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Melissa Hartman

@mssemicolon.bsky.social
1.5K followers 973 following 248 posts

Editor of a higher-ed magazine. Loves: science, words, live music. When in doubt, delete it.

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Reposted by Melissa Hartman
Baltimore Banner @thebaltimorebanner.com · 14/10/2026
Republican Rep. Andy Harris incorrectly told a reporter they were breaking the law as the reporter and others recorded an exchange with him last night. Harris had just wrapped up a debate with Democratic challenger Dan Schwartz.
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
STOP LETTING JD VANCE MEET POPES
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
My heart breaks for mathematicians whose lives and careers are being destroyed by AI — and especially this PhD student, who doesn’t even know he is a poet
Kai Shaikh, a Ph.D. student in mathematics at the University of Toronto, also currently at SLMath, observed that theorems are easy to use as benchmarks, but that they capture little of the wonderment at the heart of math. "Just like a photograph of a mile marker can't provide much of the value of actually going on a hike," he said,
"it would seem to me that proofs without stories, or even stories without struggle or mystery, and first glimpses of strange beasts, are not very meaningful or valuable to us humans."
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Charles Louis Richter @richterscale.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
KITTEN ADOPTION KLAXON Gravy needs a home in the Baltimore/DC area ASAP, preferably one with other young cats. After the sudden death of her only sister, she really craves playtime with other kittens. Gravy is fully vaccinated and spayed, cuddly and playful, and learns what is ok and not ok fast.
gray kitten sleeping, curled into a cinnamon roll shapegray kitten sitting on a wooden letter box, looking up expectantlygray kitten lying on her back reaching her paws out to yougray kitten smiling into the sun
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Hard to find the words tonight. Helen was an amazing journalist, smart, hard-working, clear-eyed. She was also a kind, generous person and a good friend. Sad beyond words.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
statler and waldorf but it’s al-sayed and ossoff heckling republicans
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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
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Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Your boss was trying to incite a racist pogrom yesterday, Markwayne
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/10/2026
this is honestly one of the worst and most irresponsible things he has ever posted, and that's really saying something
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Turning state violence into a public spectacle is a very fascist move BTW.
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 08/10/2026
a sure sign that something is "highly accepted" is if you have to threaten to impose the power of the state against those who don't accept it
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Cardinal Robert McElroy’s World Day of Migrants homily named Minneapolis, where federal agents killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, whom ICE held for 11 days in Texas. “We are losing our soul as a nation,” the archbishop of Washington said.
thelettersfromleo.com
On Pope Leo’s World Day of Migrants, Cardinal McElroy Indicts Trump’s War on Immigrants
Preaching on the Good Samaritan for World Day of Migrants, Washington’s archbishop named Minneapolis, a five-year-old used as bait, and a nation that “passed on by.” He told Catholics to fight every…
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Charm City Art Spice @rahnealexander.com · 03/10/2026
today's first song of the day is "islands in the stream" by meshell ndegeocello & chaka khan youtu.be/UqjoQeZZogg
youtu.be
Islands In The Stream
YouTube video by Meshell Ndegeocello - Topic
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Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I did not know this existed and I love it! Thank you for sharing it
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Dr Hannah M. Rowland @hannahmrowland.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hope your day was better than Darwin’s, on this day 165 years ago
I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody &everything.

