Truly a maddening text
I wrote two books on science & the Cold War, formerly @ColdWarScience. Developmental editor to the should-be stars. Mostly Philly, sometimes Indiana, always weaving.
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Truly a maddening text
Speaking some time this morning inside Vannevar Bush’s head and am once again gobsmacked by his combination of settler colonial jingoism and clear insights on the importance of knowledge to a healthy society
I wrote about the groypers and the Fuentes-Kirk fight years ago, in Hate in the Homeland. Cautioning here that there is still a lot to know about the shooter’s motivation, I’m sharing these two paragraphs here to set the history of this fight in context:
in retrospect, there’s probably never been a name as threatening as “America Online”
Taps the sign
I am beginning to think the internet was not a good idea
TIL that for some people with irreparably damaged corneas, you can pull one of their teeth, drill a hole in it, install an artificial lens, sew it into their cheek (so tissue attaches), then pull it out and stick it in their damaged eye, and ... it works fine!?! www.nbcboston.com/news/health/...
Hanks and Davis were more gracious, bc of course they were
The town itself is not exactly a draw, as Madonna told anyone who’d listen during filming
The only thing better than watching the movie is watching a terrible Evansville Otters game at Bosse Field, where it was filmed. Should you ever find yourself there on a game night, don’t miss it. It’s magic.
Taking my own advice and logging off for a bit, later loves
Grateful for the supposed echo chamber this morning, since it’s the only thing tethered to reality
I haven’t been an acquiring editor in nearly 20 yrs but my default anxiety dream for years has changed from college-type dreams to “I haven’t transmitted a manuscript in 6 months, will anyone notice”
I too had a strong reaction this time around (spikevax), finally felt better after about 60 hrs
Reading all your theories on Dem politicians and media writers’ fawning statements with great interest bc I, for one, do not get it
one of the most depressing things of the last decade or so is realizing how many friends/ colleagues/ leaders are (a) actually sympathetic to bad faith fascistic attacks (on public goods, education, vulnerable peoples, etc.), or (b) just simply not up to the moment we find ourselves in
I am finding this very confusing. Or perhaps confusing is not the right word.
It’s unsettling
I hope that Jezebel writer bought the full protection package
And not just feds
Today is a good day to remember that posts are public and available to state agencies
settings > content & media > autoplay video & gifs = off
Actually there are no circumstances whatsoever where you kind of have to hand it to the Klan
When Campus Reform and Turning point came after professors and created the professor watchlist, administrators didn't pay attention..Now they are being fired and attacked. Maybe institutions should have done more to protect academic freedom....
The MAHA movement has destroyed our ability to make jokes about post vaccine malaise, one more tiny but meaningful reason it must be destroyed
Part of my editor's note on our suspension between states of democracy and authoritarianism www.dissentmagazine.org/article/fall...
There’s finally some good news in the fight against rising authoritarianism, and it’s been my honor to have been one of the attorneys on this. apnews.com/article/atla...
I am pro-vaccines but ngl this spikevax has knocked me out like vaccine original flavor. Get your shot but give yourself some downtime (she says while sneezing)
It’s a HUGE issue in fiber arts, particularly weaving (many major suppliers are in Canada, India, and NZ)
Meanwhile AHA continues to wonder why so many people let their membership lapse
My arm hurts, but it’s worth it. And yes, I am posting whatever to scrub that cursed screenshot off the timeline
No problem whatsoever, Philadelphia, come get your shots
Having now signed two emails “beset,” gonna roll with it
Alright, so I've been afraid to say this out loud, but I think after today, I can say it: In the first Battle of Los Angeles, the good people of LA County have prevailed. We beat ICE back. 1/
Has the man never read a sociological ethnography? (Rhetorical question)
Does he not know that anthropologists are social scientists?
Is this regardless of print run? Bc the folks saying “that’s a pittance in royalties” may not be particularly familiar with how most non-trade publishers work.
