Mark Sample
@samplereality.bsky.social
Professor of Film, Media, and Digital Studies at a small liberal arts college. Latest project: https://notime.now. Other things I've made: https://samplereality.itch.io
Reposted by Mark Sample
The Authoritarian Stack: a concise interactive feature on the takeover of democratic institutions by tech oligarchs.
The U.S. may already be cooked, but the rest of the world still has time to shift toward sovereign platforms.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
The U.S. may already be cooked, but the rest of the world still has time to shift toward sovereign platforms.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
November 8, 2025 at 2:09 PM
The Authoritarian Stack: a concise interactive feature on the takeover of democratic institutions by tech oligarchs.
The U.S. may already be cooked, but the rest of the world still has time to shift toward sovereign platforms.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
The U.S. may already be cooked, but the rest of the world still has time to shift toward sovereign platforms.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
Reposted by Mark Sample
Since the "Replacement Theory" is back in the news, here is a short run-down on its history that I wrote for @hyperallergic.com—along with the pernicious quote of Cassius Dio uses by white supremacists to justify their beliefs.
hyperallergic.com/514034/the-o...
hyperallergic.com/514034/the-o...
The Origins of White Supremacists' Fear of Replacement
This fear of being replaced can be traced to the French far right, but racist fears regarding supposed White genocide, and invasion by varied ethnic groups, go back centuries.
hyperallergic.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Since the "Replacement Theory" is back in the news, here is a short run-down on its history that I wrote for @hyperallergic.com—along with the pernicious quote of Cassius Dio uses by white supremacists to justify their beliefs.
hyperallergic.com/514034/the-o...
hyperallergic.com/514034/the-o...
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Way back in 2013 I remixed Nick Montfort and Stephanie Strickland's Sea and Spar Between to create House of Leaves of Grass, a combinatory mashup of Whitman's Leaves of Grass with MZD's House of Leaves. It's about 100 trillion stanzas. Guess what! I just updated it for mobile and touch controls.
House of Leaves of Grass
A poetry generator combining Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves. Explore 100 trillion procedurally generated stanzas.
fugitivetexts.net
November 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Way back in 2013 I remixed Nick Montfort and Stephanie Strickland's Sea and Spar Between to create House of Leaves of Grass, a combinatory mashup of Whitman's Leaves of Grass with MZD's House of Leaves. It's about 100 trillion stanzas. Guess what! I just updated it for mobile and touch controls.
the alt text here is maybe too much on the nose
November 6, 2025 at 2:22 PM
the alt text here is maybe too much on the nose
i'm edging
(getting so very close to committing to obsidian before walking away again)
(getting so very close to committing to obsidian before walking away again)
November 4, 2025 at 4:18 PM
i'm edging
(getting so very close to committing to obsidian before walking away again)
(getting so very close to committing to obsidian before walking away again)
Bigelow's A House of Dynamite ends just as it's getting good 😢
November 3, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Bigelow's A House of Dynamite ends just as it's getting good 😢
alt text putting derrida to good use
November 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM
alt text putting derrida to good use
The story that prompted me today to learn how and where to send public records requests.
New from me: As Flock Safety cameras proliferate across the US, creating a real-time national database on Americans' movements for police, people in cities like Austin, Denver and Sedona are pushing back.
Police cameras track billions of license plates per month. Communities are pushing back.
More than 5,000 law enforcement departments across the U.S. use interconnected Flock Safety cameras to track residents’ movements.
www.nbcnews.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:23 PM
The story that prompted me today to learn how and where to send public records requests.
Spent part of my Saturday afternoon writing a FOIA request to my town's police department regarding their use of Flock cameras. Their public records request portal only gives you 1000 characters to work with, but I made good use of those characters.
November 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Spent part of my Saturday afternoon writing a FOIA request to my town's police department regarding their use of Flock cameras. Their public records request portal only gives you 1000 characters to work with, but I made good use of those characters.
RIP Alison Knowles, the great Fluxus artist whose collaborative work with programmer James Tenney—The House of Dust (1967)—was one of the landmark works of computational poetry.
Alison Knowles, Artist Who Took Lunch to New Levels, Dies at 92
www.nytimes.com
November 1, 2025 at 12:39 PM
RIP Alison Knowles, the great Fluxus artist whose collaborative work with programmer James Tenney—The House of Dust (1967)—was one of the landmark works of computational poetry.
😭
I had to put my cat down. I raised her from a kitten and i am he that walks with the tender and growing night.
October 31, 2025 at 5:28 PM
😭
Penn's alumni email list was hacked. Got several of these within a 5-minute span. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
October 31, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Penn's alumni email list was hacked. Got several of these within a 5-minute span. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Reposted by Mark Sample
Today @urbaninstitute.bsky.social launches a new data tool: The American Affordability Tracker. We're collecting data that tracks the rising costs of a secure lifestyle, and indicators of financial distress that are contributing to a growing crisis. See the data here: www.urban.org/data-tools/a...
