"I'm just an average guy who parlays my close personal relationship with the President of the United States into a high-ranking government job and access to places almost nobody else can have!"

Oh, for sure. This is later stage than that--it's been through two rounds of reviewer feedback already, too. I'm hoping this is the last revision before we can go to production, but I don't get to decide that.

Query for folks who edit academic books: what's the one thing you most wish authors would do before they submit manuscripts? Asking for me.

#AcademicSky

You mean the Iran whose military capacity we've now supposedly destroyed twice over? Or some other Iran?

I'm really sick of the "Only small town Republicans are human" thing.

Nearly 1/4 of VA's population lives in the 10 largest cities, 9 of which have populations of +100K. So once again, the voting power is where the people are. Land doesn't vote.

my interviewer was an AI agent A reader writes: After being laid off, I was aggressively applying to everything even remotely in my industry. I landed an interview with a company I recognized and a role I was fully qualified for. I...

I've always understood that as an interviewer, part of my responsibility was to humanize the institution and the process for candidates. As an applicant, I can't even imagine how I'd react to this. I'm old enough now that I hope I never need to find out.

From @askamanager.org.

Wolf Worm Check out Wolf Worm - <p><b>Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in <i>Wolf Worm</i>, a new gothic masterpiece from <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author T. Kingfisher<br...

Ewwwww, and yow!!!!!! But only in the best ways. @tkingfisher.com has done it again.

On the one hand, this is more than most wingnuts are willing to say. On the other, who gives AF unless you also do something to fix the massive damage you enabled?

Full-on eugenics. He's not trying to hide it. At all. He's never been especially shy about it, but this is explicit even for him.

Classes are asynch this week but I have my Consultation Hours Zoom open during scheduled meeting times. Had 2 students pop in this morning and get help solving a problem that wouldn't have doomed them but will make their final pieces much better. That's how it's supposed to work!

According to the prof who assigned me Thomas Kuhn the 1st time, Kuhn uses the word "paradigm" to mean 23 different things in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. And that book is STILL famous.

What, you mean I actually have to make sure the godterm of my entire argument is defined and used consistently all the way through the argument? Outlandish!

I can see why they gave him a chance for a relatively low price, but there comes a time when it becomes pretty obvious a player just isn't going to get much better.

Good question. Why do I not listen to @bobmouldmusic.bsky.social all the time? Listening to the Silver Age for the first time in a while. Just gem after gem after gem.

Last sportsball post of the PL round: Brennan Johnson just showed why he's not still a Spurs player. He did all the hard work get utterly unmarked 8 yards from goal, got an inch-perfect cross, and headed 10 yards wide of the goal. Like, a bad enough miss that he might have ruined geometry.

I would also argue all this is true for third-space academic workers: folks who have advanced degrees, do advanced scholarship, but don't work in traditional academic departments and so are often ignored/overlooked in conversations about higher ed labor.

6/6

Tenure isn't magic and it isn't complicated. It's a declaration that people who need autonomy can have it, and there's a carefully followed due process before it can be taken away. We're not doing ourselves any favors when we make it sound like anything other than that.

5/x

2. We invite the bullshit legislation this article is calling out when we make tenure sound like a reward rather than a simple necessity. And when we make ourselves sound like what we do is so important that we deserve workplace protections nobody else has.

4/x

*I know some have opted out of tenure because currently, getting it requires work you don't want to do. In my vision, tenure shouldn't be tied to workload/distribution. There's no reason those should be connected except habit.

1. If he's right (he is) that faculty can't do our jobs without protection from capricious forces, then *everyone* should have it. It's either a necessary working condition in which case we all have it, or it isn't. The phrase "non-tenure-track faculty member" should be an oxymoron*.

2/x

OPINION: Tenure in higher education is under attack nationwide, threatening academic freedom and sending chills to faculty Tenure in higher education has long granted faculty the rights to peer review, committee deliberation and presentation of evidence and witnesses before being fired. These hard-earned protections are n...

I agree with this piece--it's a level-headed (as in, not engaging in what I'm calling Academic Exceptionalism in the Almost a Bleeping Book) explanation of why tenure matters. I would add a few points, none of which are new but I'll keep saying them because I think they're true.

1/x

"We love the free market just like right wingers love free speech! What? No, there's nothing weird or ironic about that!"

Which would also help alleviate the urge for people to punch down and vote against their own needs in order to "show those people."

"We're not going to thank him for his boss threatening to destroy our civilization, so we thought we'd just save everyone the trip."

Get some pretty awesome views in that direction from the big window on the fifth floor of our building. The reflections can be tricky to shoot through, as can the scratches in the coating on the windows, but sometimes it's worth it.

Y'know what? This is fine, honestly, since none of them ever followed Jesus' teachings in the first place. But let's keep track, and a few years from now when they all expect us to forget that they annointed this mofo their God, they can eat it.

I think their vision is creepier than all that. None of the Black/brown/trans/women people are worthy of serving (or really even living), and the white men who do will either be heroes or martyrs. So it's a win-win either way.

I figured that out. But an edit function would be nice.

I did. For some weird reason, my smart-ass comment on his post started getting likes yesterday.