Left: Venus, 1 March 1982 Centre: Titan, 14 January 2005 Right: Boston, 15 July 2026

Yet again, we see something that seems straight from @greatdismal.bsky.social

Chicago today. 40 miles east of me.

I almost can't take these people seriously because this Jeremy Wayne Tate dude reached out to me in his early days because he thought I'd be agreeable to his SAT alternative and it became clear in just a handful of emails that he is a goof. Now this goof is going to control curriculum for everyone

Wildfire smoke visible from space.

Hi. Posting from Northern Illinois. The air is a visible mix of smoke and humidity. I feel a burn in my eyes and nostrils, and a grit in my mouth. It sucks.

Herbie Hancock literally in the studio

Today's episode of The Ezra Klein Show. What Americans Need to Understand About China Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister of Australia, on how the Chinese president thinks. open.spotify.com/episode/4Lg5... www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/o...

*With the El Nino crop failures worldwide, and the sudden inability of Russian farmers to get diesel, plant crops or even export wheat, I'm smelling Famine on the way *I know that sounds rather Four Horsemen, but War and Plague have both been doing great lately

A majorly sci-fi moment, not to mention a first in human history!

Richmond!!! I'm giving a Profs and Pints talk on July 22 at Triple Crossing Fulton--it'll be a lively one, I promise. Please spread the word (link in comments for tickets)! #RVA #AcademicSky #PublicHumanities #TeamRhetoric

“What Is an Author?” predicted a future where old ideas about authorship would give way to new questions about technology and power. “What are the modes of existence of this discourse?” Foucault asked. “Where does it come from, how is it circulated” and — perhaps most important — “who controls it?”

‘Ramones had leather jackets when they got spat on. We didn’t!’ David Byrne on touring with Talking Heads and taking advice from Lou Reed.”

Where did Kent get the clothes? #metvsuperman

“Musk is one of the few remaining public figures of any prominence to speak fluently the dead language of futurism.” —@mrkocnnll.bsky.social

Yeah, it’s Bones’ fault. #MeTVStarTrek

The neorealist looks like Emo Philips. #metvbatman

My teen years were *not* like this, and somehow I feel like my life is a lie. #Svengoolie

The opening titles appear to be an unused scene from Caligula. Pretty sure Gore Vidal hated this movie, too. #Svengoolie

Jack Nietzsche? Take care when staring into the abyss! Or the go-go dancers gyrating… #Svengoolie

Clear the air lanes! #Svengoolie

Post comments live right here during “Village of the Giants” tonight on MeTV! Please use the hashtag #svengoolie - and see how theater curtains can become high-fashion duds for supersized delinquents!

If you’d rather not shop Amazon, the book is also available at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million #academicsky #selfpromotionsaturday #selfpromosaturday #writer

Hi! My name is Monica and I'm a landscape painter from Canada 🇨🇦 This is my art, let me know what you think!

“And what this woman said to me is: Mr. Stevenson, just because you’re poor doesn’t mean that you don’t want to be generous. Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you don’t want to help other people.”

@columbojones2.bsky.social thank you for the repost!

Just like the private sector, layoffs caused by merger. My best wishes for soft landings for all involved. Why is this happening? See the post in the reply. #academicsky

Dreams presents a selection of drawings on found cardboard by the Iranian-born sculptor and painter Hadi Falapishi, from his ongoing daily routine of reproducing, at his New York studio, images he recalls having seen in his sleep the night before.

“This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary using AI Assistant.” Fuck. Right. Off.

i’m late to it but absolutely loved this @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social conversation w/ gary shteyngart on searching for meaning in a dystopian and uncertain world. what is the point of life if we can’t figure out how to maximize our own happiness? open.spotify.com/episode/0XCM...

Target has the Rolls Royces of shopping carts.

Neo is 5'6", weighs 66 pounds, and has black cameras for eyes. It has no other facial features or skin. Neo is one of a dozen humanoid robots scheduled to hit the market in the next year. Are we ready for them? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Marvelous.....so touching.

‘Michael Longley was always drawn to the possibility of peril: he possessed what Eavan Boland called “a vision of risk”.’ Seamus Perry on the ‘neither English nor Irish completely’ poet. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Is “bionic” an accurate term in this context?

Damn. Fell asleep during #metvsuperman

In case anyone is wondering, I’m wearing Star Trek underwear. #metvstartrek

Remarkably like how Batman survived the comic strip press. #metvbatman

Oh the freedom of being invisible and nude. #Svengoolie

Clear the air lanes! #Svengoolie

Light up Bluesky tonight by posting live comments during “Invisible Agent” on MeTV! Use the hashtag #svengoolie and - oh say, can you see…oh,no you can’t- after all, he’s invisible!

If you’d rather not shop Amazon, the book is also available at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million #academicsky #selfpromotionsaturday #selfpromosaturday #writer

It is, among other things, #selfpromotionsaturday My book “Requiem for a College” analyzes the ongoing trend of college closures. How close is your college to death? #selfpromosaturday #academicsky #writer

Gabriel Winslow-Yost on the unfamiliar predicament George Saunders faced in writing Vigil

Fantastic personal essay by Lisa Carver in @parisreview.bsky.social

“I started to commit the worst of all sins for my sort of writer—I tried to imagine the requirements of the ordinary commercial publisher. A fatal question—what are people reading these days?” —Gerald Murnane

THE LANGUAGE BEAT is here. For more than two decades, I wrote reportage, profiles, essays, and reviews about language. This book, which collects some of those pieces, is on sale now: amzn.to/4aokz3c (I'll announce when it goes onto other platforms.)

Back on my bullsh