Ben Gross

Cast iron cooking experiment (8/3/25): Buttermilk-brined roast chicken served with a spicy summer stone fruit salad.

This is just to say
I have cut up
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and mixed them
with cherries and
tomatoes to make
a stone fruit salad

Forgive me
they were delicious
with roast chicken

#Cooking #CastIronCooking
#CastIronCookingExperiment

Portrait of Margaret Rossiter from the Cornell STS homepage. https://sts.cornell.edu/margaret-rossiter

Margaret Rossiter, whose #histsci scholarship revealed structural inequalities affecting #WomenInSTEM, has passed away. Dr. Rossiter was co-founder of @historyscience.bsky.social’s Women’s Caucus & namesake of a prize honoring work on the history of women in science. May her memory be a blessing.

As Tom Lehrer once observed, Base 8 is just like Base 10...if you're missing two fingers!

#NewMath #TomLehrer #comedy

YouTube video by Science To People Born Curious: How Kids Build Theories About the World

Kids aren’t blank slates—they’re born curious!

Today's #ScholarSunday watch/listen: @sciencetopeople.bsky.social's Brinleigh Murphy-Reuter interviews @ebonawitz.bsky.social about how children build theories about the world.

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/28LE...
(YT vid below)

#scicomm #CogSci

when you think about it, this is exactly why they want to chat-gptify education.

James Baldwin, 1955. Photo by Carl Van Vechten Charles Larson Papers, 19.7 Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin

“One of the reasons, for example, I think that our youth is so badly educated & it is inconceivably badly educated—is because education demands a certain daring, a certain independence of mind.” -James Baldwin, born #OnThisDay 1924

https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/guides/JamesBaldwin

#Booksky 📚

YouTube video by Road Less Marveled May 1, 1969: Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications

With news that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down due to Trump’s meddling, it’s worth watching Mr. Rogers testifying to the Senate about the real value of what we’ve all lost.

The debate around Musk and the Royal Society is just so frustrating. If those who think it is right to retain him as an FRS were to say "Here, despite his having been a direct accomplice to the dismantling of scientific institutions, destruction of scientific data, spreading of...

He may have been a member of the club, but his portrait does not appear to be present in our album.

Portrait of Richard Owen posing next to a reptile skull. Maull & Polyblank, Professor Richard Owen, 1855. Gernsheim Collection, 2024:0003:0001. Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin

Portrait of Michael Faraday leaning against a table while holding a magnet. Maull & Polyblank, Professor Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., 1854–1855, published October 1857. Gernsheim Collection, 2024.0003.0001.0007. Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin

Exciting news for fans of Victorian science! @ransomcenter.bsky.social recently digitized a photo album featuring members of Maull & Polyblank's Literary & Scientific Portrait Club, including Richard Owen & Michael Faraday (seen here).

ransom.center/maull-polybl...

#histSTM #histsci #photosky 🗃️📜📷

Connecticut friends: Be sure to tune into @ctpublic.bsky.social this afternoon to hear @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social discuss the monstrous history of humanity, as reflected in #histSTM, politics & #scifi!

(Her segment should begin around 1:25 PM, ET.)

www.ctpublic.org/show/the-col...

#31DaysOfNYJA, Day 31: The #Dodgers Sym-Phony Band serenades team president Walter F. O'Malley.

("O'Malley Meets the Dodgers Sym-Phony Band," Ben Sandhaus, Photo published #OnThisDay in 1951, NY Journal-American Photo Morgue @ransomcenter.bsky.social)

norman.hrc.utexas.edu/nyjadc/ItemD... 📷🗃️📜⚾

Unknown photographer, [Bess Houdini Pointing at Ice Man, No. 5], December 1927. Harry Houdini Papers, box 16. Harry Houdini Papers Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin

Austin summers can be brutal, but I'm not sure I'd encase myself in ice to beat the heat!

Apparently, that was a trick that Harry #Houdini was working on before he died in 1926. More info via @ransomcenter.bsky.social: www.instagram.com/p/DMvi1aWqKs...

#IceMan #magic #MagicSky
#BessHoudini 🗃️📜🎩🪄

This looks like a job for the EAH!

(Paging @robertpicardo.bsky.social)

#DigitalHumanities #DigitalArchives #Archives

Today's #histSTM lunch read: The latest @historyscience.bsky.social newsletter. Congrats to Pamela Smith (2025 Sarton Medalist) & Conevery Bolton Valencius (#HSS25 Distinguished Lecturer)!

(Also don't miss @samfranz.bsky.social's interview w/@mdimeo.bsky.social!)

cdn.ymaws.com/hssonline.or... 🗃️📜

The Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, and Justice

Look what came in the mail yesterday!! It’s real!

