"Tuesday was different. The president used a threat of genocide not to whip up a rally crowd, not to insult a political opponent, and not to offer colorful commentary on some policy or other. He did it as an act of statecraft."—from @dsallentess.bsky.social therenovator.substack.com/p/trump-prom...
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum under the Trump administration has deleted its teaching materials about links between Nazi racism and the Jim Crow laws: www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
On "cognitive surrender" and the negative effects on thinking caused by leaning on AI too readily—and too uncritically. gizmodo.com/cognitive-su...
For all the folk that struggle to articulate exactly what the US “strategy” is for its war - finally someone has articulated it succinctly and accurately.
“War crimes”
Outgoing Mayor Anne Hidalgo championed a car-free agenda, leaving Paris greener, cleaner and better for walking and biking. Take a journey through the city to see how it's changed. Read more: bloom.bg/41n0HIF
📷️: Getty Images
Trump, seated next to Japanese PM:
Q: "Why didn't you tell U.S. allies…about the war before attacking Iran?"
President Trump: "We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"
cdn.jwplayer.com/players/oM6U...
The Inflation Reduction Act was $369 billion.
Wars are extremely hard things to justify. It is intrinsic to what they are that they tend to death, destruction, and misery. Given this and some knowledge of history, one's default attitude towards powerful people purporting to do the world some great benefit by war should be extreme scepticism.
I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to
"The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without even an attempt to build public support. Above all, it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people. . . ." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
“UCLA neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf has shown that deep reading, defined as sustained immersion in a text, builds the cognitive circuits required for critical analysis, empathy and perspective-taking in ways that skimming, scrolling and short-form video simply cannot.”
Nurul Amin Shah Alam crossed oceans to flee unimaginable violence, only to die here — where he should have been safe.
The cruelty is endless.
In least surprising finding of 2026, study finds "lying flat," i.e. giving up one's life goals and doing as little as possible leads to lower life satisfaction. (Context is important, since working 70+ hours with no hope of meaningful advancement is also pretty bad.)
www.psypost.org/new-research...
Our disciplinary hierarchies have flipped, says @foundhistory.bsky.social. “The ’useless’ has become essential, and the ’practical’ has become automated.”
What do we mean by "discussion"? I compared several models: Harkness, Socratic dialogue, guided inquiry, and direct instruction. Each has descriptions, research-informed perspectives on when they work best, and examples.
See full chart here: inquiryproject.org/2026/02/20/w...
Bleak.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
One challenge I find with discussion-based learning is each class inevitably has a handful of students who are less comfortable contributing verbally. The dialectical notebook, (aka, the "silent discussion”) is one way to guide them toward productive engagement.
inquiryproject.org/2026/02/17/d...
Rev. Jesse Jackson's "I *am* somebody..." remains one of the all-time great pieces of 20th century rhetoric / agitprop
And he could deliver it at a Black separatist meeting, the Democratic National Convention, or on god-blessed Sesame Street (see below 🥹)
RIP to the Voice of the Voiceless
Fascinating interview on the demise of Neanderthals english-elpais-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/english....
“Khomeini spent only four months living on the very outskirts of the town, but his stay has thrown a shadow over the entire place especially with what has happened since." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Philadelphia sues over "arbitrary and capricious" removal of displays about slavery" at Independence National Historical Park, with one official saying "History cannot be erased simply because it is uncomfortable." Good. Hope we see lots more lawsuits like this. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.
He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
You ever think about how we’re born knowing absolutely nothing and we have to spend literally our whole lives learning — AKA catching up on at least the outlines of what everyone who came before us either did or figured out — and if we’re lucky, we get to add a little bit to that, and then we die?
NYT headline and image of four types of federal forces and their uniforms: border patrol, national guard, ICE and FBI/DEA-Secret Service. The headline says this is a way to make sense of federal forces in the streets, cheerily declaring “here’s how to tell them apart and what their powers are.”
Every so often you run across yet another reminder of how shameful the story of this era is going to be in the history books someday. On so many levels, including the dystopian cheery tone of this NYT caption…
Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet for his wife Lucille.
#vintagephoto #louisarmstrong #egypt #sphinx
I cannot emphasize enough that this administration shouldn’t get 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦 from the Dems until they start obeying the law.
Not. One.
Optics matter: if you want people to turn out next election despite troops in the streets, then show them it matters.
Do your goddamn jobs and hold the line.
Sad to hear of Paul Cohen's passing. I knew him mainly from his work—Discovering History in China and History in Three Keys are favorites. Also got a chance to interact with him on a few occasions in smaller settings; incredibly generous to budding scholars. www.asianstudies.org/in-memoriam-...
