Rachel Burdin

Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, I appreciated the opportunity to speak with you yesterday. I welcome further engagement around how we can (a) enhance the long-standing partnership between the federal government and this country's leading research universities and (b) ensure that higher education stays focused on academic excellence. As I shared on the call, I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact-whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House is the right way to focus America's leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission. Our universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law. Staying true to this responsibility is what will help American higher education build bipartisan public trust and continue to uphold its place as the envy of the world. We remain open to other ways to work with the federal government to enhance higher education. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President

For those unfamiliar with the local culture of hiding in a forest of trees and opaque discourse, allow me to translate: Dartmouth will not be signing the compact.

Heat map of travel efficiency, updated

“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.

We reject the compact.

Large crowd gathered in protest

Big crowd with signs reading “Don’t Fold” “Don’t Surrender”

BOOM!

After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe,

UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH!

✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾

M.I.T. ☑️
BROWN ☑️
PENN ☑️
USC☑️
UVA ☑️

This is People Power in Action.

#DefendHigherEd

FINAL BOSTON SUNSET @ 6:00 PM OR LATER UNTIL MARCH 8TH 2026 WEATHER IS HAPPENING LOGO & THE TIMESHIFT IN2 DARKNESS IS COMING SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1 SUNSET: 5:37 PM SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2 SUNSET: 4:35 IN UR AFTERNOON UR CORPORATOCRACY WILL AUTOMATICALLY CHANGE UR TIME

/ BOSTON
/ UR SUNSET THIS THURSDAY WAS @ 6:00 PM
/ THATS RITE
/ THE LAST SUNSET @ OR AFTER 6 PM UNTIL MARCH 8TH 2026
/ THATS NOT ALL
/ THE TIMESHIFT IS COMING
/ SUNSET SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1: 5:37 PM
/ SUNSET SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2: 4:35 IN UR AFTERNOON
/ UR CORPORATOCRACY WILL AUTOMATICALLY CHANGE UR TIME

From the taskmaster community on Reddit: "He's gone too Geordie for me!" Explore this post and more from the taskmaster community

www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster...

Chris Ramsey's really good in that one because he really shows off his GOAT and FACE monophthongization by saying NO WAY over and over again. Also, this clip

I used the "Shoe who?" task with Chris Ramsey (Northern), Bridget Christie (Cornwall), Judi Love (Black, from Hackney), Sophie Duker (also Black, from London, but posher), Ardal O'Hanlon (Irish), and then also you can get a clear bath/trap split comparison with Greg Davies vs. Alex Horne.

Yeah, we've got a whole lot of folks with French-Canadian heritage here in Northern New England because they came down to work in the textile mills in the early 1800s.

I'm a basic bitch, so either everything with plain cream cheese (not toasted) or plain with egg and cheese (yes toasted)

My "reasons to never donate to UNC again" list is getting pretty long now

oh so he’s GONE gone huh

As of 2018 there were more "X house of pizza" places in New Hampshire than there are towns

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

There's a house one block over we can see from the 2.5's room and now he just gleefully goes HALLOWEEN HOUSE when we're getting him ready for bed

Big news! Starting in 2027, @cambup-linguistics.cambridge.org will publish the Journal of Black Language and Culture (JBLAC)—a new LSA journal highlighting the richness of Black language & culture across the globe.
Learn more: www.lsadc.org/content.asp?... @acharityhudley.bsky.social

Chief Justice Roberts: If the Founders intended anything, it was to allow a strong executive branch where power was centered in a single person, to billet troops anywhere in the United States, regardless of what some dumb locals might think.

1, unless I'm feeling really ambitious/procrastinate-y, in which case I break out the H4N and Shure

Plus, I know *I* prefer getting a combo flu and COVID shot so I'm only miserable for one day instead of two. I obviously can't ask a 6 month old what they prefer but I assume they'd say the same!

Normal wellness visits when my kids were really little usually meant two days off of work for me: one day off for the visit, and then a second when they inevitably popped a fever later that day and were thus excluded under the sick policy for the next day.

Pregnant Women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS! President DJT

Setting aside the bad science, these recommendations will amplify the personal and professional burden that women face as family health managers. Because kids will need more medical visits and be more likely to get sick and very sick, meaning more time that moms will have to take off from paid work.

We got condolence cards from the vet's office, his main vet there, the emergency vet, and then Chewy sent us not one, but two identical cards. I appreciated them but I did kind of lose it at the second card from Chewy. Sending hugs 🫂

But he got your crewmates killed? I don't recall the details. He was a very magnetic person. He taught me a lot about whales. I don’t know anyone who showed that level of curiosity. Well, next time someone brings up a terrible anecdote about The Pequod I will definitely drop the "whale facts" thing to show that people have two sides. Yeah.

[new Isaac Chotiner interview]

Last week I went, you know what, Disney+ is kind of expensive anyway and most of what the kids watch is Bluey and Frozen, so why don't I just order those DVDs and be done with it and, that was the correct choice.

(We previously learned this lesson by buying all the Miyazakis and canceling HBO/Max.)

Rosh Hashanah ad in Yiddish for Kellogg’s cereals

Used to be that the cereal companies would take out full page ads in Yiddish in honor or Rosh Hashanah asking that THE ALMIGHTY GOD BLESS THE JEWISH PEOPLE

The Garden State is not a misnomer!!

AAUP President Condemns Political Firings of Texas Faculty, Calls for Reinstatements The sudden firings of faculty members this week at two Texas universities are serious violations of well-established standards and principles of academic freedom and tenure and set a dangerous new pre...

The AAUP calls on Texas A&M & Texas State to reverse the ideological firings of faculty members. We condemn the removal of the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences & the chair of the English department at Texas A&M for supporting the academic freedom of an instructor as a draconian abuse of power.

It is quite simply dishonest to describe TPUSA as a “free speech” organization and not even mention the “Professor Watchlist,” as NPR just did. Reporting on a crime does not entail adopting the victim’s views.

We spent years having an overheated moral panic about some left-wing undergrads protesting speakers or asking for trigger warnings on syllabi, while right-wing students have the power to shut down academic freedom for an entire major American university.

from one such conversation this morning

academic: "how are we going to avoid [X bad thing that happened] next time?"

business-brained leader: "we have a robust process in place to conduct a comprehensive program with all stakeholders"

"isn't that exactly how [X bad thing] happened?"

"well...yes"

I think it’s hard for outsiders to grasp how low staff and faculty morale get at universities where everyone’s job gets worse every year because there’s a hiring freeze and program cuts and any real money is locked up in new projects meant to help higher admin shine so they can move somewhere better