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Anindita Basu Sempere

@anindita.org

1K followers 800 following 1.8K posts

PM at Performant Software. PhD & MFA. Digital Humanities, place, poetics, Elizabeth Bishop, poetry, children's lit. She/her. Lived in Lausanne for over a decade and now relearning the US.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · Nov 10

Welcome new folks! Happy to see so much activity here. I’m interested in place-related work, writing, all things Elizabeth Bishop, pedagogy and learning, poetry, children’s lit, crafting, nature & soccer/football. I’m a professional digital humanist. I love to hear about what people are working on.

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Reposted by Anindita Basu Sempere

jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 12h

. @404media.co is investigating book bans. They could use your pointers on where to be looking. You can do it anonymously.

"We need help deciding... which school districts and cities to seek public records from and... where we should point our reporting efforts. "

www.404media.co/help-us-inve...

Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America

404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Anindita Basu Sempere

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 14h

This is my mother. Nothing so pedestrian! It’s all complicated stuff — 5 types of Bengali sweets, kochuri, vegetable cutlets (chop). Everything divided into portions and labeled.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 14h

Me: I don’t think we have that much space!

Mum to Dad: She needs a freezer.

Me: 😳 I will make it fit!!!

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 14h

Me: Please don’t bring any stuff for us. We have way too much stuff.

Parents: *have 3 suitcases for a weekend visit*

Me: Whyyyy?

Mum: You said not to buy you stuff. So I cooked. The big suitcase is full of food. We need to get it into your freezer.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 14h

Kid just explained the Sumerian number system to me, and it’s very cool!

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 17h

😂

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 19h

Ohhh noooo I forgot how annoying my mum's Bengali soap operas are... so much fake crying!

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 1d

Conversation over breakfast:
Me: Your grandparents’ flight is delayed today.
Kid: Why?
Me: *explains government shutdown* *explains three branches of government and checks & balances* *explains budget standoff* *explains air traffic controller pay situation*
Kid: Oh yeah, that’s where we started!

🫠

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 1d

Every so often, I have to tell myself: You’ve done enough today. There will always be another thing. Do it tomorrow.

Posting in case you need to hear that, too.

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 2d

🥳

Stephanie Burt @notquitehydepark.bsky.social · 2d

Publication day for Taylor's Version! I'm so happy for my baby and for all the work @hachetteus.bsky.social & @johnmurrays.bsky.social did to bring her out into the world. Consider an order here: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/steph...

Taylor’s Version

“With unfailing lucidity, empathy, and wit” (Greil Marcus), a preeminent Harvard professor and poetry expert explains the artistry—and the celebrity—...

www.hachettebookgroup.com

Reposted by Anindita Basu Sempere

NEH Union - AFGE L3403 @nehafge3403.bsky.social · 3d

The cuts at the National Endowment for the Humanities go far deeper than any of these agencies - almost 70% of 179 people were terminated, despite no change to the agency's budget.

There were no savings here - only idealogical destruction. #NEH

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

How much smaller the federal workforce is now vs. a year ago
Ed Dept 42%
OPM 33%
HUD 31%
Treasury 29%
Defense (civilian jobs) 22%
Small Biz Admin 21%
Energy 20%
Interior 15%
HHS 14%
SSA 11%
EPA 10%
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How Much Smaller Is the Federal Work Force? Shutdown Plans Offer a Clue.

The number of federal employees has been trimmed by thousands since President Trump took office, according to contingency plans drawn up by federal agencies.

www.nytimes.com

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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 3d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 3d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 3d

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 3d

Two wins tonight. The world is burning, but I'm going to keep fighting those local fights.

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 3d

"Such a situation is not a "vibrant marketplace of ideas" but an educational failure."

Nancy Kanwisher @nancykanwisher.bsky.social · 3d

I am proud of MIT, where our branch of AAUP has voted unanimously to endorse this statement urging MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the Compact wholesale
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Letter Regarding Compact

MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors October 6, 2025 Statement on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” MIT has been invited by the federal governmen...

docs.google.com

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 3d

Ugh it feels like a summer night. This is so wrong.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 3d

Whenever I see Bari Weiss's name in the news, I think about how she went to a rival K-12 school in Pittsburgh.

She & Tina Romero (who went to my school) are about the same age. Both born and raised in Pgh. This is TR's contribution to the media landscape: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_gU...

Queens of the Dead - Official Trailer | Katy O'Brian, Jack Haven | HD | IFC Films

YouTube video by IFC Films

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Anindita Basu Sempere

CL Woke Cannibal Erotica Hellisen @clhellisen.bsky.social · 4d

Overhead at the writers' pub meet: "have you tried to write poetry? No? I wouldn't recommend it."

I don't know why I find this indescribably funny, but I am drinking a beer, so

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 5d

The fact they jumped straight to AI actors modeled after women when, if I’m not mistaken, male actors are a higher labor cost kind of says it all doesn’t it,

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 5d

Like… it's kind of right there, no?

"AI" generated image of woman with dark hair sitting in a chair in front of posters with random shapes and symbols meant to look like images and text on movie posters, all superimposed with a post from k.w.bogen reading
"AI actresses can't negotiate. They can't say they'd prefer their bodies not be shown certgain ways. They can't refuse degrading scenes. They can't express distress about disturbing content. They can't ask the creators :why would you do that to me? Why put any woman through watching that? If AI film winds up being the path, we're about to see an entirely new generation (and more brutal depiction) of media misogyny."

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 6d

One of the soccer dads asked me for my thoughts on AI at practice tonight.

😬

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 6d

Kid: *outraged* Barcelona is better.

Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 6d

Me listening to the new TS album: Wait, did she just say, "They want a contract with Real Madrid"??

I did not have a soccer reference on my Bingo card for this album.

Reposted by Anindita Basu Sempere

Matthew @mattgoldey.bsky.social · 7d

It's amazing to me that LiveJournal perfected social media 25 years ago and no other social media site since has come close.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 6d

This looks like something designed by a 9yo in the 80s.

Sam @samd.bsky.social · 6d

reddit occupied government

Ken Dilanian
@DilanianMSNBC
Follow
The challenge coins being handed out by @FBIDirectorKash. Seems someone put a lot of thought into this.

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Anindita Basu Sempere @anindita.org · 6d

Taught you or helped liberate some innate abilities?

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