Heather Chacon
@wickettred.bsky.social
English professor (c19 American), closed adoptee, lover of the arts who studies public health & literature. Also a friendly neighborhood deadhead.
Truman Capote took an IQ test to see if he would be accepted to Trinity School in NYC.
He purportedly scored an IQ of 215.
He purportedly scored an IQ of 215.
November 21, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Truman Capote took an IQ test to see if he would be accepted to Trinity School in NYC.
He purportedly scored an IQ of 215.
He purportedly scored an IQ of 215.
Just got new glasses with the proper prescription and now there is zero that can stop me.
November 21, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Just got new glasses with the proper prescription and now there is zero that can stop me.
Reposted by Heather Chacon
The frontline CDC staff first asked to change the vaccines-autism website to promote a false link between the two wouldn't do so, @lenasun.bsky.social discovered wapo.st/3X9Mr43
CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on rejecting vaccines-autism link
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who voted to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he pledged not to remove language stating vaccines do not cause autism from the CDC website, condemne...
wapo.st
November 21, 2025 at 3:36 PM
The frontline CDC staff first asked to change the vaccines-autism website to promote a false link between the two wouldn't do so, @lenasun.bsky.social discovered wapo.st/3X9Mr43
Reposted by Heather Chacon
"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn."
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Less than Greggs? Public have no idea of value of top universities, study finds
Belief that snack chain’s revenues exceed those of Oxford’s one of many misconceptions about UK’s HE sector
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn."
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/p...
Marijuana and marijuana derivatives can be helpful and powerful treatment.
Hands off people’s medicine.
Marijuana and marijuana derivatives can be helpful and powerful treatment.
Hands off people’s medicine.
Their children depend on CBD to treat epilepsy. The government funding bill will cut off their therapy, advocates say | CNN Politics
Lisa Smith’s 14-year-old daughter, Haley, had run out of options. She was having roughly two dozen seizures a day and had tried “17 or 18” different pharmaceutical regimens, different diets, and an im...
www.cnn.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:29 PM
www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/p...
Marijuana and marijuana derivatives can be helpful and powerful treatment.
Hands off people’s medicine.
Marijuana and marijuana derivatives can be helpful and powerful treatment.
Hands off people’s medicine.
Was a grad student when had my first pregnancy loss. The grad student insurance was Humana and they denied all claims.
It was resolved eventually bc UK admin got involved but the majority of people do not have a large institution behind them like that and also it was still harrowing & terrible.
It was resolved eventually bc UK admin got involved but the majority of people do not have a large institution behind them like that and also it was still harrowing & terrible.
Internal documents and former company executives revealed how Cigna doctors rejected patients’ claims without opening their files.
“We literally click and submit,” one former company doctor said.
(Published March 2023 w/ @capitolforum.bsky.social)
“We literally click and submit,” one former company doctor said.
(Published March 2023 w/ @capitolforum.bsky.social)
How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them
Internal documents and former company executives reveal how Cigna doctors reject patients’ claims without opening their files. “We literally click and submit,” one former company doctor said.
www.propublica.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Was a grad student when had my first pregnancy loss. The grad student insurance was Humana and they denied all claims.
It was resolved eventually bc UK admin got involved but the majority of people do not have a large institution behind them like that and also it was still harrowing & terrible.
It was resolved eventually bc UK admin got involved but the majority of people do not have a large institution behind them like that and also it was still harrowing & terrible.
Reposted by Heather Chacon
We're back, humanities friends!
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 5:54 PM
We're back, humanities friends!
Reposted by Heather Chacon
Bards: the cause of and solution to all of our problems
November 20, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Bards: the cause of and solution to all of our problems
Reposted by Heather Chacon
Reposted by Heather Chacon
hi! are you someone who:
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
November 19, 2025 at 7:55 PM
hi! are you someone who:
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
Using this poster from the first National
Coming Out Day in our Not All Boys Are Blue unit to talk about the importance of accounting for historical contexts as well as what contemporary readers of their projects might need to understand or consider to receive those contextual sources well.
Coming Out Day in our Not All Boys Are Blue unit to talk about the importance of accounting for historical contexts as well as what contemporary readers of their projects might need to understand or consider to receive those contextual sources well.
November 19, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Using this poster from the first National
Coming Out Day in our Not All Boys Are Blue unit to talk about the importance of accounting for historical contexts as well as what contemporary readers of their projects might need to understand or consider to receive those contextual sources well.
Coming Out Day in our Not All Boys Are Blue unit to talk about the importance of accounting for historical contexts as well as what contemporary readers of their projects might need to understand or consider to receive those contextual sources well.