This is not a dunk on anyone in particular, but allow me to illustrate with an example from my own writing: "The natural and sharp signs rarely appear in Agricola's examples, but their occurrences are revealing of Agricola's thinking." 🧵
Which is, of course, different from actually receiving a shot. Will report back Monday!
FWIW I have booked an appointment for Monday at a CVS in Philadelphia just by clicking on a box saying that I would be at risk from complications
I once saw Elizabeth Warren and Angus King at a bar
My book is absolutely great. My book is absolutely great. This is my mantra as I read it for the nth time while doing copyedit corrections. Please you guys preorder this book because I have suffered to deliver it to you lolsob (actually it really is great I’m just tired, please preorder)
It’s so gross
Also TIL mice hoard pet food caches in surprising places, like inside your stove
The simple pleasure of finding a good appliance repair guy
Perfect for the little ones!
A good use for some of the more, uh, mature beans!
Off topic for the end of the world but: gimme your most delicious ways to eat green beans. (There are more in the fridge)
The Tuskegee Butterfly Effect
Airplane mode for ebooks; audiobooks for crafts; using Libby’s tagging feature as a TBR list when the hold queue is full. When I have no books, I can generally find something available immediately on the list.
Can’t know for sure, but I’ve had at least two projects where my job appears to have been making AI-generated documents, likely based on other, original documents, cohere as a book. A little different than AI-generated slop, but still, not great. www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
Freelancers are likely not at liberty to speak more plainly about the degradation of working for clients who don’t believe in the so-called human touch enough to just hire them to do the job in the first place.
Don't feel like doing a repost that puts the murder video on the timeline yet again but do feel like repeating the point that the president just straight-up assassinated 11 people for supposedly doing something that wouldn't be a death-penalty crime if they were caught and convicted
Fitting that the current administration would celebrate the legacy of Project Paperclip
The Rock is definitely prepping for the role of a lifetime in a Michel Foucault biopic
Oh my god
TIL, via a bumper sticker, of the unfortunately named “Elon College”
so I obviously just posted a piece from 2020/1 re how CDC is a target for these administrations... WHY insist on sticking with "politics is now prioritized over science" framing... is this *the* problem to be addressed here, when we know the presumed opposition between "politics" + "science" isn't
Or even funding
The so-called Golden Age of US science was based on Cold War logic and material needs. YES WE NEED SCIENCE AND EXPERTS but any defense of contemporary US science that primarily channels anti-Communism c. 1949 is not the path to liberation
Yes, of course, everything this admin is doing to science is terrible etc etc BUT ALSO the US’s commitment to “basic science” was a) explicitly designed to counter a caricature of Soviet science and b) ignored the massive defense $$ behind IS science www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/s...
This video inoculates you against despair
Dear people who are saying that the CDC directors who quit yesterday should have “stayed and fought”, With all due respect, you do not grasp the magnitude of the problem of RFK Jr. He is asking them to do unethical and immoral things that will actively harm the people of the United States. 1/3
This is a hell of a letter. “The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines…will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer….Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated…”
Everything about this story is bananas, but especially the part about cops solving crimes
Call for Papers! 🧵 The Public's Science–A New Social Contract for American Research Policy a Special Issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Editors: Alondra Nelson (IAS) and Jenny Reardon (UC, Santa Cruz) Abstract Deadline: Sept 19 www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/pub...
Aren’t they known for their ham??
It enrages me how useful grant proposals are lol Also, related, one of the ways that cancelling future grant opportunities harms science is that it scales back a process that often helps scientists really think through our ideas When we do less of it, the science can suffer
I continue to be astonished that only a handful of national-level Dems are calling this what this is, rising authoritarianism and fascism. Is it fear? Cowardice? A sublimated desire for this outcome all along?
