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Rachel NC

@racheljordan.bsky.social
1.4K followers 5.1K following 419 posts

Books! NC politics, Western Wake Democrats. Mom to a small human, a huge cat, and a tiny dog. Ex-sommelier, college essay tutor. Interested in almost everything. Currently a Wheel of Time Show fan account

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Reposted by Rachel NC
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Cutting this much from the university budget will mean that some of the core functions of the university will be lost. It’s not possible to just do more with less — to work smarter, to trim around the edges. We’re going to have to do less with less.” Gift link: www.startribune.com/umn-cuts-sta...
startribune.com
Perry: What we lose if the U cuts $225 million
"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, whic...
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Reposted by Rachel NC
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I don’t think everyone realizes how bad things are for US science: For the fiscal year that just ended, the Trump regime withheld $1.4 billion from the National Science Foundation’s research budget, which is about 1/5 of its primary research budget.
nytimes.com
National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress (Gift Article)
The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I think my new kitten is broken🤪
A black kitten laying on its belly with its hind legs splayed out.A black kitten laying on its belly with its hind legs splayed out.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
JRho @jrho.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.
Massive quilt made of prize ribbons in blue, red, yellow, and whiteCenter square of quilt made of yellow and red ribbons and yellow rosettesBlock of quilt made of blue, yellow, red, and white ribbons. Ribbons state the year. Some have the prize winning object written on in markerCarol St. Clair Johnson
born 1954; resides Albuquerque, NM

O Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years
2023
satin ribbons

After unexpectedly winning her first blue ribbon for a sewn cape in 1981, Carol St. Clair Johnson developed an enduring love for the New Mexico State Fair. The quilt Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years incorporates more than six hundred of the ribbons she won at the fair every subsequent year except 2020 (when the fair was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson earned ribbons for needlework, knitting, crochet, pies, cookies, cakes, canning, jewelry, flowers, vegetables, and potted plants. The title of the quilt is a reference to the state song, and the design places the state's Zia sun symbol at the center. The quilt earned Johnson yet another ribbon: Best in Category (miscellaneous quilt) at the 2023 New Mexico State Fair.

