Angela Cassidy
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angecass.bsky.social
Angela Cassidy
@angecass.bsky.social
4.3K followers 1.2K following 780 posts
Undisciplined scholar. Researching science, society+policy; humans-animals-environments; #OneHealth #microbes #STS #HistSTM #scicomm.
Author, 'Vermin, Victims and Disease: British Debates over Badgers and Bovine TB'
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angecass.bsky.social
Angela Cassidy @angecass.bsky.social · Nov 13
Please please, GIVE ME A SIGN YOU'RE REAL!
"1. Fill out your profile BEFORE you start following people: issue is that accounts with generic avatars and no biography or introductory text are perceived as likely to be bots, so users not only eschew following back but they may even automatically block"
uoylibrary.bsky.social University of York Library @uoylibrary.bsky.social · Nov 13
We've written a Researcher's Guide to Bluesky!

It's a bit like all those other useful guides to Bluesky, but with several useful insights from University of York academics about using the platform, and we'd love it if it was reposted far and wide...

>> blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024...

🧵 below
The Researcher’s Guide to Bluesky – The Library, Learning, Archives and Wellbeing Blog
blogs.york.ac.uk
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
angecass.bsky.social
While these scholarships won't cover full costs of MA study, they will make things a fair bit easier, in turn creating critical access routes into PGR and academia, on an absolutely cracking course.
Please share widely! #HEaccess #sustainability #envpol #foodstudies
January 27, 2026 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
angecass.bsky.social
Donald MacKenzie on visions of infinite scaling in tech: "AI’s scale doesn’t matter just to specialists. The rest of us are being taken on a ride along the logarithmic curve too." (NB Mackenzie seems to have taken the hint from Shapin and is now writing essays for LRB, hurrah!) #sts #envhums #envsoc
bookseditorial.bsky.social Very Terry 🔥 @bookseditorial.bsky.social · 2d
"Data is not growing, because we have but one internet ... data is the fossil fuel of AI. It was like created somehow, and now we use it, and we’ve achieved peak data, and there’ll be no more." share.google/4EkXwYfGYz6r...
Donald MacKenzie · AI’s Scale
AI’s scale doesn’t matter just to specialists. The rest of us are being taken on a ride along the logarithmic curve...
share.google
January 31, 2026 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
histoftech.bsky.social
Another gross thing about the files is that they show, once again, just how much one asshole can influence other people by being rich and saying shit.
msmaxwellmusic.bsky.social Hi my name is Mika 🏳️‍⚧️ @msmaxwellmusic.bsky.social · 17h
I'm not being facetious. Epstein was apparently giving talking points to the people pushing anti trans rhetoric in the UK.
From: Sent: To: Sunday, May 8, 2016 10:18 PM jeffrey E. Subject: London talk the title of my talk October 25 in London, audience "500, 35 pounds paid attendance each "An Evening on Evolutionary Biology: An overview covering Feminism, Transgender, Homosexuality and Honor Killings." $3000 for me (i will already be in London paid for by Imperial College) and an almost certain corporate $3000 add on just as you outlined-this will create an immediate internet wave especially in the UK with coverage in all the major newspapers and so on anyway i will concentrate on it, to the exclusion of individual pieces at the moment all best
February 2, 2026 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
stianwestlake.bsky.social
There’s been some concern and speculation in recent days about the future of curiosity-driven and applied research in the UK.

This letter from UKRI CEO Ian Chapman provides some helpful context on what’s really going on. I hope you find it useful.

www.ukri.org/news/open-le...
Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community
UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.
www.ukri.org
February 1, 2026 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
leafyhistory.bsky.social
Happy LGBT+ History Month!
Robert Boyle (1627-1691) one of the founding members of the @royalsociety.org will be remembered this year. A bit of a queer black sheep, he was strongly against relationships with women, much to the dismay of his friends... 🏳️‍🌈🧵
#LGBTplusHM #lgbthm26
Image by/for the official LGBT+ History Month project founded by School's out. Shows Robert Boyle (25th January 1627 - 31 December 1691). There is a portrait of him with long curly hair and a lacy collar, with the LGBT+ History Month logo for 2026 - a test-tube with a rainbow exploding from it.
February 1, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
dollyjorgensen.bsky.social
Are you in UK and want to hear about my book Ghosts Behind Glass? 3 public talks in Feb:
Cambridge Museum of Zoology, 11 Feb www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/talk-...
M Shed Bristol, 12 Feb  www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/m-s...
Oxford NatHist Museum, 13 Feb www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/dead-a...
Ghosts Behind Glass
How museums display extinct species—and what these exhibits say about us.   While it’s no longer possible to encounter a dodo in the wild, we can still come face-to-face with them in museums. The rema...
press.uchicago.edu
January 12, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
joaquincastrotx.bsky.social
Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning.

Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.
February 1, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
ellyzoe.bsky.social
This!! Too many things in the us are dependent on a charity economy (feeding the poor, educating our youth, university research, etc!) and that feeds all these fucked up incentives.
chanda.blacksky.app Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 21h
Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich
February 1, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
katjathieme.bsky.social
Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/
January 31, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
emma-briant.co.uk
Oh. My. God. Chomsky talking about the 'hysteria' that has developed about the abuse of women and giving Epstein advice on how to handle the media. In 2019. The Media studies discipline and much of the left should reflect on the power given to this one flawed man to shape generations of thought.
emily.gorcen.ski Emily Gorcenski @emily.gorcen.ski · 2d
Cool thoughts from Noam Chomsky
From: Matthew Hiltzik < To: J <jeevacation@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Thoughts from Chomsky Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 23:34:06 +0000 I think that is wise Sent from my iPhone On Feb 23, 2019, at 4:19 PM, J < jeevacation@gmail.com> wrote: Ive watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It's painful to say, but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it. I've had plenty of experience, though of course not on this scale. A google search will bring up tons of hysterical accusations of all sorts, even groups devoted to vilifying me. I pay no attention, unless I'm approached for a comment on a specific matter. It's a nuisance, but it's the best way. The same conclusions from experiences of others, in some cases close friends. What the vultures dearly want is a public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts -- which are impossible to answer (how do you prove that you are not a neo-Nazi who wants to kill the Jews, or a rapist, or whatever charge comes along?). That's particularly true now with the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder. For virtually everyone who sees any of this, the reaction will be "where there's smoke there's fire, maybe raging fire" (whatever the facts, which few will even think of investigating). In general, it's best I think not to react unless directly questioned, particularly in the current mood -- which, I presume, will fade away, even if not in time to prevent much torture and distress.
January 31, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
colinstuartspace.bsky.social
In 1973, NASA launched spiders into space.

One of them was called Anita.

This is her story.

🧵 (1/8)

Image: Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

#astronomy #history
January 31, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
hagenilda.bsky.social
SO SO GLAD to see a PROPER rebuttal against Silvia Federici's very wrong scholarship in the latest Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft! Thank you, Rita Voltmer!

muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
In the 1970s, an invention of tradition connected the fight for women’s liberation with the figure of the witch. However, this narrative grounded in male fantasies of the 19th century (Bachofen, Grimm, Michelet, and many others). The German “völkisch” feminism followed this pattern, as did Second Wave feminism after the Second World War, especially in its esoteric, spiritual, and ecological branch. The narrative gained ground in the European, the transatlantic and the postcolonial Women’s Movements. Modern witchcraft research has unmasked the “witchcraft narrative” as a mere invention of tradition. However, the “witch narrative” remains alive in the work of the Autonomist Marxist feminist Silvia Federici. The spirit of Grimm and Michelet, which had been conveyed via Gage, Murray and her epigones of spiritual feminism and eco-feminism, still breathes in Federici's books. This article deconstructs Federici’s witches. They are not the granddaughters of the witches who had not been burned, but simply the epigones of the witches invented by males during the 19th century.
January 31, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
hetanshah.bsky.social
How do we take a place sensitive approach to environmental sustainability? Our latest report identifies four key features
- knowledge
- language
- participation
- partnership

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...
Knowledge Language Participation Partnership The British Academy A place-sensitive approach for environmental sustainability
December 11, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
bookseditorial.bsky.social
What's that? You'd prefer a one page visualisation of what an academic & professional publisher needs to see in your book proposal? Here's one I made earlier.
Crafting an Academic Book Proposal - an aide memoire. A visualisation of academic book proposal guidelines featuring sections on "working title", "structure", "description & aims", "chapter synopses", "length & schedule", "competition", "Market & audience", and "what about you"
September 18, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
matthewcort.land
One of the largest figures in global public health is in the files.

