Month: June 2025

Columbia was dumb to cave in to Trump

Trump treats concessions as weakness and will keep punishing you.

Was it worth it, Columbia?Look at what they made you give…www.nbcnews.com/news/educati…

— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T20:33:19.758Z

So odd to see the former president of Columbia being more outspoken about the Trump administration's threat to academia than the current Columbia president.www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Gm…

— Karl Jacoby (@karl-jacoby.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T21:23:37.388Z

"Its first target was Columbia. When that school acceded to the administration’s demands, it didn’t get its funding back. Instead, Trump is considering demanding that Columbia agree to direct government oversight — effectively, a takeover of the university…"www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04…

— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.msnbc.com) 2025-04-15T03:59:27.476Z

Columbia University capitulated to Trump to get $400M in science funding released. What happened? Not only has the funding NOT been released, but all NIH funding ($700M last year) has been frozen. Giving in to bullies just makes them take more. arstechnica.com/science/2025…

— DrDinD.bsky.social (@drdind.bsky.social) 2025-04-10T21:33:32.747Z

"In an unusual move…" seems to be the media's preferred way of describing American fascism http://www.wsj.com/us-news/educ…

— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) 2025-04-10T18:49:51.479Z

“If … you’re just being intimidated,” said Obama (Columbia ‘83, Harvard ‘91) “you should be able to say, ‘That’s why we got this big endowment’”www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202…

— Matthew Hay Brown (@matthewhaybrown.bsky.social) 2025-04-09T22:31:11.757Z

In what was a disgraceful show of stunning weakness, Columbia caved inBut compliance doesn’t workCompliance incentivizes the bully to ask more and moreIf the bully targets you, the only effective answer is to fight back

— Olivier Simard-Casanova (@o.simardcasanova.net) 2025-04-09T19:22:45.794Z

I got two seats and two teller window bars from the Pimlico Race Course

Pimlico, home of the Preakness in Baltimore, is being torn down and rebuilt. I found out about the auction from this article:

Pimlico Race Course is full of artifacts. Where will they go when it is razed?

Here are the auction site photos of the items I won.

Teal seats (photos from govdeals.com

White teller window bars (photos from govdeals.com)

Photos I took at Pimlico on June 3, 2025:

The two seats and two teller window bars that I won at the auction. I am working on getting stands so I can put the seats upright. They don’t have feet because they were attached to concrete.

3/5/26 update: I now have the legs on the seats and put them behind my kitchen table and in front of my piece of Shea Stadium bleachers.

See this post for my memories about going to the Preakness:

I went to several Preakness races

I watched films by Billy Corben

Corben’s films are about athletes, Florida, drugs or more than one of those three. The first one I saw was Screwball (on DVD) about the Florida part of the baseball steroid scandal and it was very entertaining. They used kids to reenact the scenes and somehow that worked because the truth was unbelievable anyway. Corben’s films are filled with interviews and historical TV news clips from when the events actually took place.

I liked it so much I watched other films by him.

The U and the U Part 2 about the University of Miami Football team and Broke were ESPN 30 for 30 shows and I have them on Blu-ray collections. How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke inspired Broke. I got Cocaine Cowboys Reloaded on Blu-ray.

I got DVDs of Square Grouper, Limelight, and Cocaine Cowboys 2. I’d recommend all of them. He shows all sides of the story and gets his interview subjects to really open up and be honest about the good and bad times.

A podcast with Billy Corben, director of Cocaine Cowboys, Raw Deal, Square Grouper, and The U

More climate posts from BlueSky

When it comes to climate and the environment, some cooking oils are much better than others. Here’s what to know.

— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2025-06-02T18:20:03.625031Z

Global temperatures are forecast to reach record or near-record levels during the next five years, setting the stage for more deadly extreme weather, according to an annual report from two of the world’s top meteorological agencies.

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-06-01T14:53:41.362Z

The Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts about 90% of the funding for one of the country’s cornerstone biological and ecological research programs http://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/c…

— Ian James (@ianjames.bsky.social) 2025-06-01T01:53:55.888Z

#ResistanceEarth#BlueEarthAbout half the world’s population — 4 billion people — experienced an average of 30 extra days of extreme heat over the past year. Extreme heat is deadlier than other severe weather, although deaths due to heat are often underreported.www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/…

— Shooti (@bambooshooti.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T23:58:02.784Z

An underappreciated aspect of the new WMO report — if the temperature predictions are correct, the world will pass 1.5C in as a long-term average (i.e., the _actual_ Paris goal) in 2027. In just two years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi…

— Shannon Osaka (@shannonosaka.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T14:08:06.474Z

#ResistanceEarth#BlueEarth#Voices4VictoryHow do we get more people to take action to combat climate change? A new study finds that helping people imagine how climate change will affect them and their loved ones is the most effective motivation.www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/05/many…

— Shooti (@bambooshooti.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T23:11:40.605Z

For decades, China’s emissions soared ever higher as its economy grew, burning extraordinary volumes of coal, oil, and natural gas.Now, for the first time, there’s been a shift: China’s greenhouse gas emissions have actually fallen even as energy demand went up.

— Climate Desk (@climatedesk.org) 2025-05-28T18:00:37.967Z

More BlueSky posts on the Trump-induced brain drain

Diseases don’t know if you are a Democrat or Republican. Trump is hurting everyone in America and this will have long-term consequences.

