www.openculture.com/2017/09/when...

A strange rip off of John Cage's chess board. I guess the pain helps you learn! 😂

You've got to laugh.
Because if you don't laugh... you're going cry.

Florida Implements Stronger Thought Policing - Daily Nous With measures borrowed from history's totalitarian regimes, political leaders in Florida are taking unprecedented steps to indoctrinate students and prevent them from learning about the world in ways ...

In sociology courses at Florida’s public colleges, classroom discussions of institutions that “oppress persons of color” and several other topics are now forbidden by the government.

If you want to claim that gender, race, sexual and social norms in general are not in fact socially constructed - as authoritarians in UK, US & elsewhere do - then it is clear that you have to (effectively) eliminate sociology as a discipline. This is sickening news. It will happen elsewhere too.

No paywall
Read all the emails, here:

archive.md/2026.02.20-2...

Jmail, logged in as jeevacation@gmail.com You are logged into jeevacation@gmail.com, Jeffrey Epstein's email. Sourced from the November 2025 House Oversight Committee data release.

and jmail.world

"Light pollution is yet another form of environmental injustice." - @sarabpritchard.bsky.social

niche-canada.org/2026/01/26/u...

#envhist #urbanhistory #night #light

‘The normal should be darkness’: why one Belgian national park is turning off ‘pointless’ streetlights The radical project is an attempt to preserve wildlife in one of Europe’s most light-polluted countries, but can they persuade local people they will still feel safe?

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

We cannibals must help these Christians.

20-Feb-1835: Darwin witnesses an earthquake On 20th February 1835, while taking a rest in a wood in Valvidia, Southern Chile, Charles Darwin experienced a major earthquake.

20-Feb: On this day in 1835, Charles Darwin witnessed a major earthquake in Valvidia, Southern Chile…
#HistSci

An historic illustration of bees and other insects flying around a flowering bush.

All BHL staff have been secured! 🧪 As we enter our next chapter, the team who steward BHL’s collections & infrastructure remain in place, led by Colleen Funkhouser in her new role of Managing Director. Meet the team guiding BHL forward:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/celebrating-bhl-team.html

Top and Side Cut-away views of the HMS Beagle showing crew and quarters.

Turner painting: The Slave Ship

A painting of the Black Joke attacking the slaver El Almirante

Darwin, Slavery, the HMS Black Joke, and Seaman Morgan.
In honor of the birthday of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln.
#HistSTM #HistSci #CharlesDarwin #DarwinDay #Slavery
until-darwin.blogspot.com/2014/02/darwin-slavery-h...

19th-century semi-colons have a lot to answer for?!
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-lo...

#writing #punctuation #sentences #English #novels #fiction #Literature

Fascist Fashion: How Mainstream Businesses Enable the Sale of Far-Right Merchandise - bellingcat Unravelling the thread of right-wing fashion brands and how hate spreads online.

European Brotherhood is a fashion brand popular among European far-right and neo-Nazi scenes. We’ve previously documented how they’ve sold content with hateful messaging through major payment processors and wholesale manufacturers, with promotion on social media. www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/05...

What Americans Lose If Their National Center for Atmospheric Research Is Dismantled - Eos Five ways dismantling NCAR will cost the American people, and two ways to save it.

eos.org/opinions/wha...

When I think about measles I think about the number 1,000. Thats the number that epidemiologists use to explain harm from measles in children. With 1,000 cases, about 200 children will require hospitalization, 50 will develop pneumonia, and one to three will die.

South Carolina is at 789.

Catherine O'Hara, 'Schitt’s Creek' Star and Comedy Legend, Dies at 71 Catherine O'Hara has died at the age of 71. O'Hara was known for her appearances in movies including 'Beetlejuice' and 'Home Alone', as well as her Emmy-winning role as Moira Rose on the TV sitcom 'Sc...

Grew up with this Canadian icon as SCTV was a big part of our must watch tv. Thanks for all the laughs. Huge loss for 🍁.
Rest Easy Catherine. 😢💔

people.com/catherine-oh...

❤️

Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE

Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune

to the surprise of all, the announcement was made

Alex Pretti: Analysing Footage of Minneapolis CBP Shooting - bellingcat Bellingcat has analysed video of the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The footage appears to contradict statements made by the Department of Homeland Security.

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, on January 24. DHS claims he died after an armed struggle, but videos of the incident appears to contradict that claim. Read our analysis here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...

The King's Slaves A provocative account of how empire and absolutism institutionalized slavery in America

Holly Brewer, The King’s Slaves: The British Empire and the Origins of American Slavery – @princetonupress.bsky.social, September/November 2026 press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Whiteness made visible: Recent work in Premodern Critical Race Studies - postmedieval postmedieval -

I'm pleased to share that my review essay, 'Whiteness made visible: Recent Work in Premodern Critical Race Studies', has now been published in @postmedieval.bsky.social 👇

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI In the race to embrace new technologies, some ecologists fear their field is losing touch with nature.

Technology advances mean some scientists rarely leave the lab and have stopped doing field work. A feature in Nature reports how ecologists fear this loss could lead to error, bias and oversimplification of results. #Academicsky 🧪

In the second book of his De motu animalium, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli provides a strong mechanization of plant life, as in chapter 13 he discusses "On Plant Generation and Vegetation", somehow reducing plants to hydraulic machines - or a thermometer raising sap/liquors #plantlife #histsci

An all-female wasp is rapidly spreading across North America’s elms The elm zigzag sawfly has spread to 15 states in five years. Now it's attacking the tree that cities planted to replace Dutch elm disease victims.

This is just what we need. Michigan has three native elm species (Ulmus americana, rubra, and thomasii) and all are already suffering to varying degrees from the introduced Dutch elm disease. This sawfly will probably only make their plight worse. 🌍

www.sciencenews.org/article/elm-...

Davos World Economic Forum: "a visibly exhausted president of the United States of America rambled in angry free association in... a virulently racist, insulting, rambling speech... More than anything, though, the speech demonstrated his mental unfitness for his position" @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Mamdani: "I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people."

I have been invited to give the keynote speech on combatting authoritarianism at the Japanese-American National Museum's Echoes of History symposium on January 23rd in Los Angeles. You can buy tickets in person or to watch via the Livestream!

www.janm.org/democracy/ev...