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.

Okay this was funny (absolutely right about the pet thing)

This is Massive Attack's response to what happened in Singapore, posted on their Instagram page. Good on them.

Kirsten Han 韩俐颖@kirstenhan.com · 5d ago

Massive Attack has been banned from Singapore after they held up a Palestinian flag during their concert here last week. www.bbc.com/news/article...

today on COYOTE: on ChatTJB, the "startup" "AI" "company" where one guy answers all of your prompts himself so that you stop giving your brain function over to LLMs. www.coyotemedia.org/chattjb-want...

ChatTJB Wants You to Stop Trusting LLMs

A San Francisco poet is answering your prompts badly, slowly, and earnestly.

coyotemedia.org

"Today is August 4, 2026." Can't find my copy of The Martian Chronicles to take a photo of the actual published story, but it remains a collection well worth reading 76 years later: bookshop.org/a/862/9781668094853 #books #writing

Isabel J. Kim@isabel.kim · 2d ago

happy there will come soft rains day to all those who partake

New Yorkers had to subsidize the $117 million that the NYPD paid out for misconduct lawsuits in 2025 alone, even though most of them were never personally abused by a cop. Where's your worried op-ed on that one?

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 3d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

This is a very important thread if you have a dog or are attacked by a dog yourself. I didn't know about the hip grab!

Alex de Campi@alexdecampi.bsky.social · 3d ago

I’m feeling a way about this because my dog got attacked on a walk today too, by a dog that ran out of its yard and tried to bite him. Luckily Bruce only got scratches. But let me tell you THE most important thing to know about breaking up a dog fight: (1/2) (imma also tell you some legal stuff)

Please stop saying “lockdowns.” There were never true lockdowns in the US, and it fuels far right narratives to repeat this inaccurate statement. You can say closures, you can say restrictions, or better, you can say public health measures which saved many lives.

Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 6d ago

People still complain about “lockdowns” but we had none in the US. We had stay-at-home orders, where although businesses were closed, you could still go outside whenever you wanted. Other countries had far stricter rules, and yet have been much more accepting of them as they saved many more lives.

Autopsies of Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protests often conclude that movements produced tough-on-crime backlash. My new study in Work and Occupations finds a different kind of movement outcome: BLM changed how local reporters cover cops and jails. 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

These are all here for administrative violations that could be remedied, and the NYPD could auction them to provide budget transportation for thousands. They instead demolish and scrap every one without a single attempt at responsible disposition. *They don’t want to share the road with mopeds*

Charlie Todd@charlietodd.com · 3d ago

I found the NYPD tow pound in Red Hook where they store thousands of seized illegal mopeds.

Fannie Lou Hamer said she didn’t know much about communism, but “if we push just a little farther than they think we should push... then they say, ‘This is communism.’ So I began to wonder about communists because from what the people is really telling us, it must be very good.”

Extremely good thread. I have some personal interest in the Van Houten case specifically and Dan is right on every point here.

Dan O’Sullivan@osullyville.bsky.social · 5d ago

I am going to say something that is going to sound crazy at first: one sign of how little Gavin Newsom cares about doing the right thing, as opposed to doing the things he needs to do for a doomed presidential race, is how he has handled the Manson Family. Let me explain.

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

As a @nymag.com subscriber, I am disappointed to read about this behavior from @vulture.com. I pay for a print+online subscription, and I expect people who write for the put to be treated with dignity. What happened to Jason is gross:

Jason Bailey@jasondashbailey.com · 5d ago

Well, it’s invoicing day, and since they’re really apparently not going to pay me for something I wrote for them two months ago, I guess today is the day to post about how @vulture.com fucks over its film freelancers. Long (sorry) thread, with receipts:

Hearing someone say that an anti-trans person "just has reasonable concerns about women's sports," is like hearing someone say they "just have reasonable concerns about satanic ritual abuse" in the early 90s or late 80s. It's a fiction, created as a political tool by the extreme right.

Assigned Media@assignedmedia.org · 6d ago

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jul My Assigned Media interview with leading researcher TJ Billard on how the Right created this tide of anti-trans disinformation and what we can do about it is live. assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

when i was diagnosed age 10 we went through ALL SORTS of things that were said to "help with ADD" - weird little exercises meant to light up parts of the brain which left me with knee problems, omega 3 oils in my orange juice for breakfast, limiting foods with E numbers, not allowing me any sugar...