📊
📊
October 28, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Today @urbaninstitute.bsky.social launches a new data tool: The American Affordability Tracker. We're collecting data that tracks the rising costs of a secure lifestyle, and indicators of financial distress that are contributing to a growing crisis. See the data here: www.urban.org/data-tools/a...
📊
📊
There are certain accounts here I align with 100% politically but, because they are quick to repost unsubstantiated stories found elsewhere on social media that they invariably have to backtrack on, are doing, IMHO, more damage than good to our shared political causes.
October 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
There are certain accounts here I align with 100% politically but, because they are quick to repost unsubstantiated stories found elsewhere on social media that they invariably have to backtrack on, are doing, IMHO, more damage than good to our shared political causes.
One thing all the “political violence is never okay” discourse seems to ignore is the reality that state violence is political violence.
October 23, 2025 at 7:45 PM
One thing all the “political violence is never okay” discourse seems to ignore is the reality that state violence is political violence.
What new DRM bullshit is this? Seeking to buy an ebook from Princeton UP, only to be locked into their exclusive app.
October 23, 2025 at 1:47 AM
What new DRM bullshit is this? Seeking to buy an ebook from Princeton UP, only to be locked into their exclusive app.
After taking a year off from writing alt text for @clipart.bsky.social, I'm finally back at it. Now up to 160,000(!) words total, every single one written by me. Like this 90% true story about Albert Stubblebine, a real name I could have never made up on my own.
October 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
After taking a year off from writing alt text for @clipart.bsky.social, I'm finally back at it. Now up to 160,000(!) words total, every single one written by me. Like this 90% true story about Albert Stubblebine, a real name I could have never made up on my own.
A lot of schools are looking at HPU as the future of higher ed. Not mentioned by the Wall Street Journal: most HPU faculty teach a 3-3 load, have no sabbatical, and are not tenure track.
I'm quoted in this Wall Street Journal piece on High Point University, which has gone all-in on amenities (a $40,000-per year housing and dining plan!) to attract modest-achieving, high-income students.
How a Small North Carolina College Became a Magnet for Wealthy Students
As Trump slashes funding, schools are trying to attract the limited pool of higher-end families. High Point University is a blueprint.
www.wsj.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:55 PM
A lot of schools are looking at HPU as the future of higher ed. Not mentioned by the Wall Street Journal: most HPU faculty teach a 3-3 load, have no sabbatical, and are not tenure track.
Reading about Vanderbilt's new expansion campus in West Palm Beach just laughing to myself about how spectacularly it's going to fail. I give it under two decades. If the debt burden don't get you, climate disaster will.
October 20, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reading about Vanderbilt's new expansion campus in West Palm Beach just laughing to myself about how spectacularly it's going to fail. I give it under two decades. If the debt burden don't get you, climate disaster will.
I count my biggest success as a parent that both of my sons have continued reading fiction "for fun" in college.
October 18, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I count my biggest success as a parent that both of my sons have continued reading fiction "for fun" in college.
Reposted by Mark Sample
You're doing your best to keep your balance here on the roof. During a fierce storm you can see Linda Ronstadt's house wash into the ocean from here. A chimney juts up from the roof here and there is another chimney to the east, near the end of the roof.
October 17, 2025 at 2:23 AM
You're doing your best to keep your balance here on the roof. During a fierce storm you can see Linda Ronstadt's house wash into the ocean from here. A chimney juts up from the roof here and there is another chimney to the east, near the end of the roof.
Reposted by Mark Sample
Re-upping my attempt to explain what's happening and what's likely to happen next n NCs redistricting saga.
chriscooperwcu.substack.com/p/meet-the-n...
chriscooperwcu.substack.com/p/meet-the-n...
Meet the New Maps, Same as the Old Maps?
Understanding The Attempt to Squeeze Another Republican Seat out of NCs Congressional Delegation
chriscooperwcu.substack.com
October 16, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Re-upping my attempt to explain what's happening and what's likely to happen next n NCs redistricting saga.
chriscooperwcu.substack.com/p/meet-the-n...
chriscooperwcu.substack.com/p/meet-the-n...
If you're not anti-fascist,
then you must be pro-fascist,
and if you're pro-fascist,
you must be fascist
then you must be pro-fascist,
and if you're pro-fascist,
you must be fascist
October 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
If you're not anti-fascist,
then you must be pro-fascist,
and if you're pro-fascist,
you must be fascist
then you must be pro-fascist,
and if you're pro-fascist,
you must be fascist