Sam Wesner 𓃰

Just finished @adambunch.bsky.social ‘s beautiful and densely researched book Toronto Book of Love, after savoring one chapter per night for months. This book is an absolute blessing, thank you Adam!

Aw. Hugs and sorry for your loss 💔

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/

this is wild: while Stephen Miller's guy was in Minnesota for his uncle's funeral, somebody was able to see his entire phone and take pictures of his Signal group chats talking about military deployments to Portland, and brought them to the Strib (gift link: www.startribune.com/trump-offici...)

if i had the opportunity to ask a question of anyone in the administration, given this "war in chicago" messaging, i would ask them how many americans the president intends to kill in his war

Eagles game last night with the “city special,” hamm and cheese on rye

An engineer restores pay phones for free public use In a rural Vermont county, spotty cellphone coverage is the norm. But a local tinkerer is using old technology to help his community stay connected free of charge.

www.nhpr.org/2025-08-04/a...

Worries about vaccination rates in dogs As rabies seems to be spreading more in wildlife, veterinarians are especially worried about vaccine hesitancy spreading among pet owners, a dangerous trend that could lead to more dogs — and their owners — becoming infected. A 2023 study published in the journal Vaccine found in a nationally representative sample of Americans that nearly 40% believed canine vaccines were unsafe and 37% believed that vaccines could lead their dogs to develop cognitive issues, such as autism.

Dogs are getting vaccinated less and rabies rates are rising, in part because 37% of Americans think vaccines will give their dogs... pawtism.

www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

PowerPoint title slide. Text: “Ireland in the Atlantic World, 1500-1800”. Image (suggested by PowerPoint’s “designer” function): relief map of Japan

AI-assisted design hits another one out of the park

Need a political theory line of Dove chocolates. I want a wrapper that says “the logic of representation can never absolve itself of its own ultimate groundlessness”

Makes me wonder how many idiosyncrasies that might have characterized our writing these days are being brutally reigned in!

MS word autocorrect is fighting me as I transcribe bits of this brilliant, flowery academese book written in the 90s

I’ve come pretty far through this bag of chocolates, it’s true

lol thanks, Dove

Here are the moments when we in Baltimore got to hear Kilmar Abrego Garcia speak in his own words—and when we learned form his attorney that Kilmar had once again been taken by ICE and separated from his family after reporting for his mandatory check-in at 8AM Monday. @therealnews.com

The Thinking Plant’s Man Jagadish Chandra Bose and the long, contentious search for plant intelligence.

Was unaware that Bose was also a controversial early plant electrobiologist! From his book Plant Autographs and their Revelations (1927): "I have been able to make the dumb plant the most eloquent chronicler of its inner life and experiences..."

www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

Rock Looked Way Cooler Wet

Rock Looked Way Cooler Wet

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me? Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Tortoise hatchlings born of century-old parents come out of their shells at Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo is showing off 16 critically endangered western Santa Cruz tortoise hatchlings.

Updated 1:30 PM CST, August 20, 2025

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sixteen critically endangered western Santa Cruz tortoises born to some very old parents got a slow walk and the red carpet treatment Wednesday at a Philadelphia Zoo event to show off the highly prized hatchlings.

ACLS Statement Regarding the White House Review of Smithsonian Institution Museums ACLS stands in firm opposition to the latest directive by the White House forcing Smithsonian Institution museums to subject their presentation of American history to government review.

The AHA has signed on to the @acls1919.bsky.social’s Statement Regarding the White House Review of Smithsonian Institution Museums. The review “supersedes the oversight of professional scholars and makes the museums tools of the presidential administration.” 🗃️

I hope SEPTA is saved. I’ve been lucky enough to experience a few months of septa’s glory days and it’s truly a great transit system for a North American city. Especially the trollies

I’m teaching a grad seminar on American religion this semester, and am really excited to introduce my students to these phenomenal books.

Why do I think there’s value in researching & teaching the history of art? For the same reason I decided to study it when I was 18: doing so made me think in new ways about my world, learning to question that which was handed to me as a given. It was my route to expanding how I act in the world.

These kids were amputees and badly burned CHILDREN

Are they dumping psilocybin in the Catskill aqueduct

An old time-y illustration of a Otters.

Today is Quintidi the 25th of Thermidor in the year 233.
Thermidor is the month of heat.
Today we celebrate otters. #JacobinDay

More information on otters

The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities

It is genuinely shocking how little Trump's attack on universities relies on law and policy. Even this profile of May Mailman, a Harvard-trained lawyer, who is active in the Trump administration's plan to transform higher education, barely mentions legal predicates.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/u...

An article with many references to "We all still fight to get into airport lounges" etc.

New frontiers for "the royal We."

Horrific & cruel. ICE separated a breastfeeding mother from her baby and two other children for 2.5 months after a DV call. What happened to the children in her care? Plus the ill-equipped facility with no privacy, showers, pads, beds - 24 women crammed into a room for visitors.