From “The Simpsons” house genius John Swartzwelder, interviewed in The New Yorker by Mike Sacks

this is an organization that exists to kill people. you should want it destroyed and you should be trying to put as much distance as possible between everyone that ever worked for palantir and any amount of power. this shouldn't be a moral quandary for you. hesitation means you failed already.

A lot of people are still in the denial about how much the median Democratic voter, the median Democratic volunteer, and the median Democratic activist has shifted on a variety of issues. Well here's the handpicked candidate of Chuck Schumer being booed, about Gaza, at the Dem convention.

In the same manifesto, Palantir's owners argued that we need a national military draft, that soft power is over, and that we were too hard on Germany and Japan after World War II. I don't think that company should be allowed to exist anymore.

the quality of each star trek show is directly proportional to how often you see the characters engaging in hobbies

Using foreign policy and the US military for market manipulation and thus personal gain is, basically, the entire policy goal of the Trump administration.

honestly complete and total befuddlement leads to some of Dan's best work

I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"

Why was I invited to Beast Studios? YouTube video by Folding Ideas

Why was I invited to Beast Studios?
youtu.be/0dwagg5wYY4

Exactly one year ago today:

祝賀会で伝統芸能披露　首里文化協会　アイヌ協会創立80年 | 沖縄タイムス＋プラス 首里伝統芸能文化協会（宮城康明会長）はこのほど、札幌市で開かれた北海道アイヌ協会（大川勝理事長）の創立８０周年の式典に招かれ、祝儀舞踊「かぎやで風」や二才踊「上り口説」、雑踊「鳩間節」などの伝統舞踊を祝賀会で披露した。

The Shuri Cultural Association was invited to a ceremony held in Sapporo celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Hokkaido Ainu Association. The Ryukyuan group performed traditional dances including the celebratory piece Kagiyadefū, the Nīsēudui “Nubuikuduchi,” and the Zou-udui “Hatumabushi.”

i can't help but think about 10 or 11 years ago when conservatives insisted that obama was uniquely anti-catholic because his administration thought that catholic-led orgs could just fill out a form if they didn't want to cover contraceptives in their health plans for employees.

Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich.

Poster for the talk by Banu Subramaniam (University of Massachusetts Amherst), entitled "Migrant Ecologies: Plant Worlds and the Afterlives of Empire". It will take place on Monday, 20 April 2026, at 4 pm (CET) via Zoom.

Next Monday, we will kick off this semester's lecture series with the talk by Banu Subramaniam. Banu will talk about migrant ecologies, plants, and the afterlives of Empire.
Just register for the talk via the link and join us on Zoom!🤗 rotorub.wordpress.com/roto-lecture...
#HPBio #HistSci #PhilSci

Why do we even bother with endnotes--this is my personal pet peeve as a historian, I need to read the spicy, sassy, whiny footnotes immediately

I created a deep linked and searchable table of contents index for issues of the prewar "Japan Magazine" found on Internet Archive, with over 200 issues and several thousand articles. Useful for history students working only with English sources:

froginawell.net/indexes/japa...

#japan

Everyone knows the economy is doing great. I dont know why homelessness is up and a record number of people are working 2 jobs, but that has nothing to do with the economy. The economy is a chart with a line going up, not that other shit. Grow up

Module on fascism in the Japanese empire by *the* expert on the subject, Louise Young, now available for classroom use as part of the Authoritarianism 101 Project by the American Historical Association

#AHRSyllabus #JapaneseEmpire #fascism

Whistleblower says Trump officials thought USAID did 'just abortions,' asked for 'Barney-style' slides before gutting agency, per new book Read an exclusive excerpt from Nicholas Enrich's "Into the Wood Chipper"

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health.

'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

This woman is a handpicked Trump supporter from Arkansas and she is less anti-trans than the median Atlantic columnist

I too have written about white conservatives in southern state legislatures rushing through bullshit changes to the law just to thwart the advancement of literally one black man, but I'm a historian who writes about the Jim Crow era South and not a reporter discussing current fucking events there.

Happy anniversary to all who celebrate (the greatest celebrity-on-celebrity social media takedown of all time)

Entering the kitchen and a tutorial pops up:

[Hint: Combine two or more Pastas to create a Pasta Medley.]

Here’s the story of one of them. Awful www.thestranger.com/forced-out/f...

how much money does the marine corps lose

Kikawada Hitoshi, the minister in charge of Ainu policy, has pushed back at Hyakura’s remarks, saying “There has been no change in our recognition that they [the Ainu] are an indigenous people of the northern part of the Japanese archipelago, particularly Hokkaidō”.

Good they’re reaffirming that.

literacy is more than reading comprehension; it is also understanding how another person (the author) is inviting you (perhaps challenging you) to imagine another experience, perspective, life.

I've studied so many concentration camps through history that held vulnerable people in just this kind of crowded squalor. You demonize people, you demand more arrests, this is what you get. It already has its own budget and its own momentum, and is on track to go much further, unless we stop it.

I re-read a bunch of Ball’s “the metaverse is 1000% inevitable” book before PAX and it was even weirder than I remember. I called it stupid at the time, but now that it’s also dated it feels like it’s earnestly brainstorming plans to grow corn on Neptune.