Sigh…

Which I then presented without context. I’ll cop to the irony. :)

If you ever want a reminder of how knowledge is contextual and social, visit a website calling itself a "knowledge base."

Chances are good that you'll find a jumble of contradictory how-to guides that fall apart at the first attempt to act on them.

So it’s currently after 8 pm in Tehran. A flight from the US to Pakistan takes over 12 hours. And JD Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner are reportedly still in the US.

Sounds like the administration isn’t even planning a charade of negotiations before the ceasefire is due to end.

My story about how 924 sailors died of influenza over the course of a month at Great Lakes Naval Training Station.

chicagoreader.com/city-life/th...

Freedom is when you can infect others with the flu, but fuck you if you have a skin condition that is incompatible with close shaving.

Text clip from BBC News that reads, “Donald Trump says Iran has "no choice but to send" delegates to Pakistan for talks with the US. In an interview with CNBC, the president says he is confident the US will “end up with a great deal.” He says that the US is "not dealing with the nicest people" but are doing so “successfully,” before calling the US naval blockade a "tremendous success.” Asked if he would extend the ceasefire if negotiations seemingly progress, the US president says: "I don't want to do that.” Trump later says: "I expect to be bombing 'cause that would be a better attitude." He says there is not "much time" to reach a deal, and that Iran can get themselves on "a very good footing" if they reach one with the US.

This man is bullshitting.

If a student out this in a paper, we’d say it was bullshit.

If a teen offered a similar jumble of phrases to a parent, we’d tell them to cut the bullshit.

So why do we pretend that there’s a diplomatic strategy or political plan in here?

www.bbc.com/news/live/cx...

OK gonna do a thread! OTOH, the idea of the "pirate" was used as the photo negative to define the idea of a legitimate sovereign in a developing international order, and express ambivalence. One of the most popular piracy memes from ~1550-1700 is an apocryphal tale from Cicero by way of Augustine.

yep: one of the reasons i want to nip the "stabbed in the back" myth now is that it gets Americans an excuse to avoid reining in the boys in Tampa in CENTCOM

All federal wind power R&D at the Department of Energy is $0.137 billion. So the government is paying 7x the amount it spends on all wind power R&D just for a fee to kill one wind project. Seems bad.

I must inform the public that people are being Wrong on the Internet.

Between this and the multiple single-digit-Fahrenheit days in January, I've expected to see Lake Michigan around here.

And...it's snowing.

I'm pretty sure the temps here hit 80 on Thursday. And Sunday morning, there are snowflakes.

The thing about the Maine Senate race is that there are other Dem candidates besides Platner and Mills. Like LaFlamme.

But one wing of the party is lined up behind the woman criticizing a resolution she didn't read, and the other is with the cosplay oytserman with a Nazi tattoo.

It's bad.

Some measure of credit or blame goes to the good folks who replied to this post last night by asking "Why not both?"

Both indeed--the Jedi in the photo, Master Coleman Trebor, was modeled on a parasaurolophus.

A Powerpoint slide titled "Dinosaur Jedi" with a picture of Coleman Trebor, a Jedi who looks like an upright parasauopholous, holding a green lightsaber. The slide has a Binghamton University B and a dark green bar on the left side.

So, I slipped this into my lecture today.

Eastman was not disbarred for making bad constitutional arguments, nor because he represented Trump, nor because he challenged the results of an election, all of which are allowed. Eastman was disbarred because he knowingly lied to the courts with deliberately false factual representations.

I remember when buying groceries for one person cost less than $100.

Everybody’s gonna need a little backup
in case the scene gets nasty

a man is holding a green lightsaber in front of a man in a black robe . Alt: Gif of Coleman Trebor, a dinosaur-looking Jedi, drawing a green lightsaber on Count Dooku

Now that you mention it…

"Well, guy in a skeleton costume
Comes up to the guy in the Superman suit
Runs through him with a broadsword."

-Oceanographer's Choice by The Mountain Goats, of course

So, I might put something about Star Wars in my lecture slides tomorrow. Or maybe dinosaurs.

Gotta mix it up, y'know?

Tweet from @ewfeez that says: "Hey girl, are you an obelisk, because I'm trying to learn what an obelisk is through process of elimination"

OK y'all, I'm making a proposal. The theme for 2026 is Hot Human Summer.

This summer, we human. We celebrate each other. We sing, we dance, we make art and music. We stop the data centers. We smash the clankers. We deactivate the chatbots.

Hot. Human. Summer. Who's in?

Holy shit.

Georgia Meloni is hard right, but she’s not completely unaware of the politics of Italy. Even Mussolini made some gestures at accommodating the Church in the 20s.

Seeing Desmon Yancy, a former labor organizer, vote against tipped workers is astounding.

I know that restaurant owners are powerful, but I also remember him proudly describing himself as a unionist as he sat across from me.

I am very on the record as pro teen reproductive rights & freedom (to give birth or not, as is right for the individual), but accustomed to moral panic from the right about teens giving birth. The right-wing imperative for teens to be replacing themselves via childbearing in 2026 is quite the turn.

He’s not as high profile as Musk or Hegseth, but Vought has gleefully created levels of misery at home and abroad that would send a moral person into deep spirals of guilt.

And he’s done it while sitting fire to the basic constitutional separation of powers.