We could solve like half the problems in education with smaller class sizes (like 15 instead of 30 kids crushed in a room). Including that it would be easier to find teachers b/c they wouldn’t get so burnt out.

I have 2 masters degrees (humanities/social science, not STEM, but I can wrestle with challenging concepts) and helping kid 1 with math is awful! They don't send home math books, so you have no explanation. And if you search online, you get BS corporate videos praising "new math" curricula.

Every time Covid and learning loss hits the news, people act like the only factor is folk staying home and learning online, rather than… Living through a global mass death event.

Guy who decides the way to be more masculine is to eat like an 18th century sailor, every meal is mealworms, hard tack, and rancid salted beef.

New game: First Large Language Model/Deep Learning/Generative "AI"/"Machine Learning" firm w/ only renewable energy sources, an open source & radical consent model for the collection & use of training data, & an output correction process that's not just "don't talk about prejudicial bias, ever" wins

Current vibe

How is AI *really* impacting jobs? Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an: -8% drop in all jobs postings -~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs -22% drop in journalism jobs

instead of saying this was good strategy, maybe senate dems should say: "the republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren't monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We'll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters."

Today marks the UK release* of @tkingfisher.com's latest book Snake-Eater, which (depending on how you define it) is her 50th book of fiction! In honor of this milestone I wanted to do a little retrospective of her 50 books

This reboot of the A-team is shaping up to really interesting

If we were really going to "run the government like a business," Costco is the actual model we'd want to follow.

The sea doesn't even hate you on principle, it's just the sea and its one job is to itemize and redistribute your molecules.

Every fairy tale is about how the woods are so deadly that we'd rather go hang out with the witch or the beast or the wolf instead.

Ah, first snow of the year, closely followed by first cracked fingertips of the year

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

@kaine.senate.gov can you read?

I’ve had some good exchanges in the replies about where and how AI can be useful. Most of it comes down to: it has a lot of potential for science and tech, but even then needs a regulatory framework. But that’s not how it’s being advertised or applied right now, and OpenAI is resisting regulation.

The smartest thing a politician can do in 2026 is to come up with a bold plan for shoring up and EXPANDING public libraries. Call it Project 2050. It's a way to reintroduce the grammar of commoning and the commons to a new generation in a way they can easily grasp. Such low hanging fruit.

We're extremely dishonest about the realities of aging in this country. The older I get, the more this becomes apparent to me.

Listened to the new @themountaingoats.bsky.social album last night, and as a relatively new Mountain Goats fan, but a lifelong musical theatre fan, Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan absolutely succeeds in its premise as a (tragic) musical. I could imagine the staging as I listened.

Ursula did super well but she's going to get soft in trad publishing where the editors are nice to her. Anyway! DAGGERBOUND by T Kingfisher! A delightful romp with mild to moderate Ursula-standard horrors and plenty of old friends I have sorely missed. Out next August, pre-order now!

thanks to those who alerted me that the Bandcamp store hadn't populated yet. is that the right term? it is now populated i.e. you can get the whole album there. themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/album/throug...

Sometimes I see people like 20 tweets deep into an argument with Grok. Like, what are you doing brother? You are trying to win an argument with a vending machine.

The human misery and massive death toll that came from ending USAID was entirely predictable. Elon Musk relied on conspiracy nuts rather than employees and development specialists. Rubio, who previously defended the agency knew what would happen. They chose this. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond

By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000. More than 260,000 will be children. Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...

Ended the day at QZap! @qzap.bsky.social That's it for me today. Leaving eith new ideas and new partners for #rbms26!

Our next stop is the Marquette University special collections. They have the original Tolkein manuscripts for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Plans are in the works for a tour! #rbms26

The visit to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee today included a tour of some of Max Yela's favorite artist's books. Would you want a tour? #rbms26

CAMPUS VISIT WITH THE VAMPIRE TEACHING DEMO WITH THE VAMPIRE SIT-DOWN WITH THE DEAN WITH THE VAMPIRE APOLOGETIC EMAIL THAT THE SEARCH WAS CANCELED WITH THE VAMPIRE

I suspect this is less to do with that they think college is a waste than that HS students are more impressionable. Now I did go to a Jesuit University but one thing hammered in me there was look at the ethics of any decision.

Coming through! Important ptarmigan stuff to do! #birds 🌿

"Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, & can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position - it is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism." - Nick Cave to Stephen Colbert, Aug. 2024.

Now this is the kind of AI we were promised! Less art, more chemistry, please.

*gravely* Chicago has been desaturated

“Organizers said they followed Department of Homeland Security protocol and formally requested access more than one week ahead of the Mass and emailed and hand-delivered a second letter on Thursday. The request was denied,” chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Like you can move to Mars with weaker gravity that will likely make your bones brittle and no magnetosphere so you will have to live in tunnels to not be destroyed by radiation. I'll stay on earth with gravity and radiation levels my body likes.

Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of a new day. May all that I do today be done with love and for your glory. #MorningPrayer

This is just to say I have looked on the works that were in the desert and which you were probably thinking would still stand Forgive me they were trunkless so vast and so old

I don't mind high waist pants, but as a woman with a long-torso, I deeply resent the fact that shirts are getting shorter. My midriff would like to stay warm, please!

I am usually in the camp of 'all reading is good' but in some very rare cases an absolute dunderhead will pick up a book and be like "the hobbits are a direct endorsement of fascist racial supremacy" and I don't think it's really helping them or anyone else, like maybe reading actually isn't for you

There is a spreadsheet available for seeking someone to collaborate with on a presentation! If you don't have an idea yet, maybe you'll be the right fit for a panel that is forming. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The 2026 RBMS Conference, "Advocacy" CFP is live! The conference will be in June in Milwaukee, and online. Submit your proposals by December 12th! 📜 #SpecialCollections #Archives web.cvent.com/event/0F0104...

'The "uncle" who Frodo said got rich by adventuring with Dwarves is actually a distant cousin, he clarified on Monday.' - Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, The Shire Post

Instead of trying to green cars so much why don't we just invest in trains. city trains. under ground trains. above ground trains. trains between cities. trains between countries. TRAINS THE PEOPLE CRAVE TRAINS

In ALA's recent RIF, ACRL lost Tory Ondrla, the amazing conference manager behind RBMS' conferences for so long. Add to this kudoboard to let Tory know how much we appreciate her.

Stay tuned for the sequel where the patriarch receives a Sox jersey

This is the face of a White Sox fan forced to smile in a photo for ecumenical reasons.

The thing about the relentless march of time is that you only get an ending (happy or otherwise) in fiction. Here in the real world no cause is ever lost forever even though we may not live to see it prevail. This is both hope and cautionary tale.