Nic Babarskis

Carla Hayden’s firing this week hits especially hard for me because my spouse and I just finished watching a fantastic PBS distributed documentary on the history of libraries in the U.S. Hayden’s featured briefly near the end.

It’s a great watch, neither of us could keep a dry eye at different moments.

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I took Amazon immolating $700 million dollars to distill a pure moment that evokes Tolkein at his best–as I remember him when read to me in my childhood–so good job I guess?

It really is best viewed on a big screen with a good sound system:

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UUgh, just encountered a cherished song from my youth utilized in a commercial for a conglomerate selling sugar water, so I guess I can check off that box.

Some thoughts on Carla Hayden’s firing:

There is likely “nothing personal” against Hayden in President Trump’s action, except the ongoing intention to sideline, silence, and punish those who dare to represent the best in their fields through imaginative, enthusiastic, and more truly diverse leadership. The vast overreach involved in the new “epistemic secession”—related to tribal epistemology– into a “remaking” of the nation’s universities, cultural institutions, and even its primary library of record, is the driving destructiveness that causes leaders like Carla Hayden to be dismissed.

One of the kiddos is going to through a major Peppa Pig phase so right now when they ask me for something and I fulfill the request they respond “thank you my good man” in their best attempt at a British accent. ❤️❤️😂

‘I Loved That AI:’ Judge Moved by AI-Generated Avatar of Man Killed in Road Rage Incident:

Using an AI generated video to have a dead victim deliver “their own” impact statement is unprecedented. AI avatars are obviously not the real person, and what they say must either be scripted by a different person, or generated using an LLM that is not the person. In this case, the video was used to help determine the prison sentence of a living person. The video that Pelkey’s family played contained several minutes of video of Pelkey from when he was alive, but everything the AI avatar said was scripted by his sister.

No additional commentary from me, just Malcolm Guite inviting you into his study to talk about his theories on the identity of Tom Bombadil:

youtube.com/watch

Picked up daughter from school and she expressed she wanted to see a wind turbine so after dinner we researched where the closest one was that also was near an ice cream shop and ended up in Ithaca, MI.

It’s a great time to walk the Red Cedar River on Michigan State’s campus if you can find an excuse to get here.

Once again, techno utopians reveal their gnostic anthropology:

Tech companies have worked for years to insert themselves in the middle of normal human relationships. Between parents and kids, teachers and kids, friends and friends, governments and citizens – tech companies want to sit in the middle of these, acting as gatekeeper, monetizer, and manipulator.

The idea that indigenous knowledge somehow is going to be passed down not by elders but by an app (produced by cubicle-dwelling coders) is more than ridiculous. It’s actively dangerous.

Deep Links are great and more people should learn how to use them:

Text fragment links represent a small but notable step forward in the evolution of the Web, finally realizing a part of Ted Nelson’s vision for hypertext and enabling precise navigation to specific content. Deep linking makes sharing information more efficient, improves the usability of lengthy documents, and helps readers focus on the most relevant content.

John 11:25-26

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this Martha?”

I live in a neighborhood that uses rain gardens as a primary means of storm drainage. This is a delightful time of year for walks.

This is a sobering look at the challenges Michigan faces in providing adequate social services to a rapidly aging population:

A common refrain among seniors who spoke to Bridge is worry that a lack of services will force them to live out their lives in a nursing home — and a feeling they are powerless to avoid it.

I have confidence that this is something the state can figure out if it’s given the scrutiny and sustained discussion it deserves. I wonder if the issue isn’t just a lack of attention but a willful avoidance on the part of the wider public. I don’t think many folks are willing to take a sustained look at the realities of aging and have the difficult debate about what we owe each other as a society when we reach that stage in life.

Today’s Public Domain find comes from Airline Timetable Images, a delightful collection of digitized timetables and baggage labels:

<img src=“https://nic.babarskis.blog/uploads/2025/e6fdf3d27c.jpg" alt=“A vintage green and white logo features an airplane with the text “MISR AIRLINES EGYPT” and additional Arabic script above it.">

<img src=“https://nic.babarskis.blog/uploads/2025/7a42bc981e.jpg" alt=“A vintage-style logo features a silhouette of an airplane with people boarding, along with the text “Fly MisrAir Egyptian Airlines Viscount” against a green and cream background.">

Two recent articles have me thinking once again about Title IX, religious exemptions, and how culture warring leads to short term thinking and erodes durable coalition building. So I wrote about it on my long-from blog: thinking-about-colleges-and-universities.ghost.io/culture-w…

Today’s Public Domain find. An image from the Library of Congress by Udo Keppler. Seems appropriate given all the tariff fueled volatility we’re experiencing.

If you haven’t ever tried 5calls.org this is a good week to give it a try. I prefer to engage with my elected officials when there are actual bills or legislative action I anticipate them needing to take. This week there will be a number of bills before Congress.

Trump administration strips legal residency of international students at CMU | Bridge Michigan

Without notice or explanation, the Trump administration has stripped several current and former Central Michigan University international students of their right to be in the US, university officials announced Friday.

There is a sequence to these moves. During the campaign the emphasis was on “criminals,” early deportations have included lawful visitors and permanent residents. The administration calculates these folks have engaged in activity the public will see as egregious enough (whether that activity is constitutionaly protected or not) to shrug off the civil rights of “foreigners” (legal or undocumented). Now they are accelerating efforts to push out as many non-citizens as possible before the courts step in. This is cruel and capricious behavior.

The Gen X Career Meltdown - The New York Times

Every generation has its burdens. The particular plight of Gen X is to have grown up in one world only to hit middle age in a strange new land. It’s as if they were making candlesticks when electricity came in. The market value of their skills plummeted.

Karen McKinley, 55, an advertising executive in Minneapolis, has seen talented colleagues “thrown away,” she said, as agencies have merged, trimmed staff and focused on fast, cheap social media content over elaborate photo shoots.

Using today’s interesting Public Domain find to highlight open access resources related to Trans* history (yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility). While you can access many resources online, you should check your local (or nearest college/university) library and inquire about special collections. Surfing the web is great, but engaging with tangible history in a vertical file can move the abstract to the embodied.

There’s very specific vibes video that features 80s and 90s anime that exudes what I’d call a #vhspunk aesthetic–before the iPhone with its black mirror imposed a glass sheen on tech products. The video style is typified by Hanahaki Blank’s youtube channel. Its the perfect delta of the beauty of hand drawn animation, late 20th century nostaligia, and technophilia.

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An interesting Public Domain find. This is a picture of Catharine (Cappy) Vail, member of the Women’s Airforce Services Pilots (WASP) corps. Pulled from the Library of Congress' special collection on Armed Services history.