I want a tracker, with arrows! I want interviews with their current and new neighbors! I want weekly followups until they get a new driver's license in their new state!

beginning to believe “neurotypical” is one of those words like “phlogiston” or “meritocracy” or “unicorn” that describes something that does not, in fact, exist

This was a very satisfying read, I recommend

Applications for the European Master in Lexicography (EMLex) (an international Master’s degree programme (120 ECTS) that has been offered since 2009) are now open! Deadline 2 Feb 2026 emlex.eu.usc.gal/web/

40 million Americans may go hungry in November because their SNAP funding is at risk. 40 million people at a time when most are already struggling to put food on the table. Trump just gave 40 billion to Argentina. That could feed every American. That could easily fund SNAP. America first?

If you missed it, @gofundme.com has set up (without consent) funding pages for nonprofits. Just got a mealy-mouthed reply from their Trust and Safety team with no answer as to when they will take these unauthorized pages down. Supposedly you have to "claim" the page to get it removed. Super-scammy.

Trump found another $20 BILLION to give to Argentina, totaling their bailout to $40 BILLION. Yet we can’t afford to prevent millions of Americans from losing their healthcare. Shame.

It's the 11th of the month, so time for another Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things newsletter, including sloyd, pranking autocrats, and gustatory-auditory synesthesia. buttondown.com/thingslearne...

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

new retronym alert: "brain coding" domm.plix.at/perl/2025_10... (via @simonwillison.net)

Want to work on open source full time? The @roost.tools engineering team is starting to hatch! Come build OSS tools making a difference in Trust & Safety. This is a fully remote role, though some schedule overlap with North American time zones is expected. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

I loved this piece about the fate of the Fairyland dandelion sculpture from @reveleth.com www.coyotemedia.org/where-did-th...

Kavanaugh Stop is now part of the legal lexicon.

As a resident of #Portland it is impossible to capture how unhinged this is. We are a low crime city and the ICE protest "siege" consists of one auxiliary ICE office that normally has at most a dozen weirdos debating what performance art they should use to block a single driveway

It's the 11th (probably nobody needs to be reminded of that today) so time for a new edition of Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things. The theme is "links I emailed to myself", including zipper bags, thermochauvinism, and Frankish weather-magi. buttondown.com/thingslearne...

If you were waiting for my sister @katemckean.bsky.social's great newsletter for writers, Agents and Books, to leave Substack before signing up, well do I have good news for you!!! www.agentsandbooks.com/oh-hello

The recording of the talk @emckean.bsky.social and I presented at Open Source Summit Europe is now available. Go here for video, highlights, links, and acknowledgments: ddbeck.com/osseu2025/

If you saw the talk that @emckean.bsky.social and I presented at Open Source Summit Europe, thank you for coming! I'll have more links and highlights to share later, but you can find the docs advisor and archetypes here.

Always nice to see a @parisinbmore.bsky.social shoutout (from @arapulido.bsky.social)

On August 27, @emckean.bsky.social and I are presenting at Open Source Summit Europe about resources that can help open source maintainers create and maintain docs. I'm looking forward to it (or at least I will be, when I've practiced my outline a few more times). sched.co/25Vub

A great read on UChicago, arguing we’re seeing the result of decades of mismanagement: “The university’s trustees and leaders view it preeminently as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal.”

it finally happened www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

It's the 11th of the month! The August Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things includes giant neurons, weak arithmetics, beleaguered footmen, and a severed head. buttondown.com/thingslearne...

I think getting people to click on an obscured url that turns out to be "La Di Da Di" should be called a `slickrickroll`. www.youtube.com/watch?v=icBf...

Time for another 11th-day edition of Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things (apologies to those for whom it is already the 12th). In this edition: Tiffany, but make it French; silent agitators; and why your stable nuclear reactor should be under a dollar: buttondown.com/thingslearne...

I finished this book over the weekend and you NEED to read it, seriously, if you want to know how we got to (gestures at everything)

$100 billion in new ICE funding is about to be law. This marks the single largest increase in immigration enforcement in US history.

Crockett: We have 83 billionaires. And somehow they have 535 people that are speaking up for them every single day to make sure that when they get married for a second or third or fourth time, that they can go ahead and have another $50 million wedding

it's out! and all proceeds benefit the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit international organization dedicated to providing legal, social, and health services in all 50 states and internationally. 100% of donations go directly to USCRI!

I don’t really have Basketball Opinions but I’m happy for all the Chets out there tonight

a site called 'direct strategies' and it's just a link to this gif

The federal government is telling you they cannot afford to house you, feed you, educate you or heal you — but that they do have enough resources and scale to criminalize, assault, deport and incarcerate your neighbors simply going to work or taking their kids to graduation.

It's the 11th, so: new edition of Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things, including: the most famous resident of Coolsville, OH; a calligram generator, and Samuel Johnson as comfort reading. buttondown.com/thingslearne...

if you've ever wanted to write a book and are daunted by the "publishing" side of the process, this book WILL help you (also my sister is a very good and funny writer, so you will ALSO enjoy it!) Happy book birthday @katemckean.bsky.social!!!

it's absolutely important to couch every statement from this guy in the context that he hired a person based solely on the credential that the guy strangled one of my neighbors to death. no background in software or finance, just murder.

is this “neurotypical person” in the room with us now?

so bummed about Glitch shutting down. :( Where am I going to host www.soupinion.com now?

Defend the em-dash

The comment period for this ends in 3 DAYS. Please leave a comment telling them EVERYONE should be able to get covid boosters. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

"If they take the title this year it would be the first time in 58 years a player named Chet won a championship. This would be huge for all the Chets out there, who have been marginalized by the basketball establishment and routinely embarrassed by Tom Hanks’ son."

The semicolon is not used enough; the comma is used too often.

Come hear me and @emilygouldnymag.bsky.social talk about my book WRITE THROUGH IT at P&T Knitwear in NYC on June 7th at 4pm!!!!!

We're working on all of this. We think we can get it done. We need your help. opencollective.com/civicband thanks for reading, boosts appreciated ✨ 16/16

"The point is that you were not in control of the fact that you got to be Technical. So you absolutely do not have the power to give it to somebody else." www.fightforthehuman.com/why-i-cannot...

Here’s the fantastic cover by @davidplunkert.bsky.social of my new book, out in October from @groveatlantic.bsky.social. Preorder now—support independent bookstores! groveatlantic.com/book/unabrid...

It's the 11th of the month, so it's time for another Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things! This issue includes bobbed hair, doxastic addiction, and hiccups. buttondown.com/thingslearne...

can't wait for the extended Dennehy remix from Serengeti Favorite pope: Leo

New on the Wordnik blog: Five Words from ... Mood Machine by @lizpelly.bsky.social blog.wordnik.com/five-words-f...

If we know where they were sent, but it isn’t to detention: exile. If we know where they are & it’s in detention: extraordinary rendition. If we don’t know where they are, but we know someone’s holding them: kidnapping. Otherwise, if we don’t know where they are: disappearance.

I have been limiting my time on "the socials" so I haven't seen this shared very much (although I think it should be shared VERY WIDELY) nonprofitaf.com/2025/04/fund...