Adrianne Black

Required reading!
Thank you @adriannefblack.bsky.social for sharing your personal story/history.
Goes a long way towards putting where we're at in this country into context and how we found ourselves here at this particular junction. I believe people can change. This book is proof

Those modern brick paving stones in dc get sooooo slippery. It’s enough to make you think concrete was better

I think most people can imagine where in the timeline of fascist events you’d put the history book line about America declaring itself a refuge for threatened global white elites

Life After Cars When the very first cars rolled off production lines, they were a technological marvel, predicted to make life easier and better for everyone; yet a hundred years later, that dream is running on empty.Instead of unbounded freedom, the never-ending proliferation of automobiles has delivered a host of

Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile. “From the hosts of The War on Cars podcast, a searing indictment of how cars ruin everything, and what we can do to fight back.” [lifeaftercars.com]

I think it feels weird for people now to remember that something as horrible and era defining as the Indian Removal Act was decided by a razor-thin, polarizing vote in Congress

Florida’s Retreat From Stricter Gun Laws The April 17 mass shooting at FSU has refocused attention on state lawmakers’ efforts to roll back gun reforms passed after the 2018 Parkland massacre.

www.thetrace.org/2025/04/flor...

Florida politics has been a nightmare since the beginning, but every now and then it’s nice to think on how incredibly effective @marchforourlives.bsky.social was and still is there, against all odds.

Someone once commented to me that you can always tell medievalists because they look at the ceilings when they enter a space and I haven’t forgotten it

You know when someone steps in a puddle accidentally and then looks up suddenly to see if anyone saw? And then they make eye contact with you? I wish there were a socially appropriate way to reassure them that I hold no judgment

Rufo is such a boring interview to listen to

Candidate for future two truths and a lie “the second largest sample of a moon rock on earth is in the Portland, Maine airport”

Image of exhibit of minerals with descriptor: “Pallasites are the most beautiful extraterrestrial substance known, but they are exceedingly rare - only about 0.2% of all known meteorites are pallasites. Their rarity is due to having formed at the mahtle-core boundaries of asteroids. As the molten mantle cooled, the olivine crystallized and settled atop the liquid metal core. Olivine crystals ranging from amber to chartreuse hues were trapped as the metal solidified. These exquisite meteorites were launched into space when their parent body was shattered by a collision with another asteroid which liberated this material. Gem-quality olivine or peridot (the August birthstone) is seen in these examples.”

Exhibit with descriptor: “Rocks from Mars are even rarer than Moon rocks. Like lunar meteorites, Martian meteorites land on our planet after having been ejected off the Martian surface by asteroid impacts. Martian meteorites are igneous rocks, evidence of the long history of volcanic activity on Mars Their Martian origin was confirmed by analyzing tiny voids within glassy inclusions within these rocks. The voids contain gas that perfectly matches the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA's Viking Missions to Mars in 1976.”

Exhibit with descriptor: “Vesta is the second largest asteroid in our solar system and the only one that can be seen with the naked eye. Vesta is considered a protoplanet because it has a crust, mantle, and core like Earth. Protoplanets were common in the early solar system, but all except Vesta were destroyed by collisions, and their remnants reside in the asteroid belt. Data transmitted from NASA's Dawn spacecraft identified Vesta as the source of three groups of meteorites found on Earth: eucrites from near the surface, diogenites from greater depths, and howardites— a mixture of the two.”

Exhibit of with descriptor: “The Moon is among the rarest substances on our planet. All the pieces collected could fit in an SUV. While lunar samples were returned to Earth by Apollo astronauts, most are lunar meteorites - pieces of the Moon blasted off the lunar surface by asteroid impacts. Identified by their unique mineralogical and geochemical properties, these samples provide clues to the Moon's geological history. Some lunar minerals are unknown on Earth and many common minerals on our planet are rare or absent on the Moon. Featured below is the second largest piece of the Moon on Earth.”

Deeply unexpected that one of the best exhibits of extraterrestrial gems and minerals is in the terminal of the Portland, Maine airport??

@adriannefblack.bsky.social just went to your book talk and WOW! Incredible talk. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much!

When I was little, I got fascinated by the early twentieth century American spelling reform movement. For a while I tried to implement that system, but I got too much pushback. Relics of that time in my life are that I still spell “though” and “through” as “tho and thru.”

What are the random opinions I hold that surprise people? One that comes to mind is that the idea of consistent spelling is random and fake. Idk what it is about modern society that has this impulse to enforce rigid standards on things that are obviously flexible.

Trans woman arrested for using women’s restroom in Florida Capitol The 20-year-old college student planned to protest a state law criminalizing bathroom use.

This is what the “visibility” means in 2025

Beans and rice and bottled mojo sauce! Frozen fish also accomplishes both qualities for me. It’s ready in 15 mins in an oven and you can keep them in the freezer ready for months

At transgender visibility event, Gov. Moore called out for lack of action “We know who you, Governor Moore, can be for us. And I am begging you to do it,” Lee Blinder told Moore.

Maryland @govwesmoore.bsky.social hosted a ceremony for International Transgender Day of Visibility this morning -- and in a remarkable turn of events, he got called out for not sufficiently supporting trans Marylanders.

Here's what happened:

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

At transgender visibility event, Gov. Moore called out for lack of action “We know who you, Governor Moore, can be for us. And I am begging you to do it,” Lee Blinder told Moore.

That took so much courage

New College fires Chinese professor under controversial Florida ‘countries of concern’ law “I never expected to face such a distressing experience after escaping persecution from the CCP in China, only to encounter a somewhat similar situation,” the fired professor said.

“I never expected to face such a distressing experience after escaping persecution from the CCP in China, only to encounter a somewhat similar situation” at New College in the United States.

Read more at: www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

I should also add that people coming up to me after my book talks to ask this same thing—that they’re skeptical at my assertion that race is a social and legal category, not an innate human one—is a universal experience every time I speak.

Seems like an odd omission that the Don’t Say Gay methods “resemble” not only Putin but also DeSantis.

A parliamentary session is disrupted as protesters inside the chamber release orange and green smoke from handheld smoke flares. Lawmakers, dressed in formal attire, react with surprise, some taking photos or recording the event. The ornate chamber features wooden desks and intricate architectural details. The atmosphere appears chaotic, with attention focused on the protesters holding the smoke flares.

This was the Parliament in Hungary in response to the passage of a bill banning pride events. If only democrats had a spine like this.

www.pbs.org/newshour/wor...

The fact that this White House thinks they can demand the Smithsonian teach that “race is a biological reality” without admitting they’re white supremacists is a big problem. Obviously the racist administration is to blame, but I don’t think largely sticking to an esoteric phrase has helped.

It’s a problem that so many people avoid talking about it beyond stock language like “race is a social construct.” I’m not convinced a lot of people who use that phrase could explain what it means that race isn’t “biological.”

In reaction to the Trump executive order declaring “race is a biological reality” and demanding that that be taught in the Smithsonian: I think the understanding of what it means that race is a legal category, not an inherent one, is weakly understood even by progressives.

👀

Tesla Likely Finished In Germany As 94% Surveyed Say They’d Never Buy Musk’s EVs In a new T-Online poll in Germany, 94% of respondents said they would not buy a Tesla car in response to Musk's actions.

"A new survey of over 100,000 German respondents by T-Online about Tesla shows that a staggering 94% of its citizens say they would never purchase a Tesla car."

Yeah I’d like it changed everywhere! I’d really appreciate you doing that on my behalf