Tracy Ensor
@sciencetracy.bsky.social
Applied scientist, systems thinker, ideator, implementer. Building capacity in programs and people at Nebraska Extension.
Recently I’ve been discussing with friends the consequences of outsourcing our thinking, and this 🧵 captures my sentiments.
A friend recently texted me the same thing. “Do you really not use ChatGPT?!” It was a sign of where we are culturally on this. People are compelled to use it but also starting to question the normalcy?
Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM.
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
November 8, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Recently I’ve been discussing with friends the consequences of outsourcing our thinking, and this 🧵 captures my sentiments.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
This judge may be the angriest person in America. This thread blew my hair back.
Greetings from the Dirksen federal courthouse, where U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis has just taken the bench to rule on federal agents actions' during a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs.
Background, for @wttw.bsky.social from @bymattmasterson.bsky.social
Background, for @wttw.bsky.social from @bymattmasterson.bsky.social
Judge Set to Rule Thursday in Case Centering on Federal Immigration Agents’ Use of Force: ‘I Could See Inside the Barrel’
Protesters, clergy members and others who say they’ve been directly impacted by a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs will testify before a federal judge weighing wh...
news.wttw.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:46 PM
This judge may be the angriest person in America. This thread blew my hair back.
In addition to the 🧵 below, why would we want to cut out the learning that comes from BEING a tutor? When I ran a tutoring center, the tutors were students and explaining the material helped many tutors acquire valuable skills (not to mention material review for the MCAT, LSAT, etc).
I have a number of colleagues who think that LLMs will be very useful as individualized tutors.
One of their arguments is that unlike previous generations of AI tutors, LLMs have the full context window of the conversation and that’s better understand what a student knows and doesn’t know.
One of their arguments is that unlike previous generations of AI tutors, LLMs have the full context window of the conversation and that’s better understand what a student knows and doesn’t know.
October 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM
In addition to the 🧵 below, why would we want to cut out the learning that comes from BEING a tutor? When I ran a tutoring center, the tutors were students and explaining the material helped many tutors acquire valuable skills (not to mention material review for the MCAT, LSAT, etc).
Are Nebraska state agencies that receive federal funding subject to the Hatch Act?
Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services has a message at the top of its webpage blaming Democrats for SNAP benefits ending today.
October 30, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Are Nebraska state agencies that receive federal funding subject to the Hatch Act?
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
From a crewmember on yesterday's Teal 74 mission into now-Category 5 Hurricane #Melissa. As clear of an eye as you will see in the Atlantic basin.
October 27, 2025 at 4:11 PM
From a crewmember on yesterday's Teal 74 mission into now-Category 5 Hurricane #Melissa. As clear of an eye as you will see in the Atlantic basin.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
October 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
The fault is not with us individually. The fault is with the institutions that actually do the evil.
When we work together - encourage each other using positivity and community action - we succeed.
When we just shout and judge each other we get nowhere.
When we work together - encourage each other using positivity and community action - we succeed.
When we just shout and judge each other we get nowhere.
October 24, 2025 at 12:48 AM
The fault is not with us individually. The fault is with the institutions that actually do the evil.
When we work together - encourage each other using positivity and community action - we succeed.
When we just shout and judge each other we get nowhere.
When we work together - encourage each other using positivity and community action - we succeed.
When we just shout and judge each other we get nowhere.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.
October 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.
Seems like a good time to revisit Dewey. Great read.
I would *love* to see teach-ins parallel to these rallies. We were able to do this in Iowa City holding a Teach Truth Day of Action alongside the No Kings rally in June. I wonder how to make this systemic?
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/06/27/r...
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/06/27/r...
Reflections on Teach Truth Day of Action 2025
Nick Covington: How can John Dewey’s ideal of a thriving democratic education revitalize a American commitment to freedom and democracy?
www.bleedingheartland.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Seems like a good time to revisit Dewey. Great read.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
October 19, 2025 at 1:44 AM
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
With alt text, and it is beautiful ☺️
October 19, 2025 at 12:33 AM
With alt text, and it is beautiful ☺️
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
Take note of all these people turning out for protests in small towns in red states.
Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”
Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”
October 18, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Take note of all these people turning out for protests in small towns in red states.
Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”
Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
When we live in an individual mindset, being asked to do anything for others without profit or advancement of some kind feels useless, uninteresting, or burdensome.
October 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
When we live in an individual mindset, being asked to do anything for others without profit or advancement of some kind feels useless, uninteresting, or burdensome.
This. So much this.
If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
October 17, 2025 at 1:18 AM
This. So much this.
This is such a great topic of study. I see the ramifications of this too often in my youth development work.
We need to talk about how social media algorithms push moms down a slippery slope of distrust.
From "Are my kids getting enough support in school?" To "Maybe I should homeschool." To "Maybe modern medicine is bad."
I've seen this first-hand in research I'm doing on parenting apps. 1/🧵
From "Are my kids getting enough support in school?" To "Maybe I should homeschool." To "Maybe modern medicine is bad."
