear my tipping point into madness is "Thus is un-American" posts in response to ICE terrorizing immigrants. I beg you to open Wikipedia (I would say a book but let's start small) and read up on The Trail of Tears, Fugitive Slave Catchers, Japanese internment, Indian Boarding schools & Jim Crow
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