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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Ralph Snyder @ralphsnyder.bsky.social · 28m

2. Glib, completely unsupported claims such as intellectual disability (lead paint) results in right wing ideology.

And it's mostly about the latter, dammit.
6/6

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Ralph Snyder @ralphsnyder.bsky.social · 28m

1. Endless "news" reports about single studies that give none of these details. This results in confusion: coffee is bad for you! No coffee is good for you. Alcohol is bad. No! Actually red wine is good.

So it goes.
5/6

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Ralph Snyder @ralphsnyder.bsky.social · 28m

This is a subtweet (and no doubt incomplete)

When I see a study, I look at several factors (which, alas, are not often reported in the popular press)

1. Is the hypothesis well formulated? Does it allow for a reasonable falsifiablity?
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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 43m

See the comedic climax in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Moving Pictures in which a giant Marylin Monroe inspired kaiju climbs a sky scraping tower clutching an Orangutan in one hand.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 43m

See the comedic climax in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Moving Pictures in which a giant Marylin Monroe inspired kaiju climbs a sky scraping tower clutching an Orangutan in one hand.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1h

Very good article. Thank you.

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Chrissy Stroop @thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social · 1h

What's on your minds?

As is seasonally appropriate, I've been thinking about death.

B/c I can't help myself I've also been thinking about Christianity's fucked up relationship to death, and the toxic dynamics of hardline faith.

The latest Bugbear Dispatch:

www.bugbeardispatch.com/some-thought...

Some Thoughts about Fear, Death, and Christianity

In his Society without God (NYU Press, 2008), sociologist Phil Zuckerman documented the many ways in which the Scandinavian countries--some of the least religious on earth--put highly religious countr...

www.bugbeardispatch.com

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 23h

If they have no interest
In the surprises I am
And make,
That is up to them.
The universe has more than enough
Surprises for all.

But it is not my calling
To reflect their disinterest.
Not my art to affirm
That there is nothing here
Beyond their expectations. /2

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 23h

No Reflection. A Poem.

I have no responsibility
To be the mirror
Reflecting
What others demand
That I must be.

If they shout to their
Imaginations.
I do not need
To pop up
And reply
In the voice
They insist I must have.
/1

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 23h

If they have no interest
In the surprises I am
And make,
That is up to them.
The universe has more than enough
Surprises for all.

But it is not my calling
To reflect their disinterest.
Not my art to affirm
That there is nothing here
Beyond their expectations. /2

3 4

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 23h

No Reflection. A Poem.

I have no responsibility
To be the mirror
Reflecting
What others demand
That I must be.

If they shout to their
Imaginations.
I do not need
To pop up
And reply
In the voice
They insist I must have.
/1

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

The results would not be as good nor the art as much fun. This is a world that operates on possibility, entanglement and iteration in consequence what is made is more often than not more interesting and surprising than the initial imagination.

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

The whole apparatus of kidnapping, bribery of foreign countries, deportation on illegal flights and running concentration camps is expensive. And Trump doesn't spend money. He keeps it to himself. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants his evil organization to be a money source not a sink.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

They might be trying to extort money since they are probably not being paid.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

Brother Cadfael (after he became a monk).

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

Why do people boast about their failures of imagination?

Also, you know what helps imagination: learning. The more one knows about and understands, the more material imagination has to work with.

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

All nutshells are edge (surrounding) cases (containers) for nuts. That's what they evolved to be. So an edge case nutshell is a normal nut shell.

In a nutshell, a nutshell that wasn't an edge case would be an edge case.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

All nutshells are edge (surrounding) cases (containers) for nuts. That's what they evolved to be. So an edge case nutshell is a normal nut shell.

In a nutshell, a nutshell that wasn't an edge case would be an edge case.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you. It's good to have ones art appreciated.

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

I love those eyes. I made this Shoggoth birthday cake for my wife some years ago.

A round chocolate cake covered with modeling chocolate, divided into eight segments each with a sugar eye on top. Producing a six eyed shape staring upward.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

I love those eyes. I made this Shoggoth birthday cake for my wife some years ago.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

Columbo?

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Ralph Snyder @ralphsnyder.bsky.social · 2d

The vacuum is decaying

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

The universe is more complex than people tend to think, and its complexity is fascinating. People are more diverse and intriguing than most people tend to think. There is fun in finding out the many ways assumptions are incorrect. /2

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

For me, I have a high degree of self mistrust, so I can posit various ideas and in most cases I am happy to discover they are wrong. Ideas are almost always in error in revelatory and often fun fashions. /1

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