@mayor.nyc.gov: “I have thought often of the "Margeret Thatcher quote: ‘the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.’ If anything, my friends, it seems that you eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess."

‘He loved horses, machines, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “short cuts” which took twice as long as the main roads, the adjectives “smashing”, “tremendous”, “marvellous”, “sophisticated”.’ Alex Cocotas remembers producer, cinematographer and screenwriter Harrison Starr. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

thank you to everyone who sent this to me

May 18, 1980 | 8:32 a.m. The ground shudders. A M5.1 quake hits beneath Mount St. Helens. Weakened critically, the north face bulge collapses outward. Within seconds, a pyroclastic density surge bursts through the disintegrating slope. The clock strikes zero.

Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

Happy 40 Years of Chernobyl, everyone… My old colleague @adamhigginbotham.bsky.social fills me in on the untold side of the world’s worst-ever accident. ☢️

Happy Leland Melvin day to all who celebrate. 💚

Oh this is great: there’s now an #Artemis II Lunar Flyby Gallery on the NASA images site: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna... (thx @dpmanchee.bsky.social for pointing it out)

This quote from Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell has been in my head the last few days

When the spaceship is performing even better than planned 💅🏼

Garrett had me from the 1st sentence: “I didn’t begin this week thinking I would be writing about the Iran War, Chuck Norris, and Kid Rock, but one of the “joys” of living through the Trump era is that every week seems like the worst game of Mad Libs you’ve ever played.”

I don't need a summary of what's available online, in biographies, or even in my own notes. I need to comb through and find the great details, decide what interests ME. No, it's not efficient. It's slow and painstaking. But I don't believe in efficiency as an ultimate good, especially in writing. /

Headline writers crossing all their fingers that whatever Scott Mills did it was dark and satanic

This is such sad news. I only met Glen Baxter once, at a literary festival in Montpellier. (He was hugely popular in France.) I can only say he was one of the funniest, warmest, most charming geniuses I've ever met.

I have physics-related questions.

‘Le Carré, driven by personal demons kept writing into his late 80s; Frederick Forsyth maintained his lucrative franchise. Deighton simply walked away into hobbies: fountain pen engineering, unpublished histories of aero engines, flying planes & cooking and living well.’ ❤️ www.ft.com/content/32e4...

RIP Len Deighton: “When I started writing I had rules. One was that violence must not solve the problem, and I cannot have the hero overcome violence with a counterweight of violence.” He also worked as an illustrator for six years, including a Penguin Iris Murdoch & a Deutsch Jack Kerouac

“But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the Strait of Hormuz is open and people are having a wonderful time.”

SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26 NO - 41% YES - 38% UNSURE - 21%

C’mon, people. Look at your Kremlin style guide. The phrase is “special military operation.” Not all of you are getting this right.

Another year, another plea for help from someone whose work is the basis for a $200m blockbuster movie.

medical miracle: this 75 year old man was born yesterday

This man is a thief, coward and hypocrite. He argues the U.S. can't afford to protect workers from scammy corporations through the CFPB, but it CAN afford to pay millions and millions robbed from three different agencies to pay for his imperial guard. #stopvought www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...

‘The destruction of thermal power plants, as well as substations and the distribution network, which has taken place throughout this winter has now coincided with the coldest weather Ukraine has had in years, with temperatures dropping below -20ºC.’ Jen Stout in Kyiv. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

Was driving my kids to school and the first thing on the radio was reporting about Trump's video depicting the Obamas as apes and I think many people still don't fully appreciate what it means to have to raise Black children in a country where the president is so brazenly and consistently racist

Is this what the advice"dress for the job you want" gets you when the job you want is paramilitary death squad? 😬

The nominal subject of this painting by Albrecht Altdorfer is the tiny St George and the Dragon in the foreground, but the real hero is the dense, restless forest where every leaf seems charged with energy (1510, Pinakothek, Munich)

X is hiring a creative writing specialist at $40 an hour to make Grok better at writing and a true LOL at the qualifications

The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.

The book “Challenger” by Adam Higginbotham lays it out spectacularly. NASA management dealing with severe funding cuts & fearing more pushed the program & its people beyond limits to the point that safety questions that once were deal breakers were considered acceptable. A needless tragedy.

40 years ago today: on 28 January 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-L) exploded 73 seconds after launch, killing all six astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe. I was 7 at the time. I highly recommend the 2024 book Challenger by @adamhigginbotham.bsky.social.

When i leave the bedroom, the first piece of art I see is this, and it sets me up for the rest of the day-

While the pasty incels who work the federal agencies continue to churn out feeble, bloodless AI pastiches of Axis propaganda, here’s how a living breathing artist powerfully invokes design history. This is by illustrator Emily K in South Philly, a free poster-sized download on her website: →

Finally. Expert yacht-buying advice.

I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen *Everyone has stories like this*

Welcome to new Bluesky users. Here’s how we do things: 1. Always observe the Hambledon Protocol 2. No flisking 3. If someone tealights you, rink them without apology 4. I don’t mind them so much, but tissue-posts are generally frowned on 5. No questions Good luck!

RIP Erich von Däniken, whose CHARIOTS OF THE GODS is beloved by every aficionado of '70s crank books. (Yes, I know it originally came out in 1968. In America, it's a '70s book.)

Utterly magnificent 🙏

Thus redacted Zarathustra

If you're still out there looking for a holiday gift — or something to ask for yourself, here's my roundup of great books from this past year:

A+ trolling from Zelenskyy

So good (via @kottke.org)

First the humidifier. Now this?

Obviously this is impossible because Alan Moore looks like he's genetically a wizard, it's simply impossible to imagine what he would look like as a schoolboy oh there he is.