"The kind of society that we want to have where we respect each other and we have respect for ourselves does not permit us to just embrace lies for the sake of some guy." — @jamellebouie.net Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04rRZHN0

Our descent into mean-spirited, selfish barbarism continues.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d ago

President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v

People in this country used to be afraid of announcing to the world that they were stone-cold idiots who shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel of a car. Now they're out here bragging about how dumb they are.

Razzball@razzball.bsky.social · 2d ago

The whole Mariners' pen believes Babe Ruth didn't exist. Kinda want all MLB players to believe this and make the owners agree to it in next CBA

It's nice that The Odyssey is getting its day in the sun as a synecdoche for history. But when this summer is over, it's back to the relentless, remorseless rise of Jane Austen.

Even if we completely agree on goals and values, it’s okay to have discussions about the best policies to attain them. Policy isn’t easy, and thinking things through is not a betrayal to the cause.

Are the senators, representatives, and governors of these states raising a huge outcry about this that I’m just not hearing?

Malhavic777@malhavic777.bsky.social · 3d ago

Trump is refusing 220 million dollars in disaster relief to Democrat led states. That alone should be a bipartisan impeachable offense. It should also be something that incites open revolt.

Mindscape Ask Me Anything | August 2026. There is only a tiny amount of basketball talk in the intro -- we saved the deeper dive for the end. (Could cave gone on so much longer.) #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...

#Baltimore winning as usual. linktr.ee/storybookmaz...

Dashingclaire@dashingclaire.bsky.social · 4d ago

The magical #book trolley #Baltimore 📚💙 ✏️🖤

OMG they just unveiled the mascot… MAYBELLE THE MASCOT #WPBL

Some initial thoughts, and a complicated mix of feelings. Wow. I mean, Erdos problems are cool (I genuinely mean that), I didn't know about the Jacobian conjecture before it got disproved. But this newest batch from OpenAI hits home in a way the previous announcements did not.

Review: Yes, we’re still arguing about Christopher Nolan’s "The Odyssey." The director's impressionistic remix of Homer’s epic poem finds the man behind the myth. arstechnica.com/culture/2026...

Review: Yes, we're still arguing about Nolan's The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan's impressionistic reinterpretation of Homer's epic poem finds the man behind the myth.

arstechnica.com

Wow. Impressive findings (and impressive structures).

alan yuhas@ayuhas.bsky.social · 5d ago

hundreds of ancient geoglyphs found in the Amazon www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/w...

If you have an academic in your life, please be gentle with them this weekend because they're probably freaking the fuck out.

Joseph M. Adelman@jmadelman.bsky.social · 5d ago

Because the 1st is a Saturday, “How is it August already?!” will be observed today, Friday, July 31, 2026. Please panic accordingly.

Wow! ICE’s airport arrests of people seemingly waiting in government immigration backlogs caught up a Fulbright scholar and public health researcher working at Johns Hopkins in their public health department. Not exactly the “worst of the worst”! Yet they threw her in detention anyway.

Baltimore Banner@thebaltimorebanner.com · 6d ago

ICE detains Hopkins public health researcher as agency expands airport arrests

I just realized that I have a higher h-index than Richard Feynman. In case you were tempted to believe that the h-index is a good way of judging who is an influential scientist.

bought candy at the pool for a 13yo and she tried to give me cash. i was like nahh it's nbd, and she goes "girl i have seen your car." 13yo girls remain undefeated. you think you're talking to a child but you're actually talking to whatever gods used to send to punish mortals for their hubris

Gotta convince Christopher Nolan to make a film about the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Tobias Wilson-Bates@phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 6d ago

If there’s one thing Alexander Pope taught us, it’s that translators of the Odyssey are a calm bunch who never pick public fights with anyone

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

The Fauci show trial is an amazing illustration of the fundamental immaturity and insecurity of the modern right. What really outrages them is that he dared to suggest that people make sacrifices for the common good. So much of X/techbro/manosphere thought is just insisting that should never happen.

when every celebrity with a Philly connection tries showing up to a LeBron Sixers game after being Lakers/Knicks fans for the past decade

This Fauci hearing is the biggest explosion of right wing brainworms I've ever seen. Years of debunked and absurd antivax and "gain of function" conspiracy theories expressed as incoherent screaming at an 85 year old man. It's absolutely demented and embarrassing to watch.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Moreno to Fauci: "Who the fuck did you think you were?"

Wrote two lines of Javascript to make news websites actually look like what they *feel* like to me

mildly funny that X is having blazing rows about Nolan’s Odyssey because he cast black people in it and Bluesky is having blazing rows about whether a noted Homeric translator’s LRB review of it misses the point or not

Applications now open for Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships at @sfiscience.bsky.social! apply-sfi.smapply.org/prog/complex...

What do rubber ducks have to do with learning and AI? You can find out in my TEDx talk, released today as an Editor’s Pick at the YouTube TED Channel! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbiy...

How you can learn in a world of information overload | Tania Lombrozo | TEDxNewEngland

YouTube video by TEDx Talks

youtube.com

Mindscape 362 | Luis Bettencourt on the Universal Properties of Self-Organizing Cities. My favorite fact will always be that the speed with which people walk down the street scales with urban density. #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...

This'll help a bit : )

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · 2w ago

I think I've actually made the icons too small this month. Normally, I'm scrambling at this point, but I've got 8 days left in July and *so* much space.

We don’t want to suggest that all of Emily Wilson’s subsequent good fortune is due to appearing as a guest on #MindscapePodcast. preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024...

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz@igallupd.bsky.social · 2w ago

“A Penn professor thought she’d sell 1000 copies of her ‘Odyssey’ translation. She sold a million this year alone, thanks to Christopher Nolan.” “West Philly's Emily Wilson, who penned a highly acclaimed translation of the epic poem in 2017, is having a big summer.”

Coppin State University desperately needed new students. So the HBCU in Baltimore began offering in-state tuition rates to those coming from states without HBCUs. Interest has since skyrocketed. The gamble behind Maryland’s most affordable university: www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

The gamble behind Maryland’s most affordable university

Rather than raising tuition to bring in more revenue, Coppin State University slashed it, wagering that a more affordable college would draw more students.

thebanner.com

Great point. Many rules made sense for some context and some time. Bureaucracies generally do a very bad job with ongoing rule maintenance— going through the whole list, making sure everything is rational and useful.

Jacqueline Antonovich@jackiantonovich.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm super happy that Mamdani is cutting red tape for small businesses. Frozen dessert permits seem frivolous now, but ice cream used to be really deadly! Absent good sanitary practices, it used to be carry of all sorts of diseases (remember typhoid mary?). The initial law was a public health win!