On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast. The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me. But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.

The LDP won 21m votes, roughly one-in-five adults. Hardly needs saying that many Japanese oppose the party and its policies 自民 2103万票(36.7%) 中道 1044万票(18.2%) 国民 557万票 (9.7%) 維新 494万票 (8.6%) 参政 426万票 (7.4%) みら 381万票 (6.7%) 共産 252万票 (4.4%) れ新 167万票 (2.9%) 保守 146万票 (2.5%) 減税 81万票 (1.4%) 社民 73万票 (1.3%)

My spring/summer course is called “Language Ideologies in a Galaxy Far, Far Away”. There is so much good material, I am so very tired of my students’ media studies being done badly, and this is how I’m going to marry all my many academic loves into a single special interest polycule.

The Omiwatari freezing of Lake Suwa, described in this article from last month, has not occurred this season. The chief priest of the local shrine confirmed it today. That makes it eight consecutive seasons, which is the longest break in 512 years. japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/gene...

And there we go, a new sign on campus and a very Instagrammable addition to the campus #LinguisticLandscape!

If the emails of every billionaire were published I imagine most of them would have to go into hiding and hundreds of politicians all over the world would end up resigning or in prison.

My latest piece on Mongabay: “If only two dozen large corporations are responsible for landscape-scale forest degradation and deforestation, why should the State and Regional Budgets fund the rehabilitation of damaged landscapes?” news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-...

This watermark graffiti by street artist Mathieu Tremblin is, like, the best thing ever.

The defeat on their face after you swipe your SUICA first on the station gate they were approaching from the opposite direction, so now they have to look on helplessly as they wait for you to pass through... delicious. 😈

[stares directly into the camera]

If you have read even a single history of fascism, you are already aware that one thing that its rise has in common in every case is an opposition party that refuses to intervene for fear of looking weak or putting the left into power

Needs an Asia and Africa page too. #geography #maps #travel

I loved this: a paean to the personal website, by way of a thoughtful analysis of industrialization and our relationships to tools henry.codes/writing/a-we...

I know pedocon’s real and all, but it’s insane the Jan 6 pardon covered ~ 1500 people and there are now at least a half dozen since arrested for child sex crimes. That’s one in every 250! Over the course of a year! I think Pitcairn Island is the only population beating that per capita rate.

Tennessee Dems not holding back👇🏽

It’s 1976. Things many American school kids probably don’t know how to do: *secure a tourniquet during an active shooter drill *edit a pdf *share the wifi password *order a burrito taxi on dad’s credit card *avoid lead poisoning from drinking out of the hose *67 bro

Winter Garden French artist Géraldine Theurot

Just gonna throw this out here, but I don't think #Trump should be allowed to handle firearms during cabinet meetings, right?

"Academics literally cannot make genAI go away" we also can't make underage drinking go away and we're not advocating for installing bar carts in every classroom.

The Himesaki #Lighthouse in Sado, #Japan, celebrated its 130th anniversary on December 10. 🎂🥂🎉 Built by Western engineers during the #Meiji period, it is the oldest surviving iron lighthouse in Japan. #灯台 #佐渡市 #日本 #MaritimeHistory

2025 in a nutshell. On the left, a report from January saying Ibaraki lifted nationality restrictions for clerical council jobs. Mie, which had already done that, today says it's reviewing the policy out of security concerns. www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

素晴らしい店を発見し、店主と話し込んでしまった

I haven't lit my candles yet tonight, but here's a memory from the 7th night of Chanukah as it was celebrated in 2013 in Tai National Park, Cote d'Ivoire while I was doing fieldwork for my PhD.

Really enjoyed this fantastic piece by @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social and @cnygren.bsky.social Here are few favorite pull quotes of mine + one little quibble at the end:

My life's work lies in ruins The Center for European Studies, the African Studies Center, the Carolina Asia Center, the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies are all slated to close.

Have you heard the word about the Pole?

Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.

Police in Nagareyama, Chiba, arranged for ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman to address pupils at a junior high school about cross-cultural exchange. That's not a sentence a younger me would have expected to write. www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/455803

Please kill me

Sun-bathed brutalism

In case you missed it, the call for papers for #LL17 in Limerick is now live! We've updated our website to help spread the word, but please share! www.linguisticlandscape17.com

Years ago, I was tasked with setting up some broadcasting gear in a fancy conference room I'd never been in. The previous event - an architectural presentation for some new DC memorial, had run way, way over its allotted time.

Mapping Diversity from OBC Transeuropa analyses street names in 32 European cities showing how many are named for men or women. Christianity skews the numbers just a bit as Mary takes top spot. mappingdiversity.eu More detail www.balcanicaucaso.org/en/cp_articl... #LinguisticLandscapes #OSM #maps

It's Bandcamp Friday! From my EP Five: aubreyvangelded.bandcamp.com/track/thwart...

Ok what arrived in my mailbox! #LinguisticLandscapes

ℑ𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪 𝔇𝔞𝔯𝔨𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔞𝔯 𝔉𝔲𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔢, 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔒𝔫𝔩𝔶 𝔐𝔬𝔦

Not coincidentally this is a pretty good list of Most Important Companies to Unionize.

@profanity.accountant me

Nice.

This is the truest thing anyone ever wrote about Japan www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Day of the Jerkass

THIS!!!!!! (Former FM of Lithuania)

Released 46 years ago today Metal Box, the second studio album of Public Image Ltd, featuring the single "Death Disco (Swan Lake)" Public Image Limited - Death Disco - Top of the Pops #punk #punkrock #postpunk #publicimageltd #PiL #metalbox #history #punkrockhistory #otd #postpunkhistory

Some shots from this month's roll for Eastern Standard Photo's film club. Each month we get a subject prompt and a roll of film and have to shoot it based on that concept. This month's was "motion" and the film was Ilford Delta 3200. 🎞️ #believeinfilm

TESOL's position statement on "AI" is, as usual, a day late and a dollar short. It fails to define its terms, nods vaguely to "limitations and biases", and presupposes that "AI can sharpen and enhance our learning experiences" despite all evidence to the contrary. www.tesol.org/media/myuncu...