TIL, via this very heartwarming thread, that there's a kind of bat whose official name is "soprano pipistrelle."
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL)@themerl.bsky.social · 2h agoSo, we found a live bat in our galleries. 🦇 a thread🦇
Amanda Watson
@amndw2.bsky.social
Librarian, literature geek, knitter, opera fan, book history person. Writing a book about commonplace books and poetry readers. Opinions here are my own. She/her/hers. Queer and furious. 🏳️🌈
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL)@themerl.bsky.social · 2h ago
It’s probably just a coincidence that conservatives are pushing for 3-year bachelor degrees, right?
Three-year Bachelor’s Degrees Devalue Student Education, Do Nothing to Address Root Cause of Affordability Crisis
The approval of accelerated three-year bachelor’s degrees at Suffolk and Merrimack Universities in Massachusetts threatens academic integrity.
aaup.org
jentrification@jentrification.com · yesterday@gregpak.net Sam Altman says four years is too long for college as cocaine tears up the traditional career path
Hey, guys, when the librarians get pissed about the destruction of books, it’s time to put those listening ears on. Because we are very comfortable with the idea that books are tools that can be retired. What’s happening right now is not that.
We put a tracking device in a shipment of rare books acquired by an anonymous buyer. It ended up at an Amazon facility where the company scans books for training data and destroys them in the process: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
404media.co
Today I have somehow summoned up the Superpower of That Was Easier Than I Expected (sorted a tax issue that I'd been worrying about without needing to, it turned out). What should I use it on next?
If you followed or signal-boosted the claims a few weeks back by the historian who said the graphic novelist had done an unauthorized adaptation of her work on Charity & Sylvia, a lesbian couple from 19th c Vermont, please read this essay from someone who fact-checked these claims in detail.
thene@thene.bsky.social · 6d agoout it goes: my long post about Rachel Hope Cleves's claim that Tillie Walden plagiarised her book. It's long because Cleves's claim is much, much more bizarre than it looked on first reading. I'm not going to bury the lede here. Cleves's claim does not hold up. buttondown.com/thene/archiv...
I feel like an issue that would connect well with voters would be doing anything at all to slow the current progression toward "absolutely everything now is a scam"
As folks gear up for the new semester, a reminder if anyone needs it, my Ai statement is available for people to make use of in their own materials. It’s downloadable and printable from my site here spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...
Already scheming to go see both parts of the Tristan broadcast when they re-screen it on Lincoln Center Plaza in early September:
Summer HD Festival
metopera.org
Read @mashagessen.bsky.social “Fascism works not only by the passage of arbitrary, dehumanizing laws but by the arbitrary, dehumanizing enforcement of the laws.” @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/o...
Opinion | What’s Happening in Kansas Should Alarm Us All (Gift Article)
Is Kansas just the beginning?
nytimes.com
Why am I weirdly sad despite being on vacation at the moment? Is it the state of the world? The extended version of the Sunday Scaries that August always seems to bring? The heat? The shortening daylight? IDEK.
perhaps the most charming consequence of the printing press in early modern Europe is the rise of broadsheet posters — which could announce news ranging from "enormous fire seen in the heavens" to "Mr. Höfler grew a weird cabbage"
"In the midst of a cataclysm, poems survive, often stripped back to their most essential forms." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
It’s not just the Odyssey effect: poetry is booming because it’s the only language for these times of violence and chaos | Charlotte Higgins
From Homer’s epic to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, we can see how poetry fills the gap when ordinary ways of writing or speaking aren’t enough, says Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins
theguardian.com
This site lets you scan barcodes to see if they’re part of Taylor Farms: www.taylordetector.com
Taylor Detector — Scan for Taylor Farms brands
Wondering if a product is made by Taylor Farms? Scan any barcode to instantly check brand ownership and affiliations. Free, no signup required.
taylordetector.com
Tyler King@tyleraking.com · last wk.RECALL: Taylor Farms is pulling pre-packaged salsa and guacamole for contaminated jalapenos.
Concert time at Little Island! (Anthony Roth Costanzo’s Minimalism program)
Question for my fellow academic librarians: Has anyone been in a situation where a donor to your institution has tried to influence collection development decisions (or override them)? Trying to figure out if something I heard about recently is part of a larger pattern.
This thread is reminding me of @captainawkward.bsky.social's rule of thumb that the ONLY acceptable thing to say about what another adult has on their plate is some version of "That looks delicious!"
Krista D Ball is Canada's Snarky Potato@kristadb1.bsky.social · 2w agoAll right, I need to explain how my placemat is classist AND ableist. Buckle up.
No! NO! You can’t just ignore—this isn’t—THE OCEAN HATES US ALL MOTHERFUCKERS GAAAAAHHHH
Michael Love@elkmovie.bsky.social · 2w agoI’m on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son; our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht - which was closer - and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this)
to have your men eaten on one island may be regarded as a misfortune; to have them eaten on two looks like carelessness.
Louie Stowell@louiestowell.bsky.social · 2w agoHas anyone considers that Odysseus's problem is that his men are just too delicious. Yes, he angered the gods, but so many of them getting eaten cant be a coincidence.
Dance brought me a lot of joy, and I'll always be a knitter, but I think piano is my favorite.
Laurie! Live!@laurie-merrell.bsky.social · 2w agoinspired by this, poll: what is your favorite "extracurricular" activity you've picked up as an adult?
There was a mass disabling event in recent history that could cause long term health issues including but not limited to mobility, recent studies showed that nearly half of those diagnosed with Long Covid have suffered mobility and balance deterioration. I imagine some may need mobility aids.
Nick Barlow@nickbwalking.bsky.social · 2w agoIn a move that will surprise absolutely no one who's been paying attention, Stock has decided that women with disabilities are suffering from "social contagion"
this is so funny. If AI disappeared tomorrow I'd save five minutes a day of clicking "report phishing" on slop emails, and half an hour a day of arguing with my children about why you should not "ask Chat" for eg a brownie recipe when Nigella's Domestic Goddess is RIGHT THERE
Alexander Glass@alexanderglass.bsky.social · 2w agoI have one answer.
Read it here if you haven't yet. Today is the very best day of all days to read it for the first time. short-stories.co/@raybradbury...
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
The voice-clock sang, breakfast was ejected, but no doors slammed. The garage chimed and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. The house sat alone in a city of rubble and…
short-stories.co
Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · 2w agoToday, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.
WE HAVE REAL CAMPS YOU CAN BE OUTRAGED ABOUT
Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · 2w agoThese guys are freaking out over their own imaginations again.
