Prentiss Riddle

Right-Wing Crackdowns Drive Academics Away From UT and the U.S. Staff morale, federal funds, and state confidence dry up

You'd like to think that universities would be the sort of institution through which society resists fascism. Sadly, #UTAustin has been falling all over itself to "comply in advance".

To anybody who's been thinking of studying or working at my alma mater: if you have a choice, go elsewhere.

The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century (Gift Article) More than 500 influential directors, actors and other notable names in Hollywood and around the world voted on the best films released since Jan. 1, 2000. See how their ballots stacked up.

NYTimes "best movies of the 21st century": this is of course a gimmick, but it was illuminating anyway. I thought I was out of touch but turns out I've seen 66 of the 100.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"No Kings Day" protests turn out millions, rebuking Trump Our unofficial estimate is that around 4-6 million people attended a protest event yesterday. Anti-Trump resistance is outpacing 2017.

Yes, I've wondered where AltNPS got its estimate.

I've looked for better numbers. The news media seem to either report no numbers or use wildly underestimated ones. The most credible source I've found, which at least *has* a methodology, estimates 4-6 million: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/no-kings-d...

Colorful poster in bright shades or red, yellow, blue, green, and pink. The text reads: FEIRA DA ALEGRIA Jardim da Faculdade de Belas Artes 28-29 Jun '25 The illustration features a stylized garden under a blue sky with a cheerful sun and clouds. In the garden is a building representing the U.Porto art school and several statues found in the actual PBAUP garden.

Hooray! One of my favorite events returns June 28-29: the Feira da Alegria at FBAUP.

Over 150 artists selling prints - mostly young, with few cliches about sardines or roosters...

It's Pride weekend, so we will be busy!

www.instagram.com/feiradalegria/

#FeiraDaAlegria #porto #art #arte #FBAUP

Hand-painted sign on cardboard that reads: DUE PROCESS LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL RULE OF LAW Below, a drawing of a crown struck out by a circle and slash.

Great turnout of a few hundred for #NoKings in Porto today!

I'm not posting crowd photos out of concern for people's privacy, but I'm grateful that in Portugal it is safe for us to exercise our freedom of speech.

Thinking of our friends and loved ones taking the risk to speak out in the US today.

Signs hand-lettered on corrugated cardboard, spread out on a wooden table. The signs include the following: NO KINGS (in the USA) NO DICTATORS DEMOCRACIA SIM DITADURA NÃO NO KINGS NO CZARS NO DICTATORS NEM REI NEM CZAR NEM DITADOR

Ready for tomorrow. #NoKings

No kings today, no billionaries tomorrow. #NoKings

PS for countries that still have kings:

Although I agree that the central issue is authoritarianism and the reference to kings is rhetorical not literal, I also think that any country which didn't abolish its monarchy by the end of the 19th century failed to understand the assignment...

NO KINGS: Porto, Portugal · No Kings **NO KINGS: Porto, Portugal Fonte dos Leões (Lion Fountain) In front of Universidade do Porto Praça de Gomes Teixeira, 4050-526 Porto, Portugal Saturday June 14, 2-5pm WET Nearest Metro: Aliados When ...

Worldwide No Kings protest on you-know-who's birthday this Saturday. A bit of solidarity for our compatriots getting teargassed in the States.

If you're in Porto, meet us at 2 PM at Leões.

www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

#NoKings #porto

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

It's very unusual for a Texas river to have boiling rapids.

And intriguingly some of the groups who are very, very good at immigration (I'm thinking for example of the South Asian migrant community I used to have ties to) use their skills to engage in serial migration - they quickly dig in deep but are also ready to move on if the opportunity arises. 2/2

Very interesting and no doubt a fruitful thing for policy makers to think about.

But I'm troubled by what the "aptitude for Immigration" concept might turn into in the hands of the right. Could it be a way to sanitize discrimination against less-assimilated working-class migrants? 1/2

Today I googled a simple question (it happened to be about Portuguese).

Google's AI intruded with an answer and included a link to what it said was the source.

