People have already memory-holed how critical #TeslaTakeDown was. It was the earliest decentralized set of protests in the second term as early as Feb 2025 at a time when most people were shell-shocked and Dem leadership was cowering and capitulating. And it pushed Elon out of the WH.

Agreed. My mind can really be blown by people who ask incisive questions. They can totally reframe how I think about a particular topic. Love it.

JOB for recent MLIS grads! Nadia Sophie Seiler Rare Materials Residency Split between Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC, July-Dec. 2026) & Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, CT, Jan.-May 2027) Application deadline is May 22 amherst.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FSL_Em...

Met a new friend

There are way too many right-wing creeps around here.

Folio, Quarto, Octavo, Duodecimo, Oblong, WTF?

Alito: mailing abortion medication violates The Fugitive Womb Act bsky.app/profile/stev...

Every university should have broad subject coverage; that's what a university is

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

I tend to touch and smell plants. Sometimes, I want to taste their fruits, even when I don’t know what they are. This hasn’t always been a smart strategy but, this time, I didn’t and, looking up the plant later, I really missed out.

Our baby is now a paper! #ResistAI #academicsky

What a great game!

Happy Mortar's Day to all who celebrate... Shocking pink mortar from a c. 1505 munitions manuscript at the Yale Center for British Art! collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/alma...

Charismatic microfauna report from a pleasantly cool spring morning includes copious american robins, european starlings, and various and sundry sparrows along with two parent geese floating along with their six wee goslings. 🪶

It seems to me that companies are spending a lot of money on this technology and firing humans not because they think it will be profitable but in an effort to appear AI-optimized to investors. Colleges are doing it because they enjoy thinking of themselves as startups.

Archaeologists pulled out mummies from a Roman-era tomb at Al-Bahnasa in Egypt, the ancient city once called Oxyrhynchus. Inside one mummy’s wrappings, the team found a scrap of papyrus carrying a passage from Book II of Homer’s Iliad. buff.ly/O5f35dq #ShareGoodNewsToo

I’m so glad such things exist! Bravo. @scottbot.net! I recall first learning about the concept of PhD by Prior Publication from @quinnanya.me. As a non-PhD-haver in a world of PhDs, I was delighted that they exist. And I think @scottbot.net is the first person I’ve encountered to do it.

I love learning about how so many aspects of what we consider quintessential English gardens, such as pavilions and serpentine paths, are in fact Chinese.

When we devalue and underfund our libraries, library administrations try to show their value and load up on every community need rather than focus on core mission. (These needs are different in academic and public library contexts, but the reaction is functionally the same.)

yeah man, we’re all just dummies who don’t understand that you’re just judicial monks operating in a sphere of pure law [puts finger to ear] what’s this, clarence thomas gave another speech blaming progressives for hitler?

can not imagine how americans got that impression john

Utterly delighted by senior undergraduate student Nithya Guthikonda’s exhibition, “Tracing the Rosebud Orchid: Botanical Illustration and Ecological Awareness in 18th- to 21st-Century America,” on view through October 25th. library.yale.edu/news/student...

Looking out the bus window, I see a man riding a bike. He wears a squarish backpack from which pops a small dog on his hind legs, face to the wind.

Delayed charismatic microfauna report from a windy morning includes many sparrows (house and otherwise), curious boy northern cardinal, startled mourning dove, and the sweetest grey catbird. 🪶

“Dhillon reposted a conservative lawyer’s social media comment last month that it was a good time to graduate from law school “if you are remotely rightwing” because “you can go straight . . . into DOJ”. She added: “We are hiring, y’all!” They can’t fill the openings with competent lawyers.

Hey! Two book banners ousted!

HAPPY MAY DAY! A little inspiration for today’s actions: Check out this episode of Unruly Subjects with AAUP Council member & NYU professor Chenjerai Kumanyika: “Getting Unruly on May Day: Education Workers, Labor Power, & the Fight Ahead." @chenjerai.bsky.social @higheredlabor.bsky.social

Happy May day to all the workers!

