Yale’s Office of Public Affairs banned reporters from Yale’s campus today. It’s corroborated by Francie Diep in her story for the @chronicle.com. This was an attempt to squelch press coverage today of the rally protesting Yale’s attacks on freedom of expression, their pending deal with Trump. 1/

“To avoid the White House’s rage…” The president as a classic abuser. Any victim of abuse has lived/lives this dynamic. Do whatever you have to do to avoid rage.

Oliver Darcy@oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 5h ago

“Everyone considers it fucking nuts.” Inside Apple, I'm told "not a soul" supports Donald Trump's Lake Ontario rebrand to "Lake America," but the company is also resigned to making such concessions to avoid the White House's rage. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/apple-maps...

absolutely wheezing at an Instagram clip of comic Stevie Martin (who I love from being a maniac on Taskmaster) claiming that Shakespeare only had three plays: 1. “I’m Not a Good Monarch” 2. “I’ll Pretend To Be You, You Hide Behind That Plant, and We’ll Both Marry Her” 3. “The Lion King”

You cannot say this and remain in office. He has to go. And Democrats have to make an enormous deal out of threats to exterminate an entire group of people.

Kasey Gifford@kaseygifford.bsky.social · 14h ago

Someday soon hes going to be over and trans folk will continue to exist and, hopefully, thrive, for as long as there are humans on this planet.

When Fox News is more conservative than the actual ancient Spartans - who believed firmly that women would have healthier and more survivable pregnancies if they delayed childbirth until they were at least 18.

Headquarters@headquartersnews.bsky.social · 10h ago

Fox News complains that underage teenage girls aren’t getting pregnant enough: “The problem is teens and young adults. From ages 15-19, the fertility rate is down 70% in the last 2 decades, which means we are telling people who are young not to have babies.”

This is pretty fucking wild. I had assumed in a worst case scenario he would target blue zip codes and toss ballots based on technicalities but this is even worse than I imagined.

SpacePrez@spaceprez.bsky.social · 13h ago

The polls are super bad for Trump so he's definitely going to try to cheat www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...

BREAKING: Trump's DHS took a step back from seizing Fentanyl so that ICE could terrorize our streets. In just one year at HSI: - Fentanyl investigations down 24% - Fentanyl seizures down 39% - Hours spent countering fentanyl down approx. 30%

Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Taleggio, or Cypress Grove Purple Haze are particularly recommended here.

Odd This Day@oddthisday.bsky.social · 22h ago

Well, to begin with today, it’s the 56th anniversary of the publication of the book which contains the only advice a chap really needs

We've got 40+ alums coming to campus for the teach-in on democratizing Yale on Tuesday 1 September at 1:30PM. If you get there early enough, you'll get a zine by Greg Pak (Class of 1990) and a t-shirt, though we're really saving them for the students. 1/

Rest in peace to the inimitable Wendell Berry

Ok what the actual fuck, @wired.com!!!! Calling perimenopause a “buzzword” is wild, misogynist work that minimizes a decades long feminist movement to raise awareness about women’s health This article could have been good but instead is … very very bad

Inside the Perimenopause Industrial Complex

How an alliance of tech startups, MAHA operatives, and actual medical experts made millennial women the new face of hormone therapy.

wired.com

It would be nice if folks just started assuming that if we draw a correlation between certain types of grave goods and certain types of activities for one gender, we should draw the same correlation for other genders. Women used bows and swords! Men used frying pans!

Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · 19h ago

Women buried with swords actually used them (how shocking! But also—seriously cool analysis). “These princesses were active practitioners of hunting or athletic skills rather than merely symbolic owners of the weapons found in their tombs,” says Zeinab Hashesh” ⚔️ www.snexplores.org/article/egyp...

The iconic weeping willow trees outside the Kennedy Center have been cut down by Trump.

I'm kinda fed up with tragic villain backstories that try to justify horrific deeds in the main story. I want sidekick and mentor backstories! I want more stories of the younger stepsister, and Dolores' endurance of an actual curse, and Moana's grandma, & works like The Artful Dodger series.

On the downside, the massive increase in predictions markets would really cripple the Roman economy, because they would be all over that.

Chef Kennedy🐸🏳️‍🌈@kennedytcooper.bsky.social · yesterday

The Right: "If Rome was around today, the world would be united around their great works!" The Left: "If Rome was around today, it would be a fascist hellhole!" Romans if they were around today: "Woah. Board games are like, REALLY good now. This is crazy."

