why did the astros have this guy throw out the first pitch yesterday www.chron.com/sports/astro...

Astros welcome polarizing Harvard UFO scientist to Houston

The White House advisor has earned attention—and intense scientific criticism—for his theories about alien technology.

chron.com

bookstagram has 50 followers now >>>

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

at the broken social scene show and they're talking about the reflecting pool smh

It is funny that this person thinks “immigrants defended the union while native born whites sought to destroy it in the name of slavery” is an argument against immigrants being Americans. This is precisely the point, nothing about being born here makes you better bsky.app/profile/aphc...

Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 4d ago

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

#RomanSiteSaturday Remains of the Pons Aemilius (179 BC), known as the Ponte Rotto (the 'Broken Bridge'). The stone facing belongs to a reconstruction of the Augustan age. #Architecture #History

the motion to dismiss provides several excellent DOI FOIA opportunities

Mike Masnick@masnick.com · 5d ago

Incredible. In normal circumstances this whole thing would be a massive embarrassment to the DOJ and the US Attorney in charge of the case.

Help @remorahousedc.bsky.social provide cash support to unhoused & recently housed neighbors and folks at risk of becoming unhoused, as well as tents, camping gear, and other supplies for folks living outside in DC. Happy birthday to my sweet friend who makes me a better person ❤️

Will Myers@billcaphil.bsky.social · 6d ago

It's my birthday. i hate my birthday. help cheer me up: give as much as you can to @remorahousedc.bsky.social givebutter.com/remorahouse

Agencies are lagging on FOIA and resorting to extremes to close requests. The EPA even rejected our request for an email for being too broad. They relented when we objected to the absurdity of that claim. It shouldn't have come to that. More in @nytimes.com:

Federal Agencies Face Record Backlog of Public Records Requests

A Times analysis of 16 years of available federal data shows federal agencies lag in processing requests for government records.

nytimes.com

Over at the Heritage Foundation they like to debate about who the bad guys were in WWII: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/m...

People who are suddenly deported to countries they haven’t been to for years — or, in some cases, have NEVER been to — are incredibly vulnerable. We are going to be reading stories like this for years. God have mercy on their three little girls.

Adam Sawyer@adamjst.bsky.social · last wk.

“If immigration hadn't picked up my brother, my sister-in-law would still be alive, and the children wouldn't be going through this sorrow,” he said. “Unfortunately, immigration — the [U.S.] government — doesn't see that. It makes no difference to them.” www.stlpr.org/law-order/20...

Shy suitor at the feast spending years petting Odysseus’ cat

A letter from the mother of Alex Pretti, six months after he was murdered by ICE.

husband and I ran separate errands yet both ended up at used bookstores afterwards <3

Wow: The National Guard has signed a $292 million contract to house thousands of troops deployed to D.C. in 2,000 apartments in the city, instead of in hotels or other places where they've been put up. www.notus.org/defense/nati...

National Guard Signs $292M Housing Contract for Troops in Washington, D.C.

The deal would provide 2,000 “apartment-style lodging units” for service members deployed in the city.

notus.org

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

nytimes.com

"you should do a breakthrough" is an instant classic

Ethan Mollick@emollick.bsky.social · 2w ago

Here are 58 words of prompts to GPT-5.6 Pro that got the model to discover that the long-standing Dinitz-Garg-Goemans conjecture is false. Increasingly, prompt crafting is over-rated, ask for what you want. (Which itself can be a hard problem)

‘He’d lie down in front of the moving ship’: a fresh look at Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition

‘He’d lie down in front of the moving ship’: a fresh look at Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition

Shipwrecks, ice football and igloos for dogs … the digitisation of Frank Hurley’s photographs shows the heroic trek more clearly – and unlocks some remarkable new details

theguardian.com

Now I really want an Oresteia movie with Lupita Nyong'o

86 people in a single ICE holding room, "all jostling for space in a closet of humanity that smelled of sweat, urine and feces." What would we call it anywhere else? www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Greek soldiers rampage out of large walled horse WHY IT MATTERS: the towers of Ilium have been toppled ZOOM IN: this is great news for MENELAUS, bad news for PRIAM SPLIT SCREEN: Cassandra vindicated but it’s Odysseus who gets the win

Odyssey was incredible in IMAX!!

In advance of this evening, a reminder: The lies about the 2020 election are racist tropes intended to exclude minority Americans from political power to protect the racial status quo

Kevin Morris@kevintmorris.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Drafted.

ICYMI: The FBI has explored using AI to assess the validity of signatures on tens of thousands of mail-in ballot envelopes seized from Fulton County, Ga., the latest in the Trump administration’s unprecedented reinvestigation of the 2020 vote. @jeremykohler.bsky.social @dougbockclark.bsky.social

FBI Has Looked at Using Questionable AI Tech to Review Signatures on Seized Mail-In Ballots

As part of President Trump’s continued push to discredit the results of the 2020 election, his administration has considered using AI technology to scrutinize tens of thousands of ballots seized in Fu...

propublica.org

Elon Musk’s cuts to U.S.A.I.D. led to some 700,000 deaths, Atul Gawande says. www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...

The Human Cost of DOGE’s War on U.S.A.I.D.

Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the “public man-made death” that they’ve caused.

newyorker.com

An account with this avatar was just blocked.

Also, since the Washington Memorial was abandoned for like half a century, we did get this awesome proposal to complete in gothic style

"The three men who were with a 52-year-old Houston man when he was fatally shot by an immigration agent earlier this week said Lorenzo Salgado Araujo never tried to run over anyone and that agents repeatedly fired into the vehicle from the side of the van" www.texastribune.org/2026/07/10/t...

Houston ICE shooting witnesses dispute agents’ claims

The other men in the van with Lorenzo Salgado Araujo said agents fired into the vehicle unprovoked, according to a lawyer for two of the men.

texastribune.org

The EAC was designed as a bipartisan agency to provide resources and support to state and local election officials. The President (still) has no authority over election administration, and firing the EAC Commissioners does not change that.

Jen Fifield@jenafifield.bsky.social · 4w ago

NEW: The remaining three members of the Election Assistance Commission have been pushed out, ProPublica has exclusively learned from sources familiar with the matter. The three members were Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, Democrats, and Christy McCormick, a Republican.