joy meads

I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.

AOC: "Extreme level of wealth inequality leads to social instability and drives authoritarianism, right-wing populism, and really dangerous domestic internal politics. That is a direct outcome of the failure of democracies over decades to deliver."

Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why

“What’s really at stake is the enforcement of ‘sex-based distinctions’ that have long been understood hierarchically (men on top) to deny women (and sexual minorities) equality of treatment and access to resources and power.”

In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn't moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home.

The details of the Kristi Noem blanket incident are just fucking perfect

N.Y.C. Officials Reinstate Pride Flag at Stonewall After Federal Removal

This is the way. When they come at us, we come back at them twofold. Raise that Pride flag every time they take it down. If they prevent that, surround the park with Pride flags. Ruin their petty little lives until they shit rainbows. Never stop. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/n...

YouTube video by Radar Online HGTV Star Nicole Curtis Caught Saying Racial Slur in Unaired Footage

This is.... a fascinating little moment from the HGTV world. Just... right on the tip of her tongue: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOUl...

it really can't be said enough that this is a person who has dined with the president of the united states

The Epstein Emails Show How the Powerful Talk About Race The files reveal the disgraced financier’s interest in “race science.”

A great piece from @alibreland.bsky.social on Epstein's race science obsession—one he shares with much of the contemporary right wing elite www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Way-hey! After concerted local pushback, New Jersey company decides not to contract with ICE:

"The contract with ICE will not move forward, a Holman spokesperson told Patch.

"I have been informed that we declined that particular body of work," the spokesperson said...

patch.com/new-jersey/c...

when you find a hear old potato in the farthest corner of your pantry and a drawing of a horrifying yet sentient potato going WHERE IS THE SOIL and an old dude going HOLY SHIT

this cracked me up and I had to go so far back in my phone to find it

Anyone who had genuine concerns about youth gender medicine would staunchly and wholeheartedly support social transition. Let kids explore their identities to see what works for them!

The fact that this movement opposes even pronouns and haircuts shows that it's just bigotry all the way down.

The Atlantic was founded by abolitionists

Just going to note again, because somehow we've all completely retconned this and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, that pound-for-pound Biden had one of the most draconian border security regimes of any U.S. president ever, second only to Trump, *many of whose policies he inherited and kept*

my understanding from reading people in the know is that CBP was known as the place for fuckups who couldn’t hack it anywhere else and was considered a backwoods clown agency

now they’re being given infinite money, no supervision and - apparently - drone lasers

what could go wrong

Bureaucratic benchmarks are soul-crushing because they leave a big gap between what we care about and what can be measured.

When we forget about the things we actually care about (like making interesting discoveries) and we write worse papers to get more publications, the metric eats the value.

Congratulations on your wedding!! Hope the whole weekend is full of love and joy and continually working hearing aids!

gradient.horse Draw a horse, watch it run!

Excuse me but this is a perfect use of the internet.

gradient.horse

One of the Minnesotans who stood up was Gust Johnson, a Vietnam war vet and nurse

He went to scene after Alex Pretti was killed

Agents repeatedly sprayed him in face

They tackled him (knocking out hearing aid and cutting arm)

They shackled him.

They held him ten hours.

They kept his phone.

easy slogan for the next democratic presidential candidate is “i will reform the corrupt supreme court and repeal citizens united”

“my ‘we’re not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process’ shirt is raising a lot of questions that are answered by the shirt”

"This just happened" is news in a way that "this is still happening" is not, and overcoming that structural bias within the news industry is a really hard problem.

Re: Minnesota I think it's important to both recognize they're lying about a full retreat and recognize it as a victory that they're cognizant enough of the PR disaster to feel the need to lie.

And even then, I know it’s just a correlation but it’s interesting that customer ratings has gotten lower and error rates have grown at companies like Microsoft that have aggressively forced AI into workflows. Customers and workers generally don’t want it, which is why elites have to coerce usage.

I’ve been coding hundreds of corporate statements about this tech. Outside of software engineering, concrete benefits are very rare or referred to as abstract gains, while FOMO and coercive rhetoric dominate how executives talk about it. I don’t think that’s immaterial.

I think the AI discourse gets far too wrapped up in ideal use cases (only a small number of which exist) and neglects the profound negative externalities this industry and its finances impose on society. Only focusing on the good is childish; adults can recognize good and bad can exist in tension.

A morbidly inclined sheep, who likes to hang around in graveyards, detests parties and owns original pressings of the entire classic run of Leonard Cohen LPs from 1967-1974.

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.

You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

Dozens of researchers will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent Large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut and frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Dozens of researchers will move to France from the United States following a high-profile bid to lure talent.

A large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut & frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

🧪🔬🔭
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Trump has lost the voters who weren’t paying attention in 2024 The least-engaged Americans have swung 25 points against him since 2024 — about twice the shift among everyone else. Trump has flattened the engagement gap.

New poll: In 2024, low-engagement voters went for Trump over Harris by 11 percentage points. But now they disapprove of the way he's handling the presidency by 13. They have moved 25 points against Trump — 2x as large as the shift for high-knowledge voters www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-lost...

There are an awful lot of Nazis around these days. As a cultural historian, I find that puzzling!