Reposted by Heather Chacon
Their advice is also dangerously wrong! When one group of people must carry papers on them to avoid government kidnapping and disappearing, that means *all* people must carry such papers on them. How else can you show the government you're not someone they should kidnap and disappear?
Email just went out on my campus that the Immigration Goons ("federal immigration agents") will be in town (Raleigh).
Inter alia, it says,"International students, faculty and staff should carry evidence of their immigration status with them at all times."
The fuck kind of country are we living in?
Inter alia, it says,"International students, faculty and staff should carry evidence of their immigration status with them at all times."
The fuck kind of country are we living in?
November 18, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Their advice is also dangerously wrong! When one group of people must carry papers on them to avoid government kidnapping and disappearing, that means *all* people must carry such papers on them. How else can you show the government you're not someone they should kidnap and disappear?
Reposted by Heather Chacon
It is genuinely incredible to me how much evidence there is to support investing in the public good and how much animus there is to do this simple, effective thing.
November 18, 2025 at 3:00 AM
It is genuinely incredible to me how much evidence there is to support investing in the public good and how much animus there is to do this simple, effective thing.
Reposted by Heather Chacon
NYT: A professor who showed a graphic labeling the “Make America Great Again” slogan as covert white supremacy has been removed from teaching a class under a new Indiana law meant to foster “intellectual diversity.”
(1 of 2)
(1 of 2)
November 14, 2025 at 1:29 AM
NYT: A professor who showed a graphic labeling the “Make America Great Again” slogan as covert white supremacy has been removed from teaching a class under a new Indiana law meant to foster “intellectual diversity.”
(1 of 2)
(1 of 2)
Give me an old building like this any day
November 18, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Give me an old building like this any day
Reposted by Heather Chacon
I don't object to the idea that "the South" has a racist past and present. I object to essentialism that levels its people into a homogenous mass of bigots and to exceptionalism that demarcates particular forms of hate as regional, and therefore atypical for--rather than emblematic of--the nation.
November 17, 2025 at 10:32 PM
I don't object to the idea that "the South" has a racist past and present. I object to essentialism that levels its people into a homogenous mass of bigots and to exceptionalism that demarcates particular forms of hate as regional, and therefore atypical for--rather than emblematic of--the nation.
I think this coat could fix me
November 17, 2025 at 12:31 AM
I think this coat could fix me
Reposted by Heather Chacon
Look at this excellent handkerchief from 1769 at the V & A museum: a showcase for #18thc practices of remediation. Made to imitate a quodlibet/medley print, a genre that itself aims to simulate, in a trompe l'oeil idiom, a scatter of small printed papers.
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps
November 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Generative AI actually stands for generative ass impersonation.
November 16, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Generative AI actually stands for generative ass impersonation.
Reposted by Heather Chacon
There's a kind of displacement in the idea that ai is both
A) so easy to use that we won't need people to know how to do things
B) itself something that requires significant skill and training to use
A) so easy to use that we won't need people to know how to do things
B) itself something that requires significant skill and training to use
This below is in the context of computer science but we all need to be having this conversation about whether "using AI" in classes prepares you for future jobs or whether actually doing the thing yourself prepares you for a world in which you may or may not use AI. The idea that using AI to write/1
November 16, 2025 at 5:41 PM
There's a kind of displacement in the idea that ai is both
A) so easy to use that we won't need people to know how to do things
B) itself something that requires significant skill and training to use
A) so easy to use that we won't need people to know how to do things
B) itself something that requires significant skill and training to use
Reposted by Heather Chacon
steam is apparently allowing "this game had AI in it that it didn't disclose" as a valid return statement, so if you or anyone you know actually paid $70 for slop, get that money back
Insulting to the players, insulting to the IP, insulting to the medium, the developers. And the craft itself. Fuck you executives who pushed this garbage.
frvr.com/blog/call-of...
frvr.com/blog/call-of...
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is littered with AI art slop, because your $70 means nothing anymore
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is littered with AI generated artwork which makes the $70 feel like a complete rip-off.
frvr.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:10 AM
steam is apparently allowing "this game had AI in it that it didn't disclose" as a valid return statement, so if you or anyone you know actually paid $70 for slop, get that money back
I am home at 3:21 and going to do the most decadent thing imaginable
Take a fucking starfish shaped nap
Take a fucking starfish shaped nap
November 14, 2025 at 8:22 PM
I am home at 3:21 and going to do the most decadent thing imaginable
Take a fucking starfish shaped nap
Take a fucking starfish shaped nap