Michael Dettelbach
@erdumwandler.bsky.social
Historian of science and technology, thinks "artificial intelligence" is both an oxymoron and a pleonasm. Possibly a panpsychist. Very occasionally posts longer mind-leavings on https://dettelblog.wordpress.com/.
OK, which Victorianist is going to win this one? www.bonhams.com/auction/3093...
October 9, 2025 at 11:33 PM
OK, which Victorianist is going to win this one? www.bonhams.com/auction/3093...
Spot on, @govpritzker.illinois.gov. What say you, @massgovernor.bsky.social? Time to voice principled opposition to this misuse of federal power and solidarity with its victims? Start a movement, form a compact?
Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”
October 7, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Spot on, @govpritzker.illinois.gov. What say you, @massgovernor.bsky.social? Time to voice principled opposition to this misuse of federal power and solidarity with its victims? Start a movement, form a compact?
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
Watch this. This is what this criminal administration wants to do to all of us.
Find the groups in your community that are standing up against ICE and join them.
Find the groups in your community that are standing up against ICE and join them.
October 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Watch this. This is what this criminal administration wants to do to all of us.
Find the groups in your community that are standing up against ICE and join them.
Find the groups in your community that are standing up against ICE and join them.
So good. So…perspicacious. Would love to see responses of Klein and others who see speech and reason as things that take place in some abstract realm outside of communication (or see communication as mere data transfer) www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
www.bostonreview.net
September 26, 2025 at 4:19 PM
So good. So…perspicacious. Would love to see responses of Klein and others who see speech and reason as things that take place in some abstract realm outside of communication (or see communication as mere data transfer) www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
Whenever I make coffee in the morning, I make sure the grounds are shaped in the filter like an inverted cone, with an indent in the middle, and think of Baader’s theory of shaped explosive charges. www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb1070...
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb10704955?page=351
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<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>'bergmännisches...
www.digitale-sammlungen.de
September 23, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Whenever I make coffee in the morning, I make sure the grounds are shaped in the filter like an inverted cone, with an indent in the middle, and think of Baader’s theory of shaped explosive charges. www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb1070...
The more asters we have, the further we are from dis-aster.
September 23, 2025 at 2:00 AM
The more asters we have, the further we are from dis-aster.
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
This is a remarkable declaration and challenge to Congress: "We call on you to pass nothing less than a fighting CR: a funding bill that not only keeps the lights on, but that also includes statutory protections to rein in executive lawlessness." Spread the word.
Today a coalition of federal workers has released the Civil Servants’ Declaration.
We have frequently asked questions here.
“Why this letter? Because the Trump administration is engaged in an assault on the Constitution…” Please read!
We have frequently asked questions here.
“Why this letter? Because the Trump administration is engaged in an assault on the Constitution…” Please read!
Frequently Asked Questions: Civil Servants’ Declaration
Demanding an End to Executive Overreach
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
This is a remarkable declaration and challenge to Congress: "We call on you to pass nothing less than a fighting CR: a funding bill that not only keeps the lights on, but that also includes statutory protections to rein in executive lawlessness." Spread the word.
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered…Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
- 1984, George Orwell
- 1984, George Orwell
The Trump administration has announced that the US will rewrite past climate reports, in a clear attempt to erase scientific history and undermine the consensus on human-caused climate change.
US to rewrite its past national climate reports
US President Donald Trump's administration is revising past editions of the nation's premier climate report -- its latest move to undermine the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.
www.france24.com
August 9, 2025 at 4:54 PM
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered…Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
- 1984, George Orwell
- 1984, George Orwell
Listened to #274 of @empirepoduk.bsky.social yesterday, and was reminded of this gem of misprision, from a litany of Drake's barbarities in F. X. von Zach's Correspondance astronomique (1823). To do something "au nez et à la barbe" of someone is to do it boldly, right under their nose.
July 31, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Listened to #274 of @empirepoduk.bsky.social yesterday, and was reminded of this gem of misprision, from a litany of Drake's barbarities in F. X. von Zach's Correspondance astronomique (1823). To do something "au nez et à la barbe" of someone is to do it boldly, right under their nose.
Green frog from today’s walk.
July 27, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Green frog from today’s walk.
