Heartened to see that my university is ending its contract with Turnitin before the next academic year, because Turnitin is going to use student submissions to train AI models. Institutions can and should resist this stuff!

exactly 💯 on LLMs: they simulate the output we call language, not the cognitive capacity we call language!

Dr Katie Twomey@k2mey.eurosky.social · 5d ago

Arguing that LLMs are anything more than a load of numbers going into a complicated mathematical function and spitting some more numbers out. Yes they simulate. But they simulate *language*. They do not simulate the cognitive processes underlying communication.

This month on The ARTWIFE Podcast, we welcome Anna Lena Phillips Bell to talk about her most recent collection of poetry, Might Could. We talk about the process of titling poems, the elements of craft that are often neglected in prose but amplified in poetry, and what we can learn from plants.

MIGHT COULD by Anna Lena Phillips Bell

Podcast Episode · The ARTWIFE Podcast · July 7 · 39m

podcasts.apple.com

This week’s feature is the wonderful Anna Lena Phillips Bell, with an artist statement reflecting on kindness, mutual flourishing, and the care we share with the plants around us. Read here: otherwisecollective.com/phillips-bell

Thank you to @readalittlepoem.bsky.social for including this here anticapitalist aubade, from Might Could & first published in the much-missed Gettysburg Review <3

Read A Little Poetry@readalittlepoem.bsky.social · 4w ago

"Who asks a person to work in this light?" — Anna Phillips Bell . . . This poem appeared in Might Could by Anna Lena Phillips Bell, published by Waywiser Books, 2026. Shared here with deep gratitude.

ICE is quietly arresting more people than ever. After months of releasing no detention data at all, the new numbers show a record 1,474 arrests a day in early July, the highest daily pace of the entire Trump administration. 🧵 austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-quietl...

ICE Quietly Arresting More People Than Ever According to Latest Data

NEW DATA ALERT 🚨 After months of data silence, ICE's new numbers show 65,765 people in immigration detention, deportations near 1,250 a day, and arrests now at 1,473 a day.

austinkocher.substack.com

😍😍 #poetrycommunity #bookarts #poetry #booksky

Anna Lena@aproflection.bsky.social · last mo.

Happy solstice! Here is the kind of luck I have—Emily Hancock of @stbrigidpress.bsky.social has made my poem “One Lightning Bug,” from Might Could, into a tiny letterpress-printed pamphlet. Emily showed me that the cover does this!

When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...

Happy solstice! Here is the kind of luck I have—Emily Hancock of @stbrigidpress.bsky.social has made my poem “One Lightning Bug,” from Might Could, into a tiny letterpress-printed pamphlet. Emily showed me that the cover does this!

Palindromists have taught the world that daffodils love to slide. (They do.)

Mark Saltveit@daoish.bsky.social · last mo.

My daffodill palindrome is a bit simpler: GO! (Daffodils slid off a dog.)

Just such a delight to talk with Amanda Hawkins for @therumpus.net. Thank y'all! 💚✨

The Rumpus@therumpus.net · 3mo ago

"A name is one step, a beginning, a mnemonic device. Being-with is how we know better." Amanda Hawkins interviews @aproflection.bsky.social about her newest poetry collection, Might Could (Waywiser Books). ➡️ buff.ly/88UIOSw

"Against Stoicism" among the columbine! Thank you, @lesleymwheeler.bsky.social! 💗💚

Lesley Wheeler@lesleymwheeler.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The gorgeous poems in this new book, Might Could by Anna Lena Phillips Bell, imagine ways to live more gently, with more delight, in this endangered world. Put away your terrible to-do list and spend time here! www.waywiserbooks.org/@aproflectio...

Logged on and immediately saw an exhausting conversation. Remembered these words.

John is absolutely right to see the “infinite patience” for Khan’s failed EdTech creative destruction & the closure of Hampshire as linked. EdTech has always been dependent on using grades as the foundation for A/B testing, behavioral modification (which they pretend is learning), & tokenization.

