This week's newsletter is about why climate advocacy and public-facing science communication is often ineffective, and even counterproductive. buttondown.com/muledesign/a...

When Vesta Stoudt, munitions worker, wrote to FDR about paper-backed tape used to waterproof munitions box. The paper tabs could tear, making the boxes difficult to open in combat. FDR directed Revolite Corporation (now J&J) to make the tape she proposed: cloth-backed, plastic-coated.

Why is Ukraine suddenly dominating the Sea of Azov? In just 6 days, over 70 russian ships—mostly shadow-fleet oil tankers and tugs—have been damaged or destroyed. Tonight alone saw 28 hit. 🧵 1/

This is an excellent little blog post about rowing in skaldic poetry by @judithjesch.bsky.social. With the Bayeux Tapestry loan, Battle of Hastings 960th anniversary, next year’s Year of the Normans, and now the Norwegian football team’s “Viking row”, my own research has never felt more topical!

📢 TAX the RICH! #ONEV1 #Pinks 🌸 #Voices4Victory

‘A’ is for Absolutely Splendid. #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts 📜 📚 @labnf.bsky.social

ICE claims that Araujo drove into one of their SUVs with his van and then tried to run over an agent. There were no marks on the van and KHOU11's Jeremy Rogalski found surveillance footage showing ICE chasing Araujo and cutting him off. Renee Good all over again.

As the one responsible for all tech in a state library/archive that's about the size & with the same remit as some national libraries, let me amplify: libraries need more funding. Tell your politicians & administrators. We are getting crushed by the fact that "digital" is more expensive than books.

This week, we have updates on data security, infectious disease control & prevention, and transgender healthcare. Our weekly briefing is up here: unbreaking.org/blog/briefin...

Also social media in 2026, Bluesky edition: muting the word "breaking" to hide shouty headlines but low-key worrying you might miss a hot take on Old English diphthongs.

The audience wants to watch charismatic people solving moderately difficult problems, delivered in weekly doses with occasional short breaks. That was what the market *told us* over seven decades. It created international cultural dominance and enormous wealth. www.wsj.com/business/med...

Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with

Make your self annoying enough and nobody wants to give you a platform

I was a huge Sylvia fan; nice of Trudeau to memorialise Hollander. cc @alisonbechdel.bsky.social @catandgirl.bsky.social @danschkade.bsky.social

and every time I hear someone say "well it's too hard to amend!" I'm like, yeah, it should be, the right wants to get rid of birthright citizenship through the amendment process, and it thankfully has no chance.

Egging on a blackout in a heat wave. Conservatism is a death cult, as they say.

"The Founders did not stumble into a diverse, immigrant-heavy society by accident—they lived through it, debated it, and ultimately enshrined it in a Constitution that barred religious tests for office and left the door open to immigrants of every nation and faith" www.cato.org/blog/founder...

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"At no point in either video is Hurtado-Cariaco seen choking the female agent. Instead, the videos show agents placing Hurtado-Cariaco into a chokehold on two separate occasions as he attempts to break free." By recording ICE, neighbors helped this man avoid a bogus attempted murder charge.

"A recall involving hundreds of thousands of bags of popular Zapp's and Dirty brand potato chips has been classified under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's most serious warning level due to the risk of salmonella contamination."

I have said it before, but I like to teach ancient texts topographically. That's what makes ToposText so fun. Every toponym from Livy, Thucydides, and over 800 more authors—plus trans. & links to the original Greek or Latin—from Spain to India. Such a cool thing to teach & read with. topostext.org

Did you hear about the DC July 4 fireworks show? It promises 850,000 fireworks in 40 minutes. That's 354 per second. You'll miss up to 142 of them every time you blink. For your edutainment, I proudly present the nerdiest thing you will read about this dangerously absurd / absurdly dangerous event.

Two years ago, my colleagues and I were sued by Stephen Miller's America First Legal. The Hines v Stamos case — built atop a number of false allegations — was a central element of the "censorship industrial complex" myth. Today, that case was dismissed (by a Trump judge in LA). We won.

