The (Wild)cat is out of the bag! The Institute for Public Good at Davidson College won a $4M FIPSE grant - the largest competitive federal grant in the College’s history - to create a nationwide network of civil discourse programs at 100 colleges and universities. www.davidson.edu/news/2026/01...

Davidson College Institute for Public Good Wins Historic $4M Federal Grant to Foster Civil Debate

Davidson College’s Institute for Public Good has been awarded a historic $4 million federal grant—the largest in the college's history—to foster civil debate and respectful disagreement across 100 cam...

davidson.edu

Time for another fundraiser. This weekend, I will donate $0.50 to @boltsmag.org AND @mississippifreepress.org for EACH of: - every new Bluesky follower I get - every new Bluesky follower THEY get - everyone who reposts this post Repost this, follow me, and follow both of them = I donate $4 total.

I was terrifyingly bad at this…

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · last yr.

Parents: Give this quiz to your school-aged kids. And then share it with your own aging parents. You might all learn how to better spot fakes. And you'll definitely learn why, in the age of AI, we have to be more cautious in trusting our eyes.

Primarying Tillis may be a lot harder than the President realizes. www.theassemblync.com/politics/sen...

Why Thom Tillis Shouldn’t Worry About the Primary

The North Carolina senator is facing attacks from Donald Trump and his advisers, but a GOP primary candidate seems unlikely to beat Tillis in 2026.

theassemblync.com

Well... I think it is clear the President is losing patience with Israel and Iran. www.wsj.com/video/trump-...

Trump Says Iran, Israel ‘Don’t Know What the F— They’re Doing’

President Trump scolded Israel for striking Iran and angrily accused both sides of violating a cease-fire.

wsj.com

I don't think I've ever felt sorry for Juventus before, but I do now. Goodness. This was more than "a bit weird." thehill.com/homenews/adm... CC: @marcellograz.bsky.social

Congress is proposing a HUGE increase in the tax on college endowments—up to 21%—to punish elite universities and fund tax cuts. But the people who’ll really pay the price? Students. Here’s my new OpEd with CJ Ryan on the Endowment Tax in the KC Star: www.kansascity.com/opinion/read... 1/6 🧵

Congress targeting the Ivy League hurts low-income college students more | Opinion

Increasing universities’ endowment tax would be much bigger blow to Kansas’ McPherson College than to Harvard or Columbia. | Opinion

kansascity.com

Conservatism isn't selective taxation on goods already purchased. That's what the new EV levy would be. A great piece from @mattbaidc.bsky.social: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | This tax testifies to the utter corruption of conservative thought

Congress is coming for your EV — and what’s left of conservatism.

washingtonpost.com

Fantastic piece showing how we got the extraordinary national debt we have today. TL;DR version: Bush cut taxes and funded two wars, Obama ended neither the tax cuts nor the wars; Trump gave out stimulus checks and tax cuts. Biden paid for infrastructure. www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...

See how the national debt grew to more than $36 trillion

Washington spent and cut taxes while the debt was rising.

washingtonpost.com

Something that I don’t share often: I was an Odyssey of the Mind World Champion. My team beat out teams from Singapore🥈 and Poland🥉 to bring home the gold🥇. A couple of years later my younger sibling won... twice. In the early 2000s, the name “Marsicano” was to OM what “Manning” was to the NFL.

Jake Yeston@jakeyeston.bsky.social · last yr.

These are photos from the Odyssey of the Mind finals that started last night at Michigan State University. Parents in China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Poland sent their *English speaking* kids to spend 4 days with like-minded kids from all over the US.

AC Milan and Man U are going to be dangerous next season. You heard it here first. No European competition to make them galavant across the continent. Pure focus on the task at hand - qualifying for the UCL. Dangerous. (Oh and congrats to Spurs, seriously.)

I've been able to watch what Napoli has done this season. Having a full week between matches every week, rested legs from not having to play four competitions, and a league specialist coach in Conte to manage the team have turned Napoli into a contender.

Chris Marsicano@chrismarsicano.com · last yr.

It is ridiculous that (if these results hold) the 15th and 16th best teams in the 20 team English Premier League will soon compete for the second-most prestigious trophy in Europe. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the loser of that final will probably be a contender to win the EPL in 2025-26.

