@mpallen.bsky.social
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One small thing I hope comes out of this nightmare is at least renaming the Department of Homeland Security. “Homeland” is not a word Americans use. It sounds like a translation from Heimatsicherheitsabteilung.
January 18, 2026 at 8:58 PM
One small thing I hope comes out of this nightmare is at least renaming the Department of Homeland Security. “Homeland” is not a word Americans use. It sounds like a translation from Heimatsicherheitsabteilung.
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This is the kind of shit that would make you completely outside the bounds of any ancient society, the gods bestow generational curses for violating hospitality
A few days ago, Fox News was whining about ICE agents getting heckled at a Mexican restaurant in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, in the town of Willmar, ICE agents had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, waited until it closed, then confronted and arrested three workers as they left.
Meanwhile, in the town of Willmar, ICE agents had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, waited until it closed, then confronted and arrested three workers as they left.
ICE agents ate at a Minnesota Mexican restaurant before arresting staff
Immigration law enforcement agents reportedly followed employees out of the restaurant after they closed for the evening
www.independent.co.uk
January 18, 2026 at 2:14 AM
This is the kind of shit that would make you completely outside the bounds of any ancient society, the gods bestow generational curses for violating hospitality
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Have been interested in the rising use of “neighbor” as the relation of solidarity identified by anti-ICE protests. Your neighbors may be very different from you, but they’re made familiar—made yours—by a kind of ordinary proximity.
January 12, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Have been interested in the rising use of “neighbor” as the relation of solidarity identified by anti-ICE protests. Your neighbors may be very different from you, but they’re made familiar—made yours—by a kind of ordinary proximity.
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Well played, Transport for London
January 11, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Well played, Transport for London
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I can’t be the only dad in this trampoline park hiding in the corner reading Henry James
December 27, 2025 at 7:08 PM
I can’t be the only dad in this trampoline park hiding in the corner reading Henry James
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I am once again asking if people think knowledge of the world just deliquesces onto the internet like dew
America First, at America’s first public university.
UNC cuts all six area studies research centers, effective 2026
As part of the University's plan to make $70 million in budget cuts across the institution, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Nate Knuffman projected that cutting 14 centers and institutes in...
www.dailytarheel.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:17 AM
I am once again asking if people think knowledge of the world just deliquesces onto the internet like dew
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I agree this is probably right (Occam's razor being applied), but its placement is evidently so suggestive of other images and scenarios -- and, as William Empson said, the English prepositions exist in several dimensions...
December 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I agree this is probably right (Occam's razor being applied), but its placement is evidently so suggestive of other images and scenarios -- and, as William Empson said, the English prepositions exist in several dimensions...
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these people are fraudsters selling snake oil and after their reforms crash and burn they'll be on to the next institution to do the same song and dance
December 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
these people are fraudsters selling snake oil and after their reforms crash and burn they'll be on to the next institution to do the same song and dance
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the president is not an elected sovereign. he does not speak for the people or embody their will, he merely represents them. if he wants to change the constitution, let him make his case.
December 7, 2025 at 7:18 PM
the president is not an elected sovereign. he does not speak for the people or embody their will, he merely represents them. if he wants to change the constitution, let him make his case.
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the reason its bad to run universities like businesses is that almost all businesses fail on any reasonable timeline of evaluation.
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2
December 6, 2025 at 5:42 PM
the reason its bad to run universities like businesses is that almost all businesses fail on any reasonable timeline of evaluation.
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
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this is quite the detail
November 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM
this is quite the detail
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"I am an American, Chicago born."
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
November 29, 2025 at 6:12 PM
"I am an American, Chicago born."
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It's #blackfriday here at the ILT: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (2nd Dublin edn.) Two single-sided black pages face each other at pp. 56-57.
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
November 28, 2025 at 3:21 PM
It's #blackfriday here at the ILT: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (2nd Dublin edn.) Two single-sided black pages face each other at pp. 56-57.
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
‘Which is entirely attributable,’ said Madame, ‘to the gross misconduct and most improper behaviour of Mr. Mantalini.’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
November 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
‘Which is entirely attributable,’ said Madame, ‘to the gross misconduct and most improper behaviour of Mr. Mantalini.’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
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This basically vindicates Wordsworth in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads when he wrote of 'the tendency of metre to divest language, in a certain degree, of its reality, and thus to throw a sort of half-consciousness of unsubstantial existence over the whole composition'
This study show that using poems to jailbreak LLMs is... super effective? What the heck.
November 20, 2025 at 5:58 PM
This basically vindicates Wordsworth in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads when he wrote of 'the tendency of metre to divest language, in a certain degree, of its reality, and thus to throw a sort of half-consciousness of unsubstantial existence over the whole composition'
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Seen in Boston, Massachusetts in 1854.
November 20, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Seen in Boston, Massachusetts in 1854.
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IMO the most authentically British bit in it is that even though the world is absolutely wrecked and miserable, the King’s cavalry are still fannying about on horseback in the street wearing plumed golden helmets.
November 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
IMO the most authentically British bit in it is that even though the world is absolutely wrecked and miserable, the King’s cavalry are still fannying about on horseback in the street wearing plumed golden helmets.
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ideas are for everybody. history is for everybody. art is for everybody. including the working young people of new jersey.
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 PM
ideas are for everybody. history is for everybody. art is for everybody. including the working young people of new jersey.
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I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
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“Is it time to rethink prejudice against throwing knives at students?” - by Tim Zarbi, CEO of EduKnives.
November 11, 2025 at 8:38 AM
“Is it time to rethink prejudice against throwing knives at students?” - by Tim Zarbi, CEO of EduKnives.
