Michael Scherer

@michaelscherer.bsky.social

Staff Writer at The Atlantic. Previously at the Washington Post, TIME, Salon, others. Signal: michaelscherer.11

https://www.theatlantic.com/author/michael-scherer/

@c0nc0rdance.bsky.socialReposted by @michaelscherer.bsky.social

Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him.

From DISCVR blog's Facebook page, a momma bear & a yearling cub on her back in the shallow water. I think the background has been swapped out, and I can't rule out some AI use there? God, Facebook has become the social media for AI slop : ( The title of the article, which I link below, is "How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack"
Alaska Public Media@alaskapublic.org

Meet Backpack, your 2026 Fat Bear Week champion. Backpack is 20 years old, weighs about 1,000 pounds and got his nickname because, as a cub, he loved riding on his mom's back across the Brooks River.

akpub.ioMeet Backpack, Fat Bear Week’s chunky champBackpack went from hitching a ride on his mom’s back to cross the Brooks River to winning the hearts of fat bear fans around the world.
@agreenberg.bsky.socialReposted by @michaelscherer.bsky.social

Using AI in many cases means sending your most sensitive and intimate thoughts to a server where they can be exploited as training data, sold to ad brokers, or even handed to law enforcement.

So I assembled this guide to using AI with your privacy intact. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

wired.comHow to Use AI With Your Privacy IntactYour conversations with AI chatbots are both highly personal and deeply vulnerable to surveillance. Here’s how you can protect yourself.
@michaelscherer.bsky.social

This is a bad tweet. Poll did not ask approve or disapprove of $5000 check. Asked whether the quid pro quo of the proposal was appropriate. Totally separate issue. Like asking if Barry Bonds should have cheated vs was a great player.

@theatlantic.comReposted by @michaelscherer.bsky.social

The Trump administration staged an unofficial Cabinet-travel competition in which secretaries competed to see who could visit the most swing states and districts, @ashleyrparker.bsky.social and @michaelscherer.bsky.social report. See who logged the most trips:
theatln.tc/dqg5nYPm

@theatlantic.comReposted by @michaelscherer.bsky.social

President Trump is facing his last great electoral test with the midterms—and he is trying to defy the odds again, @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @ashleyrparker.bsky.social write.

@theatlantic.comReposted by @michaelscherer.bsky.social

Trump is facing his last great electoral test with the midterms—and at his midterm convention in Dallas this week, he’s trying to defy the odds yet again, @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @ashleyrparker.bsky.social write. theatln.tc/6GiOIf8L

📸: Joseph Rushmore

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