Scoop: NSF has been quietly blocking new funds and grants to four top universities: Duke, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Dozens of proposals from PIs at these universities—and their collaborators—have been stuck at the Office of Award Management awaiting finalization for months.

I've written a lot about cases involving the prosecution of rape victims for false reporting. Ultimately, it's an enforcement mechanism for rape culture. But prosecuting a rape victim for perjury during a civil defamation trial (that they won) is a new one to me.

I have the, um, privilege of working in a field where I can see what the people who sacrificed their ethical principles and became grifters got for it and 10x it ain't. The thing about grifting is there's always a lot of competition from other grifters.

MIT (endowment: $27B) shuttering three of its four main libraries is one of those news items that just knocks you off balance, auguring, as it does, profound and permanent changes to the entire institutional apparatus of higher education in this country.

POV: a generation of the unteachable is hanging upon us like a necklace of corpses

Most interesting to me: n.8: statutory damages are unavailable; fighting fair use may prove "arduous"; proving market value will be difficult especially since the (c)ed report was rejected by multiple courts as junk--judge has sent a pretty clear message about what to do next

competitor lacks standing under Cal. law because it didn't rely on alleged misrepresentations; its customers did

despite some skepticism, court mostly allows adtech vendor's disparagement claims against competitor to proceed

Another interesting avenue into court for private plaintiffs, or at least the threat of a potential avenue that could chill claims, courtesy Adam Levitin & @ddayen.bsky.social: prospect.org/2026/05/27/t...

Sincere posting about this: I think salaries for senior civil servants and politicians alike should not be “competitive with the private sector”, actually. I think they should be anchored on “high status job where I’m not trying to make a lot of money”. This would be a really big raise!

"These are the predictable results of a system that has been steadily underfunded and reorganized around market logic rather than public purpose. When the people who educate and support students lack stability and voice, students feel the consequences directly."

this is today! and the book is fabulous: antitrust in entertainment from the gilded age & the syndicate to broadway to vaudeville to pearl jam & taylor swift

The State Department supposedly sent $1.5 billion tax dollars to the Board of Peace slush fund, which is now empty.

"“It dismantles a thriving, community university that for decades has educated working adults, veterans, place-bound students, nurses, teachers, and the regional workforce our economy actually depends on.”"

"Hail Mary, full of Grace" is the biggest pun since Hiro Protagonist

Gonna be awesome when the S&P 500 changes its rule requiring profitability. And I do mean awesome bc ordinary people don't know what free float and weighting mean. They know what profit means.

Horrifying instance of where “slashing the bureaucracy” in favor of impersonal robots can lead. These handwritten responses are from an inmate featured in the article, whose parole was suddenly canceled by this impersonal algorithm.

Blog Post: How Often Do Consumers Balk at Doing Online Age Authentication? blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/202...

"AI hiring tools used by large employers are repeatedly screening out some of the same job applicants, with researchers finding that Black and Asian candidates are disproportionately affected." www.ft.com/content/5c44...

Fun etymological fact:* "Don" is literally just a contraction of "do on". To don a piece of clothing is to do it on. And on the flip side, to doff a piece of clothing is to do it off. *All etymological facts are fun.

@annmlipton.bsky.social, who studies corporate governance, said SpaceX's corporate structure "freaks me out." It's not hard to see why. Thanks to her and @bjmquinn.bsky.social for walking me through all of this. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/t...

Expect to see a lot more of this kind of sovereignty-preserving market intervention.

"Out of 177 faculty respondents, close to half reported significant concern about being disciplined by the university for their public engagement. One-fifth indicated that they had been asked by an administrator to change language related to their courses, research, or website."

9th Circuit reverses dismissal where plaintiff plausibly alleges that an ingredient is non-natural flavoring

Reminder: Penn/NYU/Harvard Trademark and Unfair Competition Scholarship Roundtable 2026: submit by June 1

mix-and-match ad campaign actionable but "instant whitening" claims were mere puffery

Costco's "free shipping" claims plausibly deceptive if online price is raised to account for shipping

If you ever wonder why academics roll their eyes at "viewpoint diversity" hires is that when you pick a scholar for their ideology and politics over the actual work, this is the kind of clown show that results.

Infrastructure Week but for global shipping

something I don't see mentioned enough in discussions abt consumer sentiment is that people watched Elon Musk and the Hitler Youth completely dismantle several agencies and destroy thousands of livelihoods on a whim, and that is a terrifying concept even if you aren't a government worker

Once again, inevitable question: if this is what they’re doing to Senator Kim in front of cameras, what are they doing to the detained people inside that facility bsky.app/profile/davi...

This is already a problem (that I‘m seeing firsthand)…and it’s going to get worse. Artificial Intelligence Floods Court Dockets with Home-Brewed Lawsuits www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/u...

Marketing fail: Walmart sells 250 year anniversary merch that looks like America died.

NIH funded peeps: This is insane and coming for us.

As a PhD student who has to both write her dissertation and grade papers, I would like to express my resentment at the addition of unprompted "Hey sis, wanna cheat?" messages from Gemini to Google docs.

They didn't die while serving in the military, but they died protecting our freedoms from those who would destroy them, nonetheless. Remembering these heroes on this Memorial Day.

slack fill claims proceed because protein powder is harder to understand than cookies

contract, 230, and lack of specificity defeat "chat scam" claims against OnlyFans

It's gender all the way down.

My article on the history of AI & mediated authorship in copyright is published here: mckinneylaw.iu.edu/practice/law.... It builds on the work by @pamelasamuelson.bsky.social and @annemariebridy.bsky.social to give context for the development of copyright law and AI works and proposes next steps.

Repost with the Russian agent who spies on your posts

right-wingers have their violently stupid ideas, of course, but it’s somehow even more insulting when they want to create discourse on the humanities they are fighting every day to defund. fuck off and go vibe code a racist gambling app you absolute piece of shit

Another reminder: if there exists *any* class of people who don't have due process rights, then *nobody* actually has due process rights because the government can always just say you're in that class.

Not my Lanham Act but also worth knowing about

Now add in the reality that any problem that can be solved “if people would just…” won’t be solved that way because people won’t just. I don’t have answers but we need to think about social and legal options

Well, like, who hasn't?

Repost with the Russian agent who spies on your posts.

A day after The Late Show ended, Colbert hosted an episode of public access program Only In Monroe, reviving his 11-year-old gag. How bad is CBS/Paramount taking it? They issued copyright complaints for a show they don't own. 🤣 CBS would hate it if you watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DlF...

My view: the internet allowed lots of people to hear views they wouldn't have heard before, while the kind of early adopters who wanted to hang out online were largely (sometimes solely) united in believing that hanging out online in particular was a good thing