"Grading for correctness just adds a huge incentive for them to use AI for homework instead of doing it themselves, and penalizes students for honesty."

Said UC Berkeley professor (and winner of the Fields Medal) Richard Borcherds.

Quoted in "UC Berkeley professor refuses to grade his students’ homework after noticing worrying trend: 'No point'" (NY Post).

"France has beautiful days ahead of it... its recovery begins here in Orléans. This is the symbol of the fight against stupidity, against abandonment, against resignation."

Said Marine Le Pen, addressing supporters of France’s "far-right" National Rally in Orléans (where Joan of Arc defended France in 1429):

The lakeshore woods at first light.

"He was a one of one. Anything he’d seen, he could draw for you — like the logo of a defunct 1910s company or a piece of footwear."

"He was like a visual savant. It was weird. You would refer to something visual, and he’d go, 'Oh, yeah, I can sketch that up for you.'"

Said Ethan Coen, quoted in "J. Todd Anderson Has Died. The Coen Brothers May Be Lost Without Him. The storyboard artist produced scene-by-scene sketches that shaped films like “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski” and 'No Country for Old Men'" (NYT)(gift link, lots of drawings and photos).

"What happened to the internet? It used to be fun. Look at me in 2012. But lately, it's gotten a little weird...."

"The Parks Department sees an old, decaying, noncompliant place. We see versatile, high-quality, high-performance equipment."

Said Salo Coslovsky, an associate professor of urban planning, quoted in "New Fight at Gritty Manhattan Park Is Over ‘Punk Rock’ Pull-Up Bars/The Parks Department has a $10 million plan to renovate the northeast corner of Tompkins Square Park, but fans of its workout bars want things to stay just as they are" (NYT).

The idea that it's "punk rock" comes from a personal trainer, Danny Kavaldo: "People don’t come here to get the newest, shiniest equipment; people come here because it’s Tompkins Square Park. There’s an energy you can feel, it’s gritty, it’s punk rock, it’s the East Village."

"In a 1993 cover story — 'Revenge of the Philistines' was the headline — Forbes lumped a Stankard piece in with 'junk collectibles.'"

"If he heard the sneering, Mr. Stankard did not seem to care. A devout Catholic, he saw melting his woodland worlds into miniature as a higher calling. Wearing purple didymium lenses to protect his eyes from the sodium flare heated glass emits, Mr. Stankard worked beneath a Benedictine motto: Laborare est orare, Latin for 'to work is to pray.'"

From "Paul Stankard Has Died. Behold What He Did With Paperweights. Yes, paperweights. Working over a nearly 5,000-degree gas flame, he created glass marvels that sold for tens of thousands of dollars. He was 83" (NYT)(gift link, with photos).

I thought the whole thing was a joke, but there really are stingrays on view — and available for touching — at Tropicana Field.

Aaron Ashby and Brice Turang finding out there are stingrays in a tank in Tropicana Field is straight comedy 😂😂 #Brewers #WorldSeries https://t.co/eYD2tnaHVV

— Cameron Ezeir (@camezeir) October 26, 2026

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I don't approve. Leave animals alone. But isn't a stingray the beast that took out the Crocodile Hunter? I look a bit more closely at the truth/fiction of this special feature of the Rays' ballpark. These are not stingrays but cownose rays. Still, I would leave fish alone. (Yes, they are fish, cartilaginous fishes, like sharks. No bones!)

"But Ladies’ Man: The Careless Heart of John F Kennedy is far more interesting than its tacky title suggests."

"(Sloppy subtitle too: Kennedy’s heart was not exactly the organ he was putting about back then.) Leamer has become known for telling the stories of the people around a famous person: Capote’s Women, Hitchcock’s Blondes, Warhol’s Muses — you get the picture. He goes through the stories of some of Kennedy’s mistresses here and includes first-hand interviews with the few still surviving, such as the posh Radcliffe student Diana de Vegh, whom Kennedy eventually installed as a researcher in the White House so he could have quickies with her in the Lincoln Bedroom. 'It was chit and chat and then some sex and then go home,' de Vegh tells Leamer, making Kennedy’s seduction methods sound on a par with a teenage boy’s...."