How a Trump-fueled brain drain could be the rest of the world’s brain gain: cnn.it/4l5uxtp

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-06-01T16:05:20.105Z

This is a national security emergency.

— Carlos E. Gates (@carlosegates.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T14:03:43.906Z

“Hong Kong is trying to attract Harvard students. The UK is setting up scholarships for students,” says Shaun Carver, executive director of International House, a student residential center at the University of California, Berkeley. “They see this as brain gain. And for us, it’s a brain drain."

— WIRED (@wired.com) 2025-05-29T19:51:07.986Z

Looks like a trend 😅reut.rs/4cELhEQ

— Eduardo Suárez (@eduardosuarez.bsky.social) 2025-04-15T20:54:05.419Z

Trump’s actions are pushing thousands of experts to flee government

📰Latest News Alert‘Brain drain’ at the Philly IRS . On Philly IRS workers' unstable futures after mass layoffs and reinstatement. Plus, Bok Building inspires clones… http://www.inquirer.com/new…

— layoffhub (@layoffhubai.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T10:30:50.227Z

There are literally no words for how incredibly devastating this is and it’s only been 5 months.

— Bridget123goooo 🌊🦋🏃🏻‍♀️ (@bridget123goooo.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T12:57:53.728Z

As Trump pushes migrants, refugees and asylum seekers away, Spain is positioning itself as a new land of opportunity, where a surge in predominantly Latin American immigrants is helping fuel one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe Tony Faiola reportswww.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0…

— Matthew Hay Brown (@matthewhaybrown.bsky.social) 2025-06-20T17:26:49.714Z

🚨75% of American scientists might look abroad for work if Trump continues to gut NIH. 🚨Trump’s undermining American workers, students, and the future of American global research dominance.

— Congressman Gabe Amo (@amo.house.gov) 2025-07-07T18:49:39.530Z

Law firms were wrong to make deals with Trump

Trump doesn’t keep his word. Law firms were foolish and wrong to make a deal with him.

Amazing reporting here on how things have backfired on the capitulating law firms and their enabler. http://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/…

— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T15:07:34.383Z

Trump targeted big law firms' DEI programs, and many capitulated. But Microsoft and Morgan Stanley stand firm on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI or by any other name). Microsoft and Morgan Stanley are taking their $3.62 trillion of market cap to law firms that align with their values.

— Nancy Levine Stearns 🌎 (@nancylevinestearns.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T14:00:18.621Z

Turns out that many clients and employees don't want to work with firms that cower in the face of authoritarianism. Gift link. http://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/…

— Heidi Kitrosser (@heidikitrosser.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T02:09:16.050Z

— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T16:55:39.002Z

While some law firms are cowering to Trump’s bullying and coercion, others are fighting back — and they’re winning.
I salute the firms and institutions that refuse to bend the knee to Trump’s lawlessness. And shame on those who cave in to political blackmail.

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@vanhollen.senate.gov) 2025-05-28T22:11:54.039Z

Rachel Cohen on resigning from Skadden: I would say to people: We’re going to end up staffed on financings to help prison corporations expand the Guantánamo Bay camp.Every single person I said that to responded, “Oh, don’t say that.” Not one person said, “No, we won’t.” A few even said, “Yes.”

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-05-23T22:32:49.835Z

Glad to see this—Paul Weiss deserves to go extinct after its cowardly capitulation to Trump. Every partner and associate with any integrity should flee ASAP. The firm is irredeemable. http://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/b…

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) 2025-05-23T22:04:14.051Z

It is easy to forget that when Paul Weiss and the other law firms that capitulated to Trump cut their deals they thought they would be viewed as savvy dealmakers. Now they look like craven fools and gutless cowards.

— Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T01:00:24.120Z

American Bar Association files suit to halt government intimidation of lawyers and law firms http://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews…

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T20:48:41.577Z

More on AI hallucinations

Here’s an example of an AI hallucination. I tried to find a reference to the line about the “far-flung Isles of Langerhans” in the Firesign Theatre’s How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All, AI invented an album Isles of Langerhan. Langerhans really ends with an “s”.

See page 13 in this file for the reference:

EL310 Satire – Firesign TheatreDownload

Why did this take a year to leak?

— Damon Beres (@damonberes.com) 2025-06-02T16:41:37.917Z

NEW: Citations in the MAHA Report have telltale signs of AI chatbot use — we reviewed all 522 of the listed citations, and at least 37 of the footnotes appear multiple times in the citations with another 21 having dead linksw/ @laurenweberhp.bsky.social http://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/…

— Caitlin Gilbert (@caitlingilbert.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T01:00:51.670Z

asked Google’s AI Overviews if it was 2025 so many times that it even included my home zip code in one the paradox-riddled answersmy latest for @wired.com http://www.wired.com/story/google…

— Reece (@thiccreese.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T20:32:31.562Z

RFK Jr's "MAHA" report is filled with references to studies that literally do not exist, or that completely misinterpret the studies' findings. “We did not publish a paper.. on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title,” says one cited researcher.www.notus.org/health-scien…

— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T12:35:13.753Z

“He had a billion streams and no fans.”The week after a jazz album hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart, it disappeared from the ranking altogether. Its success might never have been real in the first place.

— WIRED (@wired.com) 2025-05-25T20:53:15.094Z

Is Maryland the most foul mouthed state

Conflicting opinions

America’s most foul-mouthed states revealed – and New Yorkers are not happy

Maryland named most foul-mouthed state, Virginia ranked fourth