I've seen this first-hand in research I'm doing on parenting apps. 1/🧵
October 15, 2025 at 8:09 PM
This is such a great topic of study. I see the ramifications of this too often in my youth development work.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
Equally sad, US big ag is pivoting towards heavily subsidized "Sustainable" Aviation Fuels as the way to continue overproducing corn and soybeans. They rely on subsidized dubious climate friendly practices scored with jerry-rigged metrics and CO2 pipelines to keep agro-extractivism alive here too.
And absolutely terrible news for the Amazon, the Cerrado and climate change.
Having been burnt by tariffs twice, American farmers and Chinese buyers will probably seek to reduce their mutual dependence. That is a boon for soyabean farmers in Brazil
October 12, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Equally sad, US big ag is pivoting towards heavily subsidized "Sustainable" Aviation Fuels as the way to continue overproducing corn and soybeans. They rely on subsidized dubious climate friendly practices scored with jerry-rigged metrics and CO2 pipelines to keep agro-extractivism alive here too.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
Psst: Stop burning stuff on Earth for energy. Let the burning fireball in the sky be your energy source.
NEW: Biofuels globally emit more than the fossil fuels they replace, our latest study shows.
The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets.
🧵⤵️
The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets.
🧵⤵️
October 11, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Psst: Stop burning stuff on Earth for energy. Let the burning fireball in the sky be your energy source.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm
RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."
October 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm
Met some great colleagues and published a paper together.
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
October 8, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Met some great colleagues and published a paper together.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
A lot of “farmers” in the US are tiny: 2/3 have less than $25,000 in sales. From @profsecchi.bsky.social’s paper “Who is an American farmer? Who counts in American agriculture?”
The median American farmer is the ex-Brooklyn type you read about in the Sunday NYT.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The median American farmer is the ex-Brooklyn type you read about in the Sunday NYT.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
![Since 1974, the CoA has defined a farm as “any establish-
ment which during the census year had or normally would
have had sales of agricultural products of $1,000 or more”
(US Bureau of the Census 1978, p.6). From 1850 until 2022,
there were only as many farmers as farms in the US. This
changed when the CoA allowed multiple individuals per
farm to be counted as farmers. These recent expansions in
the definitions of farmers, coupled with the generous defini-
tion of a farm, have resulted in estimates of the number of
farmers and farms that arguably do not reflect the current
status of American agriculture. Specifically, by including
lifestyle and residential operations, the CoA obfuscates the
degree of consolidation present in the agricultural sector. As
an expert of US farm concentration recently noted, “simple
summary measures of mean and median farm size do not
show the substantial consolidation that is apparent in the
data, and […] we missed some important developments as a
result” (MacDonald 2020, p.362).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kowyosk2m56ibvwwi5vf32hz/bafkreieexgukz73bwqrcxa2t4fop3deaadk5n6nkwlpuurjweikis5ypvy@jpeg)
October 2, 2025 at 1:36 PM
A lot of “farmers” in the US are tiny: 2/3 have less than $25,000 in sales. From @profsecchi.bsky.social’s paper “Who is an American farmer? Who counts in American agriculture?”
The median American farmer is the ex-Brooklyn type you read about in the Sunday NYT.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The median American farmer is the ex-Brooklyn type you read about in the Sunday NYT.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.
This new column by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social makes me think about when I recently had to talk to the police for yet another safety plan, I tried to “lighten” the mood by saying that we all knew this wasn’t my first rodeo. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...
October 1, 2025 at 3:47 PM
People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
I hear the President has decreed that it is possibly a crime to refer to Americans as "fascists," but "fascism" is a word that has a relatively clear meaning that's worth understanding. Here's how an official publication of the US Army defined "fascism" in 1945.
The central point is that when fascism came to America it wouldn't call itself that, nor would it be wearing a swastika. It would call itself "patriotic" and "100% American."
September 26, 2025 at 3:53 AM
I hear the President has decreed that it is possibly a crime to refer to Americans as "fascists," but "fascism" is a word that has a relatively clear meaning that's worth understanding. Here's how an official publication of the US Army defined "fascism" in 1945.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
If your job was to decarbonize by 2050 a big university in a state with hot summers, cold winters, and the 4th dirtiest electricity of any US state, what would you do? No nearby lake or big river, unremarkable geothermal resources, no safe/suitable site for nuclear on campus.
September 30, 2025 at 5:51 PM
If your job was to decarbonize by 2050 a big university in a state with hot summers, cold winters, and the 4th dirtiest electricity of any US state, what would you do? No nearby lake or big river, unremarkable geothermal resources, no safe/suitable site for nuclear on campus.
Start with the 🧵 and stay for the farm facts.
US farmers are saying they "just need temporary help, until things get better."
Here's the thing. US farm exports- which are mostly soy- CANNOT get better.
Other countries expanded their soy industries to fill China's demand.
We've walled ourselves out of the global market, folks. This is it.
Here's the thing. US farm exports- which are mostly soy- CANNOT get better.
Other countries expanded their soy industries to fill China's demand.
We've walled ourselves out of the global market, folks. This is it.
October 1, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Start with the 🧵 and stay for the farm facts.
Reposted by Tracy Ensor
