my vote for "x as the moderate position" as the construction of the year

which came first, reality or ontological politics?

(I am in Austin for the Texas Book Festival, so geographically closer to Pamela than usual.)

Pamela and Frank Arnosky are pioneering flower farmers in Central Texas. www.texascolor.com They are great people, and very week she sends out a consistently inspiring newsletter. I don't live anywhere near the Hill Country anymore but I still subscribe just for her words.

Please help us to keep publishing brilliant, multilingual, community-driven stories from all over the world! We really do run on a shoestring, but with all the funding cuts even that has become difficult. If you appreciate our articles, please support! globalvoices.org/donate/

If half of the people standing in airport lines carried big cardboard signs that read “no kings” and “turn up the volume,” the government would be open In two days.

The winner of the 2025 Linguapax Award has been announced, and it's an amazing group in Colombia doing important work on language maintenance and revitalization under very difficult circumstance. Read more below www.linguapax.org/en/hilo-de-j...

Rare is the perfect photograph, a photograph that is both literal and metaphor, a photograph that fills the void where a person should be.

Babe, if you thought Bye Bye I Love You was going to be a mind-expanding buffet of Celtic mysticism, you thought wrong.

Woo-hoo, I got pull-quoted in the TLS newsletter re @michaelerard.bsky.social’s book. link.the-tls.co.uk/view/6357e23...

I see a language learning software co publishes "random encounter dialogues" at a variety of language levels. Has anyone done research on the efficacy of these as learning material? Reflexively I think outcomes are better with context, but I learn some Dutch from overhearing random chats.

Nueva entrada en el blog del grupo Mirco de la @uam.es ¡Muchas gracias por la invitación! mircouam.com/archivos/8786

an interesting map of americans' migration hobby interests. www.movebuddha.com/blog/states-...

color theory on a book cover I just noticed something cool about the cover of BYE BYE I LOVE YOU: for slides I'm creating (for a talk in Belgium in December), I pulled colors from the cover and realize the lighter color of the YOU isn't in fact silver (as it had always registered to me) but

Hello, new followers! We are Speculative Agency, the team behind All Will Rise! It’s our upcoming video game, where you play as a lawyer who fights for the rights of the earth, as she and her team take a corrupt billionaire to court for a river’s murder. #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGame

“A Laboratory for Studying the History of Language”: A Conversation with Linguist Brian Joseph About the #Balkan #Sprachbund www.tovima.com/society/a-la... via @tovimagr.bsky.social #history #language #langsky

In English the word of the year campaigns start in July, which seems ridiculously early, but obviously all the big entertainment-education interests play a role. In other languages, they do word of the year for a week in December. Bang, it's done.

"analog bag." "inner exception." What other treats will the day offer?

While the dynamics that made this necessary are not good in any way, I’m glad to see the University of Vienna’s commitment to the humanities as well as the hard sciences reflected in this list.

Friends— here it is. Updated & expanded thanks to the space afforded to me in the @therumpus.net & the guidance of the brilliant @roxanegay.bsky.social’s edits. The win centers Muslims humanity — but what does that mean in a country that rejects that? therumpus.net/2025/11/05/z...

Can I tell my NYC mayor story again today? Ok, fine.

Texans are Googling how to "leave America" at higher rates than Midwesterners or New Englanders, with many looking for better healthcare and better quality of life. Top countries searched for: France, UK, Germany. www.mysanantonio.com/realestate/a...

The great @attackerman.bsky.social weighs in on the gruesome Cheney legacy at @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Exclusive: Violent Maccabi fans were organised fighters 'linked to IDF', UK police found - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/violent-maccabi-fans-included-organised-fighters-linked-idf-uk-police-found

Just got a real invite to submit to a special issue of a real legit journal. It happens!

Too little, too late

this is cool, but i'd also love to see a mash-up conference of hype studies and philosophy of break-ups.

I am so upset. Last week Time Magazine solicited a piece from me on Zohran Mamdani & anti-Muslim hate. I pitched a framing re the dehumanization of Muslims & how Mamdani’s inclusive, socialist campaign in its content resists that. They agreed. I wrote the piece. 1/

No more Black or trans staffers. No politics of any kind. The cowardice of mainstream media isn't just insulting, it's *boring.* Now TV is just like any other beauty rag. Why not just kill it quickly? Why the slow-motion pretense?

@damianblasi.bsky.social It was cool to see your name on this! scholar.harvard.edu/sites/schola...

The prayer smoke from the Unicode temple rises above the palms, reflecting the rays of the morning sun

If you don’t have a copy of Bye Bye I Love You, where will you store the first and last words in your life, whether real or fictional?

25 Years of the International Space Station: What archaeology tells us about living and working in space 🧪 🏺 🔭 #SpaceArchaeology

I was murdered last night for a dinner party murder mystery. The first clue was hidden in my last words. "His last words!" shouted one of the children, running to the bookshelf for the copy of Bye Bye I Love You, where tucked in the back was an envelope...

In extremist circles, the idea of retreating to the land has been repurposed into a political strategy. 👉 Read the full story: tcnv.link/REvK2Cx

A fascinating discussion the other night with Dutch friends about how they experience comments from other Dutch. Sometimes they find it rude! They also talk back! If you're a newly arrived foreigner, you might take some time to understand this before you try your hand at Dutch directness.

The prayer smoke from the Unicode temple rises above the palms, reflecting the rays of the morning sun

ERC starter grant applications from US researchers nearly triple in 2025 compared to 2024 as Trump restricts funding. Good for "Choose Europe" initiatives, but dire for global and national science, given the limited volume of non-US funding available.

Michael Slavinsky is the founder of Languages For All, a charity which exists increase the number of modern language students at A-level and degree level from state schools. He will talk about how school collaborations! Free but booking required: leedscityoflanguages.leeds.ac.uk/events/webin...

If you lower the standards, degrade the organizational culture so anything goes, you attract people drawn to that environment; people who cannot make it in other work environments. These are not the people who want excercising state power over your liberty. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Stephen Jenkinson was once asked why he had children. Wasn't that creating more death in the world? I paraphrase his reply, which I find quite powerful: as long as people know how to care for the dead in the right ways, that's the balance of the thing.

My Day of the Dead wish for you is that you‘re remembered someday on someone’s altar, surrounded by flowers and your favorite food. If you want to be remembered that way, you should teach people now. They’ll ask why. You can explain, using the reasons that make sense to you.

there’s a lot here for white American families to learn about multigenerational living

Immigrant integration level unlocked: I just did a volunteer shift at the football club cantine.

Every time someone has a Gatsby party it’s like announcing they don’t read

The perfect "memento mori" for November 1 (Day of the Dead). mitpress.mit.edu/978026204942...

My Day of the Dead wish for you is that you‘re remembered someday on someone’s altar, surrounded by flowers and your favorite food. If you want to be remembered that way, you should teach people now. They’ll ask why. You can explain, using the reasons that make sense to you.

I am here for comic books about infrastructure. I really really am. More of this in #scicomm, please