Britt Lundgren

Pras Michel of the Fugees sentenced to 14 years over illegal campaign donations The Grammy-winning artist was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for a case in which he was convicted of illegally funneling foreign contributions to former President Obama's 2012 campaign.

Foreign leaders are giving the POTUS literal gold bars in broad daylight, but OK. www.npr.org/2025/11/21/g...

I truly believe that Regional Public Universities provide the best possible answer to questions about what value/ROI higher education provides society, which is why I co-wrote a @thirdwayedu.bsky.social brief about them.

New publication 🚨!

www.thirdway.org/report/regio...

Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.

Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.

ICE’s Detention Center outside Chicago was sued on October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees. One day later, a "system crash" lost all video footage that could have shown how detainees were being treated. trib.al/QwT3aqI

Wisconsin archaeologists identify 16 ancient canoes in a prehistoric lake 'parking lot' Archaeologists have identified more than a dozen ancient canoes that Indigenous people apparently left behind in a prehistoric parking lot along a Wisconsin lakeshore.

"Radiocarbon dating shows the oldest of the 16 canoes dates back to 5,200 years ago, making it the third oldest canoe discovered in eastern North America.. The canoes likely were shared among community members and stored at designated points like the Lake Mendota site." apnews.com/article/anci...

A shattered windshield on a car that was struck by a cat falling from the grip of a bald eagle.

What.

Wait, what?? wlos.com/news/local/b...

Silly modern women, utilizing the experts and government-funded technologies that enable our modern lives...

I feel like that really captures the zeitgeist of our current moment.

Looks like it's circling the drain!

The story of SAMO©, Basquiat’s first art project New York artist and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s teenage collaborator, Al Diaz, speaks on how they got their start in the city’s art scene – through a series of cryptic messages that they signed off as SAMO...

Brings to mind SAMO©️ www.dazeddigital.com/art-photogra...

November 16, 2025 A newsletter about the history behind today's politics.

h/t heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-1...

Speech at Chicago, Illinois

Someone please put "same old serpent" on a t-shirt. @reforest-kelley.bsky.social ? teachingamericanhistory.org/document/spe...

Joint Statement on U.S. Customs and Border Protection Presence at UNC-Chapel Hill We demand that UNC Chapel Hill ensure the safety of its students and staff in the face of domestic terrorism. With the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) entering the Triangle, issues that seemed distant are now close to home. CBP actions in Chicago, Portland, and Charlotte suggest that they know no limits. In Charlotte this week, among the over 200 abductions under the auspices of legal arrest, they dragged a US citizen out of his car after shattering his car window. Federal agents shattered car windows with the muzzle of a loaded assault rifle. CBP agents entered a church and kidnapped people in front of their children. Earlier this year, CBP agents murdered a person during a traffic stop. These actions mean that many of our UNC community members and families are now living in fear, as simply “looking Latin” can lead to detention. International policing, border control, and other parts of the surveillance apparatus exploit racism and xenophobia to project the lens of risk onto innocent people. Under this kind of state, no one is safe, and we must protect those most vulnerable to harm. Furthermore, we know that CBP targets community members who act to protect each other, arresting people in clear violation of their rights to punish them through the judicial process. Nevertheless, we as members of the UNC community, must speak out and act to protect one another. University leaders must unwaveringly support students, staff, and faculty—yesterday’s tepid statement from Interim Provost Dean is inadequate to meet the moment of fear and uncertainty. Interim Provost Dean reiterated that while CBP can approach individuals in public spaces, they must have a judicial warrant to enter classrooms and residence halls. The extrajudicial killing and kidnapping we have seen by CBP over the last month indicate that they will continue to ignore the law as they have been given a blank check …

With ICE in the Triangle, UNC student and faculty groups are joining to demand that our Campus leadership ensure the safety of its students and staff in the face of domestic terrorism! @unc-ch-aaup.bsky.social + TransparUNCy +SUNRISE UNC

2008 -> 2025. America first, though.

Just found out the awesome team at @climasillinois.bsky.social will be in Asheville in the next couple of days to conduct interviews about Risk Communication during #Helene.

If you live in the area and are willing to chat, feel free to reach out to them! They are an awesome group!

#NCwx

Prairie and edge habitats provide valuable nesting resources for bumble bees (Bombus) in the midwestern U.S - Apidologie Bumble bees use three main habitats to complete their life cycle: foraging habitat, overwintering habitat, and nesting habitat. Overall, the majority of bumble bee research has focused on the foraging...

a cool thing that happened is ppl destroyed a remnant prairie at Rockford Airport. While the rusty-patch bumblebee foraged there, there was no proof it *nested* there. So 💥

Publications only had proof they nested in forests

This paper would have saved the prairie
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

My great-grandmother's small potato chip factory is three blocks away and in the background of this shot of the GMT mount, currently under construction in Rockford IL! 🔭🥔https://giantmagellan.org/gallery/telescope-mount/#data-fancybox-7

Featuring Mr. Rogers, a baby squirrel, and @blueridgepublic.bsky.social ! 🙌

The hardest part of teaching science these days is you get to tell young people about all the cool shit we could be exploring, but in the back of your mind you know we're not going to because the next experiment would cost $100M and we need to spend $50B to build a plagiarism machine to do scams.

Don’t blindly trust everything AI tools say, warns Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai says artificial intelligence models are ‘prone to some errors’ and warns of impact if AI bubble bursts

I see we're still searching for a good use case...

"Pichai said that while AI tools were helpful “if you want to creatively write something”, people “have to learn to use these tools for what they’re good at, and not blindly trust everything they say”. " www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one

*a lengthy address delivered without notes*

Why women are poor at science, by Harvard president The president of Harvard University has provoked a furore by arguing that men outperform women in maths and sciences because of biological difference, and discrimination is no longer a career barrier ...

"In a lengthy address delivered without notes, Dr Summers offered three explanations for the shortage of women in senior posts in science and engineering" www.theguardian.com/science/2005...

THE WEEK OF NOV 17, 2025 - NSF moving to USPTO campus - OSTP and NOAA nominees face vote - Academies to discuss nuclear space travel

"The National Science Foundation is moving from its dedicated 19-story headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, to a smaller office building on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office campus a few blocks away, the General Services Administration announced Friday." www.aip.org/fyi/the-week...

More Culture Panic From Heritage Foundation The slightly-cranky voice navigating the world of educational "reform" while trying to still pursue the mission of providing quality education.

Here's his post: curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2025/03/more...

We are living in the dumbest times.

"Without too much prodding, the AI toys discussed topics that a parent might be uncomfortable with, ranging from religious questions to the glory of dying in battle as a warrior in Norse mythology."

The Strange Afterlife of Hilma af Klint, Painting’s Posthumous Star As af Klint’s fame has grown, so have the questions—about what she believed, whom she worked with, and who should be allowed to speak in her name.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The black hole fifty years after: Genesis of the name Black holes are extreme spacetime deformations where even light is imprisoned. There is an extensive astrophysical evidence for the real and abundant existence of these prisons of matter and light in ...

An interesting paper on the origins of the term "black hole", suggesting its origins trace back to a deadly event at the Black Hole prison in Calcutta 200 years before John Wheeler popularized the term. arxiv.org/abs/1811.06587

Avi Loeb's calculations about 3I/ATLAS are 100% wrong because he has never understood that dust in the tail(s) responds to solar radiation pressure. Solar wind shapes the ion tail. But the radiation pressure is about 1000 times larger than the solar wind ram pressure, for particles that feel it.