Omar Wasow

Likewise, think these are great and honored to be included!

I used MEMES as a teaching tool:

Students designed memes to capture a core idea of the course readings.

The ensuing class discussion often led to new perspectives on the readings, plus students had fun.

The course was on State and Violence @ipz.bsky.social University of Zurich

A selection:

This on @owasow.bsky.social article on Agenda Seeding in @apsrjournal.bsky.social

Opinion | We’re 20 Percent of America, and We’re Still Invisible (Published 2020)

“Randomly look at any 50 print advertisements. You will find racial & ethnic diversity; women & men of different sexual orientations; gender fluidity & people of all ages. What you won’t see (or see very little of) are representations of disabled persons.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/o...

YouTube video by Apple Accessibility | I’m Not Remarkable | Apple

It’s so rare to see this kind of representation of disabled folks in mass media. Looks like Kim Gehrig, the director, might not be disabled herself but clearly understands what it means to bring a disability-informed aesthetic to filmmaking. Hope it strikes a chord: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmFP...

Apple Marcom & Kim Gehrig produce a defiant, honest and important anthem about disability

It’s so rare to see this kind of representation of disabled folks in mass media. Looks like the director might not be disabled herself but clearly understands what it means to bring a disability-informed aesthetic to filmmaking. Glad it struck a chord for you, too.

YouTube video by Apple Accessibility | I’m Not Remarkable | Apple

Remarkable youtu.be/KmFPWxjmnqE?...

Just imagining how much better it would be if ALL news stories about vaccine-preventable illnesses were illustrated with pictures of people with the disease, not pictures of needle injections. If you must show something that people will find scary & unpleasant, make it the disease, not the cure.

New Article Page 5 A Literary Luminary at Swissotel Büvik Efes izmir: Welcoming Hari Kunzru At Swissotel Büyük Efes izmir, we are proud to host extraordinary individuals whose talents and achievements inspire the world. Today, we shine the spotlight on one such remarkable guest: Hari Kunzru, literary icon, journalist and champion of artistic freedom What if the reasonable reaction to the world is endless horrified screaming?

Remembering the time I was in Türkiye and the hotel welcomed me with an effusive press release and one of the all time great pull quotes

Philanthropy Needs to Pick a Side on the Housing Construction Debate Despite California’s severe housing shortage, foundations are still funding on the wrong side of the housing fight there, guest author Ned Resnikoff writes.

Still thinking about this article. It’s always been a sore spot in YIMBY circles that so many progressive foundations pour money into NIMBYism, and I’m glad it’s finally being aired in public. Keep talking about it. www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/philant...

Yes, Tesla’s sensors are substantially inferior due to Musk’s dogmatic insistence on cameras over other technologies like radar and lidar. bsky.app/profile/owas...

Or math be math.

Cities are already “mired in congestion” and so congestion pricing should be broadly expanded no matter what happens with self-driving cars.

Also, “Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver.”

As part of the ancient tradition of Thanksgiving tech support, I’d like to help my elderly parents get setup with some kind of password manager. I’ve liked 1Password but it’s less seamless now. Mom on old MacBook, dad on old Windows laptop. Any suggestions? Happy to pay a subscription.

To find their next great runners, U.S. colleges look to rural Kenya A recruiting drive in Kenya is changing the face of U.S. college athletics. Time trials have become bitterly competitive as runners seek a way out of poverty.

“To find top Kenyan runners, Stuetzel promoted the time trials widely. Still, he was shocked by the talent that arrived. In 2022, he recruited Doris Lemngole, who ended up at the University of Alabama. Within two years, she had won both track and cross-country national titles.”

Good catch. No, didn’t look past Times of Israel link. Just went through Surveys page and didn’t see it either. Also curious that results were held for ~7 months. Strange.

More than 25% of Israelis want to leave the country. How did we get here? More than 1/4 of Israelis want to move elsewhere — a repudiation of war, a fragile economy, and a weakening of the founding Zionist promise.

“Survey conducted in April 2025 and published on Sunday by the Israel Democracy Institute finds more than 25% of Israelis are now considering leaving Israel behind.” forward.com/opinion/7863...

A figure from Pew Research Center presenting survey results on Latino adults’ views of Donald Trump’s job performance, immigration approach, and economic policies. First horizontal bar chart: “They ____ of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president.” The bar shows 70% net disapproval: 55% very strongly disapprove and 15% not strongly disapprove. On the approval side, 8% not strongly approve and 18% very strongly approve, totaling 27% net approval. Second horizontal bar chart: “They ____ of the Trump administration’s approach to immigration.” The bar shows 65% net disapproval: 48% strongly disapprove and 17% somewhat disapprove. Approval totals 21%: 11% somewhat approve and 10% strongly approve. Additionally, 13% neither approve nor disapprove. Third horizontal bar: “Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions …” 61% say worse, 15% say better, and 22% say not had much of an effect. Note cites National Survey of Latinos conducted in October 2025 and U.S. adults surveyed in September 2025. Pew Research Center branding shown at bottom.

Pew’s National Survey of Latinos (N=4,923) found:
— 70% of Latinos disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president.
— 65% disapprove of administration’s approach to immigration.
— 61% say Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse. www.pewresearch.org/race-and-eth...