Maybe I should move to Illinois, either Lawrenceville or Mt Carmel are spectacularly boring
It sounds naive, I'm sure, but looking back over the last 20-odd years of discussions about what is wrong with academia and how or how not to fix it, the idea that scholars produce knowledge (not just jobs, tech, or texts), and that that is an important social good, is largely and strikingly absent.
Insisting on expertise over ideology is not “politicizing” science. The ideologues installing scientific and governmental policy that is contradicted by evidence and data are. By emphasizing ideology over expertise, THEY have made arguing for expertise and evidence-based decision making partisan.
Yes; I read it this morning, it explains a lot about why universities have been so…credulous…about AI
his most recent piece is here: www.compactmag.com/article/the-...
Just read that story yesterday, as a chaser to MONEY GO UP, it’s bananas
I don’t think I had fully metabolized the news that CHICAGO is pausing PhD admissions in HISTORY OF SCIENCE? www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...
The unspoken addition to my prior reply about subcontractors I have worked with is “once”
Reminder that Third Way is a bunch of Republicans and Politico is owned by a right winger. Consider calculating your interest in the latest attention-farming accordingly.
Having had this experience with subcontractors: YES
This is awful news for many reasons. I so appreciate seeing this solidarity. I have many questions and mixed feelings about alarmism. We should be sounding the alarm about our mutual conditions and threats—though the latter also well exceed the current admin. www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...
Been reading about Southern Cone politics in the 60s and 70s and it’s not looking great for us
Saying this again: there is a scammer out there targeting newbie authors, claiming I'm one of their clients. They use different names, and I'm already pursuing legal action. But I have never worked with a PR company, editing service, or book packager, so anybody saying so is lying, period full stop.
New— Nazis with giant swastika flags marched in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday with two police escorts. They shouted “white power” and said to the woman who took this video (reshared here with her permission) “fuck you, n***** bitch.” Police did not intervene. I cannot find local news coverage.
ALL Haymarket Books are 40% off through August 22nd! ✊🏾✊🏿✊🏽
casually stepping on the bloodied face of the rat you just killed while surveilling the scene is a big mood and I’m kinda feeling it?
Hello, science has never been apolitical and I wrote a book about one of the ways that USians came to think that it was. Please read it and stop saying stupid shit. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
Louisville (SDF) is a perfect airport. It’s big enough to have direct flights to useful places, small enough to get around quickly, and the rental cars are right outside baggage claim. Also, TSA won’t give you a hard time about a hand cooler filled with frozen, badly butchered venison.
Leningrad? 👀👀
This is my philosophy in a nutshell: Expertise good! Technocracy bad!
Amazed at the complicated theories explaining the president’s approach to DC when “racism” is right there
The thing about never having published a book before is that no one has published a book before they’ve published a book. I think there’s way LESS inherited wisdom with publishing than many assume. I promise most ppl don’t know more than you—and that’s OK! Read directions, ask Qs. It’s all good.
This is so deeply disturbing, in part because I don’t know where or how it stops.
Is he even pretending there’s an “emergency” in DC? Does anyone in Congress care?
Reason no. 28 to not customize your proposal for different presses: You will make mistakes! One document, various cover emails.
Set me up with two carders, a wheel, and a loom and I can get you fleece to fabric
Human rights are good, actually 👀
It’s kind of funny how many ppl have gotten the “l’ve resigned” auto-reply from my old uni employer, found an alt contact for me, and written with an invitation to contribute substantial pro bono service to another institution — along with a reassurance that I’m still qualified + eligible to serve 😅
In this powerful essay Beata Tsosie-Peña reflects on the experience of being a Native woman living adjacent to a nuclear weapons facility, and calls us into urgent action to protect our land, air, foods, and waters. #NewMexico #Pueblo tewawomenunited.org/2025/07/a-te...
This year, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which claimed 200,000+ lives. Today's nuclear states possess weapons over 100x more powerful than these bombs. We must keep fighting for a world without nuclear weapons.
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