Scott Reynolds Nelson

Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet.

Hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software, Persona. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet, and that was just the beginning.

www.therage.co/persona-age-...

Thanks Ben, you made my day!

Image of Scott Nelson talking to fund managers at a Renmac conference. Someone points out that he looks like Thanos.

New anxiety unlocked: does my discussion of financial disasters in the past make me look like Thanos?

This 1910 Puck magazine cartoon shows the Hearst family using the media to transform the public sphere. Beginning in 1872 the San Francisco Examiner had criticized ruthless mining tycoon George Hearst for his corrupt dealings in building up the Eureka Consolidated Mining Corporation. To shut down criticism, George Hearst finally bought the newspaper in 1880. In 1887, after the California legislature made him a Senator, George Hearst gave the newspaper to his son William Randolph Hearst who used it to distort the US public sphere by transmitting "venom," "self-advertisement," "misrepresentation," and "personal grievance" in what came to be called yellow journalism. The man in the clown suit should not be confused with Elon Musk, son of emerald mining tycoon Errol Musk

From the Journal of the Civil War Era: I have a piece on how the "diploma divide" & the manipulation of new media - then & now - shaped elections. Mostly I am fond of this dig at Elon Musk & the dad he wants everyone to forget. Issue: muse.jhu.edu/issue/56406 My piece: muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/artic...

Linear Algebra
Medieval France and Spain
Hegel
19th c. Russian Literature
Programming the 6502

(talk about a dog's breakfast)

PowerShell architect retires after decades at the prompt : After Microsoft, Google, and a long fight for automation, Jeffrey Snover hangs up his keyboard

Remember entering a room full of workstations and having to babysit them for 3 hours while they updated? I do. Thanks, Jeffrey. • The Register share.google/mWuY6oajBa2R...

This IS indeed very much worth reading.

[Gift article]

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

painting of the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg, where 262 men charged six times their number of Confederates and halted them

POV: you are A.P. Hill on July 2, 1863, and you could have sworn you just heard someone say “I don’t plan to let you do that” in a Minnesota accent

Consistent with their agenda of disabling a pluralistic, democratic society, the broligarchy is engaged in an effort to seize control of media, both traditional and social. With Donald Trump's blessing, they are trying to control media so that, as in Orban's Hungary or Chavez's Venezuela, the only political news that we see is what the authoritarian powers want us to see.

Essential read from @pkrugman.bsky.social on the tech bros media scheme:

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/maga-the-b...

Associate or Full Professor for the John C. Inscoe Chair in Southern History in Athens, GA for University of Georgia Department of History Exciting opportunity in Athens, GA for University of Georgia Department of History as a Associate...

Friends in African-American history. Come be our colleague at UGA!

careers.historians.org/jobs/2180454...

holy goddamn

Rasmus Jarlov on Twitter writes: "There is nothing to celebrate. Moving from average tariffs of less than 2% on trade between the USA and Europe to 15% under today’s deal will inevitably lead to inflation. Almost everything will become more expensive in both Europe and the USA, and we will all be worse off. The economic illiteracy in the White House is doing serious damage to the West." Stylish Skunk replies: "I have a feeling you have 0 idea what you're talking about. In fact I know you do." Rasmus Jarlov responds: "Of course. I am former minister of trade in Denmark and you are an anonymous Twitter profile. You probably know a lot more than me. For sure."

lol

It is now clear that average tariffs on August 1 are set to be higher than they were on "Liberation Day." Only a fool would look back to the chaos of early April and conclude that the problem was that the announced tariffs were too small.

If you're not worried, you're not paying attention.

Ulric Ellherhausen's 1931 typanum over the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago showing Eastern Phoenicians, Persians, and Egyptians passing writing to the west

Just a reminder as Netanyahu bombs Tehran to the Stone Age, that most of "western civilization" (including writing, higher math, brass, wheat) actually came to us from North Africa via Persia

I have access through Newsbank if that doesn't work out

An instagram post of a person holding a copy of the Ukrainian translation of Scott Reynolds Nelson's book, Oceans of Grain in front of a marble archway

Look at the cover of the Ukrainian translation of my book! #booksky #WhatsHistory www.instagram.com/p/DI1ok8gN4Y...

Corey Wiley on Twitter writes: "You don’t get it. Foundational immigration law is morally just and has been established over millennia. Disrespecting these rules and ideals is very offensive to folks who highly value civilized society"

Not true.

I see you're a luxury watch dealer. I'm also interested in watches. Let me show you how free and easy migration has allowed you to earn a living. 🧵

YouTube video by More Perfect Union Elon Musk Built an Al Super Computer in Our Backyard: It's Poisoning Us

Elon Musk's DOGE sacked 10% of EPA officials just as Musk's xAI was spinning up. What is xAI's powerplant? 35(!) huge gas-powered generators in Memphis, all without permits, all discharging uncontrollably ... Colossus indeed www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJT...

Road Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires Researchers are only beginning to uncover the toxic cocktail of chemicals, microplastics, and heavy metals hidden in car and truck tires. But experts say these tire emissions are a significant source ...

Its amazing that a thing i never even heard about five years ago is 78% of ocean plastic, literally everywhere e360.yale.edu/features/tir...

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cronyism-c...

Wow, & straightforwardly implying why Owen was removed too: "CBS's parent, Paramount global is trying to resolve the [Trump] suit as it completes a merger that needs government approval."

Actually. How the US benefitted from outsourcing its research interests to experts in universities.

One of the worst effects of successive govts' rhetoric on Higher Ed is that it's 'training for a job'. So 18yos get themselves (and are pressured) onto narrow technical courses. Yet employers are crying out for ppl who can read, think, write, speak! I've never met an employer who said different.

Radical Tariffs Aren’t New, But They Have Been Disastrous In four cases, tariffs have led to depressions in US history.

"Since the 19th century, US government actions have led to drastic changes in international trade and finance," @nelsonhist.bsky.social writes in #AHAPerspectives. "And in all four cases, the result was not recessions but depressions." 🗃️

Bill Ackman suggests that tariffs against China will (somehow) only hurt China, and that China should "Pick up the phone and call the President."

Radical changes in US tariffs have led to 4 US depressions, but carry on believing a rich guy who ought to know financial history, but apparently doesn't foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/11/t...

The Awful History of Tariffs and Depressions What the 19th century teaches us about what happens next.

Gift copy of the article foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/11/t...

The Awful History of Tariffs and Depressions What the 19th century teaches us about what happens next.

Here's my piece in Foreign Policy about how we've seen radical changes in tariffs or trade rules in the past (1819, 1837, 1890, 1930) & it ain't pretty. foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/11/t...

Creating their own security forces, you say? Glad there's no horrifying historical precedents for this

YouTube video by Scott Reynolds Nelson 21 jackson's bank war, or how to understand moby dick

This morning Wall Street will watch the result of a dead cat bounce. Historians will be here to tell you the crash that followed when Congress surrendered power to Pres. Andrew Jackson, aka Captain Ahab www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-0J...