Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
@normanbier.bsky.social
CMU: Director, Open Learning Initiative. (http://oli.cmu.edu) Executive Director, Simon Initiative (http://cmu.edu/simon). Pittsburgh.
Work as though you live in the early days of a better nation.
Work as though you live in the early days of a better nation.
@joshtpm.bsky.social oh no. I don't love it.
October 14, 2025 at 11:38 PM
@joshtpm.bsky.social oh no. I don't love it.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
What the fuck do you mean I got a longer prison sentence than Diddy
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison in case involving sex workers, violence and ‘freak-offs’.
October 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
What the fuck do you mean I got a longer prison sentence than Diddy
Super long shot, but any of you have a connection with author Stephen Deusner? I'm desperately trying to get an autographed copy of one of his books....
September 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Super long shot, but any of you have a connection with author Stephen Deusner? I'm desperately trying to get an autographed copy of one of his books....
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
"There can’t be a free and fair election in 2026, or something resembling one, if we don’t f*ck them up now,” said Evan Sutton, a strategist who helped organize #TeslaTakedown protests.
I said what I said 😂
www.semafor.com/article/08/1...
I said what I said 😂
www.semafor.com/article/08/1...
‘Burn it all’: Progressives meet in the Trump-era wilderness
The 3,000 attendees of this year’s Netroots Nation conference doubted whether there will be a “next election.”
www.semafor.com
August 11, 2025 at 8:57 PM
"There can’t be a free and fair election in 2026, or something resembling one, if we don’t f*ck them up now,” said Evan Sutton, a strategist who helped organize #TeslaTakedown protests.
I said what I said 😂
www.semafor.com/article/08/1...
I said what I said 😂
www.semafor.com/article/08/1...
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
how unfathomably lucky i am to be here, to be a part of this fight, to be blessed with a moment of light on this timeline where i can make change and prove love. i cannot in my wildest dreams think of a greater gift than breathing with a beating heart and an electric brain, if only for a moment
July 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM
how unfathomably lucky i am to be here, to be a part of this fight, to be blessed with a moment of light on this timeline where i can make change and prove love. i cannot in my wildest dreams think of a greater gift than breathing with a beating heart and an electric brain, if only for a moment
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
its wild man like every single warning sign is blaring red right now but the president used to shit in a gold toiled and really gave marilu henner whats what on tv that one time in his reality show board room so theres just this blind faith that he knows what hes doing
May 22, 2025 at 5:55 PM
its wild man like every single warning sign is blaring red right now but the president used to shit in a gold toiled and really gave marilu henner whats what on tv that one time in his reality show board room so theres just this blind faith that he knows what hes doing
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
say it again:
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university.
University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
A must read
May 18, 2025 at 1:45 PM
say it again:
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
Fully on board with dems running for office promising to reinstate fired federal employees and jail this administration’s various criminals, but let’s go ahead and add “we will seize by eminent domain any national parkland sold to developers”
April 26, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Fully on board with dems running for office promising to reinstate fired federal employees and jail this administration’s various criminals, but let’s go ahead and add “we will seize by eminent domain any national parkland sold to developers”
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
there really is no alternative to tearing up CBP and ICE root and branch
A US citizen with a learning disability who has just suffered a medical emergency asks a CBP officer for directions outside the emergency room. He ends up detained in an icebox for ten days and has the assistant secretary of DHS lying about him to the public at large. popular.info/p/us-citizen...
![In an interview with Popular Information, his first with any media outlet, Hermosillo said DHS'.
's account was false.
According to Hermosillo, he was visiting his girlfriend's family in Tucson from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several hours before his arrest, Hermosillo was transported to a hospital in Tucson by ambulance after suffering from a seizure. He has a New Mexico state ID, but did not take it with him during the medical emergency.
After being released from the hospital following treatment, Hermosillo did not know how to return to where he was staying.
He approached the Border Patrol officer because he was looking for someone to help him. "I saw a car, and I askled] him for help," Hermosillo said. He told the officer that he was staying in Tucson.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:on5oeywiqx32fh2zau473wz6/bafkreie3gc6fndj7mtotijddm4eg264zgsqxpn4nbekb3xq5ubdmskvr6u@jpeg)
!["You"
re not from here. Do you have your
papers?" the officer said, according to Hermosillo. When the officer asked where he was from, Hermosillo said he told the officer,
"New Mexico." The officer then accused Hermosillo of lying. "Don't make me lout] like [I'm] stupid," the officer said. "I know you're from Mexico." After that, Hermosillo said, he was arrested.
Hermosillo said that he never told the officer that he was born in Mexico, was a citizen of Mexico, or entered the country illegally. And he would not have said those things because they are not true. He signed the transcript released by DHS because the officer ordered him to "sign everything." But Hermosillo did not read it, because he cannot read.
According to Hermosillo's girlfriend, Grace Hernandez, Hermosillo has learning disabilities and can only write his name.
Hermosillo said he did not graduate from high school and dropped out after the 10th grade.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:on5oeywiqx32fh2zau473wz6/bafkreiensu64iobo4ftuqeaighf2p5k745uzdnmhcecugsi4ec74dnqse4@jpeg)
April 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
there really is no alternative to tearing up CBP and ICE root and branch
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
Thursday traffic at Carnegie Mellon 🏴
April 3, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Thursday traffic at Carnegie Mellon 🏴
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again
April 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Violets are blue
March 20, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Violets are blue
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
This is precisely the kind of shit that makes me want to move to a cabin in the woods and become a prepper.