'But how "subversive" is May Day? It just happens to be the most American holiday we have. It was brought into being in 1886 by the Chicago workers, in their struggle for the eight-hour day. Remember their slogan: "Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, eight hours of recreation!"' --Howard Fast

That’s quite a chart www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Argh! It’s May Day and I’m not buying anything or working. But if you are…

Sometimes people get confused about tensions between majority rule and minority rights Majority rule as almost always been helpful for rights for racial, religious, gender etc minorities The minorities that the Constitution tends to protect are geographic (small states, rural) and capital

Updating my "data surveillance" activities—would love to hear about interactive tools (esp newer ones) for students to learn about the extent of digital surveillance. Thinking of, e.g., @propublica's Project Blacklight, @eff.org's tool to see your browser's fingerprint (coveryourtracks.eff.org).

This coffee company thinks they can charm me with their VHS packaging. And they’re not wrong. process.coffee/collections/...

The Voting Rights Act is one of the last lines of defense for civil rights, fair representation & basic democratic norms. Today’s news means we can expect even more extreme GOP partisan gerrymanders. Another authoritarian power grab at the hands of this far-right court. (1/2)

Yale Library has a senior student exhibition program and this year’s is Nithya Guthikonda’s “Tracing the Rosebud Orchid: Botanical Illustration and Ecological Awareness in 18th- to 21st-Century America.” It’s such a beautiful project, well and deeply researched. library.yale.edu/news/student...

When you get to come home. But for a week and it’s not where you live and work. Whew.

If you're a senior scholar, consider recommending the mentorship session to early-career researchers you know. Registration is free for members, and membership is $55 for students. sharp.press.jhu.edu/membership/j...

Our online book history festival is all about connecting with bookish compatriots! Join us for three, action-packed social events: a bookish craft session, a book recommendation hour, and an early-career mentorship session (spots limited, pre-registration required!) events.zoom.us/ev/Ap9iEZwmC...

Driving through San Francisco and you’re bombarded with billboards advertising AI and a not insignificant amount of Tesla trashcans and driverless cars.

A heartbreaking 💔 and important piece. “Scholars have warned that Azerbaijan’s targeted destruction of these sites, having accelerated since the swift and deadly 2023 takeover of the Artsakh region, amounts to ‘cultural genocide.’” hyperallergic.com/azerbaijan-d... by @surrhealism.bsky.social

In between rain showers, I got out for some tide pooling with @brookeweigel.bsky.social & her class. Left foot soaked, totally worth it. 🦑

Today is National Library Workers Day, celebrating the people who do the work. ALA can't lobby for worker's rights because of stupid non-profit reasons but ALA-APA can. This year we lost Mitch Freedman who helped create ALA-APA. May his memory be a blessing. 📚 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice...

Sophie is now the Assistant Director of @skeuomorphpress.org as she works on her MSLIS at the iSchool—she’s a brilliant book historian & skilled printer to boot!

Delighted that Sophie Weinberg’s “The Matrilineal Printing House: Recovering the Printing Lineage of Widow Stationers in the Seventeenth-century English Book Trade” won the @womenshistnet.bsky.social 2025 MA Dissertation Prize! Go Sophie! womenshistorynetwork.org/winner-of-th...

I’d love to take @eayers0.bsky.social’s class on botanical bodies but instead I got to participate in a session with herbals and other early modern books. Check out Dr. Ayers’ class themes and related illustrations in her thread below!

My annual reminder that if you need to buy a window A/C this year do not simply buy the largest model you can afford. Energy Star has a sizing guide. Why do you want an AC that is sized for your room? Because an undersized A/C won't cool well and an oversized A/C will leave a space humid

Wendy Brown explores Jonathan Lear’s distinction between mourning and despair. I heard (and have grasped with both hands) morning being against despair and something fully alive.

Planned some cataloguing today, but didn’t expect to (re)discover this uncatalogued early 17th‑century specimen sheet comparing the same liturgical text in different type setting, with annotations noting the number of sheets required with that specific type and corresponding cost for printing!

Happy @benwurgaft.bsky.social day to all who celebrate! 🎉