Penelope Currier
banner
pencurrier.bsky.social
Penelope Currier
@pencurrier.bsky.social
M.A. in progress. Published scholar. Student of Art and Antiquity. Lover of Libraries. Blue Voter. Visual/UI Designer. she/her
Reposted by Penelope Currier
"The students are facing potential discipline that could range from a private reprimand to being required to withdraw from the school"

Instead of removing the guy who was buddies with a sex trafficker, they're investigating and going to discipline students who drew attention to it? Insanity.
Harvard officials are reportedly secretly investigating two students for their roles in drawing scrutiny to the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and ex-president Larry Summers
Harvard Secretly Investigates Students Over Larry Summers Video on Epstein
www.nytimes.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
I'm not sure if people realize the murder strikes are taking place across a large region. It's quite staggering.
www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...
December 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
The US continues to lose manufacturing jobs—payrolls are down 81k over the last year, & another 5k jobs were lost in November

Transportation (especially auto manufacturing), wood & electronics/electrical manufacturing are the biggest losers, but few subsectors are doing well
December 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
This is the desert of the real. The Wachowskis called it. But like Bernie says, no one wants this. Folks are organizing in amazing ways.
Mark Zuckerberg is building a data center in Louisiana that will use 3x more electricity than all of New Orleans.

Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.

Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
December 12, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
will every NFL game have a moment of silence or is that only for white supremacists who were presenting a racist rationale for our unfettered gun massacre culture when shot
I'm having trouble finding the "America Mourns Rob and Michelle Reiner" piece from the NY Times Editorial Board.
December 16, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
The FDA says four major retailers including Walmart, Target, Kroger and Albertsons continued to sell ByHeart baby formula products for days or weeks after the Nov. 11 recall. n.pr/4rQtjGm
Retailers didn't pull ByHeart baby formula fast enough after botulism recall, FDA says
The FDA says four major retailers including Walmart, Target, Kroger and Albertsons continued to sell ByHeart baby formula products for days or weeks after the Nov. 11 recall.
n.pr
December 16, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
How Israel’s expansion push deepens Palestinian suffering in West Bank https://aje.io/jf5ujc
December 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Primary every Democrat, jesus christ what good are they.
Here are the 28 Dem Senators who voted to advance the first federal ban on trans athletes & a federal definition of sex that would make trans & intersex people non-existent: Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Chris Coons (DE), ->
By a vote of 76-23, S 1071 passes the motion to proceed to the motion to concur. Won't know who voted for this until the roll call is uploaded, but safe to say it passed with the support of at least 24 members of the Democratic caucus. (Rand Paul probably voted nay and Steve Daines has been absent).
December 16, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it faced hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects last year.

(Published July 2024)
School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget.
Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it’s now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state program...
www.propublica.org
December 16, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has sharply escalated as the M23 rebel movement pushes beyond its North Kivu strongholds into South Kivu. According to analysis by the Critical Threats Project, M23’s capture of Uvira earlier this month & its advance down the RN5 toward Fizi mark a...
December 16, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
UnitedHealth is the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate.

ProPublica obtained what is effectively the company’s internal playbook for limiting and cutting therapy costs.

Here’s what we found.

(Published Nov. 2024)
How UnitedHealth’s Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americans’ Treatment at Risk
United used an algorithm system to identify patients who it determined were getting too much therapy and then limited coverage. It was deemed illegal in three states, but similar practices persist due...
www.propublica.org
December 16, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
'Evidence points to a genuine rise in distress linked to poverty, insecure housing, austerity and the pandemic - and NO evidence that mental health problems were being over-diagnosed.' @danwjoyce.bsky.social Oladayo Bifarin @uk.theconversation.com #MentalHealth
theconversation.com/what-looks-l...
What looks like ‘overdiagnosis’ is really a system struggling to provide continuous care
Diagnosis rates are rising because the NHS pathway is overwhelmed and fragmented, not because distress is being exaggerated.
theconversation.com
December 15, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Israel’s PM Netanyahu heralded Ahmed al-Ahmed for showing “Jewish heroism” before learning the Bondi Beach “hero” is Muslim.

🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/th4zuo
December 15, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
This is a great piece on Trump's near-destruction of the National Labor Relations Board. (And I'm betting they don't let the Acting GC go on-the-record about anything after his performance here. Kudos to @msainato.bsky.social for a very effective interview.) www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘A very hostile climate for workers’: US labor movement struggles under Trump
National Labor Relations Board, the federal watchdog for workers’ rights, has been rendered toothless as employees grapple with corporations
www.theguardian.com
December 14, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
7News Australia reports that the hero who jumped and disarmed one of the terrorist shooters

His name is Ahmed el-Ahmed

A 43 year old married father of two

He owns a fruit shop in Sutherland

No experience with guns

He was walking past

He has two bullets in his arm
December 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
“We were too scared to scream.” Survivors fleeing Mali describe rapes and killings they blame on Russia’s Africa Corps fighters.
Girls and women fleeing Mali describe sexual violence by Russian forces
Women and girls from Mali are alleging rape and sexual assault by Russian fighters with Africa Corps, a new military unit under Moscow's control.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
The UK has turned into a censorious nightmare state because of transphobia
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Residents of Lower Manhattan have been demanding pedestrianized streets for decades, but the city and Big Business keep thwarting them. Sounds like a job for Mayor Mamdani.
'No Better Place': Mamdani Must Pedestrianize Financial District - Streetsblog New York City
Residents of Lower Manhattan have been demanding pedestrianized streets for decades, but the city and Big Business keep thwarting them. Sounds like a job for Mayor Mamdani.
buff.ly
December 13, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
So, El Fasher looks like one of the worst single event atrocities to happen this century so far, but the evidence has come in such a trickle it seems to only now be getting verified
At least 60,000 murdered in Sudanese city, which resembles ‘a slaughterhouse’
Satellite evidence shows extent of paramilitary massacre in El Fasher
www.irishtimes.com
December 13, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients.

(Published Oct. 2024 with @capitolforum.bsky.social)
Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Treatments
When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients.
www.propublica.org
December 13, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Just out here updating the firmware on my humidifier…
December 11, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
Cities across Israel have taken measures to prepare for Byron, but Palestinian citizens there have no resources.
Israel prepares for Storm Byron, but not all citizens will get help
Cities across Israel have taken measures to prepare for Byron, but Palestinian citizens there have no resources.
www.aljazeera.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Penelope Currier
The titular wokeness being rolled back is the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Washington Post editorial board really speaking truth to power
December 11, 2025 at 2:53 AM