In my forthcoming book, I include a small anecdote about a woman physician convicted of performing an abortion in Arizona in the early 20th-century served only a few months of her sentence because it was standard that prison officials release female inmates in the summer because of the heat.

Prison Policy Initiative@prisonpolicy.org · 7h ago

A blistering reminder that only 5 U.S. states provide air conditioning in all prison units. And states like Texas and Florida, known for sweltering heat, are not among them:

A hearty f*** you to Adobe for the platform-wide licensing system that makes it impossible for me to use both my university license to Acrobat Pro and my personal license to their Creative Suite at the same time. I remember when buying a software package meant you could use it, no bullshit.

A note on Royce White, the former NBA player who says he's entering the WNBA draft, a judge ruled he abused his wife and teenage son in an April court order and determined he could not have contact with either of them for 50 years. Great way to "protect women's sports" transphobes.

*I fall off the kitchen counter, smacking my head and making the loudest noise of all time* My dog, sprinting in: IS THERE FOOD ON THE FLOOR

Practice saying "Mind your own business." Use it liberally when random strangers offer critiques of your life choices.

If you alter the way you write, these motherfuckers have won. Change nothing. Be yourself. Em Dash it up. Go to town. Have an em dash dance party. Use any POV you want. Write as you have always written. (Unless, you know, you want to change style for reasons of levelling-up, or whatever).

Manisha Krishnan@manishakrishnan.bsky.social · 2w ago

Authors and journalists are doing more first-person (hello 2010s blogging) and embracing "mistakes" in writing to prove they're not chatbots. There's even an “anti-Grammarly" app that leaves in typos and signs off "sent from my iPhone" to create more authenticity: www.wired.com/story/more-t...

Let people like things. Let people who are not you like things you do not like. We were possibly delayed in our arrival home by a solid 3-4 seconds by the light-bearing stream of joy, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a person who was upset about that.

Last night I saw a massive scooter gang riding through the streets of Minneapolis, lights on in the dark, laughing and whooping, and it was glorious, and I felt so lucky to be in my city. I had seen the video from the person who was afraid, and it didn't look scary, but: even less scary in person.

That means "No." Do these guys really think we can't hear them?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5h ago

BRENNAN: You are confident Blanche will uphold the Constitution with the upcoming elections? CASSIDY: Of course there's always existential anxiety. But I am ... as confident as you can be about the future you are. I cannot predict the future

(historians taking notes)

Ryan Howard from The Office: Noted

ALT: Ryan Howard from The Office: Noted

static.klipy.com

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5h ago

BRENNAN: You are confident Blanche will uphold the Constitution with the upcoming elections? CASSIDY: Of course there's always existential anxiety. But I am ... as confident as you can be about the future you are. I cannot predict the future

Yeah, basically everyone playing college football at this point was born in the 2000s and that's a hell of a thought to think

Megan Macmanus@meganmacmanus.bsky.social · 5h ago

As college football season ramps up, there is a very strange disconnect in my brain with looking at all of these little babies on the field. Didn't they used to be hot??? And old??? They are all now wee bairns

the discourse is wild, man. bluesky is like the least horny place on the entire internet, then one director was like "I cut nude scenes out of my sex movie" and INSTANTLY everyone demanded nudity. and frankly I'm here for it. let's see it all hanging out, baby. for art. respectfully of course.

He's actually LESS successful than Riley Gaines in the realm of sport, and that bar is so mind-bogglingly low you would need a metal detector and shovel to find it.

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist@nameshiv.bsky.social · 5h ago

keeping with the tradition of it always being some mediocre bum whose athletic career basically doesn't exist, reminder that Royce White and you have scored the same number of points in the NBA

"...Salem just reminded the industry that community consent isn't a formality you schedule around — it's a variable that can stall a $5.1 billion project before a single permit clears." This is the important part. This is action.

Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans)@iwriteok.bsky.social · 3d ago

Ahhh, Oregon

The Senate's pause of the OMB proposal is a huge win and shows that taking action makes change, but the fight’s far from over. We need MoCs to take the next step and Revoke the Rule permanently. Contact your MoCs: zurl.co/ygDdC #Vought #Science #SaveScience #StandUpForScience #RevokeTheRule

Mamdani is not unique in being a NYC mayor known around the world. Guiliani and Bloomberg were certainly well known (albeit for different reasons). People still pay attention to NYC. It's the financial capital of the world's largest economy. What happens there echoes around the globe.

