Heather Slania
@heatherslania.bsky.social
📚 Librarian 🏳️🌈 Queer 🌱 Vegan 🎲 Nerd 🖤 Elder Goth
Based in Baltimore but my heart is in Chicago.
Based in Baltimore but my heart is in Chicago.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Last Christmas Ich gave thee myne hearte
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
December 24, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Last Christmas Ich gave thee myne hearte
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
Reposted by Heather Slania
I don’t mean to sound extreme, but I don’t think we should have torture camps for people with criminal records either.
December 23, 2025 at 1:51 AM
I don’t mean to sound extreme, but I don’t think we should have torture camps for people with criminal records either.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Wishing y’all a mellow Winter Solstice. Found elsewhere, sharing here
December 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Wishing y’all a mellow Winter Solstice. Found elsewhere, sharing here
Reposted by Heather Slania
The shorteste daye
The longest nighte
Welcome, sun
Welcome, lighte
The longest nighte
Welcome, sun
Welcome, lighte
December 21, 2025 at 6:05 AM
The shorteste daye
The longest nighte
Welcome, sun
Welcome, lighte
The longest nighte
Welcome, sun
Welcome, lighte
Reposted by Heather Slania
Wishing a blessed Winter Solstice to all!
December 22, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Wishing a blessed Winter Solstice to all!
Reposted by Heather Slania
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Reposted by Heather Slania
When library funding goes up, crime tends to go down
Want Safer Neighborhoods? Invest in Libraries
When library funding goes up, crime tends to go down
buff.ly
December 20, 2025 at 1:01 PM
When library funding goes up, crime tends to go down
Reposted by Heather Slania
AGI The Word I’ve Been Avoiding hybridhorizons.substack.com/p/agi-the-word… #AI #transitions #society #jobs
AGI The Word I’ve Been Avoiding
On cognitive labour, timeline collapse, and the goal-seeking future
hybridhorizons.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:29 AM
AGI The Word I’ve Been Avoiding hybridhorizons.substack.com/p/agi-the-word… #AI #transitions #society #jobs
Reposted by Heather Slania
As we mourn Rob Reiner, don’t skip this: he was, pretty much, personally responsible for overturning California’s Prop 8 banning same sex marriage.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
How Rob Reiner became anti-Prop. 8 kingpin
Rob Reiner reflects on the critical role he played in getting California's gay marriage ban overturned.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 15, 2025 at 1:37 PM
As we mourn Rob Reiner, don’t skip this: he was, pretty much, personally responsible for overturning California’s Prop 8 banning same sex marriage.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
Reposted by Heather Slania
Increase in productivity since 1979: 87%
Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32%
Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%.
As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.
Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32%
Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%.
As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.
December 14, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Increase in productivity since 1979: 87%
Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32%
Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%.
As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.
Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32%
Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%.
As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.
Reposted by Heather Slania
This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
December 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
Reposted by Heather Slania
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Our infrastructure isn’t ready for what’s coming.
The Bay took over the highway during this morning's #KingTides in Marin.
December 5, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Our infrastructure isn’t ready for what’s coming.
Reposted by Heather Slania
“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”
AI Slop Is Spurring Record Requests for Imaginary Journals
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives
www.scientificamerican.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:30 PM
“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”
Reposted by Heather Slania
America is a country that will test UBI hundreds of times, get the same radically positive results each time, and still look at it askance, but will also put untested robotaxis on the road because a billionaire threw a shit fit.
An Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees a staggering reduction in homelessness. The program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years, and at the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees staggering reduction in homelessness
The state program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years. At the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.
www.streetroots.org
December 3, 2025 at 6:27 AM
America is a country that will test UBI hundreds of times, get the same radically positive results each time, and still look at it askance, but will also put untested robotaxis on the road because a billionaire threw a shit fit.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Reposted by Heather Slania
It happened! The @nytimes.com profiled Paulina!
The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley
Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish,” which offered dire predictions about the tech world’s love for libertarianism, is finding fans. It only took 25 years.
Gift Link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/t...
The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley
Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish,” which offered dire predictions about the tech world’s love for libertarianism, is finding fans. It only took 25 years.
Gift Link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/t...
November 27, 2025 at 4:39 PM
It happened! The @nytimes.com profiled Paulina!
The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley
Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish,” which offered dire predictions about the tech world’s love for libertarianism, is finding fans. It only took 25 years.
Gift Link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/t...
The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley
Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish,” which offered dire predictions about the tech world’s love for libertarianism, is finding fans. It only took 25 years.
Gift Link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/t...
Reposted by Heather Slania
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges
Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Reposted by Heather Slania
Yn a free society, universitye-level studye of the artes and humanityes sholde not be avaylable onlye to the wealthye and privileged.
November 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Yn a free society, universitye-level studye of the artes and humanityes sholde not be avaylable onlye to the wealthye and privileged.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Please note: none of these are university presses. Thank you.
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
November 19, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Please note: none of these are university presses. Thank you.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Me: I wish all these tech bro types would stop misunderstanding sci-fi and fantasy classics
Monkey's Paw: Bro.
Monkey's Paw: Bro.
Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino "also revered Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein's 1959 military sci-fi classic about an interstellar war between humans and alien bugs - a book his sister says he still reads to this day."
An endless amount of deranged details in this interview with Greg Bovino's sister, but most notably that his uncle produced the Jack Nicholson movie The Border and the depiction of the agent as corrupt radicalized him as a 12-yr-old.
"Since then, he was like, 'Dude, I want to do Border Patrol.'"
"Since then, he was like, 'Dude, I want to do Border Patrol.'"
November 17, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Me: I wish all these tech bro types would stop misunderstanding sci-fi and fantasy classics
Monkey's Paw: Bro.
Monkey's Paw: Bro.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
November 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Reposted by Heather Slania
Rest in Power, Alice Wong.
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
November 15, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Rest in Power, Alice Wong.
Reposted by Heather Slania
I looked at the likely impacts of this psychotic break on our financial system (the working title was "End Times Finance")
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/u...
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/u...
November 14, 2025 at 10:07 PM
I looked at the likely impacts of this psychotic break on our financial system (the working title was "End Times Finance")
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/u...
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/u...