I love my tree 🌳

Happy Juneteenth! Here are some basic facts and history to revisit. Feel free to share!

Reinstalling Firefox:

Germ theory is quite a drug 😏

This is a really cool piece on how Alan Alda has funded an initiative to help researchers better communicate their findings to the public through learning improv skills.

This is the sort of thing a competent legislature would hold hearings on, but the MA legislature is bound and determined to avoid all transparency, so seems unlikely. 🙄

Safe, protected bike-lanes are: Better for business Better for emissions Better for air quality Better for space Better for public health Better for noise Better for equity Better for affordability Better for public costs Better for safety for EVERYONE Better for oil independence Better.

Numerology is back!

tl;dr: Administrators at the main Harvard teaching hospitals seem not to understand that correlation is not causation, but thankfully the physicians actually providing the care do seem to understand this basic principle of statistics. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/21/b...

I’m not sure why we’re suggesting cruel and unusual punishment for monks?

This is a key insight about the relationship between spirituality and creativity:

Importantly, though, if peer-reviewed academic journals do not quickly step up to enact unambiguous, enforceable policies on LLM use, they risk losing the appeal of rigour and reputability relative to preprint servers.

Did @annleckie.com write a novel about theocracies fighting over a strait? Why, yes. Yes, she did! share.libbyapp.com/title/4056753

Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts.

it’s almost time to vote! this is the one! we live in a society!

The United Kingdom says goodbye to hereditary peers today. The United States says goodbye to a federally protected multiracial democracy.

I presume @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org will be projecting all five seasons of Get Smart onto the side of DOJ.

Donald:

Today is a good day to repost this again because <<<gestures broadly>>>.

A heartwarming ending!

“The average American’s view is quite libertine: let people make up their own minds about how they want their lives to end.” open.substack.com/pub/ryanburg...

What do Artemis and Hormuz have in common? Low flow.

Tapping the sign

Wisdom! Let us attend:

I wanna point out something serious. The admin has been complaining about Iran winning the information war. This same administration shut down Voice of America, and other information operations the US govt does. It’s a self goal. Actions have consequences

"City Hall’s polling indicated that bike lane projects were not particularly controversial, nor divisive." "There was, however, one demographic that is more likely to despise bike lanes, regardless of their race or class: residents aged 55 and older."

It’s not just the middle schoolers: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/09/b...

😳🤣

The Straits of Hormuz don’t stay open when ceasefire conditions are violated? Sounds like a crude awakening.

A bit of good news to start the day: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/07/m...

Same vibe: www.wbur.org/news/2026/04...

Interesting times indeed. In the Confucian sense.

Keep in mind that Trump's threats communicated in his tweets are themselves war crimes.

And it is Tuesday…

It’s me. I am one of many. 🙋‍♂️

That’s my senator!

It’s always good to know the history behind the lawsuit filed by <<<checks notes>>> the historians. Yes, all of them.

Bad theology is quite a drug.

People need to pay close attention to this OLC opinion on the Presidential Records Act. As @joshgerstein.bsky.social points out, nothing less than our own history is at stake. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

David Voas is right, and the Bible Society is doing itself and everyone else a disservice in claiming these tainted results are nevertheless indicative of a Christian resurgence. “The dominant trend,” [Voas] said, “continues to be quiet quitting, not quiet revival.”

I took the German or Autistic diagnostic. Results: probably autistic. Wittgenstein would have gotten the same result. german.millermanschool.com

Be the traffic you wish to see in the world!

This has been a really remarkable and touching story to follow. God bless the nuns! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Note: This adds to a growing list of changes Hegseth is making to the chaplaincy program in the U.S. military.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the demise of the whole strand of intelligent design, god of the gaps, etc. theologies.

Ah yes, because the people most concerned about affordability in #Brookline are <<<checks notes>>> venture capitalists.