It is ridiculous that (if these results hold) the 15th and 16th best teams in the 20 team English Premier League will soon compete for the second-most prestigious trophy in Europe. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the loser of that final will probably be a contender to win the EPL in 2025-26.

DC Takes on D.C.: Davidson College Seniors Present Educational Studies Research @aefpweb.bsky.social Great mentorship from @chrismarsicano.com! www.davidson.edu/news/2025/05...

DC Takes on D.C.: Davidson College Seniors Present Educational Studies Research at AEFP

Four Davidson College seniors reflect on presenting their undergraduate research at the annual Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) conference in Washington, D.C.., where they also netw...

davidson.edu

A fantastic OpEd from a West Point professor on why academic freedom at Army is necessary for our nation's national security. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o...

Opinion | West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate

nytimes.com

Hey Y'all! CPPHE proposals are due TODAY! We want your work! www.ashe.ws/call-for-pro...

Not exactly the same, but sort of like this? bsky.app/profile/btsk...

ben@btskinner.io · last yr.

As an elder millennial, I could trade my lifetime of tax contributions to the NEH for one month of Netflix and have just enough left over to get some avocado toast if I split it with two other people

For instance, let’s say you paid $1,000 in taxes. You’d get a confirmation screen showing something like: • $240 for Medicare/Medicaid • $210 for Social Security • $130 for defense spending • $130 for debt service • $7 for Head Start • $3 for US AID I wonder whether that alone would change policy.

Chris Marsicano@chrismarsicano.com · last yr.

Every time you pay taxes on a program like turbo tax or tax slayer, the confirmation screen should come with the dollar-for-dollar breakdown of what your taxes fund.

Every time you pay taxes on a program like turbo tax or tax slayer, the confirmation screen should come with the dollar-for-dollar breakdown of what your taxes fund.

Every retailer should do this.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · last yr.

PUNCHBOWL: “.. The shopping site will display how much of an item’s cost is derived from tariffs – right next to the product’s total listed price.” $AMZN punchbowl.news/archive/4292...

Oh Parma and Udinese, you beautiful, beautiful teams.

Dear Social Scientists, Just a reminder: Amidst attacks on the social sciences & higher ed, now is a very good time to be posting here &/or elsewhere abt your latest research, topics in the news that hit on your expertise, or both. If you believe your field has public value, show it. sociology

Davidson seems like a college town monoculture. Then you realize professors live next to NASCAR pit chiefs who live next to corporate executives who live next to frat guys. And yet the whole place still feels like Mayberry. Don’t get me wrong - I love it. But it is SO weird. In a good way.

Everyone on the left who slammed Harvard for being too elite and not focused enough on the common man for the past decade after today:

a woman is sitting at a table with a candle in front of a bookshelf in a bookstore .

ALT: a woman is sitting at a table with a candle in front of a bookshelf in a bookstore .

media.tenor.com

Mimetic isomorphism, do your thing

Eoin Higgins@eoinhiggins.bsky.social · last yr.

MIT following Harvard's lead here

We may have just witnessed the higher education equivalent of Hugh Jackman yelling, "Hey kid... now." Watch Duke, Stanford, and Notre Dame over the next few weeks. They will be bellwethers. bsky.app/profile/chri...

Chris Marsicano@chrismarsicano.com · last yr.

"[Harvard] will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights... No government—regardless of [who] is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." www.harvard.edu/president/ne...

"[Harvard] will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights... No government—regardless of [who] is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." www.harvard.edu/president/ne...

The Promise of American Higher Education

No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue

harvard.edu

But wait... There's more! Did those who received cash get lazier and work less? Nope! "We find no evidence that people love doing nothing. This stereotype is not supported by research on basic income – or any other research."

John Holbein@johnholbein1.bsky.social · last yr.

Basic income programs improve recipients' mental health durably and a lot! maxkasy.github.io/home/files/p...

I think we are up to study eleventy billion with this same finding, but I may have lost count.

John Holbein@johnholbein1.bsky.social · last yr.

Basic income programs improve recipients' mental health durably and a lot! maxkasy.github.io/home/files/p...

Write your own code, folks...or at least check it if A1 "writes" it for you.

Janelle Shane@janelleshane.com · last yr.

1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but 2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but 3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So 4. Now the LLM code points to malware.