Thad Domina

Frog and Toad gaze at their own reflections in a mirror. Toad holds in his hands a book titled "Fairy Tales." From "Dragons and Giants" In *Frog and Toad Together*

Frog and Toad looked into a mirror.

“We look brave,” said Frog.

“Yes, but are we?” asked Toad.

Tweet from the Durham Bulls that reads "Y'all means all. #PrideNight"

Tweet from a user saying "Please delete," and Durham Bulls responding "No."

Tweet from a user saying, "Actually, no it does not! Stop dividing people." with a response from the Durham Bulls saying, "Inclusion's actually the exact opposite of division"

Tweet from someone saying "Maybe don't promote gay sex to children?" with the Durham Bulls responding, "Okay, sexyman159861581242902587231848675309"

11/10 social media work by the Durham Bulls

amtrak’s marketing team gets it

Not feeding into the Bluesky debate but I would love to see more academics sharing papers on here. Revive the ‘ol “here’s a thread about this paper” thing. I think it’s good for the information ecosystem.

Shout out to Chase Strangio who did his level best and should have fucking won. What a beast of an attorney and an amazing advocate.

This is heartbreaking. #Skrmetti

Defendants do acknowledge, as they must, that the Department cannot be shut down without Congress's approval, yet they simultaneously claim that their legislative goals (obtaining Congressional approval to shut down the Department) are distinct from their administrative goals (improving efficiency). There is nothing in the record to support these contradictory positions. Not only is there no evidence that Defendants are pursuing a "legislative goal" or otherwise working with Congress to reach a resolution, but there is also no evidence that the RIF has actually made the Department more efficient. Rather, the record is replete with evidence of the opposite. Consolidated Plaintiffs have demonstrated that the Department will not be able to carry out its statutory functions— and in some cases, is already unable to do so-and Defendants have proffered no evidence to the contrary. Defendants fail to understand Plaintiffs claims which is evident by their attempt to frame this case as an unlawful terminations employment action. As fully explained below, a preliminary injunction is warranted to return the Department to the status quo such that it can comply with its statutory obligations.

Breaking: A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked the Trump administration's effort to shutter much of the Education Department. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

hoping nobody at the coffee shop notices the tears streaming down my cheeks as I text this link to my distance-running 9th grader.

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

YouTube video by Art Blakey - Topic Moanin'

art blakey for all your friday needs

youtu.be/fsJ3JjpZyoA?...

I always tell my students about my first semester of grad school. Everyone (myself included) was desperate to prove how smart we were—except one student. He’d just raise his hand and say, “I don’t know what that word means. Can you explain it?” That kind of honesty was so powerful. 1/2

A photograph of Louis Bamberger, seated on the right, wearing a mustache and bowler hat, and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld, standing on the left, wearing a fur hat and shawl

Let's talk about these two department store owners: brother and sister Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld. From Newark, New Jersey.

They are random people, basically. But in the late 1920s, with fascism taking over Europe, they made a choice that profoundly changed the world: 🧵

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."

Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.

I wrote about my decision in TIME.

time.com/7285045/resi...

I love the "responsibility (and joy)" move there.

"...that certain groups have had a different experience of American life and who feels that it is part of our intellectual responsibility (and joy) to engage with that history, so as to improve our democracy (that whole 'more perfect union' thing)."

Opinion | George Saunders: Shame on the White House

Saunders is so good on the weaponization of "DEI."

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...

Your Pope name is: Last thing you ate + number of letters in your first name.

Pope Peanut M&Ms XIII

One of the Weather World’s Biggest Buzzwords Expands Its Reach

To many, atmospheric rivers are a West Coast phenomenon. But they’re also responsible for devastating storms that can hit the Central and Eastern U.S.

There's one in the forecast this week.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/w...

Finally. My fellow Fulbright Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk has been freed.

My country jailed her for over a month as—let’s be perfectly frank—a political prisoner. Why? Because she wrote a mild oped that criticised Israel in her student newspaper.

I've thought of her every day.

What makes me mad about AI in education How to crush a generation and tell them they're winning

I wrote about the widespread adoption of AI in education, and why there needs to be more resistance to it

open.substack.com/pub/irinadum...

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I think what makes writing attractive is when you get something unexpected. The connection you didn't anticipate, the logical thread getting built in new ways, the marvelous inductive/deductive Jenga towers that a terrific undergrad will create. 1/6

“In a time of destruction, create something.

A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment.”

-Maxine Hong Kingston
(from the book she wrote from scratch after her home burnt down and she lost all her drafts in the Oakland forest fires of 1991)

Federal Judge Orders Dem Win Certified In NC Supreme Court Race A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This...

Six months after Election Day, a federal judge ordered the North Carolina Board of Elections to certify Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs as the winner of the fiercely contested race for her seat on the state Supreme Court.

talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

I don't have an Ivy League education, but I'm struggling to understand this Administration's BIZARRE Rules of Capitalization.

It's gonna be a hot Amtrak summer

Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie

Perfect Weeks

Ocean's 22

Fresher, healthier school meals would be great. I fear that's not what we'll be getting, though...

Trump Argues Toy Shortages Easily Overcome By Making Servants Dance WASHINGTON—Acknowledging that his tariff hikes could result in a frozen supply chain this holiday season, President Donald Trump claimed Friday that any toy shortages Americans experienced could be ea...

Trump Argues Toy Shortages Easily Overcome By Making Servants Dance