I've been up since 4. Jet lag! I've exercised, had coffee and breakfast, made lunch, did dishes, read a book, built a syllabus, showered, dressed, came to the office. Morning people, having lived your life? I hate it. 😅

If you teach music history responsibly, inevitably someone will inform you that you are doing it wrong by failing to focus on "the music itself", meaning "the notes on the page". The notes, being representative of specific pitches, are quantifiable in ways that history and politics simply are not.

Glenn Mackin@glennmackin.bsky.social · yesterday

Even without the AI crap, there is a strong tendency to substitute quantification for thinking, and exchanges of information for communication. And yes, it produces its own special form of stupidity

Looks like I'm teaching a 5th class this fall.

Holy shit. www.wired.com/story/a-civi...

Jet lag is rough. My kids are wonderful. Summer was long and rough. This year is going to be an act of endurance. And that's... just kind of what it is.

Watching my favorite World War 2 movie with my 12 year old.

Don Quixote, after getting his ass kicked by a windmill

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d ago

Trump: "Any country with windmills is a loser"

"The Education Department intends to use IRS data to determine students’ salaries four years after they graduate and compare them to those of people similar in age who just have high school diplomas". via @gsoh31.bsky.social

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

Flight crew switch as our flight was getting ready to board. Now we're waiting for a crew that's in another town, flying to us, hopefully arriving in an hour and 15ish? Maybe? FML

When this is over, the people who were behind RFKjr's Presidential run and getting him elevated to HHS need to be prosecuted too

When you hear of an incident between foreign countries, a good rule of thumb is to start with it likely has local causes. Spain and Morocco have their own shit. It’s not a dastardly (((globalist))) plot to make Europe less aryan, nor a dastardly Zionist plot to get Spain back for verbal criticism.

There’s “off the charts” and there’s France’s absolutely bonkers June & July 2026 temperatures (see black line below). Bad things are happening. Fast.

Jesus I'm tired. Two flights to go. Been awake since 11 pm yesterday CST.

Hi all! Just a reminder the CFP deadline for MAMG's annual asynchronous conference is approaching (3 Aug)! Our theme this year is 'Possible Worlds’ and ‘Possible Pasts’. The link below has the full CFP #MAMG #medieval #gamestudies @midagesmodgames.bsky.social tinyurl.com/MAMG2026

Goddammit.

Chad Loder@chadloder.dev · 4d ago

The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.

Goals for this week: 1. Deal with jet lag 2. Go to therapy 3. Build my syllabi 4. Take my older two boys to the new Spiderman 5 and most important. Snuggle my children.

This is the best educational resource available on the presidency of Franklin Pierce

The Presidents: Franklin Pierce

YouTube video by kylegordonisgreat

youtube.com

This is good. Whoever the nominee is needs to have this as the floor.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 4d ago

"“We need to revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts,” Harris said at the National Urban League’s annual conference...also calling for a review of the Electoral College and statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, DC." www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/p...

UEFA has given FIFA President Gianni Infantino an ultimatum: resign or face a no-confidence vote, The Telegraph reports . It says all 55 members would back it. Only 43 votes are needed.

Not only did they absolutely beg for this, they made it so that “merit” was synonymous with being white so now you’re stuck with precisely the kind of moron who believes that. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Ooo, this looks interesting. 🗃 #skystorians

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 5d ago

Joe's article also features in selection of recent 'Transactions' articles which consider 'The Historian's Craft and Practice: new writing on history teaching and historical research' bit.ly/4bPGJvW All 15 articles are published Open Access and free to read #Skystorians 2/2

The first amendment doesn't give you the right to ruin travel for everyone else. Imagine if she did this in a theater during a movie.

Jack Jenkins@jackjenkins.me · 4d ago

“…the airline said in a statement[:] ‘For the foreseeable future, the guest will not be permitted to travel on our flights.’” … “She said she wants to contact an attorney and intends to continue preaching on planes.” www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2026/...

this guy gets it

At the airport, waiting to fly back to the US. Ready to be home with my kids. But grateful I could be here, even if the reason was sad.

I cannot rest from discourse. I will see that film again tomorrow. I will drink life to the lees. Again I will enjoy greatly, will suffer greatly, both with those that love me, and in Pleasantville NY. I am become a meme. Film showing: burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/the-...

The Odyssey : Jacob Burns Film Center

The Odyssey, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Odysseus, Greek, Classic, Antiquity

burnsfilmcenter.org

A thread on how heroes like Dr. Anthony Fauci make Trump and the Republicans look like criminals by comparison. That's why they tried to destroy his good name. That's the story.

Delighted to see that the Routledge Companion to Video Games and History now has a webpage and a cover! There will be an ebook (which given the length of this I imagine will be many people's preferred reading approach), it just doesn't show on the page yet. www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

this is extremely good, not because I think Harris is likely to be the nominee again but because this is how expanding the Court becomes table stakes for everyone who wants to run for President

Taegan Goddard@politicalwire.com · 5d ago

Harris Says Supreme Court Should Expand to 13 Justices https://politicalwire.com/2026/07/31/harris-says-supreme-court-should-expand-to-13-justices/

So, this 1721 painting? This is the kind of stuff I mean. The Great Plague of Marseilles in 1720 (read @cindyermus.bsky.social 's book!) spread north, Le Puy quarantined, and the bishop had everyone pray to the Virgin to spare the town. And the plague didn't arrive, there was a healing miracle, so.

Thomas Lecaque@tlecaque.bsky.social · 6d ago

...going write a short thing on Marian miracles and processions in the early modern Auvergne...

The great historian Robert A. Gross, author of the prize-winning, The Minutemen and Their World, has written a historically-informed, nuanced rejoinder to J.D. Vance’s use of U.S. history as a tool of blood-and-soil nationalism. theamericanscholar.org/gratitude-is...

Gratitude Isn’t Everything - The American Scholar

The revolutionary Patriots owed much to their forefathers, but their fight for universal rights embraced a wider mission

theamericanscholar.org