When thinking historically about UFOs, it seems most salient to focus not on whether aliens are real but on what the government's rhetoric and public's beliefs tell us about our society. This is coming up in a period of the US exercising and escalating its chip, missile, and space dominance.

The Apple TV exec who greenlighted For All Mankind with the knowledge that by season 4 they could do constant product placement with retro iPods on Mars

Hey, look at this great honor that my former student Adam Quinn Adam Quinn received! THIS is what a Hampshire College education, under the best of circumstances and with the best of students, can achieve. The College may die, but its lessons live on and are passed on

Excited and honored to share that my dissertation was awarded the Gutman Prize for Outstanding Dissertation from @lawcha.bsky.social. It was incredibly fulfilling and validating to receive this recognition in a room full of the historians who inspired my research.

Congratulations to @sfahrenthold.bsky.social! 🎉 Her book Unmentionables won the 2026 David Montgomery Award, sponsored by @oah.org with co-sponsorship by @lawcha.bsky.social.

Excited and honored to share that my dissertation was awarded the Gutman Prize for Outstanding Dissertation from @lawcha.bsky.social. It was incredibly fulfilling and validating to receive this recognition in a room full of the historians who inspired my research.

how paying Philadelphia city taxes feels

Just confirming that Made by History will now be back up and running in the next few weeks with a new home and new partners at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Exciting! So, if you have pitches, now's the time to start sending them to [email protected] 🗃️ #MadebyHistory #HistoryMatters

Hampshire College, my alma mater, just announced they are closing at the end of this year. Unfortunate for students and workers, of course, and for higher ed in general. Their distinctive interdisciplinary, student-driven, and project-based approach has so much to offer, especially in the age of AI.

Grand opening of the history of fireworks special exhibit at the Science History Institute in Philly, fitting for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

When the obsolescence wasn't planned well enough to maximize profits so they enforce artificial, unplanned obsolescence

Naivety of those who believed Trump's anti-war rhetoric aside, the sharp decline in Trump's approval in 2026 lends credence to the stance that becoming a firmly anti-war party would not only be a just platform but would be an electoral boon to Democrats

Off the top of my head, I can't think of another book that is so widely criticized by historians yet still so embraced by other fields (to its credit, this is because it does some compelling conceptual work on gender and capitalism that doesn't hinge on the accuracy of its witchcraft narrative).

From Reid Wiseman/NASA: new image of our planet, with the aurora borealis visible at the edge

Coming later this year: a transdisciplinary collection of work on ecology, industry, and technology in Oregon's Silicon Forest. My piece is on the history of the transition from a timber economy to an (unexpectedly still extractive/polluting) digital economy. www.sternberg-press.com/product/sili...

I've seen some people arguing that learning objectives are just a formality for admin, so I just want to throw it out there that telling students learning objectives is an evidence-based teaching practice that informs them about what they're learning and helps them more consciously practice skills

Yeah that’s cool

I was skeptical at first but I asked it a couple of questions and I think it answered them well

We're proud to announce AIWOC, our new AI-powered organizing chatbot! AIWOC isn't just an assistant—it's the future of organizing. It's here to help you take care of the messy parts of your workplace. Check it out on our website! 🤖 workerorganizing.org

Apparently you can pre-order? (Thank you @alilleybrinker.com for pointing this out!) Just be sure not to read it ha ha ha? yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

FDR visiting areas impacted by the Dust Bowl in 1936

FDR visiting areas impacted by the Dust Bowl in 1936

Just saw 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, appreciated how it developed the themes of nationalist/fascist resurgence from the predecessor and took it in a slightly different direction (this time it's about the more delusional, psychotic, and cultish aspects)

Useful report from @epi.org on US unionization trends. Interesting to see that US union density actually rose in 2025. Just by 0.1 percentage points, but still, it’s the first time since 2020 that union density has gone up. And even more interesting, 1/ www.epi.org/publication/...

How it sounds when someone says they can do a PhD in an afternoon with the power of AI

How it sounds when someone says they can do a PhD in an afternoon with the power of AI

wow this guy really does not like Kevin

Photo of Anthropic's alleged warehouse full of books to scan, train AI, and destroy

Blueskis, studies have shown that when folks see or hear about a book more than five times, they are likely to check it out, and buy it. So in the spirit of creating buzz, here is the gorgeous cover of THE WESTERNERS, which will be published on March 31!

There's a prison revolt at a concentration camp in Texas in solidarity with Minneapolis:

America’s unions mourn the senseless killing by federal agents of our AFGE Local 3669 union brother and VA nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti. We reiterate our call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed. https://bit.ly/4pVTpFO

Woman tells Minnesota Public Radio that the man killed today was helping vehicle traffic get around the area where ICE agents and observers had started to gather and "next thing I knew, they shot him." www.mprnews.org/live-updates....

nine years old

A survey of 5000 people shows a massive difference in how workers vs. management report how much time AI saves them

"Censoring Plato is an academic absurdity and a textbook violation of academic freedom. A university that censors Plato—as well as other significant texts—abandons its obligation to truth, free inquiry, and the public trust." — AAUP President Todd Wolfson

If anyone was still pretending this isn’t just about excluding trans kids from public life, the Trump administration just opened a Title IX investigation into a Maine school district because a trans student is on a *co-ed* cheerleading squad.

Senior VP at CBS News emailing other news outlets being like "by internal bleeding do they mean.... a bruise?" lol

A person detained by ICE was choked to death by multiple camp guards. That's where we're at right now.

🚨WHOA. The El Paso Medical Examiner says it will rule the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at ICE's "Camp East Montana" tent camp as a homicide. He was allegedly choked to death by a guard during a "struggle" after he refused to enter a housing unit without his medications.

New poll from Navigator also with an incredible result; the largest drop in support for ICE since June was actually among *Republicans*, 25% of which now say they have an unfavorable opinion of the agency.

The free speech absolutist folks

Last night, The Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 signed on to the call for a Jan 23 shutdown. That brings total labor support to: the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, CWA Local 7250, St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28, and the MFE 59

Yeah man all my friends in Minnesota are buying high viz vests and forming human chains at class dismissals because ICE is targeting and tear gassing schools. I wonder why parents would want information about that.

organized gangs of wine moms

Defense attorney: "You know who else in Pennsylvania had hundreds of illegally sourced human bones hidden in their house? Benjamin Franklin. [pauses for applause that doesn't happen]"

Wow at this 2019 @radleybalko.bsky.social piece. The NYPD tried to use the "vehicle was a deadly weapon" excuse for excessive force The video showed the officer was never in danger. Not only was the victim ruled innocent--the officer got convicted of perjury www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/201...

ICE just reported its fourth in-custody death of 2026. It’s only January 10.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) put out an official statement saying the threat of fascism has come to America & the labor movement must commit to ending it: www.ilwu.org/the-ilwu-ver...

Filling out the Captcha to train AI for free, because websites overwhelmed with AI traffic need to confirm I am not AI myself