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social · last wk.

“While traits of ADHD undeniably exist – the question is why they exist. Is ADHD actually a neurodevelopmental disorder? Do people with ADHD have differently wired brains? Or does our world – with…processed food, and regimented education – serve as the catalyst for certain…patterns of behaviour?”

great thread

Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 6d ago

Ok so this lady says solar panels are getting built on "the most productive farmland" in her area. Which just ain't true at all. It ain't true here in NC either. Where I ALSO hear that talking point over & over again. Smells like astroturf! So let's get the dirt on solar farms & dirt ✨

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

OK, so having just had a lovely phone call with a support person involved in this recall, since yes indeed this is the very same Little Red Fridge and yes indeed mine is subject to the recall, but I myself have already replaced the part in question. Allow me to speculate on what's going on here. 🧵

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission@cpsc.gov · 7d ago

#Recall: Galanz Americas Retro Refrigerators; One Death Reported. The recalled refrigerators’ internal electrical components can short circuit and ignite, posing a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards. Get repair. www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2026...

This thread is so heartbreaking and I can’t help feeling like a generation who outsourced their critical thinking and empathy to billionaire-owned machines is exactly what the bad guys (and a fair number of the guys who don’t think they’re bad but are) ordered.

Kayleigh Diaz 🫜@kayleighdiaz.com · last wk.

And now it's the prompt-runner’s turn to go on a rant, only I'm going to talk about what I'm seeing with AI in education. Buckle up. You're not gonna like it... 🧵 (1/?... many lol)

This year’s tote from the SF Public Library is my favorite yet. I’m a sucker for a cable car.

Honestly @theferocity.bsky.social may have the most beautifully barbed mind I've ever known. Everything he writes sticks, and the more uncomfortable it might be, the deeper it digs in. I can't wait to read this book when it comes out oxfordamerican.org/magazine/iss...

Mister Anthony

oxfordamerican.org

They asked me my AI policy I said it's just two words and the first one is fuck

And technofeudalism is very very good at that. And we are very very bad at prioritizing our needs over satiating our emotions.

The goal is to satisfy the *emotions* behind every information need without providing real information.

Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · last wk.

The cross-platform enshittification of search functionality is such an infuriating exercise of authoritarian creep. They would like to kill the inclination to find information & enforce satisfaction with be fed information.

RIP Dick Vivian, one of a kind. anyone wanna share a record he recommended to you? Wanna pull together a little thing for @coyotemedia.org www.kqed.org/arts/1399204...

Dick Vivian, Rooky Ricardo’s Record Store Owner, Dies at 78 | KQED

The Lower Haight shop owner with a contagious love for music had been diagnosed with Stage 3 pancreatic cancer.

kqed.org

Refreshing refreshing refreshing the live updates about the mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle. Waiting for info, waiting to find out if I know them this time, waiting to understand why.

Only two more weeks to enter your sci-fi stories for the Protopian Prize, given to works that imagine positive futures for humanity, w/tech that serves the public interest. (I'm one of the judges!) Two winners get $5000 US each, and publication in an anthology from MIT Press! protopianprize.com

The Protopian Prize | The Fiction Contest

The Protopian Prize is a fiction contest inviting you to share your vision of people working toward liberatory futures, meeting obstacles, and making real change. “Protopian”—a word coined by Kevin ...

protopianprize.com

I watched this mini-documentary a couple weeks ago, and it lifted me and stuck with me, so I want to share it. It’s about Noble Signs in NYC; they make traditional, hand-crafted signs (and they house a sign museum, too). Love any reminder that there are tons of people out there doing quality work.

The Dying Art of Hand-Made Restaurant Signs | NYT Cooking

YouTube video by NYT Cooking

youtu.be

As *tech*, AI isn't exceptional. It's not exceptionally wicked. It's not exceptionally good. Take away the accompanying, galactic-scale stock-swindle, and we'd call AI's apps "plug-ins" and we'd use them and abuse them in the same way that we've used every other technology: www.normaltech.ai 1/