Courtesy of Carol St. Clair Johnson
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Floodlight @floodlightnews.org · 27/08/2026
NEW: Thermal drone footage shows the Microsoft-backed DataOne AI data center in Vineland, NJ is running dozens of gas generators. None of them have permits. A Floodlight visual investigation with @us.theguardian.com:
floodlightnews.org
One of East Coast’s largest data centers accused of ‘violating federal law’
Thermal drone footage shows DataOne — the Microsoft-backed AI data center in Vineland — is powering its operations with dozens of unpermitted generators
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Reposted by Rachel NC
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 06/08/2026
I'm sure that working in social media - dealing with people as mass statistical abstractions - is a cognitohazard, the sort of thing that could make anyone a little solipsistic, convinced that everyone else is a kind of stimulus-responding automaton lacking the interiority that you experience. 1/
A medieval siege engine, tended by gnome-sized purple figures. Around it are several human-like figures with robot heads, clad in medieval garb. Their legs are missing, tapering off into nothingness. The giant floating head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar overlooks the scene. Each of the robot people is being closely observed by a distorted, grotesque version of Zuckerberg's avatar head.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We cannot allow billionaires to buy our democracy!
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Pornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone. I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f...
cnbc.com
Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand battery
A small Finnish town has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Ended the week in the dark place. Happy Friday! www.offmessage.net/p/john-rober...
offmessage.net
John Roberts, Roger Taney, And The Unbearable Weight Of Desperation
A horror story.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 22/05/2026
As a science fiction writer I really fucking resent tech bros for ruining the phrase "artificial intelligence." 80 years of it being all about cool androids and interesting computers destroyed by five years of "Spicy autocorrect making everything shittier for money." NEVER FORGIVE.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Nature @nature.com · 22/05/2026
Acute stress makes it difficult to link memories of past events with fresh information, a study1 suggests. The results help to explain why people struggle to show insight under pressure. go.nature.com/4dA96yd
go.nature.com
Stress impairs your brain’s ability to link memories — dampening insight
Imaging suggests why the ability to make inferences declines after an episode of acute stress, such as a job interview.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young @dannagal.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
One of the most obvious ways to see that our media environment is failing us in the US is that our violent crime rate has plummeted since 1993, but year after year an increasing % of Americans think the violent crime rate is higher than it used to be. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
pewresearch.org
U.S. violent and property crime rates have plunged since 1990s, regardless of data source | Pew Research Center
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Welcome to the last half of the US federal fiscal year. Here is where we're at with National Science Foundation--the agency that funds basically everything other than biomedical research at American universities--grant numbers. grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
NSF grant curve from link for 2021 through 2026, with each year shown as a different color. By this point in the year, NSF made 3,300 or more grants in 2021-2024 and 2,087 in 2025. This year 737 have been awarded. Both this year and 2025 seem to have an odd slow down about now in the rate of new grants not present in earlier years, in addition to the general lower rates.NSF's geosciences directorate award numbers, basically identical in shape to the overall NSF curves. Prior years saw around 400-500 grants awarded by this point in the fiscal year, 2025 saw only 278 grants awarded, this year has only 95 grants awarded.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
from the annals of getting high on your own supply (gift link) www.theverge.com/tldr/915176/...
theverge.com
Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want
Did the tech industry get high on its own supply?
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
“(A)n argument changes its character entirely when the person delivering it is the same person whose choices make the premises. … Imagine a kidnapper who argues that children should be with their parents and, therefore, the ransom should be paid. ” www.fastcompany.com/91498615/sto...
fastcompany.com
Stop calling it inevitable: The AI job crisis is being built, not born
Whether or not the titans of AI rise to the moment, the rest of us will have to meet its challenges head-on.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
This is really important for our understanding of political opinions, especially in our poll-obsessed society.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Fully electric container ships! Amazing!
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
If you care about accuracy in crime reporting, you should follow Jeff Asher. Also, it’s becoming increasingly clear that crime is continuing on its long-term downward trend as people sort of recover from the pandemic.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This is so cool!
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Girl Scout Cookies are still available! We’re out this morning if you need to stock up! digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/ada502...
Two Cadette Girl Scouts in front of a cookie-laden table.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
“Perhaps the most remarkable fact about modern finance is that it fails on its own terms. Mergers and acquisitions tend to destroy value even as they sate the appetites of empire-building executives.” The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Humans mastered the art of creating fire 400,000 years ago, almost 350,000 years earlier than previously known, according to a groundbreaking discovery in a field in Suffolk in the UK. buff.ly/1miYEUJ #ShareGoodNewsToo
buff.ly
Humans made fire 350,000 years earlier than previously thought, discovery in Suffolk suggests
Groundbreaking find makes compelling case that humans were lighting fires much earlier than originally believed
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries. One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home. Abolish the billionaire class:
gofundme.com
Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee
Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
This thread is 🔥
