Fred Barrett
@fkbarrett.com
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Happy holidays, Bluesky! I got you a megathrust earthquake, soil liquefaction, spine-tingling papers about the way our networks confound knowledge, and a PDF in a pear tree. It's my wrap on a year of trying to make sense of how we make sense of what's happening to us.
www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-...
www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-...
Landslide; a ghost story
On March 27, 1964, a converted liberty ship named the SS Chena brought a shipment of supplies to the port of Valdez, Alaska. Valdez, which I need you to know is pronounced “valDEEZ,” sits at the end o...
www.wrecka.ge
December 23, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Happy holidays, Bluesky! I got you a megathrust earthquake, soil liquefaction, spine-tingling papers about the way our networks confound knowledge, and a PDF in a pear tree. It's my wrap on a year of trying to make sense of how we make sense of what's happening to us.
www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-...
www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-...
Reposted by Fred Barrett
In case people tell you that public criticism of the court doesn’t matter, here’s Brett Kavanaugh trying to walk back what he said in the ICE roving patrol case - when he blessed racial profiling & called the stops prompt.
He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”
He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”
December 23, 2025 at 9:20 PM
In case people tell you that public criticism of the court doesn’t matter, here’s Brett Kavanaugh trying to walk back what he said in the ICE roving patrol case - when he blessed racial profiling & called the stops prompt.
He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”
He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”
Reposted by Fred Barrett
THE SOLSTICE OCCURRED @ 20251221 10:03 AM
UR ASTRONOMICAL WINTER HAS JUST BEGUN THO UR METEOROLOGICAL WINTER BEGAN 12/1
BUT
UR DAYS WILL NOW BEGIN 2 GET LONGER
CONGRATS U MADE IT
UR ASTRONOMICAL WINTER HAS JUST BEGUN THO UR METEOROLOGICAL WINTER BEGAN 12/1
BUT
UR DAYS WILL NOW BEGIN 2 GET LONGER
CONGRATS U MADE IT
December 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
THE SOLSTICE OCCURRED @ 20251221 10:03 AM
UR ASTRONOMICAL WINTER HAS JUST BEGUN THO UR METEOROLOGICAL WINTER BEGAN 12/1
BUT
UR DAYS WILL NOW BEGIN 2 GET LONGER
CONGRATS U MADE IT
UR ASTRONOMICAL WINTER HAS JUST BEGUN THO UR METEOROLOGICAL WINTER BEGAN 12/1
BUT
UR DAYS WILL NOW BEGIN 2 GET LONGER
CONGRATS U MADE IT
This is maddening
“They’re denying that any of her birth certificates, which are from Laurel, Maryland, her records of immunization, medical records — they’re denying the authenticity of them. It is something I’ve never encountered.” www.huffpost.com/entry/us-cit...
Trump Administration Says Maryland Woman's Birth Certificate Is Fake In Dystopian Move
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was arrested on Sunday. ICE won’t release her despite extensive documentation of her citizenship, her attorneys told HuffPost.
www.huffpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM
This is maddening
Reposted by Fred Barrett
I don’t think even Paul Verhoeven would’ve included the McDonald’s logo.
WATCH: Replica of the Statue of Liberty topples due to strong winds in Guaíba, Brazil
December 15, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I don’t think even Paul Verhoeven would’ve included the McDonald’s logo.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
December 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Being called naive for not abandoning the premise of justice is both bone stupid and inherently vibe destroying. You can create a new political reality by creating a movement. This is actually what politics is! It's not just triangulating between rich donors and the people you serve.
December 10, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Being called naive for not abandoning the premise of justice is both bone stupid and inherently vibe destroying. You can create a new political reality by creating a movement. This is actually what politics is! It's not just triangulating between rich donors and the people you serve.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Wow -- Russia reportedly plotted last year to plant bombs on US-bound flights (gift link) giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
December 9, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Wow -- Russia reportedly plotted last year to plant bombs on US-bound flights (gift link) giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Reposted by Fred Barrett
google maps (punching me in the stomach): fastest route is uber
me: but i want to take the subway
google maps (throwing me across the room): 2 buses and a transfer would save 4 minutes
me: i like subway
google maps (kicking me in the head): biking is 45 seconds faster
me: underground choo-choo
me: but i want to take the subway
google maps (throwing me across the room): 2 buses and a transfer would save 4 minutes
me: i like subway
google maps (kicking me in the head): biking is 45 seconds faster
me: underground choo-choo
December 9, 2025 at 2:35 PM
google maps (punching me in the stomach): fastest route is uber
me: but i want to take the subway
google maps (throwing me across the room): 2 buses and a transfer would save 4 minutes
me: i like subway
google maps (kicking me in the head): biking is 45 seconds faster
me: underground choo-choo
me: but i want to take the subway
google maps (throwing me across the room): 2 buses and a transfer would save 4 minutes
me: i like subway
google maps (kicking me in the head): biking is 45 seconds faster
me: underground choo-choo
This is horrifying. As Ackerman points out, this is being done to people accused of a civil, not a criminal, violation. But of course it should never be done to anyone.
