George Johnson – The Whistling Coon – 1891 (The first recording by an African-American)

Trevor Paglen On AI, Classical Music, His Favorite Painting, etc.

Words Without Consequence

Love Anyway

Rubio’s Silk-Stocking Diplomacy

Albert Camus on the Will to Live and the Most Important Question of Existence

Undoing as Remaking: How Abraham Lincoln Drew Poetry and Power from His Suicidal Depression

A plant ‘vaccine’ takes on corn rootworm, a fearsome pest

Open Thread

AI and the Global South’s Next Leap Forward

No Retroactive Pseudonymization in Federal Court Under California "Safe at Home" Program

Penny, a Doberman pinscher, wins the Westminster dog show

George Scialabba is no fan of political theory: “Imagination, sympathy, solidarity — by whatever name: this is the true engine of political progress”

Telling “the Full Story” of George Washington

The novelist George Sand dressed like a man, took a male name and went through lovers like a rake. The life and the work cannot be disentangled 

Mike Johnson Wants To Spare ICE the Hassle of Getting the Right Warrant Before Forcibly Entering a Home

When Denis Johnson started to make money, he bought a sports car, painted it orange, and had “MANIAC DRIFTER” inscribed on its side

You and “You”: How delegation is quietly turning into replacement

Italy’s Gold Gambit

Updated Version of My Article "Immigration is Not Invasion"

This Week’s Photograph

2025’s Scientific Landscape Upended as Federal Overhauls, Public Health Setbacks, Climate Rollbacks and Cosmic Surprises Collide