Now would be a great time for a 10 episode, 20 hour prestige series about the ten years between 1916 and 1926, covering the establishment of the 8-hr work day & 5-day work week, in the US. Each episode would be one year & the middle episode should be entirely devoted to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

it’s today! planning to start my re-read at dusk for the full effect

Merriam-Webster Accused Of Bias After ‘Dictionary’ Named Word Of The Year

Announcing the Em Dash Appreciation Society (for Humans). em-dash-appreciation.org

It's the 11th of the month, and the last month of the year, so this is the "words I recorded in 2025" installment! buttondown.com/thingslearne...

Samuel Johnson: “I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.”

For your enjoyment: a zine combining letterpress blocks and measurement facts: zinebakery.com/assets/homem... via @dhnow.bsky.social

happy International Pie for Breakfast Day to all who celebrate

Me using the Cuisinart: hell yeah yes!!! Me washing the Cuisinart: well this sucks wtf

Any major dude with half a heart, surely will tell you, my friend Any minor world that breaks apart, falls together again When the demon is at your door In the morning, it won't be there no more Any major dude will tell you

there are 4 types of guys online. no exceptions.

Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy

I put my dresses on one torso at a time just like every other person

The collective noun for leaf blowers is a SCOURGE

It's the 11th of the month! Sending out the Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things newsletter a little late this month, but this edition has a lot of art-related links (including a MERCURY FOUNTAIN), some weird forensic science, and a really good name. buttondown.com/thingslearne...

We've filed 'The Montana Plan' with the Montana SOS. This is your Constitutional Initiative to make Citizens United irrelevant by simply removing a corporation's power to spend in elections.

Sometimes you have an idea so dumb that you HAVE to do it (I didn’t get this up in time for Halloween though)

I think we should bring back vibe spelling. Just add extra letters wherever, as you feel ‘em. Things can be frantick or hectick if you need that superfluous ’k’ edge. Resist the tyranny of received orthography!

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.