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 · 20h ago

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.

If AI was gone tomorrow, my teaching job would get significantly easier.

Ayo@darrylayo.bsky.social · 19h ago

Guys like this don’t realize that they are the freak

The co-founder of the 2024 National Uncommitted Movement, Abbas Alawieh, decisively won his primary to become a State Senator in Michigan. Abbas was endorsed by both Bernie Sanders and Gretchen Whitmer. Abbas Alawieh also privately met with former VP Kamala Harris last month upon her request.

Lmaooo I cannot believe anyone fell for this guy's shit ever at all. He bought a golf cart company and sold those pieces of shit for 80K and you thought that made him a genius. He's always always always been a huckster

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · 5h ago

SPACEX PLANS MOON FACTORIES POWERED BY HUMANOID ROBOTS

Former J6 federal prosecutors are begging senators -- mostly GOPers, but a handful of Dems are in there, too -- to stop confirming election deniers to lifetime federal courts seats. “Please stop poisoning our courts." www.huffpost.com/entry/live-u...

Former J6 Prosecutors Beg Senators To Stop Confirming Election Deniers To Court Seats

huffpost.com

He's obviously doing other stuff too — the Ithaca sequences don't fit this reading — but, more than Interstellar, which did a better job integrating its sublime spectacle with its story, Odyssey feels like a series of trick films using a simplified plot frame to string themselves together.

The DSCC puts out a statement from Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand backing Abdul El-Sayed. This is the first time since 2010 that a DSCC-backed candidate lost in a primary. #MISen

i think a lot of well-meaning people fall into a rhetorical trap where they take the bait and argue about male vs. female performance in sports rather than arguing for the value and dignity of women’s athletics generally. don’t let yourself be dragged into a bad faith framing.

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 2d ago

the best HS teams in the country have multiple guys who will be in the NBA in a couple of years. they aren't normal high schools, they're basketball factories. but this literally doesn't matter. the value of women's sports isn't contingent on their performance vis a vis men.

"Subject to Contract: Liberalism and the Victorian Novel" is now officially subject to a contract for publication with Cornell University Press! 📖 @cornellupress.bsky.social

They could always sign up to give comment at a public meeting.

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 16h ago

New York City’s business elites are long accustomed to direct access to City Hall, where even Democratic mayors felt the need to court the city’s wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders. That access is getting shredded by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Today the UK is putting into practice aggressive restrictions on trans people using toilets and changing rooms. This follows a complex legal/political mess over two years. The UK was among the best countries in Europe on LGBTQ rights; now it's among the worst. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...

The End of Trans Rights in the UK Is the Start of Democratic Collapse

It's never just one minority.

liberalcurrents.com

omg I found the picture ❤️

ECP@ecppdx.bsky.social · 15h ago

Years ago I coined the milleneuve, which is a unit to measure how horrible the sky color is based on Villeneuve films. Blade Runner 2049 is around 900mn. Today is around 250 I'd say. (It's a very scientific scale.)

I encourage all of us to have the grace and focus shown in this going up within minutes of the race being called.

In this new opinion piece, Daniel Dawer and Ruth Kravetz argue that, after the state takeover, Houston ISD systematically held back students and hurt their learning opportunities in order to inflate school ratings:

The ‘Houston Miracle’ Shell Game

How Houston ISD’s takeover regime inflated school accountability ratings by systematically holding back certain students

texasobserver.org

The important thing to know about boots is that Dr. Martens was bought by a private equity firm a while back, the boots are now garbage in terms of construction quality, but Solovair set up to make similar boots on the old equipment in the old factory and their versions are much better quality.

Will Wilkinson@wlknsn.xyz · 3h ago

My take on boots discourse is that we face a lemons problem with many consumer goods, given the acquisition of many storied brands by companies aggressively milking accumulated brand equity for higher profits, such that price and reputation for durability does not reliably predict higher roi.