It's hard to overstate the impact the Gates Foundation has had on public health over the last 25 years
okmagazine.com OK! Magazine @okmagazine.com · 2d
Bill Gates allegedly caught an STD when he cheated on then-wife Melinda Gates, newly released emails in the Jeffrey Epstein files revealed.
Bill Gates Shocker! Billionaire Got an STD After Cheating on His Wife With 'Russian Girls,' Jeffrey Epstein Files Claim
okmagazine.com
January 31, 2026 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
bookseditorial.bsky.social
"Data is not growing, because we have but one internet ... data is the fossil fuel of AI. It was like created somehow, and now we use it, and we’ve achieved peak data, and there’ll be no more." share.google/4EkXwYfGYz6r...
Donald MacKenzie · AI’s Scale
AI’s scale doesn’t matter just to specialists. The rest of us are being taken on a ride along the logarithmic curve...
share.google
January 31, 2026 at 11:34 AM
angecass.bsky.social
Donald MacKenzie on visions of infinite scaling in tech: "AI’s scale doesn’t matter just to specialists. The rest of us are being taken on a ride along the logarithmic curve too." (NB Mackenzie seems to have taken the hint from Shapin and is now writing essays for LRB, hurrah!) #sts #envhums #envsoc
bookseditorial.bsky.social Very Terry 🔥 @bookseditorial.bsky.social · 2d
"Data is not growing, because we have but one internet ... data is the fossil fuel of AI. It was like created somehow, and now we use it, and we’ve achieved peak data, and there’ll be no more." share.google/4EkXwYfGYz6r...
Donald MacKenzie · AI’s Scale
AI’s scale doesn’t matter just to specialists. The rest of us are being taken on a ride along the logarithmic curve...
share.google
January 31, 2026 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
lsangha.bsky.social
'the science is now crystal clear that winters are getting wetter in the UK due to global heating, hitting damp regions like the south-west hardest.'

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
‘Homes may have to be abandoned’: how climate crisis has reshaped Britain’s flood risk
As rivers swell and homes are cut off, scientists say UK winter rainfall is already 20 years ahead of predictions
www.theguardian.com
January 31, 2026 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
farsouthhistory.bsky.social
Check out our CFP below! #envhist #envhum #histsci #polar #alpine #climate
networks.h-net.org/group/announ...
Call for Contributions: After Permafrost – Thinking with Frozen Earth on a Thawing Planet | H-Net
Dear colleagues,We are happy to share a call for contributions to an edited volume titled After Permafrost: Thinking with Frozen Earth on a Thawing Planet. Please, see the detailed call attached.
networks.h-net.org
December 27, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
daydreamflowers.bsky.social
Lichen- paper sculpture
Lichen sculptures handmade from paper
August 26, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
daydreamflowers.bsky.social
New work- aquatic plants- mostly invasive. These are paper sculptures.
Paper aquatic plant replicas
October 26, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
rossbrooks.co.uk
My first book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, will be published by Yale University Press on 11 August (UK) and 8 September (US). Please help spread the word! 🙏

UK: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... @yalebooks.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈📚🐵

US: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️ 🗃️🦋
Jacket design for Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life: A History of Sex and Science by Ross Brooks. It features a historic, drawn image of a gynandromorph gypsy moth, with distinctive female patterning on its left side and male on its right. Against a black background, the image and text (title and author's name) are brightly rendered in a spectrum of colours resonant of the Progress Pride Flag.
January 30, 2026 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
wombatscholar.bsky.social
A lovely story!
‘Her name was Mothball and she changed my life’: the true story behind Diary of a Wombat
Jackie French was used to the quirks of wild animal behaviour – and then she met a carrot-mad wombat with an appetite for destruction. A bestseller was born
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
hcraddock.bsky.social
The research guide on Environmental History that I wrote for The National Archives, UK is now live! Includes research advice and resources on colonial environments, pollution, agriculture, and animal histories.

Available here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yo...

#envhist #envhum
Photograph of an American bison standing beside a fence at the London Zoo in 1906.
January 30, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Angela Cassidy
angecass.bsky.social
*IF* Goldsmith does work with Reform (note how much work that 'has been approached' is doing in this story), will pour salt on Labour govts peculiar hostility to wildlife, widen fissures in green politics between climate/green transition & conservation agendas. Not good news, to put it mildly.
james-bg.bsky.social James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 3d
This is very savvy from Reform. It really could build support with policies on bottom trawling and the green belt, especially when so few media outlets will make the point that the biggest threat to nature is the climate crisis that Reform would exacerbate.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reform UK enlists Boris Johnson ally to write party nature policies
Exclusive: Ben Goldsmith will work on issues including fishing and green belt preservation to attract green Tories
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:13 AM