DoorDash and Klarna have signed a deal where customers can choose to pay for food deliveries in interest-free installments or deferred options aligned with payday schedules.
March 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM
This is precisely the kind of shit that makes me want to move to a cabin in the woods and become a prepper.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
Unfortunately, those 2% are all Democratic Senators.
Trump is 11 points underwater. Negative-22 point approval with independents. 2% of Democrats approve.
March 13, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Unfortunately, those 2% are all Democratic Senators.
I'm a lifelong, stupidly loyal Democrat. Not another dollar as long as @schumer.senate.gov holds office. This is the kind of Vichy cowardliness that history remembers.
March 14, 2025 at 1:30 AM
I'm a lifelong, stupidly loyal Democrat. Not another dollar as long as @schumer.senate.gov holds office. This is the kind of Vichy cowardliness that history remembers.
@schumer.senate.gov if you don't have the courage to lead in this moment then step aside.
March 14, 2025 at 1:08 AM
@schumer.senate.gov if you don't have the courage to lead in this moment then step aside.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
Somewhere, James Madison feels smug as hell.
Galveston County law enforcement is asking residents if they can stay in their homes for free:
www.chron.com/news/article...
www.chron.com/news/article...
Deputies ask to stay at Galveston County residents' homes for free
Galveston law enforcement is asking residents to volunteer their homes for Jeep Weekend.
www.chron.com
March 13, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Somewhere, James Madison feels smug as hell.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
Every time I enter or leave the Public Health building I am thankful that my personal health history did not include spending a minute in an iron lung.
March 13, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Every time I enter or leave the Public Health building I am thankful that my personal health history did not include spending a minute in an iron lung.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
I'm sorry, but "they took over the whole federal payments system, fired the career staff, and won't let anybody see what they're doing" is not a situation in which you wait for more information. It's a situation in which you assume the worst. There's no explanation for it other than rampant crimes.
February 3, 2025 at 9:07 PM
I'm sorry, but "they took over the whole federal payments system, fired the career staff, and won't let anybody see what they're doing" is not a situation in which you wait for more information. It's a situation in which you assume the worst. There's no explanation for it other than rampant crimes.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
If you're mad and find yourself yelling that you want someone launched into the Sun, take a moment, calm yourself, and remember that it takes a lot less Delta v to launch them out of the Solar System instead.
You can be mad, but that's no excuse to be inefficient with propellant.
You can be mad, but that's no excuse to be inefficient with propellant.
February 3, 2025 at 5:29 AM
If you're mad and find yourself yelling that you want someone launched into the Sun, take a moment, calm yourself, and remember that it takes a lot less Delta v to launch them out of the Solar System instead.
You can be mad, but that's no excuse to be inefficient with propellant.
You can be mad, but that's no excuse to be inefficient with propellant.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
How to overstate the scale of power - hard and soft - as well as prosperity that is tied up in US dominance in the sciences. what they’re doing here is. Just lighting that on fire.
It’s official: all funding requests made on Tuesday by postdocs for their salaries have been unilaterally rejected by NSF.
January 30, 2025 at 9:50 PM
How to overstate the scale of power - hard and soft - as well as prosperity that is tied up in US dominance in the sciences. what they’re doing here is. Just lighting that on fire.
Back on my trad wife shit.
December 23, 2024 at 6:26 PM
Back on my trad wife shit.
Reposted by Norman Bier (he/him/yinz)
This is a nightmare scenario for trans people. If language like this gets into an HHS funding bill that becomes law, pretty much every hospital and doctor's office that treats trans people of any age would stop doing so.
This is the most extreme anti-trans push yet.
This is the most extreme anti-trans push yet.
![For the last few years, the GOP has coalesced around an idea that would short-circuit essentially all trans health care in America: banning federal funds from going to businesses that provide health care specific to changing one's sex or gender identity, including hormones and surgeries. It would essentially signal to the private sector that if it wants federal dollars, it needs to stay away from sex-or gender-affirming care, and bow down to right-wing pundits who aim to, in their own words,
"eradicate" and "erase" this form of
health care.
Language in House Republicans' most recent funding bill for the Health and Human Services Department would do just that - ban money from any federal program to entities that do "social transitioning" or drugs and surgery for "gender dysphoria." Gender dysphoria is the specific diagnosis doctors use to justify those medical interventions. This legislation has not gotten a vote yet and would need to be reintroduced next Congress to be considered. But it has been a top priority for Republican lawmakers in the House, and Trump himself has promised he'd ask Congress "to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these [trans] procedures." (You can hear all his promises on trans health care in this short campaign video.)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hf7ezrajxadu7v3tzcyij424/bafkreid3evqccjqsjbwtdleb4kkevl4nepvc3h7wornyv37q5po7swxsei@jpeg)
December 10, 2024 at 2:24 PM
This is a nightmare scenario for trans people. If language like this gets into an HHS funding bill that becomes law, pretty much every hospital and doctor's office that treats trans people of any age would stop doing so.
This is the most extreme anti-trans push yet.
This is the most extreme anti-trans push yet.