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:36 PM
This is horrifying. As Ackerman points out, this is being done to people accused of a civil, not a criminal, violation. But of course it should never be done to anyone.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Turns out it didn't have legs
Mark Zuckerberg’s gamble on the ‘Metaverse’ has cost Meta more than $77B
The company now plans to cut spending on it and shift focus to AI wearables instead
(via WSJ)
The company now plans to cut spending on it and shift focus to AI wearables instead
(via WSJ)
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Turns out it didn't have legs
Reposted by Fred Barrett
This kind of dataset is a clear indicator that propaganda plays a big role in people's political positions and acting like people are unshiftable is just completely detached from reality
Republicans increasingly oppose requiring healthy kids to get MMR vaccines to attend public schools
2016 19%
2019 20%
2023 42%
2025 47%
www.pewresearch.org/science/2025... 🧪
2016 19%
2019 20%
2023 42%
2025 47%
www.pewresearch.org/science/2025... 🧪
December 5, 2025 at 4:00 PM
This kind of dataset is a clear indicator that propaganda plays a big role in people's political positions and acting like people are unshiftable is just completely detached from reality
Reposted by Fred Barrett
These are good moments to remember that the CEOs of all the biggest companies in America are happy to go to White House dinners and slap this guy’s back. They do not care about this. Remember this, years from now, when they want you to forget.
Trump: "It’s a hellhole right now. And those Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her. She’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with – go back to your own country and figure out your constitution."
December 4, 2025 at 12:13 AM
These are good moments to remember that the CEOs of all the biggest companies in America are happy to go to White House dinners and slap this guy’s back. They do not care about this. Remember this, years from now, when they want you to forget.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
"AI will survive, but the speculative bubble surrounding it is a sign of a deeper structural problem — the cost of which, when finally realized, will fall most heavily on the working class." interesting analysis theconversation.com/the-ai-bubbl...
The AI bubble isn’t new — Karl Marx explained the mechanisms behind it nearly 150 years ago
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s warning of an AI bubble highlights a deeper economic problem: capitalism is producing more capital than it can profitably invest.
theconversation.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:48 PM
"AI will survive, but the speculative bubble surrounding it is a sign of a deeper structural problem — the cost of which, when finally realized, will fall most heavily on the working class." interesting analysis theconversation.com/the-ai-bubbl...
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Every car made today is an incredibly sophisticated computer on wheels. Really unfortunate that there is simply no solution to having it die because one (1) little overhead light was left on overnight.
November 24, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Every car made today is an incredibly sophisticated computer on wheels. Really unfortunate that there is simply no solution to having it die because one (1) little overhead light was left on overnight.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
News media has to do better with headlines that present false and unverified public health claims.
November 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.
Here’s How the AI Crash Happens
The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
www.theatlantic.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:25 PM
so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.
This is an interesting thread.
They're offloading all the debt onto special purpose vehicles (SPV) that are legally distinct entities propped up by promises from meta for decades of demand in compute. The banks take all the risk, Nvidia gets the equity and revenue, Meta gets the stock bump without the downside.
"It seems like a marvel of financial engineering: Meta is building a $27 billion data center in Louisiana, financed with debt, and neither the data center nor the debt will be on its own balance sheet."
November 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
This is an interesting thread.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
"Countries with state subsidies for abortion, transgender-friendly policies for children, hate speech laws and affirmative action policies will now be considered to be violating human rights under rules imposed at the [US] State Department..."
www.forbes.com/sites/maryro...
www.forbes.com/sites/maryro...
Abortion And DEI Policies Now Considered Violations Of Human Rights, U.S. Says
The Trump administration has overhauled how the State Department conducts its annual Human Rights Report.
www.forbes.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:42 PM
"Countries with state subsidies for abortion, transgender-friendly policies for children, hate speech laws and affirmative action policies will now be considered to be violating human rights under rules imposed at the [US] State Department..."
www.forbes.com/sites/maryro...
www.forbes.com/sites/maryro...
Reposted by Fred Barrett
This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 PM
This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.
Reposted by Fred Barrett
lmao the comeuppance 👨🍳👌
November 18, 2025 at 1:33 AM
lmao the comeuppance 👨🍳👌
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Important to understand the Epstein stuff and the fascism and the corruption are, in a lot of ways, really all the same story from different angles: powerful men who can and do abuse vulnerable people around them because they can, and because systems of elite accountability catastrophically failed
November 12, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Important to understand the Epstein stuff and the fascism and the corruption are, in a lot of ways, really all the same story from different angles: powerful men who can and do abuse vulnerable people around them because they can, and because systems of elite accountability catastrophically failed
Reposted by Fred Barrett
Something the US needs to accept too is that without a large-scale correction imposing consequences on a large number of people, the crisis of governance here will continue indefinitely
November 12, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Something the US needs to accept too is that without a large-scale correction imposing consequences on a large number of people, the crisis of governance here will continue indefinitely