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist@nameshiv.bsky.social · 5h ago

Mamdani is truly unique because trying to imagine anyone in the world even being aware of what the mayor of any city not in their country is named, let alone having opinions on his view of domestic national policy 30 years before either of you was born and so far I got nothing

Mamdani is truly unique because trying to imagine anyone in the world even being aware of what the mayor of any city not in their country is named, let alone having opinions on his view of domestic national policy 30 years before either of you was born and so far I got nothing

Sky Marchini@sky.skymarchini.net · 14h ago

also this is a kiwi why the fuck do they have opinions on the mayor of new york city, which is 14,000 kilometers from where they live

on two occasions I have run into a dude who went with the "I identify as a woman" thing because he thinks its really funny and my learning has been that if you take his word for it and start calling him a woman he stops finding it funny in about 1 second and starts getting upset & so you don't stop

Jeff Bezos has just been crowned the world's third richest person...while Amazon dodges billions in tax. Right now, governments are negotiating new global tax rules. Tell the UK Government: don't cave to the super-rich. act.38degrees.org.uk/act/stronger...

Stop companies like Amazon from paying a fraction of what they should in tax.

Jeff Bezos has just been crowned the world's third richest person...while Amazon dodges billions in tax. Right now, governments are negotiating new global tax rules. Tell the UK Government: don't cave...

act.38degrees.org.uk

Banger of an essay, as the kids say: One line of many excellent points: “under capitalism, the diagnosis is the ration book. In a society that refuses to soften its demands for anyone without paperwork, the diagnostic label is the only key that opens the locked doors”

Ann Memmott@annmemmott.bsky.social · 7h ago

www.linkedin.com/pulse/narrow... What a write up! Goodness me, this is good. About e.g. the 'rise' of autism and ADHD. And why the world simply made us visible, then blamed us for it.

81 years ago today, on August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped upon the city of Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States. This was 3 days after the first atomic attack on Hiroshima.

Historians may have played a decisive role last week in a judge's ruling that overturning a school board's decision to change the names of public school honoring Confederate generals ignored its impact on Black students. Historians matter. #CivilWarMemory 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/what-the-h...

What the Historians Proved in Shenandoah County, Virginia

Expert testimony from two historians helped overturn a school board's 2024 decision, and showed exactly why the profession still matters.

kevinmlevin.substack.com

I think a really important thing to keep in mind about not just young people but everyone: technology use is a really flawed proxy for technology acceptance. So even people who frequently use gen AI often feel reluctant or conflicted or pressured.

Excellent piece highlighting student voices on gen AI in higher education, including MS student Mirakle (pictured!) in my lab who is leading research on college student AI resisters. I can only assume that leadership at many universities are making incorrect assumptions about student attitudes.

Elizabeth Hernandez@lizzy-hernandez.bsky.social · 2d ago

New: Universities (CU, CSU, others nationwide) are partnering with AI giants like ChatGPT to roll out university-sanctioned AI Hear from the students resisting & why some liken their opposition to wartime conscientious objectors www.denverpost.com/2026/08/07/c... via @denverpost.com #EdColo #AI

this whole thread, but also I am just finishing this excellent book which I recommend. As we say, I have learned a lot from reading it.

Alex Wellerstein@wellerstein.bsky.social · 7h ago

Rather, I want to just focus on one thing that I expand upon at some length in my STILL PRETTY NEW book about Truman and the atomic bomb. (Which you should read, I think!) Namely, Nagasaki and Truman. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...

Please stop paying for anything Harry Potter. This is where your money is going. At this point, you're not an ally, you're an abuser and we're your victim.

this. stop. direct harm and directly used to bully and also influence political decisions.

Amber@risettemd.bsky.social · 7h ago

Please stop paying for anything Harry Potter. This is where your money is going. At this point, you're not an ally, you're an abuser and we're your victim.

as someone whose job is like 40% studying fascism, i think it's important to read what fascists wrote about themselves and disregarding everything that comes out of that milieu is disposable is crass anti-intellectualism at best and if you don't want to do that, you shouldn't say shit about it

@timoconnorbl.bsky.social · 11h ago

The thing about Carl Schmitt is he was a bloody Nazi, an *unrepentant* Nazi, and basic intellectual hygiene requires damnatio memoriae that, frankly, is still too good for the creature. You cannot touch pitch undefiled, and the likes of Schmitt were just black-tar Brownshirts with a thesaurus.

Here's a bit of good news www.cleveland.com/news/2026/08...

Ohio Supreme Court protects public vote in data center fight

The unanimous ruling said the village never explained why a 30-day delay would harm the EdgeConneX project.

cleveland.com

The age of fossil fuels is ending

Ada Palmer@adapalmer.bsky.social · 6h ago

The Bank of England is cutting coal from its collateral. From October 2026, the central bank will stop accepting bonds linked to thermal coal as security against its loans to commercial banks, a step stricter than the European Central Bank’s. The Guardian buff.ly/Z9NcPKL #ShareGoodNewsToo