Colin Brown

Yes, and seconding the post's endorsement of C Thi Nguyen's new book

A wooden donation box at PDX airport with a blue sign reading: "Supporting PDX Federal Workers — Federal coworkers are still here, keeping things moving — let's return the kindness. Donate nonperishable food, gift cards, or household items here. No cash, checks, or cash cards, please."

While state capacity is hard to assess, I feel like the food donation bin they've set up at the airport for government employees is not a great sign.

One thing about these big camp systems is that they inflict a tremendous amount of harm through sheer momentum. When a system is built to be both negligent and punitive, it tends to cause suffering by default.

<Cackles maniacally while also crackling maniacally>

I was late to a dance party on a submarine because I had to help the cafe across the street put out a grass fire.

Those who have known have made the necessary sacrifices

Few people know that the second book of Aristotle’s Poetics is mostly an interview with Chotiner.

Would you describe the color of the sea as:

1. White
2. Black
3. Wine-dark
4. Other (please specify, we really need more words for colors)

The attention crosstabs in our Iran poll are kind of interesting measurement of how attention corresponds to strength of opinion/likelihood of choosing DK when offered

Those following more closely are 26 pts likelier than those not to express strong opinion

www.documentcloud.org/documents/27...

We give past generations extraordinary benefit of the doubt in these arguments. For instance: "people used to watch politicians debate the great issues of the day!" vs "people mostly gathered to watch speakers insult or even fight each other."

(Source: @jbf1755.bsky.social's "The Field of Blood")

Reasons to Love Portland 2026 - Willamette Week 26 Reasons to Love Portland

26 Reasons to Love Portland www.wweek.com/tags/reasons... #pdx #fmlcomix

the phrase "he's sampling the whole town square" has compelled me to ask whether you are familiar with the best* polling movie, MAGIC TOWN, which features Jimmy Stewart as a pollster who discovers a nationally representative town and then (spoiler) ruins it through panel conditioning

*only

Well I am now

There is no like in

(Rest of barbershop quartet): Like-ly!

Oh-ho the YouGov pollster is a comin' down the street
He's sampling the whole town square
Oh-ho the YouGov pollster is comin' down the street
And there's no room left for margin of error

How I'm Teaching About Generative AI Every choice I make about how to discuss GenAI with my students is predicated on trusting them

New today in TIW: Historian @cjdenial.bsky.social on teaching about AI. "in every iteration of this conversation I have had with students in the last two years, there is one constant: almost no one knows about the ethical issues surrounding GenAI before they delve into the readings I’ve assigned."

MACADAMIA!!!!

-Bulbous
-Bouffant
-Plethora
-Bamboozle

I don't know...I used it in class about 3 years ago and got one laugh and when I self-deprecatingly said that I was glad someone knew the reference. They just said "actually it's just something my dad says a lot. I don't actually know it."

(Not going to snitchtag the mutual on here whose episode it was 🙂)

It was a *Final Jeopardy clue* more than 20 years ago...

The thing is that electronic books and docs are great for searching by specific words but horrible for searching by vibes and 15 year old tactile memories. And the latter two do a lot of work...

Apotheosis
Secondment

"The Khans, Ghengis and Imran" is a phrase that just secured a nice rent-free spot in my head

Photo of a printed tweet, penned by Paul Musgrave. Paul Musgrave @profmusgrave Around the department: Americanists: how bad can it be really? Comparativists: dictatorship, purges International relations: nuclear war Americanists: haha but seriously IR and comparative: who is joking

And I'm glad there are backup resources being figured out from somewhere! But this is...really odd with any level of abstraction

It is, but this kind of shutdown itself bleeds into questions of state capacity -- not just does it have the money but can it actually carry out actions, and is obviously pretty unusual for a wealthy state

A wooden donation box at PDX airport with a blue sign reading: "Supporting PDX Federal Workers — Federal coworkers are still here, keeping things moving — let's return the kindness. Donate nonperishable food, gift cards, or household items here. No cash, checks, or cash cards, please."

While state capacity is hard to assess, I feel like the food donation bin they've set up at the airport for government employees is not a great sign.

Bands don't play (like that) no more

Which the Metropolitan Opera commissioned last season BTW!