9. We’ve become so used to all this that we hardly notice it. But isn’t it extraordinary? Almost everyone wants one thing, and almost everyone who represents us – whether in politics or the media – wants the opposite. Yet we tell ourselves we live in a democracy.

Gregory Bovino has been called "commander at large" but that's not a real rank in the Border Patrol. He still wears the 2 silver star insignia of a Sector Chief Patrol Agent which at GS-15 is equivalent to military O-6 (colonel, captain) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory...

#VidSource I had to check that the video of Trump nearly wandering off the red carpet after his helicopter landed at Davos was real and not AI enhanced. Its real, posted by the White House 8:34 AM Jan 21, 2026 x.com/WhiteHouse/s...

New favourite example of scalar implicature

The Philippine Airlines preflight video is a whole telenovela. 🤣

🧵 Trump administration AI policy is widely described as deregulatory. This description is misleading. What's happening is not the absence of governance but its rearrangement--intensive state intervention operating through mechanisms we don't typically call regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

China now dominates global production of renewable energy technologies. It makes 80% of the world’s solar cells, 70% of its wind turbines, and 70% of its lithium batteries, at prices no competitor can match. www.science.org/content/arti...

“When a person does well on the LSAT, you can also infer things about their ability to persevere at difficult work, or to manage stress. When a large language model does well on the LSAT, you can infer only that it can do well on the LSAT. This is a particular problem for higher education”

FBI freezes out Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from joint investigation of Renee Good shooting. FBI won't give BCA access to any evidence, blocking it from investigating so that the FBI is now the sole investigator. dps.mn.gov/news/bca/bca... www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...

Stephen Miller sure comes across as an unhinged psychopathic Nazi here who thinks the louder he talks the easier his position is to understand. bsky.app/profile/atru...

I choose to take this as a positive omen. (As named and drawn by Paul Kidby, illustrator of Discworld.)

I posted the below in response to a post by @dan401w.bsky.social dan replied something like "how can the cat be stupid if it guesses right" I asked if he watched the video I linked. He blocked me. bsky.app/profile/a-be...

I posted the below in response to a post by @dan401w.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/dan4... dan replied something like "how can the cat be stupid if it guesses right" I asked if he watched the video I linked. He blocked me. bsky.app/profile/a-be...

I think Trump wants to show he is better than Putin. Trump can invade Caracas and oust Maduro. Putin couldn't invade Kyiv and oust Zelenskyy.

It's been, uh, a while, but I have a new newsletter out, based on some conversations here, about the irreconcilable experiences of LLMs that different groups have had and how that all boils down to afordances and how 'AI' is a terrible name and an even worse UX metaphor.

Me and the fellas beating the toxic masculinity out of each others souls

?

A study on 1.7 million people in Hong Kong shows superior hybrid immunity to Covid in people who got vaccinated before infection vs. people who got infected first. "Our findings are a direct rebuttal to arguments for natural immunity," the authors write. doi.org/10.1016/j.va...

An addendum to today's post paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-pro-...

😂

párek v rohlíku (sausage in a roll) is a Czech style hotdog sandwich where you take a long narrow bread roll, excavate a lengthwise hole almost all the way through, fill the hole with ketchup, then shove in a skinny hotdog sausage. #hotdog www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkST...

Q: Why did Donald Trump bury Ivana on one of his golf courses? A: So he could still cheat on her.

So, how are things going over on the right?

Hello, 28th precinct, I was just yelling slurs at a bunch of people on a public sidewalk and some little skater kid snatched my transitions lenses and when I tried to chase him I fell flat on my face. Yes I’ll hold

Thanks, New Yorker

Now this is Content

Trump tonight appears to have pushed the false "medbed" conspiracy theory, which has spread in the far-right internet over the years. www.yahoo.com/news/qanon-c...

Sorry but it's hilarious that he's absolutely calling ABC out for being bitchmade for his earlier shakedown and telling them he's gonna do it again. He even says "they gave me". Lol. Not even "they were forced to pay."

John Oliver on ABC caving in and suspending Kimmel. Excellent www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPT...

Penises and fingers share a common genetic heritage. (gift link)

If Trump Isn’t Dying, Why Is He Being Treated Like a Make-A-Wish Kid? www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qxW...

Literally the second meme I've made in my life.

As @m-b-petersen.bsky.social told me a few years ago, "anyone can believe the truth, but only loyal members of the group can believe something that is blatantly false." www.salon.com/2021/08/08/a....

The more outrageous the lie, the more it becomes a badge of group loyalty to assert it. Because there’s zero chance anyone who wasn’t in the cult would repeat it just because it makes sense.

Going to do the trite thing and note that if Biden did this, it would have been the top story for days.

Famous mathematician, Jack Morava, 1944–1925, goes back in time to 19 years before he was born to die. #math mathematics.jhu.edu/2025/08/06/j...

Below got blocked in this thread bsky.app/profile/then... along with a bunch of other stuff including someone else's link to the youtube video the clip was extracted from www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRfA... Bill Moyers' Journal - Rosedale: The Way It Is Broadcast date: January 18, 1976

I see the top part of that image as consisting of a fork with a cofork below it. Those are the diagrams that are used to define monomorphisms and epimorphisms. The vertical cigarette at the bottom defines an endomorphism, not an isomorphism, since it maps to the same column.

So they found a 125,000 yr old Neanderthal fat rendering plant & I have thoughts. Knowing that they loved saturated fat SO MUCH that they industrialized to get as much of it as humanly possible? Makes me feel seen, heard, supported, etc www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

subtweeting is not cute or cool or signal that you are in the elite.

person sees the world as a hierarchy, with superiors and inferiors ➡️ concludes problems are under individual (superior or inferior) control, not systemic ➡️ they're susceptible to scams that sell them the "means" to this control ➡️ getting scammed makes them angry, scared, and vulnerable to new scams

Probably the most plausible take on what Epstein's operation looked like from lawyer Brad Edwards who has fought for some 200 Epstein victims and watched multiple Epstein depositions:

Confused about who decided to pause weapons shipments to Ukraine? Allow Trump to explain