Ben Mueser

Exactly! The fine ‘academic’ distinctions are really the details that make up the world of choices you imagine you’re making.
Andi’s sense of agency and self- identity in this scene are completely shaken.

The Cerulean blue scene in The Devil Wears Prada is perhaps the best illustration of what studying the history of political thought is for.

Reading Simone Weil’s Need for Roots today, wondering if we need to talk more often about boredom as a political concept.

Hey everyone, just fyi I’m a pretty big deal and they’re devoting whole podcasts to discussing my brilliant ideas.

A short explanation of p-hacking and why it absolutely makes sense to ask HHS to release the study methods of their autism report in advance.

Boy I hope they liked it.

= Nation & World - The Seattle Times My Account ™ The T. Rex may have been a lot smarter than you thought Jan. 9, 2023 at 7:36 am | Updated Jan. 9, 2023 at 7:36 am By DINO GRANDONI The Washington Post

typical corrupt science

Great answer. I’ve also recommended Raymond Geuss, History and Illusion in Politics.

Cross stitch embroidery of beetles and the words: But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything. C Darwin to C Lyell 1861

I thought my first post on Bluesky should be something positive and motivational

It’s 2025. Sovereignty is winning.

The thing is that anarcho-capitalist secretly really love the state.

modems screaming at us in the 90s was a warning and we didn't take it

No one told me that Ben Affleck played an accountant with a gun named “Christian Wolff”

Naval Academy Takes Steps to End Diversity Policies in Books and Admissions The defense secretary’s office has ordered that some books be removed from circulation in its library, and the academy has ended the use of affirmative action in admissions.

Naval Academy forced, by SECDEF personally, to remove nearly 1000 books seen as promoting diversity from its library, including MLKs autobiography or books about Jackie Robinson.

College students - and faculty - not allowed to read about MLK?

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/u...

Columbia Ph.D. and faculty member here. Completely gutted by this decision. And as a researcher of autocracy, not challenging these charges in court and in public opinion is a great mistake.

a dog who can read you the newspaper and get 85% of the headlines right is the most important invention in dog history and the least important invention in newspaper history

Follow art historians and journalists. They’re interesting people.

It’s the one we go back to most frequently. I think it’s because commodifying your interests translates especially well the older we get.

Sounds like they should do a costanza.

When buddy decides the day is over.

Photograph of the Royal Historical Society's BlueSky homepage.

From 21 February @royalhistsoc.bsky.social will be closing and archiving its X account.

From this date all updates from the Society - and its promotion of work by fellow organisations for #history and the humanities - will be via BlueSky.

Please encourage colleagues to join us here #skystorians

Give these fine folks a follow

Lawyers Caught Citing AI-Hallucinated Cases Say It’s a ‘Cautionary Tale’ For All Law Firms The attorneys filed court documents referencing eight non-existent cases, then admitted it was a "hallucination" by an AI tool.

A federal judge in Wyoming received a motion citing nine cases. Of the nine, eight don't exist.

When she demanded an explanation, the lawyers said their "artificial intelligence platform ‘hallucinated’ the cases in question."
@courtwatch.bsky.social www.courtwatch.news/p/lawyers-ca...

However, previous administrations have allowed so-called "independent regulatory agencies" to operate with minimal Presidential supervision. These regulatory agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the President, and through him, to the American people. Moreover, these regulatory agencies have been permitted to promulgate significant regulations without review by the President.  These practices undermine such regulatory agencies' accountability to the American people and prevent a unified and coherent execution of Federal law. For the Federal Government to be truly accountable to the American people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people's elected President.   Therefore, in order to improve the administration of the executive branch and to increase regulatory officials' accountability to the American people, it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch. Moreover, all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register.

Sec. 3. OIRA Review of Agency Regulations. (a) Section 3(b) of Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993 ("Regulatory Planning and Review"), as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows:   "(b) "Agency," unless otherwise indicated, means any authority of the United States that is an "agency" under 44 U.S.C. 3502(1), and shall also include the Federal Election Commission. This order shall not apply to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or to the Federal Open Market Committee in its conduct of monetary policy. This order shall apply to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System only in connection with its conduct and authorities directly related to its supervision and regulation of financial institutions.". (b) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall provide guidance on implementation of this order to the heads of executive departments and agencies newly submitting regulatory actions under section 3(b) of Executive Order 12866. Agency submissions by independent regulatory agencies under such section shall commence within the earlier of 60 days from the date of this order, or completion of such implementation guidance.

So Trump is now saying that the Federal Election Commission, which was an independent regulatory agency, "must be supervised and controlled by the people's elected President."

picture of Musashi protein bar box against a white background, with "45g protein per bar" in a red circle

the protein arms race has taken a turn: 45g per protein bar. next thing we know we'll have 17 blade razors

Purging dissent in the security services and giving loyalists power is something we *instantly* recognize in other contexts.

Miyazaki telling it how it is about ‘AI’

Me getting that email from the Chronicle this morning about a useless tool that nobody wants

The law of nations in international political thought This review considers what role scholarship on the early modern law of nations (ius gentium) plays in the history of international political thought, which over the last decade has expanded far bey...

I wrote about some recent trends in the law of nations literature and international political thought for History of Euro Ideas, check it out here >> doi.org/10.1080/0191... (msg me for a copy)