John Berger on peasant temporality

The ship computer from Star Trek: TNG, except it's programmed to act like your friend and tell you what you want to hear so that you'll spend more time talking to it

Look. The LLMs run on a bit of randomness. Best case, even in easy cases, they're going to throw up wrong answers. One fix: run every query twice, compare the two. If the difference is too big, admit uncertainty. But they won't. Because they've been programmed to deny ambiguity for marketing reasons

It's easy to miss given the collapse of the US, but this basic data from @adamtooze.bsky.social, on China's solar growth, would on its own signal a change in the global geographies of power.

Copenhagen calling for an #HPS postdoc

New: Sarah MacLachlan, Jewel, and more musicians scheduled to perform at tonight's premiere for Hulu's ABC News doc LILITH FAIR have all pulled out after Disney scrapped the red carpet. First notable talent consequence of the Jimmy Kimmel situation.

A fun fact about McCarthyism is that just two and a half years after he was condemned and censured, Sen. Joseph McCarthy drank himself to death at 48. Fevers break. Petty tyrants fall. Censorship and persecution drive good people to stand together and fight back.

Latest projection suggests that more than 505,000 adults and kids have died due to USAID's illegal dismantling by Musk, Rubio, and Lewin Source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

I'm sure this is old news to some of you but fuck yes is this great protest music for this moment in particular (Also loving the Seventh Seal call back) www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nfy...

Seeing the Bill Watterson originals full of pencil lines of stuff that didn’t work, scuffs the eraser didn’t pick up, white out galore and more was something I needed to see to remind myself that nothing is perfect the first go and tweaks need to be made and you’re allowed to try again.

The list of countries that are confirmed to be set to recognize the State of Palestine on Sunday and Monday, September 21st and 22nd. The United Kingdom France Canada (conditional, gradual) Australia Belgium (gradual) Portugal Luxembourg Malta Andorra San Marino

I'm sure this is old news to some of you but fuck yes is this great protest music for this moment in particular (Also loving the Seventh Seal call back) www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nfy...

NEW: Hours before a new entry ban is supposed to go into effect, the federal government officially acknowledges for the first time that the restrictions do NOT apply to people who currently have H-1B visas. Link: www.uscis.gov/sites/defaul...

Breaking News: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that prohibits federal immigration agents from wearing masks in California.

I want my flying buses. I want my high speed rail. I want my China-scale green energy grid. I want my national university system that massively reinvests in research. We can have nice things!

I want my flying buses. I want my high speed rail. I want my China-scale green energy grid. I want my national university system that massively reinvests in research. We can have nice things!

You guys ever watch Rushmore? Where Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman keep trying to win the affection of a lady by building increasingly large aquariums even though she is like “I never said I wanted an aquarium, knock this shit off”? This might be that except with murder.

9/ The US is ceding the industries of the future to China while asking allies to do the same. Meanwhile, developing countries - representing most of global energy demand growth - are getting the manufacturing capacity they need from China instead.

I hate telling this story, but when tear gas is in the news... telling always feels importantm Tear gas is an abortifacient. When I was tear gassed, we were trying for a baby. The following day, I bled in a way I never have before. Like no period of my life before or since. Horror movie stuff.

Disney/ABC have a responsibility to refuse to participate in corruption. Kimmel must be reinstated. If Disney/ABC agree to this extortion then perhaps creatives + workers should consider collective action to push back. Same w/buying park + cruise tickets if they bow. People have power. Ask Target

another for the “evangelicalism is the unholy love child of Christianity and consumerism” file

Imagine if one of these leaders of the conservative movement in the US actually did something about the aspiring dictator they have actively empowered rather than just hand wringing and expressing anxiety about over reach

You asking for a written permission slip on a criminal fucking conspiracy?

As traditional donors like the US and UK cut back, the answer for Africa and the Global South is not in charity, but in a fundamental restructuring of how the world economy is organised, writes Fadhel Kaboub (The Independent, September 9, 2025). www.independent.co.uk/voices/us-ai...

And the landmark political science film The Empire Strikes Back

No particular reason.

I don't think analytics are wrong in their sense of other's problems, I just think they are wrong to think "collate and organise the opinions of liberal minded Western petit bourgeois who weren't good enough at maths to get science degrees" is an especially interesting alternative to these errors.

I can hear you asking: does a game that looks like it's about a rag tag team of queer mecha pilots really be politically relevant? And I'd answer: despite being localized in Cantonese, it's barred from sale in mainland China. 4/n

At a "top university," politicians forced the firing of a professor, her department chair, her Dean and the university president because she said...trans people exist. These sad, embarrassing people are destroying a keystone of their education system because they want to ignore the world

I hope this is the start of something. Media execs need to learn a lesson: don’t fuck with artists variety.com/2025/tv/news...

big mood

Current mood: m.youtube.com/watch?v=9xOz...

Huh wow turns out the people who wanted to misgender and deadname trans people and use racist slurs never cared about free speech, they just wanted to misgender and deadname trans people and use racist slurs

Schumer needs to say that when Ds take congress they will hold hearings on whether Disney needs to be broken up since it is essentially bribing Trump for preferential treatment re mergers.

I wrote to them to let them know that I am cancelling my Disney+ subscription and eliminating Disney movies for my kids.

Somehow, comedy is no longer legal again.

ah, well

I can't really capture how chilling this is. Kimmel criticizes the president, Trump-loyal FCC chair tells companies to cancel Kimmel or he'll pull their licenses, Disney cancels Kimmel's show. That's it. Broadcasters can't say anything bad about Trump anymore. Read what he said: not about Kirk.

A labour lockout was hard but also: the sister of a family friend and her 5 kids are in a house in Gaza City. They've been told to head south but there is nothing there. She's trying to get out but Canada has done nothing with their applications for assistance. Israel will likely kill them this week

The President of Barnard College calls for more controversial speakers like the late Kirk (without citing any of his controversial views), a position at odds with what Barnard colleagues describe as a track record of censoring events and speakers on Palestine. (1/4) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/o...

When I was studying for the bar and preparing notes I had a moment where I tried to ctrl+f a physical book I was working from, which I took as a sign to go open a bottle of wine.

You might be a bit too online if

typing CTRL-ENTER in a Word document at the end of a paragraph to send the post

In computer security a denial of service attack tricks a computer system to use so many computational resources that the service becomes unavailable. This seems to be the same and it works even better on educated people who are good at manipulating logical problem.

Calling peoples' employers in a rage because their tributes to Robert Redford weren't horny enough

This is totally true and my hot take is that im afraid that theories of impersonal domination or market dependency seem to be increasingly subsumed within this Polaynian marginalist framework

If you are a member of the @dalfaculty.bsky.social do not forget to vote on the tentative agreement before noon today. Make sure your voice is heard!