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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦

@danielloxton.bsky.social

4.7K followers 680 following 5.4K posts

Author, illustrator, and researcher of misinformation and fringe claims. Former Editor (2002–2021) of Junior Skeptic, and author of Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be and other science books for kids and adults. https://www.danielloxton.com

www.danielloxton.com

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · Nov 9

A very incomplete list drawn from accounts I follow:
go.bsky.app/DyXUn9n

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 7h

Kinda nice to see decent folks reclaiming frogs, frogs are great

Reposted by Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 16h

Most people are not anti-vaccine and hesitancy is a wide spectrum ranging from not wanting to be inconvenienced to needing to know more, having questions & getting the timing right. I find that I have the most success when I try to meet people where they are without judgement.
Better luck next time

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Reposted by Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦

AIPT Science @science.aiptcomics.com · 17h

The research on misinformation is growing, but do we have any solutions yet? We review the new book 'Misguided,' by social scientist @matthewfacciani.bsky.social. @danielloxton.bsky.social @caulfieldtim.bsky.social @jonathanstea.bsky.social @critikid.bsky.social

‘Misguided’ offers games and ‘prebunking’ to abate misinformation

A new entry in the growing field of misinformation research.

aiptcomics.com

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Reposted by Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦

Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 1d

Brandolini’s Law (also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle):

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

H/t @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 1d

I could use a little help bridging the next few days — just enough to free up mental space for illustration www.paypal.com/paypalme/dan...

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 1d

why call it spikevax when stabjab was right there

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 1d

Same!

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 1d

I’m not sure I’m up to learning more about anything happening in the world today

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 2d

That strikes me as bad

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 2d

Listening to a back episode of the Embrace the Void podcast with @etvpod.bsky.social interviewing @jonathanjarry.bsky.social, and boy is the Joe Mercola medical misinformation story taking a weird turn podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

The Spiral of Joe Mercola with Jonathan Jarry

Podcast Episode · Embrace The Void · 2025-03-20 · 1h 5m

podcasts.apple.com

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

Honestly it would be handy if everyone could keep re-upping their disinformation-themed podcasts, I have a lot more drawing to do

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

Lovely shots!

Reposted by Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 3d

Conspiricism can build coalitions because it can unite people with different obsessions. The conspiracy is always unsolved so you can agree to disagree about whether the Jews are a front for the Communists or vice versa, or whether they're both a front for the Illuminati.

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Reposted by Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 3d

A textbook image I did a few years ago showing a trap-jaw ant (Odontomachus rixosus) with her mandibles held open and trigger hairs forward, and then in the closed position.

The snapping shut of the trap is one of the fastest measured animal movements.

A split-screen image showing (top) a face view of an elongated ant standing on a reflective surfave, facing us with toothy brown jaws held 180 degrees open, and (bottom), the same ant with jaws closed, the bluntly toothed tips held together.

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

Anyone can get scammed, but the part that jumps out at me is “sponsored ad on Facebook.” Major platforms are crawling with scams they also profit from. Twitter was overrun with paid crypto ads with Elon’s face on them when I bailed

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 7d

I FOIA'd the FTC for consumer complaints about crypto scammers who pretend to be Elon Musk.

People are cashing out their retirement accounts and losing ridiculous sums of money.

Elon Musk Fans Are Still Losing Ridiculous Amounts of Money to Crypto Scams

gizmodo.com

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

I was out to visit my brother in Cape Breton a couple years ago, and the variety in accent was interesting: lots of kind of North American standard, lots of mild Nova Scotia accents, and then a few accents so strong I could barely understand them

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

My dad’s Australian, and I can’t always tell those accents apart (and certainly can’t mimic either). There’s so much variation within any country and between regions and age groups etc, too. I find accents and dialects really interesting, but don’t have a great ear or any skills relating to accents

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

I miss the old TAM era a lot. I always came out of those full of ideas and enthusiasm for the year ahead

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

She puts out a lot of content, but it’s always well worth following. People up here really under appreciate the far right extremism issue in Canada

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

I’m so grouchy to have professional work to do today, and more lining up for coming months, yet still be bouncing bill payments in the immediate present

Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

I was already grumpy today, so… in for a penny, in for a pound?

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: I talked to scholars who study political contagion about how America’s freefall could affect the rest of the world. They are… concerned. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Is America contagious?

Scholars in political extremism are documenting the global spread of right-wing populism.

www.motherjones.com

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

The kitchen sink approach to illustration is something I picked up from the movies, where the question is always “what mix of techniques and tricks can be layered to pull off this shot in particular?”

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

I have a handful of illustration styles you could point to and say, “yeah, that looks like one of his,” but I’ve always mixed things up a lot: puppets, plasticine, full CGI, various kinds of digital painting & photo manipulation, etc… Better for each project than for self promo, but whaddayagonnado?

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 3d

I have to discipline myself from just putting them everywhere all the time

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Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · 4d

When your drawing project turns into such a complicated layout project that you have to go looking for a protractor (and, um, presumably also math skills)