@btaylorblake

Former neuroscience researcher. Sometimes word sleuth. Modern-folklore enthusiast. No clue how that happened. #BlackLivesMatter #TarHeel

 Chapel Hill, NC, United States
btaylorblake.com/
Joined March 2012
  • Tweets12.4K
  • Following1.7K
  • Followers996
1KMedia
Something new-ish by me about antebellum uses of “tar heel” and how the epithet may have become linked to North Carolinians by ca. 1860. In short, "tar heel" was used for the marginalized poor across the South before the Civil War. btaylorblake.com/2022/04/29/… #TarHeels #GDTBATH

Who Put the “Tar” in “Tar Heels”?: Antebellum uses of the epithet and its application to North...

“[T]he idea occurs to me that it is no wonder we are called ‘Tar Heels.’” — Lt. William B.A. Lowrance, 4th regiment of the North Carolina Troops, 6 February 1863 Would that Lt. Lowrance come back a…

btaylorblake.com
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Anne Oatley@AnneOatleyOct 22
Row over #Mummies in museums is funny when you compare 18/19C antiquarians who loved digging up historical figures. Their accounts, complete with engravings, usually end sadly 'but on being exposed to the air, it crumbled into dust.'
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Chris Beneke@historyballOct 21
Extortion, plain and simple. And at the expense of veterans.
Aaron Rupar
@atruparOct 21
Trump on Camp Lejeune water contamination claims: "If we win the House and Senate, I am directing the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible ... if we don't win, there's no money."
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Thad Ogburn@thadogburnOct 21
In a viral moment at an NC campaign stop this week, JD Vance made a joke that implied a protester was in the US illegally. @FaithWardwell tracked down and talked to the protester who notes: "I’m born and raised here in the southern part of North Carolina." newsobserver.com/news/politi…

JD Vance joked protester was here illegally. He says he was born and raised in NC

A Hendersonville teen’s protest at JD Vance’s rally went viral after the vice president joked about “illegal border crossings.”

newsobserver.com
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Aaron Rupar
@atruparOct 21
Trump on Roy Cooper: "He's going to become your senator and it's crazy" RIP Michael Whatley
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what a youthful, vigorous, diverse group …
Aaron Rupar
@atruparOct 19
JD Vance is speaking to dozens of people today in North Carolina
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Gerry Cohen
@gercohenOct 18
Orange County NC early voting Sun Oct 18 2,014 votes cast, up 85% from same day in 2022 mid-term. 4-day cumulative total 13,022. #ncpol
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Gerry Cohen
@gercohenOct 18
REMINDER: same as election day, anyone IN LINE at an NC early voting site at closing time will be allowed to vote. That’s IN LINE, not just searching for a parking space. If you come earlier in the day and line is too long, come back 30 minutes before poll close. #ncpol
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Gerry Cohen
@gercohenOct 17
Wake Co N.C. early voting Sat Oct 17 12,173 up 77% from same day in 2022. 3-day cumulative 56,124. Lots of details in image: party, race, districts, site totals. Top site John Brown in Apex 5,044. Top state house district NC37 5,832 votes. Great turnout with morning rain #ncpol
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Chris Murphy 🟧
@ChrisMurphyCTOct 17
mostly it seems when they try to stop people from voting it just makes them more determined to vote
News to Remember
@allchronologyOct 16
North Carolina A&T students marched an hour each way to vote on the first day of early voting after their campus polling site was removed by the Guilford County Elections Board. Proud 👏🏽
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(Is it bad that I can’t tell if this headline was intentional?)
The Independent
@IndependentOct 13
Voices: Why aren’t our schoolchildren as revolting as the French? trib.al/Z3SxTzB
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The Brain Prize
@BrainPrizeOct 13
How do you feel a basketball, or a hot stove? 2026 Brain Prize winners mapped the neurons of touch and pain — work now pointing toward treatments such as chronic pain. #BrainPrize #Neuroscience

How we feel what we feel - The science of touch and pain

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Legends & Rumors@BrianChapman123Oct 12
Playboy, August 1998, 146.
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Andrew Jones
@AJTarHeel247Oct 12
Bill Belichick opens his presser: “I’d like to wish the University of North Carolina happy 233rd birthday today… Quite a run here”
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Congratulations to Dr. Martin Bohlen @MartinBohlen1 , Research Scientist in Duke BME, for receiving the Cajal Club's Editor's Choice Award! He shares the honor with co-authors A. Horn, S. Warren, & P. May for two 2025 papers (titles/links below). @Cajalclub @SpringerNature
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UNC Neuroscience Center@uncneuroOct 6
We congratulate @KarlDeisseroth on the 2026 Nobel Prize for discoveries that made optogenetics possible. The Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize recognized that contribution in 2011. Eight Perl Prize recipients have now gone on to win a Nobel Prize: med.unc.edu/neuroscience/per…

Previous Recipients | UNC Neuroscience Center

2000 David Jay Julius, PhD#,^,* University of California, San Francisco Cloning the Capsaicin Receptor 2001 Roderick MacKinnon, MD* The Rockefeller University Solving the Crystal Structure of the...

med.unc.edu
The Nobel Prize
@NobelPrizeOct 5
"I was not yet asleep being a night owl. And now I don't think I'll be able to sleep for quite a while!" Today psychiatrist and scientist Karl Deisseroth learned he had been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. We found out his first reaction to the news.
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Gerry Cohen
@gercohenSep 30
Wake Co Board of Elections approved 1,671 civilian absentee ballots at 9/29 board meeting, but 42 ballots had been rejected and new ballot packets reissued due to voter failing to seal inner envelope in return package. This is 2.5% of all ballots submitted. If you are voting by mail PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE follow all instructions (prior to Sept 4 policy update by State Board of Elections these 42 ballots likely would have been accepted.) #ncpol
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Barry Popik@barrypopikSep 29
"#Burger" (1907), for "#hamburger," is first cited at the University of Michigan. @bgzimmer had found "burger" a few years later at Penn State. @MerriamWebster has 1937! cc @michigandaily @btaylorblake @EsnpcB newspapers.com/article/the-d…

"Burger" for "hamburger" (1907).

Clipping found in The Detroit News published in Detroit, Michigan on 10/27/1907. "Burger" for "hamburger" (1907).

newspapers.com
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Shane Goldmacher
@ShaneGoldmacherSep 29
How do you know Democrats are competing in a more rural district? This NC-11 ad from Jamie Ager/DCCC opens with: "Do you know what we need more of in Washington DC? Barn dances!"
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Mike (not a) Rothschild
@rothschildmdSep 17
Chemtrails are not real. So you're not looking at them.
Aaron Rupar
@atruparSep 17
RFK Jr: "We are also looking at chemtrails"
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
RFK Jr. referred to "chemtrails," a conspiracy theory alleging secret chemical spraying by aircraft. No evidence supports this; trails are condensation (contrails) and a 2016 peer-reviewed survey of 77 atmospheric experts found 76 had seen none for such programs. epa.gov/regulations-em… iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108… statnews.com/2026/09/17/rfk…
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NC Democratic Party
@NCDemPartySep 17
Yeah, we don’t like him either.
FactPost
@factpostnewsSep 16
Trump: Sometimes I don't like Michael Whatley. He looks like such a nice man. He's not really that nice
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