Everything is gender. Heaven forbid we hurt the poor defenseless competitive drive of men, which is just a weak little teddy bear in the corner being beaten up by women in a child' pose.

Rachel Cohen Booth@rcobooth.bsky.social · 2d ago

"both competitive drive [of men] and male friendship have suffered under the weaponized application of Title IX" @heritagefdn.bsky.social claims...adding that "cheerleading, dance, yoga...and recreational intramurals" are "more aligned with average female interests" www.heritage.org/gender/repor...

I think I'm going to do a pre-class show for Roman History this fall, a la the Alamo Drafthouse, of mostly terrible clips from movies about ancient Rome drawn from my current book and other projects. When possible I'll go chronologically. First up: SNL's "Rome Song" www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2nW... .

Rome Song - SNL

YouTube video by Saturday Night Live

youtube.com

It often seems that Trump fixated on precisely the wrong word in Truman's famous desk plaque and assumed it just referred to the chance for profit.

Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 2d ago

Trump has shifted his main talking point on the midterms to: We are going to lose but it won’t be my fault it will be the fault of all the other Republicans.

Would ya look at that

For decades the Panama Canal has held a daily auction for a chance skip to the front of the queue, a privilege for which some ships were willing to pay $15k, $25k, maybe $50k. Since Trump started the Iran War daily auctions are now routinely 7 figures. Wonder who's gonna eat those costs!

Panama Canal transit auction reaches record $5.3 million

An LPG carrier secured priority passage as unreserved vessels competed for fewer available slots, pushing the winning bid to almost 100 times the median auction price seen before February.

mykn.kuehne-nagel.com

The best part about this analogy is that graham crackers are great for certain specific purposes -S'mores, cheesecake crust, breakfast cereal, pb-sandwiches- but they definitely don't curb sexual appetites, & other starches & even other crackers are way better at fulfilling many other needs & wants.

Tyrell Corp Testing Lead@professormusgrave.bsky.social · 2d ago

In the future, it will either be the case that the millennarian nature of LLM evangelists is a strange quirk akin to the history of the Graham cracker or we will have Skynet

The whole reason I tell people considering time travel to go to Egypt or Vietnam (maybe China depending on era) is that your risk of starving to death drops by like 75% compared to the rest of the premodern world.

Henry @henrythedog.bsky.social · 2d ago

it's really important to me to point out that in fact the medieval peasant did in fact run out of food, every year lots of them did starve, and less often but still often enough the peasantry in general ran out of food causing well known historic events

There is a legitimate argument as to whether Sir Patrick Stewart's audiobook/live performance of Dickens' Christmas Carol or the Muppet Christmas Carol is the best adaptation of the classic text. That is the only legitimate argument here.

Amazing number of people lately who are willing to stand up and say I’m the villain, you should hate me

Bo Thompson@gaudipern.bsky.social · 2d ago

It's not until he says the magic words, that he fears losing control, that it fully clicks. It's not that he believes philanthropy is bad, it's that the risk of someone receiving his money who he doesn't approve of is a bigger problem than the risk that his money helps no one. That speaks volumes.

macabre = “muh-KAHB” Worcestershire = “WOOSS-ter-sheer” omnipotent = “ahm-NI-puh-tunt” reticent = “RET-uh-sunt” epitome = “ih-PIT-uh-mee” myriad = "MEER-ee-ud" Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word. It means they learned it by reading.

Markwayne Mullin: "You have a Biden administration that is failing the American people"

I have a new favorite splash pad! I've been waiting to post in honor of all the Hugo winners & nominees, who are all amazing! This is the steampunk splashpad at the Deerfield Village/Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, which is complicated but also awesome. Yes, all the wheels & buttons work.

Our puppy Cosmo spent the last week at a very nice kennel while we were traveling, which was great, except apparently either the staff or some of the other doggos taught her how to jump with all four feet, & now her response to a squirrel escaping to the front yard is to simply bound over the fence.

Spirit Halloween has a copyright-free version for Nolan’s Odyssey’s “Defy the Gods,” meaning we are seeing the development of bardic variation and experimentation in real time.

I'd add to this that it's also a difference between Aragorn and Boromir. It's not clear Boromir has ever really met an elf or dwarf before, or even many non-military Gondorians. Everybody knows Strider/Aragorn/Elessar/Estel/Thorongil.

Andrew [Retired from Sad]@athomashemlock.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is literally the difference between Saruman and Gandalf. Tolkien is very clear about the necessity to go out into the world and yap with strangers, preferably while smoking and drinking.