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Mark Csikszentmihalyi

@markcsik.bsky.social
2.1K followers 787 following 696 posts

California prof, International Studies & Emily, Henry, Kinga, Aschalew, and Zofia's dad NB: I am here for public conversation, not private ones.

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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
If you've ever wanted to know more about Chinese thought, my new book -- Confucius: A New Tradition -- just came out! Part of a series called "Ancient Lives," it uses a Han dynasty biography discovered in 2015, the oldest extant one, as a taking off point to talk to introduce his life and thought.
photo of Mark Csikszentmihalyi's dazzling new book (or so the back cover tells me) Confucius: A New Tradition
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Tarantino cribbed the fake Bible quote from a 1976 American release of a Japanese martial arts movie titled “Bodyguard Kiba.” It wasn’t part of the original 1973 manga-based movie and appears in the intro: www.schnittberichte.com/pics/SBs/300...
Fake bible quote screengrab
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Strait of what now?
Bullwinkle
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
d2i6rdlz7r9skx.cloudfront.net/original/4X/...
Cover of “Pierre” by Sendak
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
There ought to be a law…
I see clips of those press conferences where they prop him up, newly infused with platelets via the back of his hand, painted to look lifelike as if by some funeral home intern, wisps of fake hair swirled on his head from a soft-serve machine, sound asleep in his chair as a flunky drones on, and ask myself, *who is responsible for desecrating this corpse*?
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
This is from the NEH's call for Funding Opportunities for Individual Fellowships. Only Western Civilization (whatever that means -- west of... Teheran? Constantinople? Vienna?) Because the only thing worth knowing about comes from the cultures of countries that the whitest Americans come from?
The 2026 Fellowships competition will only accept projects for research in American history and culture and Western civilization. Competitive applications must focus on topics in the history, culture, and government of the United States in any period from the Colonial Era to the present, or topics in Western civilization from antiquity to the present.
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Living through this administration is like being an extra in an adaptation of "1984" that was directed by Michael Bay.
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
My mother’s family lost everything when they were sent to Dachau, and then slave labor in southern Germany until the end of the war. I think she would still be alive but for the toll of that experience. Today Trump designated European antifascist groups as terrorists. I thought we had learned…
Mother’s contemporaneous immigration documents show her family’s journey from Poland to Dachau to Augsburg after the war ended. From their they came to the U.S. on a refugee relocation program.
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
A deep cut (a WWII poster) from the SF March:
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
SF was wall to wall signs today
Keep your masked goons and princess puppy killer out of our peaceful city
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
>https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/minnesota-lawmaker-melissa-hortman-remembered-as-funny-savvy-and-a-true-leader Just looking at these two instances of political violence, a chief difference is how the right wing assassin also killed their target’s family.
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Olde timey mayors could be bushy…
Image of Hugh J. Grant
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
In my mail today: a Charles Munger (Berkshire) funded mailing against Gov. Newsom's redistricting tit-for-tat. Sadly, it is not bad -- it takes a idealistic anti-gerrymandering. Texas is not mentioned, and most of the people quoted are high-minded lefty Merricks. Can't take a win for granted.
Front page of four page booklet "Weakening Our Democratic Process"
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Me and my Bsky bubble
"Iron Monkey" guards
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
California/Minnesota solidarity sign seen at huge San Francisco "No Kings" March.
Sign at SF No Kings march. Map of California: "STOP ICE TERROR" Map of Minnesota: "STOP RIGHT WING TERROR"
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
This reservoir building is on the west side of SF on Sloat, it is called the Merced Manor Reservoir. The inscription is from Deuteronomy 11:11.
The Merced Manor Reservoir on Sloat in SF
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Just since that image may leave the reader hanging, here is the next line...
ORDERED that the plaintiff's Motion for a TRO is GRANTED; and it is further...
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
New York Museum of Natural History says: “Hold my Bvdweiser.”
Mvsevm
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
This part really illustrates how inhuman these wraiths are and give a hint at how long our descendants will be paying for their greed and short-sightedness
Screenshot of The Atlantic article saying 53 people died followed by Michael Waltz’s Signal post of three emojis: fist, American Flag, and fire
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
This CNN headline asks a question any economist can answer. But now expertise and knowledge are being banished from the decision-making process. Money (Trump, Musk) and celebrity (Hegseth!? RFK!?) are being allowed to talk, but scientists and economists and anyone with training are being sidelined.
CNN headline: “Trump wants to ‘abolish’ the ORS and replace it with tariffs. Can it work?”
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Mark Csikszentmihalyi @markcsik.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Hard for a legal system to defend people being detained by a state that uses chaos to block transparency.
Exchange about whether the press Secretary is lying about sending ICE detainees to Guantanamo and how due process could ever be guaranteed. The final perspective sums up the problem: “There’s the rub. How can we verify if it’s true or not?”
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