Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · 13h

In honor of my book coming out next week, I got some new professional photos taken and spiffed up my website. Hard to believe that the previous version, up since 2014, was more than 10 years old!!

Screenshot of homepage of Cassandra’s website with a photo of her holding a cup of tea and looking at the camera, and text describing her work.

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · 13h

Please note that in an earlier post the date was wrong. It is Tuesday the 14th, NOT Wed the 15th.

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · 13h

Join me next Tuesday for a virtual book launch event for my new book, Access Vernaculars.

Hosted by the Society for Disability Studies.

With discussants Raquel Velho and @xcherkaev.bsky.social, and organized by @mw-m.bsky.social !

Get the book at @cornellupress.bsky.social

1

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · 13h

Sorry, the 14th. I’m going to delete this post and try again :) thanks for noticing.

1

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · 14h

And organized by the @mw-m.bsky.social 🙌

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · 14h

With Raquel Velho and @xcherkaev.bsky.social as discussants!

1

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

immortan jojo siwa @sal.gay · 18d

It was the omg of times, it was the Jfc of times

5 98 350

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · Sep 7

Last week at @4sweb, I got the honour of being on a on Disability Access, Infrastructure, & Technoableism panel w/ @chartblay.bsky.social , @ashleyshoo.bsky.social, & Raquel Velho, learning from & speaking w/ them & @disabilitystor1.bsky.social & @besswww.bsky.social, as commenters & interlocutors…

1 4 27

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · May 6

Canada treating MAID like a pressure release valve will never not horrify me. The cold cruelties of a system that exists to repeatedly communicate the message to disabled people that they are disposable, and more efficient at dispensing death than it is at care.

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · May 6

A quadriplegic man named Normand Meunier died via MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) after being neglected for 4 days in ER. He was denied a specialized mattress, wasn’t turned & ended up with terrible bed sores.

His partner says she was threatened with removal from the ER for advocating for him 🧵

'It was horror,' says wife of quadriplegic man who sought assisted death after ER bedsore | CBC News

A public inquiry into the death of a quadriplegic man is underway in Quebec — over a year after he sought medical assistance in dying following a hospital stay that left him with a severe and painful ...

www.cbc.ca

3 45 100

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 27

I understand. Apologies for overstepping and thanks for taking the time to explain …

1 1

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 24

Could be that someone made an error in the calendar software that generated the message? Worth politely checking that wasn’t the case

1

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 23

My 1.5 yo child pointed at this photo in a coffeeshop and said, “mama!”

So now I know what movie I’m watching next time I can stay awake

Framed Photo of Linda Cardellini as Velma in Scooby Doo 2

2

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 23

It’s slave labor. The goal of the whole tariff grift is a new global chattel slavery order. 🤬

björk 182 @readsettle.rs · Apr 23

one of the tasks of the American left is to explain to retail and service workers that this is the future that America has planned for them

1

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

andy™ @andylevy.net · Apr 23

love to get letters from the government asking if i’m jewish

Akela Lacy @akelalacy.bsky.social · Apr 23

SCOOP: Trump's Equal Opportunity office is investigating Barnard's employment practices. Professors received texts to their personal phones on Monday, linking to a survey asking if they were Jewish and if they had been subjected "unwelcome discussions" theintercept.com/2025/04/23/t...

Trump EEOC Texted College Professors’ Personal Phones to Ask If They Were Jewish

“Barnard was not given advance notice of this outreach,” the college’s general counsel wrote in an email to faculty.

theintercept.com

39 380 1.7K

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · Apr 23

Among the most offensive things about technocultic rhetoric around so much (AI, robotics, and more) is how easily (often-abled) techbros of all levels deploy disability and disabled people as a cover for whatever asinine/BS claim they make to investors, journos or VCs.

☠️deadward niedermurder☠️ @niedermeyer.online · Apr 22

these motherfuckers are claiming that "FSD" benefits people with disabilities

9 20

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 23

So my guess is that trifold letter envelopes exist because the people who started using envelopes had previously used wax seals.

Signed, someone who uses techniques from past technologies in the present

@dearhankandjohn.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @hankgreen.bsky.social
#envelopes

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 23

I feel like this is all about the way that people keep doing things one way after the reason for it ends. A vestigial fold, if you will.

Old correspondence was scrolls. Then paper sealed with wax. A trifold makes a lot of sense for a wax seal.

1

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 23

In the latest episode of @dearhankandjohn.bsky.social someone wondered how and why envelopes fit trifolded paper, asking wouldn’t it be easier to just fold the paper in half.

Guesses abounded but I’m still stuck on one that John & Hank missed (and surely a historian on here will set us straight)

1

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

Rob Cruickshank @robcruickshank.bsky.social · Apr 7

roses are red
carnations are white

si oppington (fat general, antifa 3rd battalion) @stillwellgray.ca · Apr 7

Just in time for summer

Neurotoxic worms growing up to 3ft long are in Ontario and you should kill them on sight

Spring has sprung in Ontario, and with temperatures soaring into the high teens this week, there are some warm-weather creepy-crawlies now emerging t…

www.blogto.com

3 11 37

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 1

Canadian disability advocates’ critiques of MAID (Canada’s medical assistance in dying policy) backed by new UN report.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

United Nations report recommends Canada repeal MAID for people without terminal illnesses

International committee also called on Ottawa to scrap the proposed expansion of MAID eligibility in 2027 to people whose sole underlying illness is a mental disorder

www.theglobeandmail.com

1 4

cass hartblay (she/they) @chartblay.bsky.social · Apr 1

This course sounds amazing! What an honor to be included!

1

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · Mar 24

This is the wildest story I have literally ever read. In any normal circumstances, a half-dozen senior officials would be forced to resign over this—starting with the National Security Advisor. And I doubt anyone will face any accountability at all.

Shane Harris @shaneharris.bsky.social · Mar 24

In 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this: Senior Trump officials discussed planning for the U.S. attack on Yemen in a Signal group--and inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

www.theatlantic.com

150 1.1K 3.5K

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · Mar 21

I believe the firings and the AI have the same purpose: to get humans out of the loop of evaluating contracts. To automate the process of spending government money. To rig up a computer that sends taxpayer dollars directly to the broligarchy.

56 1.2K 4.7K

Reposted by cass hartblay (she/they)

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley @pressley.house.gov · Mar 11

Mahmoud Khalil should be at home with his pregnant wife.

Instead, he's been illegally abducted & had his constitutional right to free speech & due process stripped.

We're demanding his immediate release and we cannot allow this abuse of power to go unchecked. #FreeMahmoudKhalil

440 6K 23K