From "Why did JFK risk everything for casual sex?/In Ladies’ Man, Laurence Leamer asks what drove President Kennedy to conduct affairs with everyone from his secretary to an alleged Nazi spy" (London Times). 

"Leamer’s main argument is that Kennedy’s compulsive sex life was driven by his poor health.... He also had repeated painful STDs due to his refusal to wear condoms.... If I had to pick Kennedy’s lowest point in this book

"No sooner had we had that first dinner at the White House, which is a very seductive and beautiful place..."

"... Bill [Mayer] wanted to come back. The Gofer called me multiple times, saying how much Bill loves me, that he respects me more than anybody, and wants to come back for a second meeting... Also, I wanted to tell Bill that he’s a major POTHEAD. He’s got to stop, it’s very bad for his health. He looked like hell this time. Bill was drunk and had alcohol in his hand as he walked through the White House. Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock came along with him.... After the first dinner, Bill Maher was friendly, I guess, everyone walked away pleased. He gave me a good first show, with lots of Laughing Machine laughter, which is a real term, but it is what it is, and then reverted back to his former self, and his old ways. I understand that. He’s doing his thing. I never took it very personally. I would always mock his Low Ratings, whenever I heard. He’s not a nice guy, and what he spouts isn’t what he believes. He has to cater to his base, which is mostly composed of Losers, and people who don’t like working...."

A snippet from Trump's long Truth Social post about his second dinner with Bill Maher, which he's writing only after Bill Maher talked about the dinner on his show last Friday.

Here's a little of what Bill said that irked Trump so much:

And here's some coverage of the dinner that preceded Bill Maher's show. It's from "The View," but it include clips of Trump saying everything was great:

The Art of the Baseball.

Apollo and Daphne, by Daniel Seiter, 1675-99, 📸 by Jeff Phelps https://t.co/kzcgBxN1eh

— ArtButMakeItSports (@ArtButSports) October 25, 2026

I like this ArtButMakeItSports X account:

And look at that NYT "Connections" image.

Sunrise.

The heron at dawn.

We see this heron every morning — lately — at a place I call the AVP (alternative vantage point). Now, we feel he knows us and waits for us. Before, he'd been standing rooted to one spot quite near the shore, undisturbed by our approach. There was an aura of mutual respect and trust. But this morning, as we walked up to where we would first see him, he flew up and crossed right in front of us. It was glorious! Then he landed right over there, where you see him in the photo, and he remained rooted there, posing for all our pictures.

Here's Meade's video:

Does Obama even know what cheesecake is?

I've listened to this 20 times:

I believe he's trying to talk like a standup comedian. I feel as though he's been coached on how to sound like a standup comedian who is also the Obama who once presided over what's now supposed to be remembered as a golden age.

That's not easy, but when he gets to his big punchline — "He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory" — it's like he doesn't even know what cheesecake is let alone have any familiarity with the restaurant chain a lot of Americans regard as a pretty nice place to go out to eat.

He went.

"We need to get a system that can get that right." Broadcaster Joe Davis reacts to the swing call that ended Game 2 of the World Series https://t.co/9IXmVGNPlC

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 25, 2026

The MLB rule book does not define a "swing" or "checked swing." It is 100% the umpire's judgment. But just about every accepted understanding makes that swing. The barrel of his bat was through the hitting zone -- past parallel to the front of the plate. Had the ball struck the bat it would have gone into fair territory. That's no different than a bunt attempt that isn't pulled back in time.

— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) October 25, 2026

"That [burned Limoges] City Hall is at the epicenter of generations of struggle. It's not connected to how I fancy croissants and brie..."

"... and red wine but all I can find now is kebab in a shop blaring rap.... We should be alert to how the history of struggle is obscured by the reactionary and racist commodification of nostalgia and tourism."