Caro Williams-Pierce
@therealcaro.bsky.social
Half professor, half feral - and fully absentminded. Easily distracted by ideas about design, trust, and learning.
Fueled by curiosity, filled with rage.
She/her
Fueled by curiosity, filled with rage.
She/her
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
![[Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking]
1
SOCRATES:
Plato..
PLATO:
Yes Socrates?
2
SOCRATES:
Can you tell me, are you human?
PLATO:
Why… yes, Socrates
3
SOCRATES:
And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is?
PLATO:
Um, yep
4
SOCRATES:
So you can tell me, then
5
[Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel]
SOCRATES:
*Is that a chariot*?
6
PLATO:
Well
that’s more just a bit of wheel
7
SOCRATES:
So not a *chariot*.
PLATO:
No.
8
SOCRATES:
[Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes]
So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*?
9
PLATO:
Well you can’t tap any of them really
10
SOCRATES:
So are we not human?
PLATO:
‘Spose not.
11
[Bleak pause]
12
PLATO:
I’ll get the hemlock
SOCRATES:
Yeah
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiazbuxbxnuyt5etli2cjseaychvbuym6n6z33nwx2mutlvoqjdhge@jpeg)
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay
October 18, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Laypeople often learn about science from expert explanations & those explanations often contain JARGON. Does jargon make explanations better or worse? In a paper out today in Nature Human Behaviour, @cruzf.bsky.social and I find that jargon can support illusions of understanding...
June 12, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Laypeople often learn about science from expert explanations & those explanations often contain JARGON. Does jargon make explanations better or worse? In a paper out today in Nature Human Behaviour, @cruzf.bsky.social and I find that jargon can support illusions of understanding...
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
May 16, 2025 at 3:25 AM
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
I need a pirate expert - or just someone who REALLY gets into Talk Like a Pirate Day. It’s for research!
May 6, 2025 at 11:02 PM
I need a pirate expert - or just someone who REALLY gets into Talk Like a Pirate Day. It’s for research!
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
May 4, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Don't trifle with a Mainer
May 2, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Don't trifle with a Mainer
Come to my Rogue Workshop at #CHI2025 - if you're furious at funding cuts and public kidnappings and letting 19-year-old kids mess around in the Social Security database, this workshop is for you!
Wednesday, April 30
Room G313
2:10 - 3:40 pm
Wednesday, April 30
Room G313
2:10 - 3:40 pm
April 29, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Come to my Rogue Workshop at #CHI2025 - if you're furious at funding cuts and public kidnappings and letting 19-year-old kids mess around in the Social Security database, this workshop is for you!
Wednesday, April 30
Room G313
2:10 - 3:40 pm
Wednesday, April 30
Room G313
2:10 - 3:40 pm
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
A friend who was out as a gay man during Section 28 was telling me the advice he used to give to straight allies asking how they could help back then: stand in solidarity with us so that some of the shit they’re throwing at us sticks to you. If you’re clean, you’re not standing close enough.
April 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
A friend who was out as a gay man during Section 28 was telling me the advice he used to give to straight allies asking how they could help back then: stand in solidarity with us so that some of the shit they’re throwing at us sticks to you. If you’re clean, you’re not standing close enough.
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
It's ok to not know
which way to go next
Sometimes it's best
to just stand in a
high up place and
look out across
all the different paths
between you
and the horizon
Then make a fire,
sleep under the stars
and pick a trail tomorrow
which way to go next
Sometimes it's best
to just stand in a
high up place and
look out across
all the different paths
between you
and the horizon
Then make a fire,
sleep under the stars
and pick a trail tomorrow
March 30, 2025 at 10:33 PM
It's ok to not know
which way to go next
Sometimes it's best
to just stand in a
high up place and
look out across
all the different paths
between you
and the horizon
Then make a fire,
sleep under the stars
and pick a trail tomorrow
which way to go next
Sometimes it's best
to just stand in a
high up place and
look out across
all the different paths
between you
and the horizon
Then make a fire,
sleep under the stars
and pick a trail tomorrow
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Sign spotted in a yard in Capitol Hill, where freedom of expression endures.
March 31, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Sign spotted in a yard in Capitol Hill, where freedom of expression endures.
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Today’s Bonus Daily Cartoon, by Guy Richards Smit. #NewYorkerCartoons
March 29, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Today’s Bonus Daily Cartoon, by Guy Richards Smit. #NewYorkerCartoons
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Comrade card for 3/30/2025.
