Before they were arrested- Vets are demanding an end to the war on Iran at the Cannon Building in Washington, D.C.

Crash.

I think I'd like to teach a class on hate-watching sometime. Beyond the catchy topic, the point would be to investigate all the different reasons students dislike certain films and what they say about us personally, culturally, politically, etc. What would you assign in such a class?

Screenshot from the website of Yale University Press showing praise for my book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life. It reads: “Evolution from an intersex ancestor? What a wondrous Darwinian idea! In this electrifying book, Ross Books helps us see the canon of natural history as queer from the very beginning. Sharp, clever, and as replete with evolutionary diversity as a history of biology could possibly be.”—Alison Bashford, author of An Intimate History of Evolution “Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life is an invigorating read pulsing with queer life. As politically essential as it is compelling, it's a rich counterhistory of biology which shows us how scientists always knew queerness was natural and nature was queer.”—Kit Heyam, author of Before We Were Trans “Ross Brooks’ smart new book is as fun to read as it is useful for rebutting all the bad takes on sexuality and gender that clog contemporary discourse. He has a delightfully ‘queer eye for the hermaphrodite guys’ of life’s evolutionary history, and more than a few arch words for Darwin and other biologists who’ve straightjacketed an abundance of animate forms into an unnatural binary.”—Susan Stryker, author of Changing Gender “Everything you need to know about sex and evolution, but were too indoctrinated by the cisheteropatriarchy to know to ask.”—Subhadra Das, author of Uncivilised “From Linnaeus to Darwin, Brooks brilliantly shows us how biology always has, and will always be, delightfully queer. A much-needed account of the queer history of natural history.”—Josh Luke Davis, author of A Little Gay Natural History “Few know of Darwin’s fascination with the queer biology of sex. This compelling, insightful, and original narrative illustrates Darwin’s (and others’) contributions and hesitancies in the enabling and restricting of queer evolutionary analyses.”—Agustín Fuentes, author of Sex is a Spectrum

Jacket design for Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life: A History of Sex and Science by Ross Brooks. It features a historical, drawn image of a gynandromorph gypsy moth, with distinctive female patterning on its left side and male on its right. Against a black background, the image and text (title and author's name) are brightly rendered in a spectrum of colours resonant of the Progress Pride Flag.

I'm bowled over by the first endorsements my forthcoming book has received. Such brilliant authors - WOW!

You will love it too . . . 🐟🌈📚

UK: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... @yalebooks.bsky.social

US: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social

#booksky #histsci #queerhistory 🗃️

Lol! I have a shameful secret: I've never seen A.I.! I'm not the biggest Spielberg fan (though I recognize he is amazingly talented) and there was something about the look of that film that just turned me off. I really should, but I don't wanna!

Yeah, the tricky thing though is that I'd prefer to not just teach bad films. I think the sweet spot would be films that are interesting but turn students off. I guess you'd need to find a way of balancing the two.

I went to see a performance of Giselle at the Pacific Northwest Ballet yesterday (one of my students was in it!) It was beautiful, but the most thought-provoking moment for me was when one of the dancers accidentally slipped and fell. For a very brief moment, a look of total confusion and terror 1/4

Blom also directed an early erotic horror film titled The Vampire Dancer (1913). It only exists online through a very grainy paper print version, but there are stills from the film that give you a sense of how lush the original would've looked.

Ah, I see what you mean now!

Can you give some examples? Sounds interesting!

⚠️ WARNING: SEX, AND DRUGS, AND ROCK AND ROLL! I REPEAT: SEX, AND DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL! ⚠️

Wow. That's so surprising to me. You've got Hepburn, Grant, and leopard named "Baby." What else could you need?

Noooooooooo! I love BuB! Lol

One area these tech guys really are innovating in is the field of "faces asking to be punched." It's truly a booming industry in silicon valley these days.

Every 420 UCSC sent out a warning on the emergency alert about how stoned the students would be and just receiving it made me feel very uncool.

everyone please stop worrying, the army with a <0.0005% indictment rate and <5% conviction rate for Jewish soldiers who commit crimes will handle this

Ooh! Yes, please.

The fact that every major police union endorsed Donald Trump is under appreciated in our political discourse.

Ah, I'm not on there so I'm missing it. Thanks!

Can you point to examples? (Genuine question)

AI Politics: Slopaganda and the Archive | SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT

Save the Date: «AI Politics: Slopaganda and the Archive», Frankfurt/Main, June 11/12 2026, w/ Ada Ackerman, Grégory Chatonsky, Occitane Lacurie & Barnabé Sauvage, Ania Szczepanska, Antonio Somaini, Hito Steyerl, Wolfgang Ullrich @ideenfreiheit.bsky.social & yours truly
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Oof. Yeah. I guess it'd only be fair for me to assign some films I hate along with the ones I think they will.

So many of our students haven't examined their own tastes, which can become a major block to learning and was why I thought of this idea in the first place.

It'd all be so silly and embarrassing if these people didn't have so much power.

Excellent point!

I don't think there's an audience for them. They just keep hoping we'll get on board if they repeatedly show stupid grinning tech bros wearing them.

Oh, that's great. I imagine that could lead to some real "ah-ha!" moments in the discussion.

"Cringe" is a whole other category of negative response, isn't it? That'd be worth dedicating a class session to.

Ha! Amazing. Do you know why?

Blurbs for my upcoming Timecodes book on Sisters from brilliant critics. Endlessly stunned and grateful.