😂

We're 60 shirts away from getting our first bug mural of the fall funded. If you haven't already, get a shrimp shirt. Look cool as hell while supporting a project that's just as cool 😎 SquidFacts.net

See a talk, share a talk! There's a whole list of upcoming free talks here. Please help me get the word out. Find one you're interested in and share :)

I saw ads like this on the subway and, like, that's not how jobs work. If they keep you, they'll just give you more work.

Y'all if you think that the reason we don't have universal healthcare is that it costs too much, I don't know what to say to you. We would get better healthcare for less money with universal healthcare. The cost is not the issue. There are many reasons we don't have universal healthcare.

We have records of diabetes diagnoses going back 2,500 years. We only developed a reliable treatment (insulin) 100 years ago. Now we might have a cure. What an amazing thing to get to witness.

One more task for today: call your senators about HR 2616 The "Don't Say Trans" bill literally states it's "defending women from gender ideology." Cis women, I am deputizing you especially. Please make several phone calls to tell them to knock it the fuck off.

Worth reading this whole thread!

A really interesting essay on reading and writing! "Any devout reader is long since possessed, deeply and by legion. Or if you”d like a less demonic metaphor, say reading is alchemy or mere pollution, where a book is a cup of strange liquid that you pour into the ever-flowing river of yourself."

TWoP (learned about so many shows I never watched) The Toast Go Fug Yourself I Can Has Cheezburger? Intrepid Media X-Entertainment (waaay back in the day)

change your default search engine and be free

NEW YORK: we have a chance to pass a good piece of legislation for fucking once! If you live in the state of New York, you should call or write your state senator, assembly member, and the governor before June 4. Details & links 🧵

My high school English teacher went to UCLA for her undergrad, and upon being asked why she didn't grade on a curve, explained that in the Senior Honors seminar at UCLA, there were 5 students. At that time, UCLA had a policy of adhering to strict curves. So one student would get an A, one a B, etc.

Cartoon: Welcome culture lovers! I give you the Chaucer Horror Picture Show! There's a higher res version for viewing on my Patreon or you can prints etc in my Redbubble (links in bio). Enjoy!

As someone who helps run an open -access online journal, I can't explain how infuriating and discouraging this update from Google makes me feel.

This CfP may be of interest to our readers!

Not all that long ago I could assign my students to make podcasts and get a collection of decent, quirky, sometimes awesome projects. Shit like this won't stop the good students, but it gives them another reason to think "but what's the point?" and I hate that for them.

I'm at the vet with Freddie, a sweet quiet polydactyl senior we found wandering after a tornado two years ago. No one ever claimed her 😭 Her bill is going to be about $600 more than anticipated; if you can chip in plz help www.capedcrusaderscr.org/additional-m...

This is why it’s so important to trace things back to the beginning whenever possible. I believe @rauchway.bsky.social calls these “historical urban legends”

This 🧵

Best news: He missed and the seal is fine. The locals even gave an “environmental activist” award to the dude who beat his ass. (Vid in thread comments.) I hope they throw the book at the attempted seal-assassin, and I hope the book is (a) really heavy and (b) about seals.

Lists like this are fun to think about but also designed to start fights. 😂

This! I have taught my students to use balanced lists and three-part things! It is recognized rhetorical practice!

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Call for Papers! @pamlaorg.bsky.social has a brand-new #popularromance area, which I am chairing (yay!) - join us on the #romance panel in November in Seattle! Abstract deadline May 25! #CFP #BookSky #AcademicSky session link: pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19917 PAMLA website: www.pamla.org

We have fetishized countable things and now live in an endless cacophony of counting

AI techbros have no idea how much everyone hates their new idiocy 😂

Fated States is coming back, and we’re looking to do some big GOTV phonebanks in the South. Sign up to receive updates when we’re up and running: fatedmates.net/fatedstates

JCK is wrong & this article is ridiculous, but universities need to emphasize what makes higher education different than AI / tech companies, and the answer to that question is that which they have marginalized for decades: curiosity-driven, rather than market-driven knowledge.

And you do not have to be in the romance field to donate! Comics, mysteries, RPGs, do a consult for custom sci-fi geology, offer a voiceover, all manner of arts and crafts, etc!

If we can raise $16,025 for Yellowhammer Fund, it will unlock an additional $50,000 to help people in the deep south travel to get the healthcare they need.

Today is Bandcamp Friday! They waive their fees, so artists receive a full share of all music and merch sales. It's a great reason to visit The American Circus souvenir shop on Bandcamp. If you can pay the band, you can watch the people dance! curtiseller.bandcamp.com/merch

This looks amazing! If any romance scholar wants to review this for the @jprstudies.bsky.social to see what its potential might be for speculative romance scholarship, I'd be delighted to arrange this.

"You can't correct anti-black discrimination without harming white people" is the con job the conservative movement will feed off of in perpetuity, if it has its way.

“I get and hate that the nation has handed the health of the world’s children to one of the worst gamblers in North America.“ — @kiese.bsky.social www.vanityfair.com/culture/stor...

⌛ Just a bit over a month left to send in your proposals for JPRS Special Issue on Sport Romance. Don't miss out on this opportunity! #RomanceResearch

the Sacramento zoo has 6 BABY CAPYBARAS

It's rare that my friends book club agrees entirely on a book, but we all are fans of This Is How You Lose the Time War by @amalelmohtar.com and Max Gladstone.

And 9 seconds later … www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

truth coming out of her cup noodles to shame mankind

We do a lot of student a disservice by not teaching them pedagogy. I think we honestly need to start young through peer critique. The kids are teaching one another anyway! At any rate, I think pedagogy in academia should be a mandatory class, especially for TAs and grad assistants.

Marian Call killing it with some SHOUTY FOLK MUSIC about loving thy neighbor and being thy brother’s keeper and prosocial behavior in general. This is great, and I hope people cover it a lot.

Just so you know that a "Buttload" is 126 gallons. 😃

I’m hoping to clean out my closets this year & I have waaaay too many author copies of my romance novels. Anyone know of romance-focused used bookstores looking for stock? All the newer stores are too fancy for used books. 😆

This is the bit that stood out to me in this very moving, thought-provoking post—“The level of discomfort or not-knowing that students can tolerate has taken (another) drastic free fall…AI has made everything so smooth, so easy, that it’s harder for them to stomach that discomfort”

This Is Just To Say I have turned off the AI features that were in the update and which you were probably hoping to monetize Fuck you they were stupid so unnecessary and so annoying

Shoot, I guess 7 game tokens and six-sided dice, 8 paperclips, and half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich isn't going to cut it today. 😂

Happy 80th birthday to Tim Curry who has always, *always* understood the assignment.

This is a valid point: whenever you see this sort of high-pressure sales tactic turned on a technology, you can be CERTAIN that it's a fake—actually useful new tech sells itself! And don't underestimate the effectiveness of FOMO as a tool in the hands of a con artist.

LOS ANGELES: Please help these kitties Kit & Caboodle. Their owner passed away last week, and I've taken it upon myself to find them a loving forever home. They are GOOD BABIES. Can anyone *LA area only* adopt them? I just don't want them to end up in a kill shelter. Share, RT, ask around... thanks!