Persian Language Summer School ASPIRANTUM’s 2026 Persian Language Summer School offers 6–10 weeks (120–200 hours) of intensive Modern Persian instruction in Yerevan, beginning on June 21, June 28, or July 5, 2026. Classes at beginner, elementary, and intermediate levels focus on all key skills -…

Here's now the video recording of that excellent talk: #ArabicBible

Moldova is on this list. Some thoughts. First, from a foreign policy standpoint, it's yet another data point illustrating the unnecessary self-destruction of U.S. soft power and influence abroad. Imagine being a U.S. diplomat in MD (or any of the other countries on the list) ...

The issue isn’t one deranged leader. It’s the entire corrupt infrastructure that refuses to remove him despite knowing he’s deranged, and dutifully types up and circulates this raving lunacy. Also he rants when he’s been told no, so the EU response is working.

yeah, this is gross. the people in Greenland are actually people, not convenient pegs for you to push your agenda. not even if that agenda is good.1

Fortune 500 companies that have contracts with ICE: -Amazon -AT&T -Booz Allen Hamilton -Caci -Charter Communications -Comcast -Dell -Ecolab -FedEx -General Dynamics -L3Harris -Motorola -Thermo Fisher -UPS Know who profits from Trump's cruelty.

Asian Americans United also has Know Your Rights info and a reporting hotline in English, Mandarin, and Bahasa Indonesia: www.aaunited.org/know-your-ri...

Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff. Game on.

“Do not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.” A Sumerian proverb, as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

We’re visiting a high-school friend of my wife and LOOK AT THIS PAINTING HER DAUGHTER DID

Habe gelernt, dass Terry Pratchett in den 1990ern seinen deutschen Verlag gewechselt hat, weil der alte Werbung für Maggi in die Übersetzungen eingebaut hat und er ihm nicht zusichern wollte, es nicht mehr zu tun.

Newly released footage by France, from May 10, 2025 shows Trump’s reaction after President Macron informed him President Zelensky accepted his proposed 30-day ceasefire. Macron: “Zelensky accepted your proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.” Trump: “Oh, good. Nobel Prize please!”

Laten we er vandaag mee beginnen. 𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐂𝐎𝐓 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐀𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐍

I've just realised that the Smurfs all wear Phrygian caps – is the Smurf village intended to be an idealised Revolutionary France, with Gargamel representing the reactionary forces of the ancien régime?

Myoseon series The Japanese army advanced toward Seoul using the same routes previously taken by Japanese envoys on their way to the capital.

every time i get a fundraising text from anyone in chuckie's gang of useless Dems, i just donate and donate and donate again to Minneapolis mutual aids, diaper funds, food support, independent news etc — because they're the ones actually representing us www.standwithminnesota.com

Bookmark this one, it'll be handy later.

For the past few years I've had a fun side-hustle developing a wargame. It's a tank commander roguelike set in WW2. I think it's reasonably punishing and realistic and has been a blast to play with. #ScreenshotSaturday #SharingSaturday #GameDev store.steampowered.com/app/1292020/...

Grok is so much worse than you think.

Well, if there is any industry that deserves to be destroyed by its own machinations, also in the area of politics...

"I also believe that we, as a society, will face a violent paradigm shift as a result of the AI bubble bursting, because it revealed how many people do not understand stuff."

ICE seem more like the ‘Brown Shirts’ it’s too much like kudos to call them the Gestapo. The Brown Shirts were embittered unemployed men (WW1 war reparations killed German economy) useful to Hitler until her purged them in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in 1934 and transferred power to the SS.

Well, if there is any industry that deserves to be destroyed by its own machinations, also in the area of politics...

Ugaritic word of the day: Ugaritic word of the day: ʾiqnʾu ("lapis lazuli", "lapis lazuli-colored", "blue", "violet blue", "purple").F

In 1943, during the German occupation of Norway, Norwegian author Knut Hamsun gave his Nobel Prize (Literature) medal to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, as a gesture of political loyalty.