They’re good, people! Give them some support!

How Slavery Changed the DNA of African Americans Widespread sexual exploitation before the Civil War strongly influenced the genetic make-up of essentially all African Americans alive today.

“Widespread sexual exploitation before the Civil War strongly influenced the genetic make-up of essentially all African Americans alive today.” psmag.com/news/how-sla...

Black Irish Identities: The complex relationship between Irish and African Americans African-American Lenwood Sloan was in his 20s before he learned why his father insisted he is nice to the lone elderly white man that lived at the end of their block. Little was he expecting to discov...

“Thirty-eight percent of African-Americans have some percentage of Irish DNA,” www.irishcentral.com/roots/geneal...

Open-ended responses that illustrate a shift away from racial essentialism among treated respondents. Table 7: Reduced Racial Essentialism “I was actually very surprised, it’s a much larger percentage than I realized. I guess I’ve been raised that white people are much more likely to be Irish.” “I was really surprised. I honestly had no idea and just thought, like me, Irish is basically white.” “I am surprised, as I think of typical Irish Americans to be very white.” “I was surprised - I had no idea. Usually when I think “Irish” I think of very fair skin, red hair, and blue eyes (like my mom)” “I was surprised! The term African American makes me think their lineage would be purely African, but I suppose no one really has ancestry tied to one place and one place only.” “I was surprised as I believed that Irish people were overwhelmingly White. It makes me more course to know about how such a high percentage of African Americans came to have Irish ancestry.” “That is surprising to me. I always picture people with more fair skin being Irish.” “I was surprised, but once I thought about it made sense. Eventually all of us will have a little bit of all ancestries in us.”

Surprise!
www.jasmineenglish.net/uploads/1/4/...

Title page) Title page with centered serif text reading “Close Race: Harnessing Multiracialism to Reduce Racial Prejudice*”. Below is the author name “Jasmine English†” and below that the date “October 31, 2025”, all centered with white background.

Screenshot of the paper’s abstract in serif font. The text explains that multiracial populations are the fastest growing in the U.S., and the paper examines how learning about African Americans with Irish ancestry influences racial attitudes among white Irish Americans. It reports experimental findings showing that such information reduces racial prejudice, especially among Republicans and those with higher baseline prejudice, and suggests multiracialism may reduce perceived racial distance.

Figure 1: Racial Resentment) Coefficient plot titled “Treatment Effects: Racial Resentment.” The x-axis is Coefficient Estimate with a dashed vertical zero line. Four rows correspond to Treat, TreatLinked, TreatClose, and Treat*Important. The interaction terms show larger negative estimates (around −0.05 to −0.18) than in Figure 2, indicating stronger reductions in racial resentment. Model estimates are color-coded and labeled in a legend at bottom left.

Table 7: Reduced Racial Essentialism “I was actually very surprised, it’s a much larger percentage than I realized. I guess I’ve been raised that white people are much more likely to be Irish.” “I was really surprised. I honestly had no idea and just thought, like me, Irish is basically white.” “I am surprised, as I think of typical Irish Americans to be very white.” “I was surprised - I had no idea. Usually when I think “Irish” I think of very fair skin, red hair, and blue eyes (like my mom)” “I was surprised! The term African American makes me think their lineage would be purely African, but I suppose no one really has ancestry tied to one place and one place only.” “I was surprised as I believed that Irish people were overwhelmingly White. It makes me more course to know about how such a high percentage of African Americans came to have Irish ancestry.” “That is surprising to me. I always picture people with more fair skin being Irish.” “I was surprised, but once I thought about it made sense. Eventually all of us will have a little bit of all ancestries in us.” Notes: Open-ended responses that illustrate a shift away from racial essentialism among treated respondents.

“Experimental data from largest online survey of Irish Americans reveal learning about African Americans with Irish ancestry reduces prejudice among white Irish Americans who identify with Irish American identity, and effects are mostly driven by Republicans…” www.jasmineenglish.net/uploads/1/4/...

Testing for racial bias using inconsistent perceptions of race A proposed test for racial bias assesses whether the same person is treated differently when their race is perceived differently.

Clever study assesses “whether same person is treated differently when their race is perceived differently.” Finds “same driver is likelier to be searched or arrested by police when they are perceived as Hispanic than when they are perceived as white.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Sorry, article is actually unclear if elevators are optional. My guess is many will still have elevators but you’re right that it’s possible they also mean, NY “walk-up” style apartments where people do mostly take the stairs.

bsky.app/profile/owas...

Interior which is why it’s so costly in terms of space and design constraints.

bsky.app/profile/owas...

You're right to be puzzled. “In New York City, which has allowed modest single-stair buildings up to six stories for its entire history, such buildings are commonplace.” bsky.app/profile/owas...

One California city’s idea to tackle the housing crisis: Take the stairs Culver City becomes first California city to allow six-story apartment buildings with just one staircase, a bold move to ease housing construction and affordability.

A lot of replies seem to struggle with idea of trade-offs: excessive zoning raises costs of housing—often with little return in safety—and increases driving. As @stephenjacobsmith.com notes, “That’s a life and safety risk and it’s one that never gets accounted for in developing building codes.”