John Balch

@STORMWARA Dandelion Dynasty, The Dagger and the Coin, Divine Cities, Sarantine Mosaic, The Sun Chronicles, Hierarchy

i need a fantasy book as good as asoiaf i am having a reading slump

THE UNBRIDLED GREATNESS OF TRAINS WILL ENDURE FOR A MILLION YEARS

@Mark__Lawrence I would put it around a solid 4.5, and it is notably much darker than its companion The Blacktongue Thief. Buehlman's background as a horror writer really shines through in how deeply frightening the goblins are and he also is unsparing towards human cruelty and wekness as well.

If you've read Christopher Beuhlman's THE DAUGHTERS' WAR ... how grimdark is it on this chart? If not ... why not? 😮 l1nk-bel0w to rate it or any book in the list for grimdarkiness.

No one likes an unflattering photo or painting of themselves, which is why I went in a different direction for my official portrait. I’ve always been proud to support Colorado art, and this portrait was an exciting opportunity to do exactly that while embedding my image into the fabric of Colorado's history. I’m proud of the final product and want to thank the artists for their artistic vision, and personally feel that I have never looked better.

@MBTA_CR_Alerts Should probably tell us on the train, no one is informing us of anything

@DiscussingFilm Truly an unstoppable force vs. an immoveable object

Nathan Fielder has been reportedly visiting Elizabeth Holmes in prison as part of a top-secret documentary. (Source: theinsneider.com/p/nathan-field…)

So much more emphasis on Hegseth’s opposition to women in combat than there is on his declarations that USA must wage a civilizational struggle against Islam. The reason for that: much of the liberal media and Democratic Party only disagree with the latter in tone, not substance.

@paulbloomatyale @sapinker The Misinformation Age by Caitlin O'Connor and James Weatherall is very eye-opening on misinformation, especially the middle section with agent-based modeling I think would be helpful for students.

Next semester, I'm teaching a freshman seminar on rationality. I'm using @sapinker's book along with other readings appropriate for students just out of high school. Advice? I'm especially looking for anything recent on the powers/limits of LLMs & the debate over misinformation.

@MatthewSitman @mikeduncan @daniel_lefferts Roman Republics by Harriet Flowers is a great read, and makes the case that there were multiple socio-political arrangements of “republics” over its history, certainly a lot of parallels with shifts in political alignments and power in American history

So far my Rome pleasure reading includes @mikeduncan's THE STORM BEFORE THE STORM (on the Roman Republic) and @daniel_lefferts's novel, WAYS AND MEANS (which comes highly recommended and I'm very excited to read); still looking for others, but I do have "work" reading to do too

every time I fear the left is doomed by being too weird, I am reminded that the right is so fucking weird it's unbelievable.

@WillSloanEsq I Saw the TV Glow?

Checked my crystal ball. Roger Ebert in heaven has given 4 stars to Conclave, The Brutalist, and Here, 3.5 stars to Juror #2, 3 stars to Rumours, 2 stars to Red One and Venom: The Last Dance. I'm sorry to report that the crystal ball also says 4 stars for Emilia Perez.

@DanielDenvir @zeithistoriker Oil politics. Trump talked about drilling at home many times at his rallies from early on in the campaign and it feels slightly undercovered as part of the right's economic populist and protectionist pitch

I’m prepping a Dig interview w Wendy Brown and @zeithistoriker on emergent features of the ascendent American right in all its clown-car cornucopia variety, full of momentum but also riven by powerful contradictions as it seizes the heights of state power. What should we discuss?

checking if my games are woke

@coopercooperco I think it had a lot of good elements (and even some great ones!) but the organization in the back half was a mess. Yes they had a truncated count but they should've streamlined better to tell a more cohesive story and they wasted a lot of precious episode time spinning wheels

Am clearly in the minority on it but thought overall it was a great season of HotD hobbled at the end with a truncated episode count. It’s a season on how wars start and become greater monsters than any individual players. That’s real ASoIaF shit.

moderator: what do you say to people trapped in our realm by mr melancholy jd vance: i- what does that, i dont understand tim walz: look, we gotta get these kids back to the pink opaque

The Jewish Democratic governor of PA just gave a barnburner speech to a raucous crowd shortly before the introduction of the Jewish soon-to-be 1st Gentleman. But I'm told by fans of the man that dined with a neo-nazi recently that its the Dems who are irreparably anti-semitic.

REPORTER: Madam President, what's your favorite Hold Steady album? HARRIS: what kind of question is -- [walz grabs podium] WALZ: BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA

We wanted to know if Tim Walz could relate to the rural Midwestern voters that Democrats have lost. So we spoke to three venture capitalists at a cocktail party in the Hamptons.

gossip girl here. your one and only source into the scandalous lives of westeros’ elite. who am I? that’s one secret I’ll never tell

Ok guys this season of House of the Dragon was not worse than Game of Thrones season 8, be serious for a minute