Small book, big scandal: a 1792 printing of the banned atheist tract 'De tribus impostoribus' (On the Three Imposters), which argued that all religions and the very idea of a god were incoherent. This edition was seized and ordered destroyed by the Hessian authorities

Albanese poster uit 1986. 'De dromen van grootmachten', Sabaudin Xhaferi (BS=Sovjet-Unie)

They're still trying to deport Rümeysa Öztürk after she was arrested in the street by plainclothes ICE agents and detained for six weeks for writing a column in her college newspaper that was critical of Israel.

Democrats must assert "state rights" now. Why pay for federal madness? Play it tough and hard, that is the only way.

@dankaszeta.bsky.social Of interest to you? Guess this report may already have been spotted by you, but thought I might just as well forward it to you, just in case.

ㅤ Goethe: Faust — Harry Clarke, 1925 ㅤ

At minimum, why aren’t state employees tasked with following ice & warning neighborhoods. Why aren’t their helicopters airborne, calling out ice positions? Why isn’t the state delivering aid to undocumented people shut in their homes? Why isn’t the state providing security at schools & hospitals?

Like, I understand why the Guard isn’t shooting ice. But why is the state doing literally nothing else? Why should regular people be the only ones helping & alerting & defending their communities? If they say there’s nothing else they can do, that’s a lie. It’s a choice. A stupid, inhumane choice.

all of german imperial (and nazi german) diplomacy leading up to the wars was essentially just "what do you mean you people were serious when you signed a legally binding military alliance treaty"

I wonder how many Dutch voters fully realize that what ICE is doing in Minnesota is *exactly* what Wilders (and van der Plas, Baudet, Eerdmans etc) would like to see happen here. It’s a free preview of what far right government actually looks like.

I am grimly pessimistic about this from what I know of Hindutva voters. They knowingly want this. There’s an underlying appetite for cruelty that drives far right voters, as long as it is directed elsewhere and which they experience as an affirmation of their status as insiders to the body politic.

(...)

This. I am done returning to the status quo of what got us here. I want universal healthcare. I want a maximum wage tied to the minimum wage. I want omnipresent, cheap public transit and walkable neighborhoods. I want Supreme Court and police reform, and I want the rich to pay their fair share.

I am also going to simply restate that I guarantee you that if the US annexes Greenland it will inflict either direct or indirect genocide on the inhabitants within a decade

Here's something pretty cool that deserves more attention. 🤓 What exactly is happening here? 🤔🧐 (And can you think of an appropriate term to describe this?)

As Trump’s totalitarian tendencies unfold in the U.S., interest in surveillance studies is more important than ever. Please join this critical conversation: the boundaries between what we once considered public and private are rapidly blurring, with far-reaching consequences.

Translation of an argumentative writing contra Catholicism written by a Korean scholar in the 18th Century - Part 10 is out now (finally)! ReSkeets, likes, constructive comments, etc., are appreciated, as ever! philologicaltryouts.substack.com/p/argumentat...

there are so many well-paying gigs available right now for saboteurs and whistleblowers

Dieser Punkt lässt sich übrigens sehr gut mit dieser Grafik von Per Axbom verdeutlichen. Quelle: axbom.com/hammer-ai/

Translation of an argumentative writing contra Catholicism written by a Korean scholar in the 18th Century - Part 10 is out now (finally)! ReSkeets, likes, constructive comments, etc., are appreciated, as ever! philologicaltryouts.substack.com/p/argumentat...

New #Coptic grammar!! uclpress.co.uk/book/sahidic...

Jisho has long been an incredibly valuable website for learning Japanese - huge range of definitions, well sourced, and no ads. It's an honor that my silly little slang dictionary is now part of it. Can't wait for the full launch of the new version (plz bring back the dark background Kimtaro 🙏🙏🙏🥺🥺🥺)