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
Brazilian president to the American people,
"If Trump was Brazilian and did what he did at the Capitol, he'd be on trial in Brazil"
"If Trump was Brazilian and did what he did at the Capitol, he'd be on trial in Brazil"
July 19, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Brazilian president to the American people,
"If Trump was Brazilian and did what he did at the Capitol, he'd be on trial in Brazil"
"If Trump was Brazilian and did what he did at the Capitol, he'd be on trial in Brazil"
If we’re doing #hairyplants today, I give you Culcitium, which is so hairy that travelers in the Andean highlands used it for bedding, which is how it got its name. hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c05...
hdl.handle.net
July 13, 2025 at 9:27 PM
If we’re doing #hairyplants today, I give you Culcitium, which is so hairy that travelers in the Andean highlands used it for bedding, which is how it got its name. hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c05...
Can someone explain to me why Google search is no longer able to return occurrences of an exact phrase across the vast universe of text on the Web?
July 10, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Can someone explain to me why Google search is no longer able to return occurrences of an exact phrase across the vast universe of text on the Web?
Summer reading begins. This is just a lovely, gutting description of the world (time and space) being slowly drained of personhood, and vv. Dematerialization. Disorientation. Alienation.
June 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Summer reading begins. This is just a lovely, gutting description of the world (time and space) being slowly drained of personhood, and vv. Dematerialization. Disorientation. Alienation.
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
If the GOP justices on SCOTUS thought universal injunctions were unconstitutional, they had multiple opportunities to set boundaries via egregious injunctions from GOP judges blocking Biden measures.
They didn't.
They waited until now to help their President send citizens to foreign gulags.
They didn't.
They waited until now to help their President send citizens to foreign gulags.
Digging in a little bit more, I see SG Prelogar raising the issue in:
Garland v. TX
AZ v. Myorkas
Murthy v. MO
Biden v. Feds for Medical Freedom
Becerra v. Braidwood
Dept. of Ed. v. Colleges of TX
Biden v. TX
FDA v. Alliance for Hipp. Med.
TX v. Cook County, IL
Garland v. TX
AZ v. Myorkas
Murthy v. MO
Biden v. Feds for Medical Freedom
Becerra v. Braidwood
Dept. of Ed. v. Colleges of TX
Biden v. TX
FDA v. Alliance for Hipp. Med.
TX v. Cook County, IL
June 28, 2025 at 11:14 AM
If the GOP justices on SCOTUS thought universal injunctions were unconstitutional, they had multiple opportunities to set boundaries via egregious injunctions from GOP judges blocking Biden measures.
They didn't.
They waited until now to help their President send citizens to foreign gulags.
They didn't.
They waited until now to help their President send citizens to foreign gulags.
Catalpa flowers. Remarkable for such a weedy tree.
June 22, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Catalpa flowers. Remarkable for such a weedy tree.
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
June 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
We feed you.
They hunt us.
They hunt us.
June 11, 2025 at 5:05 AM
We feed you.
They hunt us.
They hunt us.
Spring chicken for dinner!
June 1, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Spring chicken for dinner!
As if there weren’t enough gall in the feeds nowadays, here are two firsts for the season from today’s walk, some witch’s hats (witch-hazel cone gall aphids) and some wool sower gall wasps.
May 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
As if there weren’t enough gall in the feeds nowadays, here are two firsts for the season from today’s walk, some witch’s hats (witch-hazel cone gall aphids) and some wool sower gall wasps.
Inordinately, irrationally pleased with this purchase from a Dayton bookstore, PJF Turpin’s essay of a philosophical iconography of plants, with this synoptic plate, illustrating the morphological unity of Nature, dedicated to his patron Humboldt.
May 28, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Inordinately, irrationally pleased with this purchase from a Dayton bookstore, PJF Turpin’s essay of a philosophical iconography of plants, with this synoptic plate, illustrating the morphological unity of Nature, dedicated to his patron Humboldt.
Admirable clarity. Gleichschaltung.
The Trump administration is “trying to collapse the independence of universities. And they won’t stop there. The point is to collapse the independence of institutions in civil society.” — Wesleyan University President Michael Roth on MSNBC #HigherEd
May 13, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Admirable clarity. Gleichschaltung.
Reposted by Michael Dettelbach
The Trump administration is “trying to collapse the independence of universities. And they won’t stop there. The point is to collapse the independence of institutions in civil society.” — Wesleyan University President Michael Roth on MSNBC #HigherEd
May 12, 2025 at 10:38 PM
The Trump administration is “trying to collapse the independence of universities. And they won’t stop there. The point is to collapse the independence of institutions in civil society.” — Wesleyan University President Michael Roth on MSNBC #HigherEd