Charles Darwin
Letter to Charles Lyell
1st October 1861
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I am going to say what I've been saying for some time. If they succeed in restricting and criminalizing abortion pills, more people are going to die. ALSO, I think that the public is overly complacent right now.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This story brought me back to Kara, one of the mothers in my book, There Is No Place for Us. She was homeless with her four kids while driving for DoorDash. They had to pee in bottles so bathroom stops wouldn't make her late. After gas, she earned $6.50 an hour—75 cents less than the minimum wage.
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dame @dame.is · 26/09/2026
I knew the second I saw that viral clip of the mom and dad at the baseball game that the internet’s insane parasocial contextless gut reaction to it was going to end up being wildly wrong. I really really hate how people just don’t give a shit about being kind or thoughtful anymore on the internet.
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The way to look at this is George bush is trying to help Donald trump retain power on the Hill
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A Jean Stevenson @amandajean.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My 95 year old grandma cried when she heard people weren't vaccinating their kids against polio.
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Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
😍 Gorgeous beetle!
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Stephanie @stephalee.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Pics at The Kennedy Center before seeing In the Heights on my 40th. I took my daughter there when she was little for a Mo Willems Pigeon show. Concerts, comedy, and plays are my favorite ways to go experience joy in this world and we had this wonderful venue dedicated to appreciating it all.
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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
While summer feels like it's over, tick season isn't. They can stick around through late fall in some parts of the U.S. Natalie and Dr. Norris talk ticks and offer tips on how you can remain vigilant when enjoying time outdoors. @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
rip annie dillard
One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. - Annie Dillard
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R.E.M. @remhq.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
🌟 Mike sings “September Gurls” and “In The Street” with the Big Star Quintet last night in Nashville at the Neuhoff River Steps Concert Series show. In addition to @lordmillsey, the band includes Jody Stephens, Jon Auer, Chris Stamey & Pat Sansone. Big thanks to Hank Bateman for the footage.
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NEW POPULAR FRONT Survivor❤️‍🩹 Ally🏳️‍🌈 Ukraine Must Win🇺🇦 @ouaisouaisdubuffet.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Please take the time to read and view this entire thread and pass it on. Not only for inspiration but also for tactics. This is the Resistance. #ICEIsADomesticTerroristOrganization
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Fetterman text to aide: “Why do I have to keep having to meet with [Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia]?” Aide: “Because they are worried about vaccines and Medicaid cuts.” Fetterman: “Well I’m not.” @wsj.com #PAsen www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Rough Draft vs Final Draft
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.
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Laurie Agard @laurieagard.com · 03/09/2026
Sheila E., 69 years young, and still the Queen of percussion! Marched onto the Hollywood Bowl stage this week to a 5 minute video of Obama and MLK speeches and proceeded to drum her heart out 👑💕🥁💫 What an inspiration! #pinks #humansofbluesky
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Ellie Mae O'Hagan @elliemaeohagan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I love the dedication in My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinhem
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Charm City Slicker @sprawlhater.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Baltimore, one of our great civic orgs needs us. Asylee Women Enterprise, which helps asylum seekers, torture + trafficking survivors, and other forced migrants, rebuild their lives here, must rapidly leave their space of 10+ years. Please give to help them move to their own forever home in Hampden!
givebutter.com
A Forever Home for Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE)
We’re asking people who believe in our mission to help us reach our goal and build a permanent home for AWE and the communities we serve.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Welp, there it is. The CDC is now officially manipulating data and their count of measles deaths in 2026 now stands at ZERO. My understanding of reportable diseases is that the CDC would usually use a state health department’s determination as the final say. The new CDC Director is failing us.
inquirer.com
The CDC left two measles-associated Pa. deaths out of its latest count after RFK Jr. sparred with Gov. Shapiro
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused Pennsylvania of not cooperating with the CDC in its handling of a measles outbreak.
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Zach-o'-lantern @zachlipton.com · 31/08/2026
“Dr. Zink said she could not remember a time when the C.D.C. publicly questioned a state’s determination of cause of death. State officials are increasingly “choosing not to share data with the C.D.C. because of mistrust how it might be used,” she said.”
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Tuta @tuta.com · 31/08/2026
If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this. Google's AI now scans your emails and attachments, bank statements, tax files, medical letters, all of it. It turned on by default, and there's a class-action lawsuit over how. Here are 5 moves to shut it off, the switch is hidden in two places:
Image of Sundar Pichai and the Gmail logo
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David Atkinson @davidatkinsonpoet.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I was at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace today for the @comartspartner.bsky.social Seamus Heaney Awards for New Writing, an extra poignancy on his anniversary Delighted to have 1 poem longlisted & 1 placed 3rd Huge congratulations to the winner Susan Gully #poetry #poemoftheday #seamusheaneysunday
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Mia Farrow @miafarrow.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
We love you Canada 🇨🇦
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Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Every last person who participated in this must face consequences. Absolutely appalling.
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John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
As I’ve been saying, it’s not just the administrators that will have to be purged. The PR people will have to go too.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
New: ICE plans to spend millions of dollars on Boston Dynamics dog robots. ICE says this is to improve "officer safety." The robots can open doors, pick up objects, have 360 cameras, infrared vision, etc. Boston Dynamics didn't respond to question on its stance on ICE www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...
404media.co
ICE Plans to Spends Millions on Boston Dynamics Dog Robots
ICE wants the robot dogs to improve “officer safety.”
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Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school." Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver urging us to teach the children. As she writes in 'Upstream', her collection of selected essays...
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 27/08/2026
ATTN TEXANS: check your voter registration ASAP, even if you don’t think you were impacted. 1.2 million is a lot of people! www.votetexas.gov/register-to-...
sacurrent.com
More than 1.2 million Texans' voter registrations are suspended
Some voters dropped from Texas voting rolls may not be aware until they show up to cast a ballot. More than 1.2 million Texans are on the state's Voter
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The grand jury report on the Florida embezzlement scheme is blood-boiling. It's clear beyond serious dispute that the current AG of Florida was part of a shameless, calculated plan to steal public funds from sick children to gift the Republican Party & his own PAC. drive.google.com/file/d/15YSC...
drive.google.com
Grand_Jury_Report.pdf
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Gaguna @lisatheeditor.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Stealing health insurance from poor children for political gain.
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Trump's DOJ is signaling that it will no longer enforce one of the most basic disability rights recognized by the Supreme Court in a landmark 1999 case out of Georgia: the right to live in the community rather than be unnecessarily institutionalized. Crucial reporting from @georgiarecorder.com:
georgiarecorder.com
After years of federal oversight, Georgia’s disability care system faces a new test • Georgia Recorder
The Justice Department has signaled that the federal government no longer plans to enforce a landmark court ruling that has shaped Georgia's mental health and disability care system for nearly two dec...
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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/08/2026
dolly parton taught millions of children to read dolly parton raised millions of dollars for cancer research and disaster relief dolly parton stood by the lgbtq community her entire life dolly parton personally helped fund the moderna vaccine if there was a right side of something she was on it
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William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 25/08/2026
[Exit Queen.]
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Brilliant thread.
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