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Michael Harriot @michaelharriot.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
I've told this story on ContrabandCamp but it's worth sharing for BHM because it's one of the greatest stories ever. A thread.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
JUST IN: Democrats flip a red seat in the Texas Senate. Taylor Rehmet wins against Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist who helped lead right-wing efforts to take over TX school boards. With all early vote, and 95% of precincts, in, Dem up 57/43. Trump won this seat by 17% in Tarrant County.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Everyone should read this!
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Reposted by Rachel NC
James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
From this moment forward (and before, but clearly now): -If you work for ICE. -If you vote for money for ICE. You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Nature @nature.com · 24/01/2026
More than 7,800 research grants terminated or frozen. Some 25,000 scientists and personnel gone from agencies. Proposed budget cuts of 35% — amounting to US$32 billion. These are just a few of the ways Donald Trump has downsized and disrupted US science go.nature.com/4sTPWdp
go.nature.com
US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains
A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Your reminder that this amazing Humble Bundle featuring a whole litany of stone classics by female SFF writers dating back to Andre Norton (!) and including some of the absolute classics of science fiction (and, um, several books by me) is only $18. www.humblebundle.com/books/fierce...
humblebundle.com
Humble Book Bundle: Fierce Women of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror by Open Road Media
Our latest ebook bundle has over 60 of the best sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books written by women! Every purchase supports Active Minds charity!
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland. They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 14/01/2026
Every time I see someone yammering about abolish ICE / policing and how DEEPLY UNPOPULAR it is, I want to remind them that the GOP abolished Roe v. Wade and that was also deeply, deeply unpopular, and here they are, in charge of everything still.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Incredibly important thread. If Dems win, we cannot just try to move on. The country has to hear from the people who have been terrorized.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I think describing the entire project of Trump as nation-gutting so that grifters can take advantage is incredibly accurate. Great, and short, thread.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
I cannot explain how much you should watch this video. I could not believe my eyes!
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Reposted by Rachel NC
Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
My thoughts on the current discussions in the SF/F genre over writers using generative AI (LLMs). In particular, I love the essays shared by @chuckwendig.bsky.social and @fozmeadows.bsky.social. 1/ www.patreon.com/posts/147102...
patreon.com
Genre Grapevine on Two Secrets about LLM Usage Every Writer Must Remember | Jason Sanford's Genre Grapevine
Get more from Jason Sanford's Genre Grapevine on Patreon
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Tell-Tale TV @telltaletv.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Maryam Ahmad’s Top 10 TV Shows of 2025: High Potential, The Residence, The Wheel of Time, and More buff.ly/zdK4F2l
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Collin Pearsall @cpearsall242.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.
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Jendia Gammon @jendiagammon.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Outstanding news! www.fastcompany.com/91461983/ind...
fastcompany.com
Indie bookstores are making a shocking, triumphant comeback
Since 2020, the number of independent bookstores in the U.S. grew by 70%.
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
people, you have the chance to put my book ahead of Olivia Nuzzi’s on the bestseller list. put aside all other considerations and think how objectively funny this would be. #1, that Mountain Goats guy. #2, Antivax Man Has My Heart. funniest list of the century. We can do this if we try
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
[W]e could turn to alternative mechanisms for funding the development of new drugs, such as by direct public funding [already more than $50 billion a year]. If we tripled or quadrupled this funding, research could be open-source, and all new drugs could be sold as cheap generics.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
A propitious start for Thanksgiving…
A very large meat cleaver named Dexter and a plastic cutting board that is broken in half.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Please read this. The main point is that if the poverty line were updated accurately it would be ~$140,000 not ~$30,000.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Yes! Please do this!
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Scott Robeson @indianaclimate.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Deeply upsetting but not surprising: “policies defunding everything from scientific research to public health have damaged the U.S.'s reputation to the point where she hears from hospitals and universities that top international talent are no longer interested in coming to America” 🧪
npr.org
'Nobody wants to come': What if the U.S. can no longer attract immigrant physicians?
Immigrants make up a significant proportion of all the country's doctors. New policies are making it harder and less appealing for foreign-born physicians to come to the U.S.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Maybe they shouldn’t be ignoring and devaluing the liberal arts…
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 20/11/2025
I wrote basically this exact piece in 2018, but good on the New Yorker for getting hip to geothermal!
newyorker.com
Why the Time Has Finally Come for Geothermal Energy
It used to be that drawing heat from deep in the Earth was practical only in geyser-filled places such as Iceland. But new approaches may have us on the cusp of an energy revolution.
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Rachel NC @racheljordan.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
So proud of my town for showing up to protest ICE!
The poster and a person in an inflatable chicken costume at an anti-ICE protest in Cary, NC
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Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
The usual suspects are telling Dems that Epstein won’t win elections, get back to “affordability” and I think my head might explode. www.offmessage.net/p/force-a-re...
offmessage.net
Force A Referendum On The Epstein Coverup
It divides Republicans much more than "affordability" or any other economic issue.
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