we have got to get it together, in like twenty-four hours the astronauts are back

Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History The Place of Sugar in Modern History

For those interested in why Black & Caribbean people are going off about the sugar cane from last night's halftime show: sugar is a plantation commodity that fueled slavery & colonialism

bookshop.org/p/books/swee...

Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one. Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”

Not at all surprised to learn that Bad Bunny has a historical adviser. His halftime show was a reminder that our history and culture are deeply intertwined with the rest of the western hemisphere. We should think of his performance as part of #America250. #SuperBowl
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

The end of DOE’s grid work in Puerto Rico The Trump administration has canceled all eight of the remaining awards devoted to distributed energy on the island.

Even worse as of February 2026.

www.latitudemedia.com/news/the-end...

Why It's So Hard To Turn The Lights Back On In Puerto Rico Nearly a month after Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico, almost 80 percent of the territory is still without power. While nobody expected a quick…

In case anyone forgot or didn't understand the reference

www.wgbh.org/news/2017-10...

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Longer and Crueler A private equity-owned airline profits off Trump’s migrant crackdown.

NEW: Meet the private-equity firm -- and its billionaire immigrant CEO -- making millions off some of ICE's cruelest deportation flights.

After a five-month investigation, my story for @motherjones.com:

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

As Western powers crack down on migrants, Spain embraces 500,000 Madrid points to 'positive impact' of migration as it moves to grant 500,000 undocumented people legal status.

Other, more humane worlds are possible.

New evidence shows how discrimination shortens lives in Black communities Researchers linked higher inflammation levels to decades of stress, including discrimination and economic hardship.

New evidence shows how discrimination shortens lives in Black communities

A biological marker bolsters the “weathering hypothesis” that links systemic racism to health disparities.
wapo.st/3NNQ2Dp

Open Letter to Minnesota Law CommunityJanuary 25 January 25, 2026 To the Minnesota Law Community: We, the undersigned faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School, write in our individual capacities to address the federal government's ongoin...

Standing with 65 of my UMN Law colleagues (and counting) to condemn ICE’s lawless conduct towards Minnesotans: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents See how immigration officers escalated a fatal confrontation on Saturday.

just amazing work by my colleagues at @wsj.com - a frame by frame analysis of the shooting

incredible that some continue to rationalize this

www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

ICE Kills Another American YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie

One of the best and most important @jamellebouie.net takes yet. Watch to the end. I find his moral clarity and knowledge of history immensely helpful in moments like this.

Read the full transcript of Carney’s speech to World Economic Forum - National | Globalnews.ca Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a forceful speech in Davos, Switzerland, on the 'new world order' and how middle powers like Canada can benefit by working together.

The Carney speech is worth reading in full: globalnews.ca/news/1162087...

ICE is not Gestapo, but slave patrols.

It's not foreign, but deeply American, categorical brutalization of non-white people (& now those who stand up for them).

They do not need to have warrants, and people facing deportation are not entitled to lawyers, or what we imagine as due process.

Abolishing ICE isn’t enough – it’s time to center people’s humanity | Heba Gowayed and Victor Ray It’s far from radical to reject a system predicated on violence – despite what thinktanks might claim

In the first of what's likely to be many collaborations with @hebagowayed.bsky.social (and my @us.theguardian.com debut) we argue that abolishing ICE would be a good start.

Sorry to hear that! Hope you and your bag are reunited in the right place soon.

Exclusive | Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding Columbia’s agreement is a significant moment in the intensifying battle between Trump and elite universities.

A sad day for Columbia and for our democracy. "Additionally the school believed there was considerable overlap between needed campus changes and Trump’s demands" has got to be one of the most depressing sentences ever written.

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

World airline hubs and interactions. Figure represents airports as colored circles, with connections between them depicted as lines. The size of each circle is proportional to the number of flights at each airport. The thickness of lines is proportional to the number of flights between airport pairs. Dark borders identify on the circles identify the five world airline hubs. Source: Halás, Marián, Stanislav Kraft, and Pavel Klapka. 2020. “Global Spatial Organisation of Air Transport: The Definition of Functional Airline Regions.” The Geographical Journal 186 (1): 2–15.

A more recent analysis similarly identifies LHR as one of five World Airline Hubs (WAHs), the others being Paris-CDG, New York-JFK, Dubai-DXB, And Tokyo-NRT.

Halás, Marián, Stanislav Kraft, and Pavel Klapka. 2020. The Geographical Journal 186 (1): 2–15.

Global airline networks and nodal regions - GeoJournal Transportation infrastructure has always played an important role in the economic fate of regions. In particular, airline networks have dramatically decreased the geographic and temporal constraints o...

“Not only does Heathrow dominate much of Europe, including Paris (CDG), Frankfurt (FRA), Amsterdam (AMS) and Vienna (VIE), its role as a dominant node extends to the United States (JFK), the Middle East (KWI, AUH), large portions of Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Network analysis of global air travel overlaid on a world map. The figure shows lines illustrating seats per week between LHR and airports in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Source: Grubesic, Tony H., Timothy C. Matisziw, and Matthew A. Zook. 2008. “Global Airline Networks and Nodal Regions.” GeoJournal 71 (1): 53–66.

Network analysis clarifies why the power outage at London Heathrow (LHR) is so disruptive to global air travel. I imagine it will take a while for everyone affected to get where they were trying to go.

“We have concerns about the nominee’s past efforts to lower pilot training and safety standards,” said Captain Jason Ambrosi, President of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).

Excellent! We’ll have to get you the 757 and 767 cards next. Have a great conference!

National Academies is altering pending reports to appease Trump administration, some members say Words such as “health equity” are being replacing with vaguer terms, and 100 members sent a letter of protest to NASEM leaders.

SCOOP: The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, arguably the nation's most powerful scientific organization, is bending to political pressure and removing terms like "health equity" from pending reports. Members are not happy. Story by me: www.statnews.com/2025/02/20/n...

Here we go again.

“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”

Experts Call NIH Budget Cuts an 'Apocalypse' for Science The reductions target indirect costs that cover administrative and equipment costs.

I have been talking to the media, Time, Fortune, NBC, etc., to explain how the onslaught on science and NIH will impact the health of all Americans. Everyone knows someone who has cancer, heart disease, or depression. Spread the word about how cutting science impacts all.
time.com/7216299/nih-...

I have started to hear about specific National Cancer Institute firings of experts and professionals that will have immediate impacts, like regarding the safety of drugs in clinical trials and so on.

They are trying to kill people with cancer.

a poster that says if life gives you lemon make lemonade on it ALT: a poster that says if life gives you lemon make lemonade on it

ATTENTION (PLEASE SHARE)

If anyone has or knows of any positions that might be appropriate for the NIH staff members who were terminated, please post the information in this thread.

There are lots of talented and accomplished people who may be looking for new opportunities.