I don't love the language of "content" (I think it leans into an idealization of productivity that justifies the genAI applications being criticized here) BUT the three minutes or so from 2:55 should speak to anyone involved in creating things with their brains and hands, scholars very much included

Mike Bithell@mikebithell.bsky.social · 10h ago

The specific focus in this video on the way these tools get under your skin and train you to depend on them is an aspect I personally find existentially terrifying. youtu.be/TtvICev9sBE?...

Michigan MAGA got confused, voted for the whitest-sounding person on the ballot while rejecting Trump's endorsed candidate. #MAGA #Michigan #primaries #congress #HouseofRepresentatives #ThomasJSmith www.jezebel.com/michigan-pri...

Michigan MAGA Got Confused, Voted for the Whitest-Sounding Person on the Ballot

It's a new low point for Trump endorsements, as MAGA voters rejected his candidate and chose a guy who had suspended his campaign instead.

jezebel.com

"I also cringed when Odysseus says to Penelope during their first meeting when he is disguised as a beggar, “Our age of bronze is collapsing.” ... no one during the Bronze Age knew they were living in the Bronze Age." This to me is when I gave up on actually liking the film overall.

“Nolan’s Odyssey also seems to miss the purpose of bards tapping a staff on the ground; historical bards did this to keep track of the rhythm while composing hexameter verse, but the bard in Nolan’s opening is not speaking in hexameter verse.” It coulda been hexameter

Ok this is great. Enjoying reading while I have my coffee.

Spencer McDaniel@spencermcdaniel.bsky.social · 2w ago

I have a master's degree in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, I've studied the 'Odyssey' in Ancient Greek, and I've been writing about the ancient world for over a decade. This is my exhaustive review of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'. #Odyssey #classics talesoftimesforgotten.com/2026/07/23/a...

As others (including Wilson!) note - It's fine to make a modern guy with modern guy problems but call it The Odyssey. That's wholly in line with how myth is used. It's not fine (with me) to write really bad sentences. That's when I nope out.

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 3h ago

"I also cringed when Odysseus says to Penelope during their first meeting when he is disguised as a beggar, “Our age of bronze is collapsing.” ... no one during the Bronze Age knew they were living in the Bronze Age." This to me is when I gave up on actually liking the film overall.

Baggy pants, knee-length shorts, cotton denim.

Memento (artemis) Morty 🌙@mementomorty.bsky.social · 18h ago

so happy baggy pants are in style

New Yorker cartoon feels about right

It’s funny because we do this thing where Black voters are pathologized, literally, every election cycle.

brent sewer socialist🚰🌹@therealbrent.bsky.social · 13h ago

So El-Sayed is doing better with Black voters and worse with white voters than most people imagined? That’ll be fun for The Discourse.

I'm just going to reiterate that her review isn't mean. People who took it as snide or contemptuous are simply wrong about her tone.

Rafe Meager (they/them)@economeager.bsky.social · 6d ago

people are like "em1ly w1lson went out of her way to be abrasive" but i just don't think that's true. a lot of us are just like this. at one point in his ancient greece lectures donald kagan *just as a random aside* says he thinks rousseau is a "poisoned apple in the history of the human race"

Saying a film sucks because it did a bad job adapting the source is fine actually. That's a perfectly valid reason for thinking a film is a failure! What people are really annoyed by, though, is that Wilson keeps taking the script seriously, and it fails on that metric.

Ana Marie Cox@anamariecox.com · 20h ago

The idea that there's a level of film knowledge that will make your criticism more correct than anyone else's is bullshit. Knowledge of film history/technique can give context and help articulate for the reader how/why a film works or doesn't, but so can...knowing the source material.

This used to be routine and expected.

Alex Ip 葉清霖@alexip718.com · 11h ago

Body isn't even cold yet

Democrats endorsing the Democratic nominee as soon as they're nominated is good and more Democrats should do it more often. (Not that my "endorsement" matters, but AES absolutely has it and we should do everything we can to ensure he keeps Michigan's Senate seat in D hands this November).

Alex Ip 葉清霖@alexip718.com · 11h ago

Body isn't even cold yet