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Marktech

@marktech.bsky.social

360 followers 820 following 1.8K posts

Let me have books about me that are fat. Tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse. Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · Nov 26

Responses beginning "So..." very commonly fail the waffle test, and this is no exception; the simplest response is to discourage the behaviour by pointing this out and muting.

Tweet from Coolee Bravo @BravoCoolee -

Twitter the only place where well articulated sentences still get misinterpreted.
You can say "I like pancakes" and somebody will say "So you hate waffles?"
No bitch. Dats a whole new sentence. Wtf is you talkin about

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 3m

Now some people see devil's horns here, but there's a much stronger resemblance to the horned sun disk of ancient Egyptian iconography. Could Trump be an acolyte of the goddess Hathor? Or even an incarnation of Hathor herself? I think we should be told.

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 59m

Well, @theguardian.com, at least this teaser made me rack my brains for who the hell Derek Malcolm's predecessor could have been

Teaser from the Guardian site:

Related stories

Derek Malcolm: my
predecessor was amighty
critic, flm world darling
and heir to a scandal

Spoiler: it's by Peter Bradshaw talking about Derek Malcolm

Reposted by Marktech

Kathleen Clark @kathleenclark.bsky.social · 18h

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source:
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 11h

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): "There's been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs...? in their search of Jeffrey Epstein's safe or premises or otherwise?"

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 12h

I sometimes think I'd be perfectly happy if they just had Charlotte Church, David Olusoga, Cat Burns, Jonathan Ross, and Nick Mohammed all hanging out in the castle and dumped the whole traitors thing, it just gets in the way

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 13h

Oh, the ah undead element is abroad indeed, the dark creation of Henry Irving's business manager could hardly have a ah more appropriate stage than th- [is promptly murdered by the entire company]

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Chappell Ellison @chappelltracker.bsky.social · 13h

Wow um that's a critical hit of a one-sentence review

Slate @slate.com · 15h

The new Tron is like if a Terminator movie wanted you to cheer for Skynet. slate.trib.al/XZ9iQq4

One of Our Oldest Sci-Fi Franchises Is Back. The New Movie Is Woefully Out of Step With Our Moment.

Every generation gets the Tron movie it deserves. That’s bad news for the new one.

slate.trib.al

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Reposted by Marktech

The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

White House Doctor: Trump Has Far More Bones Than Any Prior President https://theonion.com/white-house-doctor-trump-has-far-more-bones-than-any-prior-president/

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Reposted by Marktech

HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 20h

We're ruining (or improving) Bond posters on @b3ta.com this week

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 16h

Last thing I saw before oblivion. From hell's heart I stab at thee

Briefly becoming eligible for the vole.wtf 1% club

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 21h

Or even just click on the bio

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Reposted by Marktech

SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 3d

When biologists can't explain cubic wombat poop, why don't THEY call it a singularity?

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/beyond
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/c/ZachWeiner...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

2-panel SMBC comic update. The first panel has a narration box saying "Caveman" where two cavemen are looking out at the ocean. One says "us not know what on other side of ocean." The second panel has a narration box saying "Caveman Physicist" where the same caveman now says "Past ocean... Science breaks down. Is Ocean singularity" as the other caveman marvels.

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 23h

bsky.app/profile/robm...

🅡🅞🅑 🅜🅔🅢🅤🅡🅔 @robmesure.bsky.social · 1d

Just going to assume the next Kraftwerk album is called Dynamische Preisgestaltung, or something.

A screenshot, pinched from @stevejvickers.bsky.social, showing ludicrously high ticket prices for a Kraftwerk gig.

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 23h

Worked with him once; never again. (I heard much later about his appalling childhood, and can well understand how he might have turned out that way; I can sympathise, but I wouldn't go near him again.)

Reposted by Marktech

BrokenBanker @brokenbanker.bsky.social · 1d

*MARIA CORINA MACHADO WON NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

a man in a military uniform with a mustache is wearing a beret and making a funny face .

ALT: a man in a military uniform with a mustache is wearing a beret and making a funny face .

media.tenor.com

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, happy "Yeet your printer off a fscking cliff" day to all who celebrate

Reposted by Marktech

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · Oct 27

teashoesandhair on tumblr:

"Stellar conversation on BBC Wales today"

Caller: I live in America now, since the '80s, but I'm visiting family in Wales this week, and I thought I'd ring in.
Host: Why did you move from Wales to America?
Caller: I actually moved because of a woman.
Host: Who's the lucky lady?
Caller: Margaret Thatcher.

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

I'm of an age and nationality to have read the original Dr Dolittle books when I was a child, and I still remember my confusion that the Doctor would send his great friend the pig out to the butcher's to pick up some sausages

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

I was hoping for more diacritics, tbh. (I know, I know, everyone's a diacritic.)

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Stephen Graham @stephengraham.bsky.social · 1d

The moment in every episode when Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart realises the latest alien menace is impervious to bullets.

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 5d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

I never really used to understand why anyone might be desperate to outlive someone else, but if by some remote chance I happen to drop dead before he does I'm going to be *so* pissed off

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

In my field, was there ever an award which wasn't coveted?

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Captain Howdy @captainhowdy.bsky.social · 2d

From this day in 2017.

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Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not shelling out £0.99 to find out (do they think I'm made of money or something) but from the preview it's probably fair to say he might take a while to find his voice

read.amazon.co.uk/sample/B07D5...

Read a sample: “The Pothunters”

P. G. Wodehouse

read.amazon.co.uk

Marktech @marktech.bsky.social · 1d

This passage reminded me: decades ago, The Times redesigned its Saturday media section with small woodcut-style illustrations heading each section. "Opera" showed a row of well-dressed blank-faced audience members, and in the section above a crowd of intent faces. Sadly, it disappeared very quickly.

An excerpt from the New Statesman review of "Other People's Music" by Alexandra Wilson

...of elitism. Elitist how? Is it the price? Tickets
to a Taylor Swift concert are more expensive
by an order of magnitude; the cheapest seats
at both Covent Garden and the ENO sell out
the fastest. And a ticket to watch touring

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