The fundamental, delicious paradox of studying history is that: 1. These people are radically different from me, and I may never properly understand them. 2. These people are exactly like me.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · last wk.

one tendency that comes out about period films is the insistence that XYZ moral thought would not have occurred to anyone in the ancient world. to be sure there are moral innovations and changes but the existence of thorough dissatisfaction with the present moral order is not a modern phenomenon

This is magnificent

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3w ago

I try not to overdo this bit but ... my man is begging for it. Let's go.

Whatever your feelings are about AI it is essential to understand that ChatGPT is *not* a search engine even though its output might look similar. If you treat it like one you will provoke mistakes because you don't understand the tool you are using.

Holden Thorp@holdenthorp.bsky.social · 3w ago

Hi, this is Holden emerging from my Bluesky hiatus to tell everyone that when checking the links in the piece, I used ChatGPT as my search engine (does anyone use Google anymore?). The piece was written by me and edited by humans. So all the links were checked by me and again by our copyeditors.

JKR and her new org apparently helped get the new Amnesty International report on how TERF organizations destroy lives taken down from their site. Well, guess what? The Streisand Effect is real. Here's the entire report in a thread. Read it. Share it.

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 3w ago

Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours, GC groups threatened defamation lawsuits and Amnesty was forced to pull it down. Proving the point they're anti rights. Anyways, here it is.

In the well-over 100,000 documents written by founders included in the Founders Online database from the National Archives, no one uses the phrase "God's noble experiment." No one.

TMZ DC with perhaps the most brutal video from Trump's Great American State Fair, showing Dr. Oz on stage bragging to Dean Cain about how big the crowd is, only for the reporter to pan around and show absolutely nobody is there. Original post: x.com/i/status/207...

My nine year old asked for a Rosetta Stone cake for his birthday

[taking the deepest possible breath] the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602,

Today's Daily Cartoon for @newyorker.com by Kevin Maher and me.

164 years ago, on the 13th of May 1862, Robert Smalls escaped slavery by capturing the steamboat 'Planter' and steering it through Confederate lines. The US Navy commissioned it as the USS Planter and appointed Smalls as captain, making him the first black man to command a US ship. #otd #history 🗃️

interesting rationale from a prospective juror in the Elon Musk Twitter stock manipulation case

i remember learning "there is no silver bullet" in my cs classes and it's bleakly hilarious that all tech speculation now is "what if we made a silver bullet? we will add the line 'you are the silver bullet' to claude's code"

While the world’s eyes are on fashion’s biggest night, we’re turning ours to the garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running. From true love found on the picket line to a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement — meet the New Yorkers who make it all possible.

Richard Dawkins: Trans women aren't real Also Richard Dawkins: AIs are conscious and my Claude is a Claudia

Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · 3mo ago

In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis. Paywall bypass: archive.is/6RdK9

I realize this is obvious to most but allow me to rant: At the core of Trump's base love for him is a simmering resentment over their mediocrity and gratitude for him making it permissible to be arrogant whilst mediocre. Everything in this cult can be traced back to that. (thread)

Ah! 19 April – 126th anniversary of the day William Butler Yeats kicked Aleister Crowley downstairs as they fought for control of the British branch of the not-at-all-ridiculous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the Battle of Blythe Road. According to legend, anyway... 🧵

I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.

The best way to explain AI in humanities classrooms is as kudzu. Much as kudzu was introduced in the 19th century and later touted for its ability to stop erosion in the 1930s, AI is invasive, takes constant culling, and instead of stopping erosion is in actuality consuming our individuality.

housing is more expensive now, but also a lot safer. this kind of home was considered cream of the crop in the 1980s

do I really have the energy for another round of 'why the Easter elements you think are pagan aren't, and why a load of Easter elements most people haven't even heard of probably are'

I wrote about Kat.

Kat.

benhiiv.beehiiv.com

When all the other time travelers are busy killing Hitler, I’m gonna take out Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Django Wexler@djangowexler.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Reading news and found a new favorite example of false nostalgia

Written English has barely changed in 300 years. If you can read Harry Potter, you can read Robinson Crusoe (1719).

I just signed an executive order instructing @boston.gov departments to take a range of actions to protect our residents and make clear that we will hold anyone accountable who commits violence, property damage, or any criminal conduct in the City of Boston—including federal officials.

Thinking about whoever said that by accepting a meal from people and then arresting them ICE agents broke a cultural taboo that was invented by, like, the first humans to set up a tent

Downfall Bovino Edition. You're welcome.

Thank god Chuck Schumer isn’t alive to see this.

If only you were in a position of power to exercise some kind of leverage against the administration to make this happen.

Chuck Schumer@schumer.senate.gov · 6mo ago

ICE out of Minnesota NOW.

my Blackest opinion is that the presumption of conflict between "America has a long and deeply rooted history of violence" and "we can and should fight against today's version of that, as did those who came before us" is less a philosophical debate about how to treat the past and more a skill issue