stop what you're doing and let Amber Glenn take you to church #USPrevagenChamps #figureskating

From an email to one of our faculty members.... Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!

Big: Wyoming supreme court just struck down abortion ban. And get this: The reason is a constitutional amendment codifying a right to make health care decisions... passed in 2012 by conservatives who thought it'd screw Obamacare! Quite the backfire. We explained this lawsuit a few years back:

Here is the Trump Doctrine, as articulated by Stephen Miller in his truly frightening interview with Jake Tapper this afternoon. It is very much like the doctrine of the dictators we fought and defeated in World War II and of Putin today. It is un-American at its very core.

One guy tried, unsuccessfully, to blow up a plane with a bomb in his sneakers, and everybody had to take off their shoes at the airport for the next 20 years. Chatbots have a collective body count equal to Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez, and they're trying to put them in schools.

amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders

And there ya have it… Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”

Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

POSIWID: the purpose of a system is what it does. Intentions are irrelevant. At scale, AI creates dependence, intensifies surveillance, deskills workers and students, extracts value, and concentrates power. It consumes vast electricity and water. It exploits laborers in data processing. Net negative

Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

Verily, it’s a total mystery why this might be a more salient issue in the assortative mating process nowadays 🤔🧐🤷‍♂️

Nostalgia thread

Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi film, Metropolis, was set in 2026.

Elon's first thought was, for once, correct, but Sullivan states well the crucial second thought. Journalists must think hard about *which* truths they report. They choose which voices they amplify.

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

As ever, the media assumes that the GOP is free to do as it wishes, without responsibility—“boys will be boys”—and blames the Dems (Mom) for not cleaning up the mess.

THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context

Oh, god, that facade is nauseating. But the whole thread is worth reading.

Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Thucydides sent to me Twelve scholar-warriors Eleven vaccine sceptics Ten misquotations Nine IR Realists Eight toiling triremes Seven sorry Spartans Six truest causes

It’s wild so many people are willing to go to bat for prisons as a reserve for rural jobs when universities are better in every aspect for such a role.

The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees 🧵

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

Possibly the most sublime Roman fresco of a temple. The architectural detail of the spiky-topped wooden barrier, the painted relief in the pediment, & the offerings burning on the altar; it’s a symphony of observations. Archaeological Museum of Capri (no provenance) #FrescoFriday

Does @dahlialithwick.bsky.social know someone who could help?

This was an incredibly validating read

All the centers they’re cutting add up to less than $7 million in spending. UNC athletics budget is $185.4 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

FUCKIN FACTS 💯

Most frustrating grading experience of my life. Clear evidence of basic reading comprehension problems. Not just frustrating. Frightening.

Another lament about the loss of journalists is going around. Please, if you can spare a few dollars a month, support local journalists, such as those at the Missouri Independent.

I'm not sure if people realize the murder strikes are taking place across a large region. It's quite staggering. www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...

Very good rule of thumb. However, using that word at the start of a sentence loudly signals a screeching u-turn. Please use it sparingly.

It’s the first night of Hanukkah and the world seems like a very dark place. But we can bring light to the darkness. We can fight for each other and make goodness, love, and community shine through. Show me your menorahs and let’s light up the timeline!

I have a stack to grade, a flat tire on the car, and dead wifi at home. But I treated myself to a cappuccino, and the barista couldn't have been friendlier. Right on.

The satirical magazine was called Why? It's available here: www.juliuskovesi.com/why/

When exactly did caution start showing up in an abundance (like a murder of crows)? I don’t think I remember that the youth (ye olden days).

Still feeling just as lost…And to think I once thought being lost was just a phase…ha!

One thing universities need to say again and again is that education is intrinsically valuable. If you’re only looking for what is useful, you’ll miss much of the value that education offers.

"Aristotle says that lovers look at no other part of the body of their beloved than the eyes, in which modesty dwells" (Athenaeus 564b). So much for his famous empiricism.

Speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, yes leadership is apparently planning to cut 50% of the faculty at the New School for Social Research in order to eliminate social research and replace scholarship with a trendy MA degree mill For the 21st Century 1/

Hands Reaching Up From Hell, Wat Rong Khun Temple, by Chalermchai Kositpipat, 1997

my goal as a journalist is to report carefully on the best, most practical social policy ideas that can change the world, and this is easily the most exciting one I’ve had the opportunity to cover this year 🧵↓ www.vox.com/policy/46963...

“Institutional auto-cannibalism” www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

New from Humanist: a departure from my attempts to digest the scholarship of teaching and learning, for a detour into my lunatic Cicero brain (sorry not sorry) #AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #AcademicSky

From a Princeton dean: “This is welcome news. Studying the humanities… isn’t an impractical luxury. … The humanities prepare students not just to get a job, but to keep it and excel while doing so.” 🎁

Property and sales taxes are already high because the income tax is low, and it looks like the GOP want them to be higher (or they want even worse services). Not that there’s going to be an honest debate about this.