1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it). But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

A lovely human being gone. The new year shines less brightly.

Apollo and Daphne, artist unknown, 1630-60

On the news of H-1B visa fees rising to $100,000, reupping this analysis.

So helpful! #TeachLearnSky #EduSky

Excellent coverage, with a perfectly pointed takeaway: "Welcome to the new normal, where a late-night comedian making fun of the president is “the sickest conduct possible,” but calling for trans people to be institutionalized was just Charlie Kirk practicing politics the right way."

Do I hear Pauline Kleingeld? She’s a superstar in the department of my former colleagues.

Has anyone looked at academia's new Terms of Use? There is a clause that by creating an account, you grant them a worldwide, irrevocable etc etc permission to use your member content and personal information (including your voice(!🤨) in any manner. Anyone else worried? #academia

Looking at the screenshots here, I'm having a hard time seeing why Clemson thinks it can fire Melvin Earl Villaver, Jr. At worst, he's expressing pleasure that Charlie Kirk is dead. If that counts as unprotected speech, by a state employee, then free speech is dead.

I've "submitted a ticket" for Workday help. Thoughts and prayers, please.

‘So it’s okay for a pundit to vow revenge on supposed political enemies. But not okay for one to point out that… hateful words can lead to hateful actions.’ @sulliview.bsky.social is especially timely in light of @karenattiah.bsky.social’s firing margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/what-gets-...

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

This is really important. If they re-classify hormonal contraception as abortion, that mean most forms of contraception will become illegal or inaccessible across the country. They’re targeting anything that can prevent implantation. That’s almost all of it.

Encountering the fascists outside Waterloo iandunt.substack.com/p/encounteri...

Finally! This solar canal is fully live, and it has many benefits: — saves water, by reducing evaporation — avoids land use for solar — it’s easy to connect to the grid — provides clean energy — more effiicent production: the water cools the panels This is a no-brainer project.

For shame

If you want good evidence of the fact that the culture of political discussion in the US is deeply impoverished, look no further than the claims that Charlie Kirk was a model for political discussion.

Trump’s proposal to cut the NIH’s budget by 43% would cause thousands of job losses in college towns, including Madison, Charlottesville & Gainesville, all of which receive about $700 in NIH money per resident per year. @kathrynpalmer.bsky.social reports www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Violence outside the law is terrible. But it’s a mistake to worry that American politics will descend into violence. It already has descended into violence. The government is exercising violence against citizens, and without concern for the law.

I'm losing my mind. It's too good youtu.be/x__Cu2MLxEU?...

If you need a pick-me-up, here's the definitive case that Derek Jeter was a no good, horrible, very bad defensive shortstop.

Sometimes I get mad at the average citizen for being so checked out and uninformed then I see what the people paid to think about this stuff think

This is by far my most popular piece on substack, with close to half a million views. You should read it katemanne.substack.com/p/the-actual...

80 Years Ago, A Jewish Radical and Two Negro League Stars Led a Crusade to Integrate Baseball That Paved the Way for Jackie Robinson www.commondreams.org/opinion/80-y...

I think this may be what they're worried about ... Is This The Hidden Part of the Trump-Epstein Drama? talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-th...

Alright, so I've been afraid to say this out loud, but I think after today, I can say it: In the first Battle of Los Angeles, the good people of LA County have prevailed. We beat ICE back. 1/

I recently learned that Robert "Bob" Gordon, of simulation theory fame, passed away on April 13, 2025, at the age of 92. A celebration of his life will occur on Sunday, September 28, 2025 at 5:00 – 7:00 pm Central at the Ethical Society of St. Louis. 1/

This 🧵 is long so please bear with me. It is compiles evidence in a historical timeline on how effective #COVIDVaccines are. When a pandemic ends we quickly and easily forget the tools that got us out of it. So here is my labour day gift to you prompted by this headline.

Should be all we need to know for ed institutions to back away from the blind embrace of all things AI. Not likely however. publichealthpolicyjournal.com/mit-study-fi...

There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.

A friend sent me this, and she knows a good time when she sees it.

For the first time ever, in year 29, I am teaching an introductory philosophy class without requiring essays. Don't mind the black ink; my syllabus is a white flag.

My uni wants more classes to be taught outside the popular 10-4 window, so I volunteered to teach at 8:30. Still got a shitty room—dark and hot—and now, because the grad students don't want to rise in the morning, I have no TA. Damn good thing that virtue is its own reward.

I just checked the syllabi from my first semester at WashU (Fall 1997). One and a half pages. My contact info, a list of the requirements (participation, two essays, a final exam), a list of required texts, and a rough calendar of what we would read when ("week 1," "weeks 2-3," etc.). 1/

A great article in a student newspaper about a university out over its skis in its hope to get money from an apparent con-man.

Few institutions have trashed their reputations so thoroughly and so quickly as Columbia has.

After three attorneys general who used the office to promote themselves as Trumpists—successfully, sadly, as two are now senators and the third is working in Trump's administration—we finally have one who is actually qualified to be an attorney general and might pay heed to the rule of law.

One of the best pieces I’ve read in ages about where we are now. Does that brilliant and impossibly difficult thing of articulating core truths that you know and have even shouted across tables at people but reframing them so you see them with a different clarity & can redefine your own argument.

The modern academy, proudly announcing its 17 new faculty in the Humanities, but only five of them are tenured (two endowed chairs) or tenure-track (three). (I am, however, excited to have Alisabeth Ayars as a colleague.)

this is truly remarkable, disheartening, and outrageous slate.com/technology/2...

A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.

For a con man he sure is a gullible moron.

This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.

AI Boosters: All of this talk of AI energy use is overblown, LLM requests use less power than a toaster. Also AI Boosters: We need to radically increase the energy grid's capacity and supply. And you have to pay for it. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/b...

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said." It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy. I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

I’m silent about this because it’s not my fucking business. It belongs to the kids, their parents, and their doctors to sort out, not to some philosophy professors.

What’s your cat’s research impact?

Infuriating news.

Sadly, many professors have been all too willing to compromise quality for quantity, too, at least when it comes to assessing job applicants and tenure files.

My perspective “Into the Valley of the Sick” is out today! I’ve spent a lot of time immersed in philosophical questions about disease while I have enjoyed a reprieve from my own, but the work I do about medicine will always be shaped by my own experience with it, like I share here.