In a society grappling with Darwinian evolution and the new discipline of psychology, some Westerners admired Buddhism’s long history of studying the mind’s activities. Post based on work by @doctorwaffle.substack.com daily.jstor.org/rudyard-kipl...

I mean, this writing is poo. I'm not nearly as disturbed that it was generated by A.I. as I am that it won a prize.

Finally to be freed from the tyranny of the 3-day-old Biscoff cardigan pocket discovery and attendant ethical dilemma accompanied by faint wave of nausea

Breaking NEWS!! Federal judge rules DOGE illegally terminated NEH grants last year in a summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs AHA, ACLA, and MLA, and orders the restoration of 1400 terminated grants

Bizarre factoid of the day: the Nobel Prize laureate and mathematician John Nash has two sons, both of whom are named John.

Did you know? There have been 7 cholera pandemics since 1817, the 7th one began in 1961, and WE ARE STILL IN IT

Left: How people think Mississippi votes Right: How Mississippi actually votes

This is kind of stunning. The comments are running about 10:1 against Reeves on this one. Many commentators framing resistance to data centers (and AI more generally) as an issue that brings left and right together. Sorry, Tater Tot www.facebook.com/tatereeves/p...

I wish I had not just learned the term “family annihilation” 🥺

I forgot to take my cellphone with me to my lecture class and my first thought was "What if there's a shooter?" #JFC #HowWeLiveNow

Imagine if this had been the guy who went to the moon. "Whatever." Nonchalant paw lick. "What did you bring me?"

"any business that’s even partly owned by a permanent legal resident with a green card is no longer eligible for the loans" -- JFC

THE MADNESS MUST STOP

Where to start

Wondering why there are so many new shows about academics when everyone fucking hates us? 🤔

Help me settle an argument with my partner: can something be a “grift” if the practitioner truly believes in what they’re offering? (Eg. crystal healing, “vibrational cleansing,” etc.) Or does a grift require intentional duplicity?

Wait … WHAT?

Ooof -- Markwayne Mullin is a bad guy

Paternal grandfather: dairy farmer. Maternal grandfather: tool and die maker with an 8th grade education who was mostly unemployed after the age of 30

OMFG

Do you like breakfast? Do you like breakfast so much you'd stick samples of it in your notebook? Joseph Thomas Fowler would!

New — I spoke to eight trans people in Kansas about the new state law that invalidated their driver’s licenses overnight, what’s it’s like to live there right now, plus details of two DMV emails exclusively obtained by The Handbasket that shed light on the law’s chaotic and cruel rollout:

Mon dieu, this is satisfying

Book reviewers and authors!

Philly will TAKE THEM DOWN

Sitting in an orthopedist’s waiting room in Mississippi, where Pet Shop Boys’ “It’s a Sin” is blasting over the speakers 🤔

Meanwhile in Mississippi

This is fantastic news and I am happy for my hometown but I'm also distracted by this photo featuring an Old Timey Criminal being apprehended by a Friendly Police Man

Whoever said there aren’t huge financial dividends to being a literature scholar?

As a grown-ass woman in her 50s, I saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the first time the other day, and I have THOUGHTS: 1. George Bailey is basically an abusive asshole;

In 1830, the Friends Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason in Northeast Philly (now Friends Hospital) introduced rabbits and lambs to patient exercise areas (possibly the earliest use of pet therapy) as part of their Moral Treatment of the mentally ill. 1830!

I’m confused — has Owen Wilson been trying to act all this time?

Happy Holidays! Please enjoy this cheery Yuletide Nazis essay I wrote a few years ago.

ANY ADDITIONAL SANTAS WILL BE ESCORTED OUT OF THE PARADE

Why are candles so expensive?

This is stunning -- an absolute must-read: "if you measured income inadequacy today the way [it was] measured it in 1963, the threshold for a family of four wouldn’t be $31,200. It would be somewhere between $130,000 and $150,000.

Here's my ranking of the numbers 1 and 2 in reverse numerical order: 1: 2 2: 1

Pie crust is a dialectic

I know this is going to sound cheeseballs, but I am deeply grateful to have this book I'm working on as my daily companion.

i don't think democratic voters should have to spend this much time whipping democratic elected officials.

So we got to be happy and hopeful for … 5 days?

From North Carolina to Mississippi, Black-owned farms are filling the gaps left by SNAP funding delays

Finally watching "Task" and I have thoughts. The accents are okay-ish -- Mark Ruffalo doesn't bother trying, but I forgive him because Mark Ruffalo. (Also, his character is from Newtown Square, my hometown.) But what the hell is going on with characters from PA pronouncing it "LAN-CAH-ster" FFS?

I will add: People who expected this teacher to be bummed do not know (good) teachers very well. A civics teacher? With a student who wants to run for office? That’s probably bliss.

It is KILLING me to learn that the digital camera I've owned since 2005 is now considered "vintage"

Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time

After 13 years, Mississippi Democrats have broken the Republican Party’s supermajority in the Mississippi Senate. Democrats flipped two GOP-held Senate seats and one House seat in the special elections. buff.ly/nTvLlFI

If the sandwich don’t split, you must acquit

Mr. Campbell-Spickler said that the bear might have climbed a tree to drop down and gain entry. “What we do know is that our perimeter fence is secure.” Define "secure."