Emily Wilson set the entire world to arguing how to properly interpret an ancient poem and a modern blockbuster but sure, this is a failure of public engagement.

Robert Borden Stan Account@bordenstan.bsky.social · yesterday

If the academy gets pulled into coming out swinging against the biggest adaptation of Homer in probably a couple generations off the back of one prominent scholar deciding to be Reviewer 2 to Nolan's work, it will say, IMO, pretty damning things about academia's ability to foster public engagement.

Emily Wilson gets one more piece on The Odyssey and then she needs to move on and let us know what she thinks about Mallrats

Once again. Stop using Sticker Mule. Your money literally, not figuratively, LITERALLY, paved another fascist's way into politics. Need stickers? Get 'em from @wildeprints.com and keep your money in the fandom and away from fascists.

Aleksandra Vaca@transiticsnews.com · last mo.

1. On Tuesday and with Trump's backing, Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino won a competitive New York House primary—and likely a seat in Congress—after running on "aggressively detransitioning America." His extreme rhetoric must be a warning to us all.

nyc weather today

This was a great moral injury perpetrated on all of us. And there has been very little wide-scale work to recover from that (in addition to everything else that we need to recover from with COVID).

Anne Lutz Fernandez@lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 3d ago

Holy shit, this. We’ve never dealt with how many humans became disposable.

Fuck you. Seriously, fuck you. Using this framing: "Two people died of a preventable infection. But don't worry, its just disabled/vulnerable people!" should automatically mean you are eligible for a fiery, pus-ridden, painful, endless and eternal toil in the depths of Tartarus

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2d ago

Breaking News: Two deaths in Michigan have been linked to cyclospora. Both people who had the parasite also had underlying health issues.

If you live in Philadelphia, I'm teaching a free class (with free stickers!!) on how to score a baseball game at Val's Lesbian bar next tuesday! Please come!

I see a lot of you talking about "dopamine" and I wish you'd go back to talking about your astrological signs because at least then you wouldn't be confusing yourself about a real thing

I think one of the biggest issues is: many younger people seem to think that every perspective must be given equal merit (and lol, no) but also they are so historically illiterate its genuinely alarming.

Dr. Cara Berg Powers@clbergpowers.bsky.social · 2d ago

The conspiracy theories with some of these younger folks are so out of hand. I also learned recently that a ton of people don't think Anne Frank is real and also that Helen Keller could not have actually been blind and deaf. A really huge issue is that we entertain ideas this ludicrous as discourse.

I don't really have words for how this article makes me feel, except grateful for Ms. Rashid and the other lawyers who are representing trans people so each of them does not have to go through this alone.

emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 3d ago

DOD is not letting trans service members attend their own separation hearings unless they conform with Whiskey Pete's notion of their gender. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

Starving millions of Americans to death isn't an unfortunate side effect of GOP economics; it's the intended outcome. They're trying to "accelerate" societal collapse & violence so they can establish a white ethnostate. News outlets like @npr.org fail us when they overlook this fact.

A field guide to ‘accelerationism’: White supremacist groups using violence to spur race war and create social chaos

A scholar of right-wing extremism provides an overview of some of the key white supremacist groups that pose significant threats to public safety.

theconversation.com

NPR@npr.org · 3d ago

SNAP, also known as food stamps, has seen a rapid and consistent participation decline since last July. The drop comes as the program faces historic cuts and changes. n.pr/4w5XSc9

Hello, Marco Rubio. I'd like to report a communism.

Kari - 😷 Remember them ☂️@kswenger.bsky.social · 3d ago

"The practice has drawn criticism from Trump’s Republican base. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who drafted the foundation of the CHIPS and Science Act, said at the time the law never intended to let the federal government take a major stake in Intel or any other major company."

I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.

It's absolutely insane we've somehow let the Covid recriminations debate become like "why didn't we reopen in person schools before there was a vaccine" and not "why did none of the trump guys go to jail for stealing PPE from New York hospitals in March 2020"

Last year the NYT reported on how SEAL Team Six stormed into North Korea, accidentally murdered a bunch of fishermen, punctured their lungs so their bodies would sink & then stormed out. Trump is now trying to force one reporter to reveal his sources: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...

Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources (Gift Article)

A previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the government’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of secrets.

nytimes.com

Front 242 - No Comment->Official Version->Front by Front or Kraftwerk - Radio-Activity->Trans Europe Express->The Man-Machine or Pet Shop Boys - Please->Actually->Introspective (I'd actually accept nearly any run of 3 PSB albums without much argument)

Mia Murphy 🏳️‍⚧️@miamurphy.com · 4d ago

What's the best three album run from a band? (the correct answer is Moving Pictures, Signals, and Grace Under Pressure by Rush, but I'm excited to learn second place)

I tried it out as a meme

for a very long time the republican party has been moving towards people who actually believe the slop they consume instead of people who view it as a tool, but the slop has been moving as well the fox news grandpas are now being outflanked by the groypers in the fever swamps

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · 4d ago

Not only did they absolutely beg for this, they made it so that “merit” was synonymous with being white so now you’re stuck with precisely the kind of moron who believes that. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Attention academics: It is now August 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqmS...

Star Trek: Red Alert!

YouTube video by John DiMarco

youtube.com

I don’t think you could have said this (in the screenshot) in public 10-15 years ago without swift backlash, which is a pretty clear indication of the level of decline we’re looking at

Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 5d ago

Another datapoint for the fascist radicalisation of institutional pillars of much of the American Right

Thinking about the time i went to a planetarium and someone booed when they showed the earth

The Raleigh Vektar was considered world's first smart bike (1985). Today, I don't even want a smart TV.

No one would ever, ever, demand that a man be grateful and quiet after selling any number of books because of an unsolicited shout-out, and Wilson is right in this interview with the brilliant @katekilla.bsky.social to not even engage that argument.

Kate Tuttle@katekilla.bsky.social · 6d ago

I talked with @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social for the @bostonglobe.com. I don't think she loves all the attention online, but she's definitely tough enough to handle it all. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/31/a...

This week in The Stacks, Puke (@puke.bsky.social) looks at tactility in erotic gaming and how the decline of handhelds robs us of (simulated) human connection and affection. thestacks.ca/posts/2026-0...

I miss touching my waifu

Handheld games and eroge go hand in hand.

thestacks.ca

How anti-ICE protesters became prisoners in Trump’s war on antifa. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

How anti-ICE protesters became prisoners in Trump's war on antifa

“We are not terrorists.”

motherjones.com

I poke at Twitter sometimes and, man, every time I see a writer going "link in replies" I just feel sad. really? you're doing Elon's little monkey dance? it doesn't embarrass you to have the mad king decide how your job works?

So CBS and others invested in a pro trump audience that won’t arrive, alienating their actual audience, and trump propagandists are losing audience bc people are souring on Trump. Also helps explain the increased racist shrieking as they try to farm engagement www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...

How the Pro-Trump Media Ecosystem Is Splintering Ahead of the Midterms

Once united in support of President Trump, right-wing influencers are embroiled in feuds and losing viewers, creating a problem for Republicans in the midterm elections.

nytimes.com

Wow! ICE’s airport arrests of people seemingly waiting in government immigration backlogs caught up a Fulbright scholar and public health researcher working at Johns Hopkins in their public health department. Not exactly the “worst of the worst”! Yet they threw her in detention anyway.

Baltimore Banner@thebaltimorebanner.com · 6d ago

ICE detains Hopkins public health researcher as agency expands airport arrests

Deep Thoughts on the Current AI Discourse. 🧵: 1. I don’t think robots are on the verge of going rogue and murdering us all in our digital sleep. My p-doom is low. Note that this is separate from the question of ongoing enshittification, where my e-shit number is pretty well maxed out. +

I could barely afford vibranium as it was

Asperas Bompar@asperasbompar.bsky.social · 6d ago

Wakanda tariffs going to get doubled now