Pile of rusty paperclips and other rusty fasteners (plus a piece of string!) on a desk.

There are so many fun and interesting aspects to being an archivist!

Rusty paperclip removal is not one of them 😬

#31DaysOfNYJA, Day 30: #CivilRights leaders meet at the #NAACP offices to discuss the search for three missing workers.

"Civil Rights Leaders Meeting," AP Photo, Photo published #OnThisDay in 1964, NY Journal-American Photo Morgue @ransomcenter.bsky.social)

norman.hrc.utexas.edu/nyjadc/ItemD... 🗃️📜

#31DaysOfNYJA, Day 29: Police search one of many First Ave. buses for a bundle of typhus-contaminated lab smocks

("Typhus Scare on NYC Buses," Chris Daly, Photo published #OnThisDay in 1953, NY Journal-American Photo Morgue @ransomcenter.bsky.social)

norman.hrc.utexas.edu/nyjadc/ItemD... #histmed

Email from Tom Lehrer (talehrer@ucsc.edu) Wed., Jan. 28, 2009, 5:12 PM Dear Ben, I must inform you that I have not done any public appearances since 1972 (with two very brief exceptions), and that includes performances, lectures, symposia, and saturnalias, and that I have no plans to resume that activity, not even for such a worthy group as yours and at such a hallowed venue as Princeton. Thank you anyway for your interest. Tom Lehrer

"I must inform you that I have not done any public appearances since 1972...& that I have no plans to resume that activity..."

#TomLehrer rejecting an invitation to participate in a distinguished speaker series I helped organize w/Princeton's Modern America Workshop (Jan. 2009).

#Princeton #comedy

Tom Lehrer’s memorable 'Revue' session In 1951, the Harvard graduate student and future famed satirist skewered the physical sciences via song in a musical.

🎶"All she thought of was thermodynamics
So what, tell me what, could I do?"🎶

Today's #histSTM & #physics lunchtime read: @mbaldwin.bsky.social's delightful 2018 @physicstoday.bsky.social article on Tom Lehrer's Physical Revue, a scientific musical from 1951!

#TomLehrer #MusicalTheater #comedy 🗃️🎭⚛️

lincoln-institute.org/scholarship-... The Abraham Lincoln Institute announces a travel grant of $1,000.00 (one thousand dollars) for graduate students in the Civil War field. #Skystorians #CivilWarHistory

While we're on the subject of journals, I feel like the editors of Technology & Culture might have something to say about JHU's actions!

(cc: @shothisttech.bsky.social)

#histSTM #histtech

#31DaysOfNYJA, Day 28: A crowd of Communist protesters gather outside the 49th Street police station in NYC.

("Communist Crowd," Published #OnThisDay in 1935, NY Journal-American Photographic Morgue @ransomcenter.bsky.social)

norman.hrc.utexas.edu/nyjadc/ItemD...

#photosky #RadicalHistory 🗃️📜📷

When @wilwheaton.net & @hntdove.bsky.social share the same #TomLehrer story, you know that it will be worth reading!

(Thanks for providing this glimpse into Lehrer’s work at the #NSA, @opalescentopal.bsky.social!)

#Lobachevsky #MathHistory

“Don’t worry! Base 8 is just like Base 10…if you’re missing two fingers!”

YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go

"Life is like a sewer--what you get out of it depends on what you put into it."

Tom Lehrer, mathematician & #ColdWar satirist, has passed away. His albums warped my comedic & political sensibilities at a young age, and I'm pleased to report that I've never fully recovered.

#RIP #TomLehrer #comedy

#31DaysOfNYJA, Day 27: A composite photo contrasting the NYC skyline w/the column of water displaced during the Baker nuclear test

(International News Photo, Published #OnThisDay in 1946, NY Journal-American Photo Morgue @ransomcenter.bsky.social)

norman.hrc.utexas.edu/nyjadc/ItemD...

#ColdWar 🗃️📜

Chef Guerra preparing the first set of hand rolls.

Tsurai Masu: Ocean trout, red kosho, nikiri, Fresno chili, avocado, pickles

Hotate Kosho: Hokkaido scallop, green kosho, daikon tsunamis, pear, lemon

Paitan ramen with pork chashu.

After an afternoon reference shift, I enjoyed dinner at Rollies at Sazan, a pop-up dining experience curated by Chef Vincent Guerra.

Chef Guerra prepared a tasting menu consisting of 4 #sushi hand rolls & a small bowl of the house paitan #ramen.

www.opentable.com/r/sazan-austin

#foodsky #ATXFood

Right? The Ransom Center’s social media team always finds incredible stuff in our collection!