March 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Comrade card for 3/30/2025.
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Imagine if Terry Pratchett wrote a #DoctorWho episode
What if the TARDIS landed in Ankh-Morpork?
What if Death and Binky met The Doctor
“OH DEAR, IT’S YOU. *sighs*
I FIND YOU INCREDIBLY IRRITATING AS JUST AS YOUR HOURGLASS RUNS OUT IT BECOMES FULL AGAIN. I CALL THAT CHEATING”
@rhi.bsky.social
What if the TARDIS landed in Ankh-Morpork?
What if Death and Binky met The Doctor
“OH DEAR, IT’S YOU. *sighs*
I FIND YOU INCREDIBLY IRRITATING AS JUST AS YOUR HOURGLASS RUNS OUT IT BECOMES FULL AGAIN. I CALL THAT CHEATING”
@rhi.bsky.social
March 8, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Imagine if Terry Pratchett wrote a #DoctorWho episode
What if the TARDIS landed in Ankh-Morpork?
What if Death and Binky met The Doctor
“OH DEAR, IT’S YOU. *sighs*
I FIND YOU INCREDIBLY IRRITATING AS JUST AS YOUR HOURGLASS RUNS OUT IT BECOMES FULL AGAIN. I CALL THAT CHEATING”
@rhi.bsky.social
What if the TARDIS landed in Ankh-Morpork?
What if Death and Binky met The Doctor
“OH DEAR, IT’S YOU. *sighs*
I FIND YOU INCREDIBLY IRRITATING AS JUST AS YOUR HOURGLASS RUNS OUT IT BECOMES FULL AGAIN. I CALL THAT CHEATING”
@rhi.bsky.social
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
😂🙌🏽
BREAKING: Entire Human Race Flagged By DEI Purge Because of “Homo” in “Homo Sapiens”
March 7, 2025 at 10:58 PM
😂🙌🏽
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
sorry i didn’t reply, i:
☐ forgot to
☐ am speechless!
☐ honestly thought i did?
☐ have nothing of value to add
☐ have no idea what you’re talking about
☐ don’t know how to respond to that?
☐ disagree and am letting the leaden weight of my silence speak for me
☐ don’t want to
(check all that apply)
☐ forgot to
☐ am speechless!
☐ honestly thought i did?
☐ have nothing of value to add
☐ have no idea what you’re talking about
☐ don’t know how to respond to that?
☐ disagree and am letting the leaden weight of my silence speak for me
☐ don’t want to
(check all that apply)
March 7, 2025 at 10:17 AM
sorry i didn’t reply, i:
☐ forgot to
☐ am speechless!
☐ honestly thought i did?
☐ have nothing of value to add
☐ have no idea what you’re talking about
☐ don’t know how to respond to that?
☐ disagree and am letting the leaden weight of my silence speak for me
☐ don’t want to
(check all that apply)
☐ forgot to
☐ am speechless!
☐ honestly thought i did?
☐ have nothing of value to add
☐ have no idea what you’re talking about
☐ don’t know how to respond to that?
☐ disagree and am letting the leaden weight of my silence speak for me
☐ don’t want to
(check all that apply)
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
Reposted by Caro Williams-Pierce
We Stan a legend
State Sen. Tony Bisignano doubled down on calling out Republican lawmakers for stripping away civil rights protections for transgender people in an interview with The Advocate.
www.advocate.com/pol...
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
www.advocate.com/pol...
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
Iowa senator condemns GOP in fiery speech over trans civil rights repeal: ‘Shame on all of you Christians’ (exclusive)
State Sen. Tony Bisignano doubled down on calling out Republican lawmakers for stripping away civil rights protections for transgender people in an interview with The Advocate.
www.advocate.com
March 7, 2025 at 11:01 PM
We Stan a legend
INFO’s little walk-out protest contribution today - just a couple of us, but we are but one node in a broad web…
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! PEER REVIEWED
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! APPROPRIATELY ARCHIVED
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! PEER REVIEWED
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! APPROPRIATELY ARCHIVED
March 7, 2025 at 11:08 PM
INFO’s little walk-out protest contribution today - just a couple of us, but we are but one node in a broad web…
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! PEER REVIEWED
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! APPROPRIATELY ARCHIVED
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! PEER REVIEWED
What do we want? SCIENCE!
How do we want it! APPROPRIATELY ARCHIVED