The Supreme Court today addressed one of the most pressing threats to the nation today: banning this high school sophomore from playing school sports with her friends 🫡🫠🙃

This is how ethnonationalists think of citizenship: it goes with purity of blood, so allowing others of impure blood to be citizens tarnishes the value of citizenship as a proof of purity. There are echoes here of hundreds of year old European nationalist ideologies and even the Iberian Reconquista.

I Am Not A Lawyer™. (Though I spent a year studying law) Neither is @joshtpm.bsky.social But we both know something about US history (him w PhD), including about anti-Asian immigrant wave of late 1800s. And agree w him 100% here. That this was 5-4 is a relief. That it was not 9-0 is an emergency.

Im so exhausted by this pattern. Historians spend years in the archives to write detailed accounts of the past. Only for journalists, doctors, podcasters, and now cartoonists, to swoop in and get paid a lot of money to trot out the same work, "uncovering hidden histories" that are not at all hidden.

A NEW TWIST in Africa's soaring solar story: It's now manufacturing its own panels. The factories use imported Chinese cells, which are 40% of the value of panels, keeping much of the value domestically. 9 GW of cells+wafers in Mar/Apr alone🧵

China isn’t just tightening control over #Tibet, it’s trying to erase Tibetan #identity, argues Chellaney. Over a million #Tibetan children have reportedly been placed in Mandarin-language boarding schools, separating them from their language, culture, & faith. thehill.com/opinion/inte...

Forcing ID upload everywhere is inherently insecure. cambridgeanalytica.org/data-breache...

"Behold, I -- only I -- can save you from justice!"

Pride bus crushes Tesla (photo by bus passenger OP !)

“Loitering is not permitted in this area. Please proceed to a designated location. Thank you for your cooperation,” a surveillance machine tells a small cluster of National Guard members as they patrol the fenced off Reflecting Pool in the rain.

JD Vance credits Peter Thiel for helping him convert to Catholicism. In leaked audio recordings last fall, Peter Thiel revealed he told JD Vance to ignore Pope Leo XIV on moral issues, including the development of ethical AI. He also suggested the American pope was a tool of the Antichrist.

Alexander Browder, a 17-year-old London teenager, has become Russia's youngest ever sanctions target. He has built a database exposing the crypto networks helping Russia and other rogue states dodge Western sanctions⤵️

Someone has been projecting images all over D.C. “It’s swampier than ever.” The Kennedy Center one is pretty hilarious. 😂😂😂

Now-annual reminder that if you're at ALA and someone you don't know begins asking you weird questions about book bans and censorship...and they're wearing glasses...they may, in fact, be recording you.

Today, any income earned above $184,500 is not subject to Social Security employee tax. If all income over $400,000 were subject to Social Security payroll tax, Social Security’s solvency would be guaranteed forever. RAISE THE CAP

“On the morning of June 19, 1865, the U.S. Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, and delivered General Order No. 3, informing the people of Texas that “all slaves are free.” Six months later, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery nationwide. Every year since, #Juneteenth has been celebrated”

The Cotton Genesis (Cotton MS Otho B VI, 5th century) was one of the tragic victims of the Ashburnham House fire in 1731. Today, we’re delighted to release new multispectral imaging of the manuscript, allowing us to read its texts for the first time in hundreds of years. www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

People need to make a bigger deal out of Elon Musk's endorsement of "Reconquista." This is naked fascism. newrepublic.com/article/2119...

World Cup might be the closest thing we’ll get to world peace

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

one anecdote: I was searching for a link to one of my old papers on Google, and the automated Gemini summary attributed all of my lab's work to my husband

Cervical cancer deaths fall to zero in young women given vaccine. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It was a huge influence on me!

The other insight was that the arbitration mostly went in favour of tenants *if* they filed all their paperwork. If you are renting take a bunch of photos when you move in and out again.

Damn Chotiner is good SR: So now I am the bad guy? I supported you! I was the good guy! How did I become the bad guy, and the Ayatollah is the good guy? IC: This is why I was wondering whether you had ever observed Donald Trump.

You can speak up about this: The rule is open for public comment until July 2. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

A) This a properly brilliant piece of investigative journalism by BBC & @hopenot.bsky.social Huge kudos to all involved for doing the job the UK police & CPS failed to do: naming the alleged spymaster & clearly showing Kremlin’s role. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...