the cup? sorry, i’m not into ideological state apparatuses (ISAs)

Rod Serling: One of the best to ever do it

Wait everyone shut up for a second: the discovery of the Brachiosaurus holotype is at the exact midpoint between the founding of the United States and today (July 4, 1901)

She’s either insane or a visionary.

the forces of entropy are strong in our house

Emotive qualities of the 24 relative major & minor keys according to Alexander J. Ellis (translator of Helmholtz’s ‘On the Sensations of Tone’). Hard to take this at face value, and yet, isn’t it nice to think so

Happy birthday to Bibha Chowdhuri (1913-1991) who, with her supervisor D.M. Bose in extensive air showers from cosmic rays, was the 1st to observe mesons. My portrait shows her, a mountain on which she gathered her data & a schematic of the cascade of particles we find in cosmic rays. 👩🏾‍🔬🐡🎢🧪 #histsci

The most annnoying man of the 20th century

riding off into the sunset on the hypomania like a bucking dragon

the heat dome is a liberal plot to ruin the 250th anniversary of the united states, shameful

Welcome to the dawn of a new time… the time of post-postexoticism

“I invite you to imagine that your synovial fluid has the consistency of olive oil as it bathes the articulation of each phalange, metacarpal, carpal and the radius and ulna."

“Could you enjoy the luscious warmth of synovial fluid bathing the head of the humerus as it gradually rotates and collaborates in continuous liquid reorganization with the scapula and clavicle.” i think maybe i could if i try, Bill Evans

a nice addition to my collection of Dover Books arrived yesterday. i knew this book was foundational & historically important but had no idea how thorough and exhaustive Helmholtz set out to be

Reznikoff: the CBe July newsletter, as archived on the Sonofabook blog: sonofabook.blogspot.com/2026/07/news...

Terry Pitts, proprietor of the indispensable Vertigo blog, had an early look at my book, and called it “a fascinating group portrait” and “a visual delight”. Read his review, subscribe to his newsletter, and browse his formidable archive from here: sebald.wordpress.com/2026/06/29/w...

shotgunning the milk of human kindness

This bit in @bigreaderbadgrades.bsky.social's new interview with William Vollmann is like horrifying and sad and made me laugh out loud.

you thought Savage Garden had passed into cultural irrelevance. not at this Home Depot

everybody knows bohemian rhapsody but have you guys ever listened to early Queen albums? holy shit

Copies of CARNATION still available (limited handmade edition of 150) & ready for mailing -- write for info

i just want to push the magic button. is that so wrong

well here we are at the musical ride which is abt to begin & this is a troop of regimental cowgirls. if this sounds unfamiliar, don’t worry, the musical ride is abt to begin

As a general rule, if you write a song in the first person and it’s about something true that actually happened to you, you can sing that normally. But if the first person lyrics are fictional or about something that happened to someone else, you should sing it in a funny voice.

celebrating good times with Thermodynamix at the Pointe du Raz

i watched that movie TWO PROSECUTORS that premiered on Criterion Channel this week, and I have to say I think it’s a bit of a dud, even if they did do a hell of a job evoking 1930s USSR

further abstractions from yestereve

i keep trying to relax my face & it keeps getting angrier & angrier

beacon hill north this evening

The bigfin squid is one of the strangest animals ever filmed. It hangs in the deep with impossibly long, elbowed arms trailing up to 20 times its body length. It's been seen only a handful of times, almost always below 2,000 m. We still know almost nothing about it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpSY...

A subtle change in the electronic configuration of iron ions produces a measurable difference in seismic wave speeds through mantle rocks, contributing to a fuller understanding of Earth’s deep interior, write Renata Wentzcovitch and colleagues. Via @eos.org. https://bit.ly/4oFz6xg

Scientific American is 180 years old. The most eminent science magazine for the general public. And today, sold off as scrap to stop the staff from unionizing. Many top editors I've worked with for a decade on several articles have been fired. What a disgrace @sciam.bsky.social

ah! my homeland

“Consider what happens when you inject dog adrenaline into your child.” yeah, consider it! (back to reading David Soldier’s MUSIC, MATH, & MIND)

At the LAT, I wrote about Ru Marshall's bio of Carlos Castaneda, a 70s New Age flimflam man whose seductive lies earned him a host of deluded followers in a story that has no bearing on the present, no siree, not at all: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

apparently “too many guitars” is a problem some ppl have. huge if true

I love this view of the relatively thin interval of red beds barely exposed in a sea of Triassic dolomite. Contrast! 🤌⚒️

"June... Shit, still only in June"

maybe giving eScooters to nine-year-olds wasn’t such a good idea after all

sometimes the mind can resemble a scrap heap

hotdogmaxxing

nobody needs hot takes in this weather, but it’s no longer “indie publishing” when you routinely share a publication schedule & a roster with another esteemed publisher across the way

punky brewster? nobody is talking abt her anymore. maybe they should be

i attended a retirement party for an remarkable teacher yesterday, which prompted this reflection

most ppl don’t have the opportunity or gumption required to spend 30 yrs building smthg of value to the community. alas, there is no greater good to society. may you be so lucky

"The bilgewater of our indiscriminate ruminations is indeed the world's prose." —George Steiner, intro to POETRY OF THOUGHT harsh!!

The reason artists write out scores for their music is in case they get audited, in which case they can prove with documentation that they’re compliant with music theory.