Clicking through, I see that the source gave the EXACT OPPOSITE answer to what the AI so authoritatively told me.

AI still sux, folks.

If you're in #Porto and want to participate in the #NoKings protest on June 14, join the WhatsApp group for details:

chat.whatsapp.com/CbHnWZMJ2dw5...

The text NO KINGS in white on a deep blue background, next to a roughly painted symbol of a crown marked out with a red X

I'm happy to see that the worldwide NO KINGS protest on you-know-who's birthday will have a presence here in Porto.

indivisible.org/statements/i...

#NoKings

I dreamt that they removed the capitalized nouns from the German language and my reading comprehension went all to hell.

#deutsch #rechtschreibung

There’s an Urdu name for a “Jack of all trades” that translates to “every talent Lord.” A Korean version is “eight direction beauty.” But my favourite name for someone who tries their hand at lots of different things is the Lithuanian Barbė devyndarbė. It means “Barbie nine jobs”

Composite of thumbnails. Each shows a street scene in Porto, Portugal. In each scene is a man wearing a dress suit with a cape, mask, and hat in bright colors. Im some thumbnails he is carrying flowers. The color scheme varies: hot pink, canary yellow, bright or light blue, traffic orange.

Today I learned that our neighborhood superhero has an Instagram. Super Faria Guimarães!

www.instagram.com/super.fariag...

#porto #superhero #superFariaGuimarães

Analysis of Cheddar Man's nuclear DNA indicates that he was a typical member of the Western European hunter-gatherer population at the time, with a most likely phenotype of blue-green eyes, dark brown or black hair, and dark or dark-to-black skin, with no genetic adaption for lactase persistence into adulthood

devastated to discover Cheddar Man was lactose intolerant

At first I thought this was the bottom of a phone or microwave, which gives me ideas for creating an artistic time capsule the next time I'm in a hotel

I love how the video shows the house with realistic clutter. So much architectural media, especially about modernist houses, has a completely sterile and unrealistic absence of "stuff".

It did horrify me to learn that they run heating and cooling in the open-roofed courtyard, though.

I love how the video shows the house with realistic clutter. So much architectural media, especially about modernist houses, has a completely sterile and unrealistic absence of "stuff".

It did horrify me to learn that they run heating and cooling in the open-roofed courtyard, though.

When I worked for the UT Austin|Portugal program, research funding was contingent on collaborative applications by both UT and PT researchers.

I wonder whether giving carrots to EU researchers who work with US emigrant scientists could ease integration of US researchers into European networks?

When a Nation’s Torturous Past Resembles ‘The Twilight Zone’ (Gift Article) Named after the classic TV series, a new novel by Nona Fernández mines Chile’s dark history and shifts restlessly between genres.

I just finished "The Twilight Zone" by Nona Fernández. What a great, if horrifying, book, and a reminder of the path we are on ourselves.

www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/b...

Life in retirement

Even if these words are a stretch now, my sad hunch is that before long we will start seeing exiles and refugees from the US who fully meet the definition and make our quibbling irrelevant.

(BTW for the record, the individuals in this article aren't all white, nor are they all straight/cis.)

I agree that the terminology of migration is tricky. However, "exile" needn't have anything to do with race or class. Even a wealthy person from a privileged background can be an "exile" if forced out by their government or a "refugee" if displaced by violence, abuse, or disaster.

Em fuga de Trump, americanos exilam-se em Portugal. “Tenho medo de voltar” Nem só pessoas de minorias se sentem ameaçadas pela Administração Trump. Três casais, uma mãe e um académico contam porque escolheram viver em Portugal. Há quem diga: o sonho americano chegou ao fim.

Público just published a long article about American exiles in Portugal.

www.publico.pt/2025/03/22/s...

#público #uspol #portugal

Hey folks a lot of you are sharing big blocks of text on coloured backgrounds with all sorts of big claims/news and yet providing no link to any actual source.

This is how propaganda & disinformation spreads.

Provide sources. It's absolutely critical

And alt text because almost none of you are.