Sophie from Romania: the inspirational reminder that 1) change (for the much better) can and does happen and 2) that it takes, time, effort, empathy and persistence.

I don't normally ask so directly, but: This has been & will continue to be a very busy few days, driving down to Cville, seeing my Mom, traveling again tomorrow, & doing final grading for Spring 26 amidst it all. Finishing this thread wasn't easy, & I'd really love if it got more shares. Thanks! 🗃️

A pretty sobering report from the UK Parliament’s Education Committee: real financial pressure across UK universities, and no clear plan for insolvency if it happens.

As high-profile websites vanish, it’s a reminder that the web has no built-in archival layer. But some publishers are now blocking the Wayback Machine. What’s at stake if the web stops being archived? Our new FAQ explains: preserving the public record matters. 🌐📚 help.archive.org/help/faq-pub...

Enjoyed this sign while touring the Michigan State University Library backrooms. 🪄📚

#CriticalAI by @dukepress.bsky.social proud to announce 4.1: free to public for 3 more wks! read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/... From @mollycrabapple.bsky.social crushing it in the opener, to a fab essay on why #intersectionality crushes #genAI, onto amazing reviews, the issue is clutch AI news.

If they hired romance authors to write the storylines, just imagine the enthusiastic reader response!

The last one would push me into writing something the size of War and Peace overnight. #writerslife

Anyone else remember the big NBC Odyssey miniseries in 1997 that cast Vanessa Williams, a Black woman, as Calypso?

AI Booster Graduation Speaker: lame, uninspiring, zero juice, students hate it Muppet Graduation Speaker: life-changing, memorable, solution to most world problems

New picture, based on a publicity photograph for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Trademark extortion scheme alert! 2nd example I've seen of identical email, tho sent out w/ different names/addresses/company names. Goal is to scare writers into responding so they can be pressed to pay big $$$ to "preserve their rights". Needless to say, this is not how trademark or copyright work

If you see this, post a tree.

If you see this, post a tree

It’s exhausting for immigrants to live life being defensive of own existence. To feel obliged to do much better but at the same time keep much smaller. Don’t do that. It’s not good for you. Immigration *is* life. History confirms that nations die without it. Feel deserving of being treated equally 💚

so the thing about collagen disorders is that you get the bendiness with none of the strength and also none of the capacity to observe limitations. Circus contortionists, and I’m friends with a few, spend years training muscles to and joints to bend without injury. It takes strength more than talent

I’m worried about trans people all over right now. I’m in a bad spot and people can see me and know my work. And I’m still in. A bad spot. I can’t imagine how much worse it is for everyone else because it’s bad bad for me So BLACK TRANS MUTUAL AID THREAD 2 TRY TO HELP

If you’re Black and Trans and have a Mutual aid Need Please place it below I will share this non stop and boost it

Like, I don't think that the thing I want should be so complicated. A static 'about' page with links to various other static pages and ONE blog page where I post about reading.

this is when about four square kilometers of Beijing was obliterated in 1626 when the gunpowder armory exploded; we still don't know the actual mechanisms of what happened but the funniest explanation is 'hit by a meteor'

Looking for a romcom with braaaaiiinnsss? Bookshop.org UK currently has 20% off 10 Things I Hate About Zombies! That's 50 pages of shambling and silliness, free! 🧟 uk.bookshop.org/p/books/10-t... #romancelandia

Many years ago, an editor figured out the structure of a paragraph I wrote was too close to something in @matt-levine.bsky.social's Money Stuff. The editor explained to me why it was wrong, and taught me how to avoid the mistake in the future. I worry about the pressure on writers to publish more.

We can simultaneously hold that cycling (including ebikes!) helps people to build exercise into their lives in a way that is more convenient & ideally more pleasant WITHOUT doing the weird improving thing that scolds tired people for "laziness," deprioritises accessibility & is usually fatphobic.

Status report, "It Only Took Me An Hour To Find This" dep't: (eyeroil) A scrap of yesterday-discourse put me in mind of this "cover". (And the delightful quote from @terryandrob.bsky.social). ...Still must write the damn book. 😏...More discussion: dduane.tumblr.com/post/7634308...

