July 1978 on the Iron Curtain I was standing on the hood of a gun jeep staring through binoculars at a Czechoslovak guard tower. My buddy was standing next to me. We looked at each other, smiled, turned, bent over and pulled out pants down. The Czech guards took pictures. Good times!

Geologist Marie Tharp was born #OTD in 1920. She built the first accurate map of the Atlantic Ocean floor, discovering the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that provided evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. 🧪 👩‍🔬 Image: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Watching the #Startrek episode Plato's Stepchildren on @Metv. The episode is stolen by little person actor Micheal Dunn. His emotional dialogue about how the Platonians mistreat him is amazingly heartfelt and likely comes from personal experience. He went on to a career as character actor.

My father fought in the Korean war, he used to joke that three guys from the Ironbound went at the same time: him and two MPs (the war started exactly ten years to the day before I was born). Shrewd young whipper snapper loved to run and play But the draft board got him they inducted him today...

Binge watching my collection of Jack Taylor episodes. I realized I don't use the phrase 'Gobshiite' near enough.

My students once asked me what the nerdiest thing I know. I told them I knew the license plate number of Squad 51 from the old TV show Emergency. It's 999-007. Take that normal world!

1978 my unit the 3/35 Armor, had the duty to guard the Bamberg 'Muna' for a week (the weapons storage facility). At 3am I found myself on an ammunition bunker in the freezing cold that housed the TACNUK weapons. I was listening to Alan Parsons 'I Robot'. I defecated on it which seemed appropriate.

Found my box of vinyl records in the basement. My collection of late 70s concept albums: Alan Parsons, I Robot Heart, Dreamboat Annie ELO, A New World Record Pink Floyd, Dark side of the Moon others They don't makum like this anymore.

Randolph Mantooth, Johnny Gage from EMERGENCY! has passed at the age of 80. The show helped inspire cities across America to establish paramedic squads. If you were ever saved by firemen you have Squad 51 to thank. I watched this show religiously when I was 13 yo. www.legacy.com/legacy/notab...

I have the heart of a lion: I bought it in Munich in 1978, I keep it in a jar of formaldehyde on my desk in my home office.

Actor #SamNeill has passed away. Most people know him from Jurassic Park or the hunt for Red October- I will always remember him as Reilly Ace of Spies. www.usatoday.com/story/life/h...

Sam Neill was cancer-free just months before his death. His rare condition, explained

Sam Neill fought stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer, but found success in treatment with a clinical trial.

usatoday.com

“Socialist,” “communist,” and “Marxist” are not interchangeable.

The Steve McQueen movie Bullet can be a metaphor of life: Sometimes you drive the green Mustang and sometimes you drive the green Beetle.

I have heard or played #Brucespringsteen 'Fourth of July Asbury Park,' every July 4th since 1977. This year marks 49 times.

Rob Jennings on the Jersey Devil with my commentary. Happy Birthday America! www.nj.com/news/2026/07...

How a smear campaign by Ben Franklin actually started the Jersey Devil lore

A founding father's petty feud with a business rival gave birth to one of America's strangest legends.

nj.com

I feel this tactic was inevitable as it is disgusting. The history of modern genocide (1500->) does have this loose trend of auxiliary cutthroats giving way to 19th cen. industrialization giving way to mechanized mass murder of the 20th. With drones and auto-turrets, someone was going to do this.

elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · last mo.

The genocide is automated novaramedia.com/2026/07/01/i...

#OnThisDay in 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's theory of evolution through natural selection was read aloud at a meeting of the Linnean Society. It was the first time the idea was ever presented to an audience.

"If I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by any exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness." -- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

On this day in 1978 I boarded a bus to take me the Fort Knox Kentucky to begin basic cavalry/tank school. My dad, who drove a Meat Chopper in the Korean war, didn't want me to enlist. My entire life is a result of my time with the 'G.'

As a 12yo I felt so disappointed that besides the fact I watched #zoom religiously, I was never able to learn to speak Ubby Dubby.

Fanny Dooley hates #Trump but loves JD Vance.

JD Vance is less intelligent than Dan Quayle.

I'll give up my #algae when they pry it from my wet, slimey fingers!

I am enternally grateful to have been this man's student and colleague. Brian Regal is the man that made me a historian. He has a brand new book out, Darwin and the Monsters, and many more published prior that all deserve of your time. Thank you, sir, and Happy Birthday.

@Tarbosaur@tarbosaur.bsky.social · last mo.

Today I turned 66 years old (not many birthdays left). I outlived my dad by several years.

Today I turned 66 years old (not many birthdays left). I outlived my dad by several years.

Now with extended cfp deadline: July 31st

Leeds Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science@hpsleeds.bsky.social · 2mo ago

CFP: Global Childhood (s) and Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Leeds 16-18 November. Keynote by Dr Sebastián Gil-Riañ. Deadline for submissions June 22nd hpsleeds.wordpress.com/2026/06/02/c...

Once again, as I’ve noted multiple times before, Trump’s foreign policy isn’t really realist, or imperialist, or neoroyalist, or about spheres of influence, etc. Its sexual predation/abuse elevated the level of the state

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.

Q: What do you the allies to do more than what they are doing right now? TRUMP: I just want their loyalty. Just give us a little kiss. We don't want much. They say, 'No, we can't do it.'

Clara Immerwahr was born 156 years ago today. Germany's first woman to earn a PhD in chemistry, her career was brought to a screeching halt upon her marriage to chemist Fritz Haber, whose decision to work on poison gas during WWI was among the major contributors to her suicide. tinyurl.com/552h8wax

Casualty of Marriage: The Tragedy of Clara Immerwahr, Germany's first Woman Doctor of Chemistry

The lady researcherIs always fumbling about, searching and probing around her,For problems to fathom;She studies and parlays and memorizes and discussesbut can find no satisfaction.She searches out fa...

tinyurl.com

Does the Newark PD have this hit-and-run driver in cuffs yet?

talia jane@taliajane.bsky.social · 2mo ago

ICE/Geo drove into a demonstrator today.

Happy #father'sday2026 to my late dad Henry, the best man I ever knew.