Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

Dan Bongard

@danbongard.bsky.social

210 followers 98 following 1.7K posts

Software engineer, video game enthusiast, guinea pig owner, exiled Californian, anti-fascist. Pronouns he/him, or "that nerd" if you went to school with me.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 4h

Personally I love how he talks about China not buying our soybeans like he's uncovered a secret conspiracy nobody else knew about.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 4h

The problem is that people who DO remember the past are also doomed to repeat it because so many of our fellow citizens are schmucks.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 6h

I don't see that happening for the simple reason that any argument for AI personhood is also an argument against AI being ownable as property. The people throwing trillions of dollars at AI are doing it with the expectation of owning something at the end.

Reposted by Dan Bongard

Leah Millis @leahmillis.bsky.social · 9h

The @chicago.suntimes.com photographer who risked their personal health and safety to take this photograph is Anthony Vazquez. Please credit photographers and media outlets. In this age of misinformation, a photo with no context could be anything at all.

50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 9h

Please remind us who the domestic terrorists are again.

Photo from Chicago: DHS militarized agent holding a gun up directly in someone’s face as the victim has their hands up, pleading for them not to shoot.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I'm 53. First protest of my life -- but in my defense, we didn't actually have a fascist dictatorship until just recently.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I have to ask -- which one of those was the one that has *hope*?

Admittedly I haven't read either since the 1980s, but I don't remember coming away with an upbeat feeling either way.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I'm 35 years out myself (Memphis, TN public schools). Our approved reading list was pretty bland and heavy on 19th century English writers.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I think that even if it has been Harris, she would have won because she wouldn't have had to spend the first half of the campaign as a VP defending Biden policies people disliked.

But I also think there are at least half a dozen Dem governors who could have kicked Trump's ass.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

Especially since the typical color of a TV on a dead channel, these days, is... blue.

I have to suspect that there are a whole lot of GenZ folks who think that Gibson was just describing a clear sky in a really pretentious way.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

When I was a young boy reading my dad's old Tom Corbett Space Cadet books in the late 1970s, my memory is that I interpreted the "Extremely 1950s" tone of the books as being something invented for the setting.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I think it depends on the kid, probably. I was interested in both science fiction and actual science, so I just took the outdated stuff in stride because of course we know more now than we did then.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I found this video to be very relaxing, and thought the finished product had a nice look.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 1d

I recommend just analyzing the spelling and grammar and ignoring the actual content. It is funnier and properly conveys that you aren't taking their opinion seriously.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 2d

Speaking as someone who grew up in Memphis (before getting the hell out as soon as he could) -- any Memphian who supported the perpetually-corrupt police force probably should have had their head examined.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 2d

If there had been a few more think-pieces about how obviously senile Biden was, maybe we could have had a Democratic primary and nominated someone who could beat Trump.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 2d

My personal favorite example of the difference between likable and compelling is Paulie Gaultieri from The Sopranos.

An absolute sociopath with zero redeeming characteristics, but still probably my favorite in the series.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 3d

Diane Keaton died and "Father of the Bride" and "First Wives Club" are the films they pick for the headline?

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 3d

Schools have been using computer algorithms to grade papers since long before Chat GPT came along, unfortunately.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 4d

The only social media app of any significant size that is singularly owned by a billionaire, so far as I know, is ExTwitter, which is rapidly dying on its own.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 5d

Oh, I didn't want to sound like I'm defending Trump. I'm just saying Obama's peace prize was BS.

Giving one to Trump would be insane, but I've given up on predicting what kind of stupid shit the world's going to throw at me.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 5d

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I kind of thought Obama killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians by continuing Bush's "war on terror" had already made his peace prize meaningless.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 5d

The thing is, the Supreme Court was RIGHT to strike down Biden's power grabs. He had no right to (for example) implement mass forgiveness of student loans.

The problem lies in SCOTUS adopting a policy of "it is fine so long as a right-winger is doing it". No principle there.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 5d

I was raised by an English teacher (who became a tech writer) and a primary school teacher.

(or is that "primm-ary" school teacher?)

This is the first I'm hearing about "primmer". Sounds like a load of hooey to me.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 5d

I understand the sentiment.

But I wish people would stop saying that Trump is "not above the law", because it implies that there exists some institution that will step in and constrain him. There is no such institution.

Trump *should not be* above the law. But so far as I can tell -- he is.

Dan Bongard @danbongard.bsky.social · 5d

I guess Trump supporters could try arguing that he has killed fewer innocent civilians than the last US president to win the peace prize, but that still isn't much of a qualification.