Is it really worth it to shut off the AC when you leave the house? “As it turns out, the most efficient way to keep your home cool and the bills low is to leave the AC running,” our Wirecutter tester writes. https://trib.al/PXPfuwJ

In honour of Joy Division's iconic album Unknown Pleasures being released on this day in 1979, I'm again sharing one of my favourite ever video clips (Peanuts vs Joy Division dance party)...

Sometimes working from home means writing down what the problem with the sink is for the plumber when you are on a work call. Thank goodness for wireless ear buds

Listening to Kathleen’s BBC radio documentary “America: The human plasma factory” www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Are grades of steel not produced by US Steel exempt?

Operation Paperclip would like a word.

Sometimes working from home means checking if your WiFi reaches to the front porch after your Memorial Day picnic guests have left, and then you decide to get a few work things done

I’d love to see a lot more cars like this on the street! Back to the era when they were actually beautiful.

Only one day left to see Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)at the Frick Museum in Point Breeze. I’ve long admired her work since seeing her in the documentary “I’m going to make me a world”

No one will top this alumni news update ever

Info on my June 13 event in DC (talking about China + Southeast Asia with the talented @eosnos.bsky.social as my interlocutor) in poster form

Here is our story on some of the $TRUMP buyers: folks who paid money to the Trump family and their partners in exchange for getting access to the president of the United States. A free link. Who Won a Seat at Trump’s Crypto Dinner? www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/u...

A genuine pleasure to read and review @emilyzfeng.bsky.social's new book Let Only Red Flowers Bloom for Foreign Policy. An extremely readable, thoughtful and timely book (with real parallels to the United States). foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/09/c...

Feeling homesick for Beijing, so with no Chinese food I like in this part of of Texas, I went for Bavarian-ish tonight in a Czech-German heritage town

#RaiseIt 🏴‍☠️

Yet another development… www.npr.org/2025/05/12/n...

Kinda weird to see pictures from a Pope’s youth which could easily be in one of my parents’ family albums or yearbooks www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/u...

This is genuinely great.

(Lin-Manuel Miranda voice)

Updated! Busy morning for historically informative institutions based in Chicago.

良十四世 not 良第十四个

Until i became a pilot, I really had no appreciation how much flying depends on weather reports. It's the bread and butter of aviation.

Paul Skenes 🆚 Shohei Ohtani

On Marketplace tonight, @kairyssdal.bsky.social asked how to say ”tariff” in a foreign language Mandarin: 关税 guānshuì As in: 这种东西关税很重 (copied from Pleco dictionary entry)

Listened to this today. Really good interview discussing a really great book

For those folks who are celebrating #Easter (and those who are not), here's a mural from 鹽水天主聖神堂, the frankly wild Catholic Church in Yanshui 鹽水 just up the road (more info here: www.twtainan.net/zh-tw/attrac...).

The two bishops in Beijing celebrated Easter Vigil: Bishop Li at Beitang and Asst Bishop at Xitang mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SjV5LB3ouE...

Palm Sunday at Catholic Churches around China mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DWV7WC-sqB...

People have been asking, and am happy I can now share. The official launch event for Written on the Dark, in Toronto, May 27th, which is actually publication day… www.eventbrite.ca/e/guy-gavrie...

There is no plan.

Amazing the preparations being made in Beijing in anticipation of the dangerous winds coming this weekend. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wA54_g0C5A...

Listening now to see if today is that day

加油！

BREAKING - China hits back at the US, adds another 50% tariff on US goods: @huizhong-wu.bsky.social apnews.com/article/china-…

Brigid was just asking me for more 成语, and now we have two: 一意孤行 cling obstinately to one's course 奉陪到底 have the honour of keeping sb. company until the end

I had been delaying replacing my Series 3 Watch, even though it has not been working right. With tariffs looming, I was at the Apple Store this weekend. When I said that I was buying now to get ahead of tariffs, the guy who helped me said I was his 7th customer that day who said the same thing

Tomorrow in New York! A really interesting cross-disciplinary panel with Jeff @jwassers.bsky.social and @sewell.bsky.social, two thinkers and writers I admire very much, on Hong Kong and of course, my new book on China www.ncuscr.org/event/the-st...

Watched a Complete Unknown with the kids Saturday. Brigid is hoping there is a sequel so we can see Dylan working with The Band

Especially ominous 如果美方一意孤行，中方必将奉陪到底

🤣

The Catholic Churches of China are starting to post their Holy Week and Easter schedules. Here is Hangzhou Cathedral mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dT_u2IztVy...

I'll be speaking about my book on China "Let Only Red Flowers Bloom" at Politics and Prose in Washington DC this Thursday the 27!

Really great episode of Make Me Smart, talking about Rare Earths & critical materials, and the challenges the US faces to secure supplies. Unfortunately, “just get new technology” for magnets is not so simple. That’s something people have been working on for years www.marketplace.org/shows/make-m...

We purchased this book on Kindle, but I brought the hardcover on this trip so in the airports and on the airplanes people see it, maybe they think it might interest them, and they buy it, too. So very good

#China Twitter refugees. It’s that time of year again Enter a team Join the League: 3YFK Password: ChinaSky fantasy.espn.com/tc/sharer?ch... #Like #Repost @raykwong.bsky.social @uselesstree.bsky.social @sanverde.bsky.social @samuelwa.de @billbishop.bsky.social #3YFK #三月疯狂 #MarchMadness

In Beijing, the Catholic Diocese blessed and broke ground on a new parish church building in 东管头。Bishops Li and Zhen led the ceremonies。I would have probably delighted in the 锣鼓 (gong and drum) a little much mp.weixin.qq.com/s/mdtbnFfAyN...

My book is out today! The culmination of six years of reporting in China and Taiwan. It’s a narrative nonfiction telling of identity and politics from on the ground in China. I’ll be doing events in NYC and DC and Durham, www.amazon.com/Let-Only-Red...

Like manufacturing and airline pilots, laid-off NOAA meterologists might find career oppotunities in China www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

“Her patients included individuals awaiting transplants and those dealing with the complex conditions that can occur after a transplant, Dr. Bayliss said. He called Dr. Alawieh “a very talented, very thoughtful physician.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...