If Marvel and DC were really about that AU life they'd drop a 4-issue boutique romance line.

Good 🧵 but more succinctly: when you are writing academically you are not writing for yourself. You are not writing for your immediate audience. You are steward of all the information that has come before and building the foundation for all advances that will come later

A bunch of engineers spending a couple decades denigrating any field involved with soft squishy feelings has led to the literal inability to craft a narrative the average human wouldn't recoil from in horror.

I was talking to someone in the AI industry* who is fuming about this dynamic. 'These guys are just begging for our industry to be regulated out of existence'. *Or as they would immediately correct me, the LLM industry.

Birth rate discourse is like “It turns out if you give women more choices, they’re less likely to make ones that make their lives harder.” Which is really helpful in figuring out how we can improve society somewhat. But instead people are like wow giving women more choices was a mistake

We have cars that just idle in front of our little primary school for hours. Engines on, the whole street smelling of exhaust. This would be incredible.

People have already memory-holed how critical #TeslaTakeDown was. It was the earliest decentralized set of protests in the second term as early as Feb 2025 at a time when most people were shell-shocked and Dem leadership was cowering and capitulating. And it pushed Elon out of the WH.

A common comment on my videos about LLM "hallucinations" is that this isn't as much of a problem because LLMs "cite their sources" now. This is a category error. Citing a source implies it was consulted. LLMs do not consult, even with RAG. A citation might be *included* but it's not *consulted*.

Particularly in the context of (appropriate) crackdowns on LLM-generated papers (e.g., on arXiv) and more and more tales of fabricated citations, two reminders: (1) LLMs do not "cite their sources" (2) Using an LLM to generate, complete, or fix LaTeX code can result in fabricated citations

I know... Two days of Squeezy posts... but it's his Gotcha Day! I can't believe we picked him up from the rescue a full year ago. Look how big my boy has grown!

American money is behind so much of the UK far right, from little Tommy to anti-abortion activism. It’s not even hidden

best trend of 2026. boo all these fuckers.

People don't get that I want a packing war. Oh, the sweet dream of their being 47 or 83 justices so no one loses bodily autonomy or human rights for a generation because one dies at an awkward time. Dilute their fucking power. Enough of this nonsense.

I’m sorry but if you aren’t sure of a citation, whether what it means or that it exists… why are you citing it. why are you referring to something you haven’t read or don’t understand? that defeats the entire bloody point

you're laughing. two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert and you're laughing.

Very moved to have been trusted to help shape this org with @regan008.bsky.social @plach.bsky.social @emgrumbach.bsky.social and the stellar council. ACH has meant a lot to me, and I’m looking forward to the work ahead.

Her GFM: www.gofundme.com/f/help-amber...

If you enjoyed Escher Girls (which I have!) then you might want to send a little towards the medical expenses of the creator. Since she's trans and in north America, it's been extremely difficult for her to find treatment and it's been a very nasty medical thing going on for her, for over a year.

See, you can build a business from illustrating mushrooms :) 🐡 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

THIS IS WHY YOU DO NOT LET A BUNCH OF GOONS RUN YOUR PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCIES, GUT YOUR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, AND DISMANTLE YOUR INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE AGENCY.

This is my shocked face. Look at me, being shocked. And stunned. I am shocked and stunned by this utterly unprecedented happening. Never before in human history has Andy Burnham revealed he does not share the strong progresssive values his supporters project on him.

Delighted at the uproar around a lack of Wodehouse in a recent list of the best English language novels. Delighted also that my Wodehousian kids' book has been mentioned a few times. Personal view? Don't sully Mr. Wodehouse with formal Canonization. Time is handling that just fine.

By virtually any measure, ebikes are less resource-intensive than cars (which doesn't mean we should be uncritical of how minerals are sourced or that we shouldn't seek methods that are better for the planet & people!) but for some reason ebike use, unlike car use, has to be justified at every turn.

No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars.

Congratulations, you've just invented allotments www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

“Both the nuclear power and weapons sectors have disproportionately harmed Indigenous peoples and communities of color, as well as women and children” Read the interview with Linda Pentz Gunter @beyondnuclear.bsky.social, author of No to Nuclear: www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/lin...