John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The same week Hampshire College (a place predicated on community between faculty and students) closes, the Khan TED Academy (an institution without faculty) rises. Academic freedom depends on the shape and kind of our institutions. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

"Independent bookstores make quiet comeback as big chains dominate retail" "About 422 indie bookshops opened in 2025, up 31%, defying predictions of retail consolidation"

Independent bookstores make quiet comeback as big chains dominate retail

About 422 indie bookshops opened in 2025, up 31%, defying predictions of retail consolidation

theguardian.com

Sharing this belatedly here but with much appreciation for @oxfordamerican.bsky.social—for everything they do, and for featuring two poems from Might Could and a series of river photos <3

Oxford American@oxfordamerican.bsky.social · 6mo ago

“I don’t plan when I’ll go. But when I do, I pay the river my attention.” —Anna Lena Phillips Bell shares two poems and a series of photographs of the Northeast Cape Fear River ahead of the release of “Might Could,” out March 1 from Waywiser Books. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/uWLP0

Thanks for the shout-out for Might Could, @clmporg.bsky.social! Just seeing this! 💚

Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP)@clmporg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Read poetry for #WomensHistoryMonth! In MIGHT COULD (Waywiser Books), Anna Lena Phillips Bell “considers how to make a life in hurricane country, amid a verdant landscape touched by industrial pollution and the climate crisis.” asterismbooks.com/product/migh...

big ruling from the Montana supreme court. as bolts reported last year, this court in Montana has been a backstop against all sorts of conservative policies: boltsmag.org/montana-supr...

Matthew Segal@segalmr.bsky.social · 4mo ago

MONTANA SUPREME COURT: “Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination,” and is subject to strict scrutiny under the Montana Constitution.

Frankly, the really stupid thing about them latching on to "just war theory" is that this /isn't/ a just war, by anyone's interpretation.

"Deere also agreed to make available to farmers for 10 years 'the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair' of large agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines, and sugarcane harvesters, the filing showed." Great news! www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Deere settles US right-to-repair lawsuit with $99 million fund, repair commitments

U.S. agriculture equipment maker Deere on ​Monday agreed to pay $99 million into a settlement fund for ‌farms and farmers that are part of a class action over costs and access to repairs.

reuters.com

Probably not surprising to anybody posting on bluesky but ChatGPT is a surveillance machine. Even queries made outside the US, in French, are getting sent to the FBI.

Nicolas Hervieu@nicolas.eurosky.social · 4mo ago

Une demande formulée (de France) à ChatGPT peut donc conduire à un signalement au FBI. Qui peut saisir les autorités locales, lesquelles interviennent alors. Parfaite illustration de ce que l'IA n'est pas un outil magique. Mais une fenêtre (grande) ouverte sur la vie privée de chaque citoyen.

Attention universities:

Eric Ravenscraft@lordravenscraft.bsky.social · 5mo ago

just this week: -- OpenAI killed Sora -- Disney subsequently cancelled its investment in OpenAI -- Wikipedia is now banning LLM-generated content ...tell me again how this is all "inevitable" and you have to "get on board or get left behind"?

The question that broke America fundamentally was ‘do all people deserve basic rights?’ This question was too hard for us. Too hard for our leadership. It still is. So now all of our rights are in jeopardy.

ICE is incompatible with a constitutional democracy and must be abolished.

Chuck Schumer@schumer.senate.gov · 5mo ago

ICE must change its violent ways. The last thing Americans want is ICE detaining passengers at airports and making things worse. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best: Fund TSA, rein in ICE, and move our country in the right direction.

An electric tea candle looks almost like a real flame if you don’t pay too much attention, but when I went to a restaurant that had put up a wall of electric tea candles they flickered together in robotic unison. Extruded text always reminds me of that wall.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 5mo ago

How does A.I. stack up against some of the world’s best human writers? Take our quiz.

This is what ecocide looks like.

Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول@faredalmahlool.bsky.social · 5mo ago

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

"Many Americans seem to have forgotten just how catastrophic US regime change wars have been in the past. So, with the risk of history repeating itself once again, here is Zeteo’s list of seven of the US’s most disastrous attempts at regime change, ranked"

Seven US Regime Change Wars, Ranked by Disastrousness

Trump has killed Iran's supreme leader and is demanding 'unconditional surrender.' But history tells us that US-led regime change efforts abroad almost never bring positive results.

zeteo.com

Might Could and me at AWP. I haven't been in ages and am really looking forward. Come say hi! 💚

What if we just…you know…didn’t use AI, given that we’ve seen approximately 1 billion red flags?