No matter where you shop, you're getting screwed by Amazon. Amazon has found a way to make everything you buy - at Target, at a mom-and-pop shop, even direct from the manufacturer - more expensive. And they're not the only one: Expedia's done the same thing, but for hotel rooms.

Ben was a master editor who approached a manuscript like a tree to be pruned—always seeing the possibilities for new growth, respecting the roots

Hard Cider Was Once More Popular Than Water. He Foresaw a Comeback. (Gift Article)

Ben Watson, also known as Brother Apple, played a pivotal role in turning cider into a thriving slice of America’s craft-beverage movement. He has died at 64.

nytimes.com

The government *still* isn’t tracking how often immigration agents detain U.S. citizens. We are. 500+ Americans have been handcuffed, held at gunpoint or held against their will in Trump’s second term. Our tally is almost certainly an undercount. THREAD (content warning: violence) ⬇️

hi abolish the death penalty the state should never have the power to murder (yes this includes indirectly, I see you, ICE)

It is a tough time to be searching these interwebs for the poems of the (real, human) poet Ai, but she has things to say www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42541/...

Overall, the United States has entirely too goddamn many people who legitimately believe The End is Nigh in positions of massive power. We have to fix that.

Going through some folders of old letters from when my friends and I used to write letters

I hate doing the "a rollback of trans rights is the gateway for a rollback of women's rights" thing because trans rights are human rights in and of themselves, whatever the impact on cis women. But goddamn I wish more cis women had a sense of history and self preservation.

Powerful essay. Among many themes, almost casually , the failure of Algebra for All. Gift link. In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/m...

In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?

A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.

nytimes.com

Let's talk about a book series NOT getting attention that is among the finest of the decade: James Elkins' Five Strange Languages, the latest of which is Stories, Like Illnesses-- just released to resounding silence. Prior 2 novels are among my favorites ever and the new one so far is as good 1/?

I saw the best minds of my generation sacrificed to death cults

… the thing I can’t get over is how the “AI “ discussion has successfully prevented any discussion of the human future They’ve managed to shove any long term planning for what the world will look like in even five years

Abortion bans make exceptions for ectopic pregnancies, but some people still don’t get care. One doctor told a woman intervening in her pregnancy could land him jail time, according to a lawsuit. “I felt like my life was a risk he couldn’t afford.”

Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans.

With prompt and appropriate medical care, experts say, people shouldn’t die from an ectopic pregnancy. Women in Texas and Oklahoma have sued over delays in care, which, coupled with our new analysis, ...

propublica.org

“I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots” https://ploum.net/2026-09-09-ai_policy.html > My AI policy is "I don’t want any kind of interaction with that thing." And this should be all you need to know. This.

I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots

I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.

ploum.net

I’m glad I read up on the odyssey movie before I went. It allowed me to set my expectations low enough that I ended up enjoying it.

Syntax without semantics is a river without water Rotting fish on smooth stones

ProPublica spoke to dozens of people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.” We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words. ➡️ This is what they wrote:

LLMs, or as we genxers used to call them, madlibs

This was the story I needed this morning

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice (Gift Article)

Joan Birman thought her major discoveries were behind her. Then came an email from a young neighbor — a girl who knew little but wanted to learn.

nytimes.com

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

Sam Waterston: "The lesson couldn’t be simpler … It’s as old as the schoolyard, as old as the Bible. And I won’t forget my father saying, after the war, with the finality and the quiet way that he said it: Never give in to a bully.'" ctmirror.org/2026/09/01/y...

Demonstrators ring in semester with calls to 'democratize Yale'

It was the first event of its kind since students returned to Yale for the start of the school year. But discontent has been brewing longer.

ctmirror.org

The expression when I ask where he hid my other slipper

Whose interest does it serve to sing the people back to sleep?

Puff the Magic Hater@mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I had some feelings to express about the "Woke 1" discourse.

The way one has to pretend that the status quo in various U.S. institutions was fine and everything was actually perfect in America in 2020 to think any of the anti-woke grievances are legit is a fascinating effort as encouraging mass amnesia and ignorance. Basically requires a break from reality.

>> What has happened to us was designed specifically to break our body and spirit.

Jack Mirkinson@jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today in @thenation.com: a harrowing piece written from inside the Dilley ICE detention center by Maryam Tahmasebi, a green card holder who's been locked up along with her husband and son for months despite none of them committing any crime. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Look who I met on my run last night

We created this guide for anyone who could experience a miscarriage in a state with abortion restrictions. We wrote it in consultation with dozens of doctors, including those who regularly treat patients who are miscarrying 👇

If You’re Pregnant, Here’s What You Should Know About the Medical Procedures That Could Save Your Life

Women experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves. We created this guide for anyone who finds themselv...

propublica.org

I Have to Go to Work and I Don’t Want To: a memoir

The powerful are fundamentally threatened by the education system. Reducing education to employability is simply a strategy to curtails our ability to understand our world, to connect with each other, and to hold those in power to account. It is a threat to human rights, and to our humanity. 8/8

Hot take: Anyone who’s thought seriously about translation for even half a second knows the idea of a “definitive version“ is absurd.