Matt Dunphy
@leviathant.com
Citizen archaeologist, solutions engineer, electronic musician. I call Philadelphia home.
Pinned
Matt Dunphy
@leviathant.com
· Nov 13
Hello again, Bluesky. I'm a hyperlocal historian & citizen archaeologist hailing from Philadelphia. I'm a musician & sometimes photographer, a founder of several internet communities revolving around NIN, an enterprise ecommerce guy, and I clean up the trash on my street.
I help run the NIN subreddit and the oldest NIN community forum, and one of the things I really appreciate about this community is the way they work quickly and in tandem completely wreck anyone who shows up posting AI slop.
November 28, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I help run the NIN subreddit and the oldest NIN community forum, and one of the things I really appreciate about this community is the way they work quickly and in tandem completely wreck anyone who shows up posting AI slop.
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
I hope that this doesn't just become about "Nuzzi is bad" but fosters a wider recognition that our culture of political journalism that didn't just tolerate her, but promoted and celebrated her even after the allegations were known, is rotten to the core and has been for a long time.
this was bad before, but these are the most troubling and serious allegations you can make about a journalist. if they’re true, i genuinely can’t think of a worse scandal in the history of political journalism. devastating to our industry, to public trust as a whole, and to everyone in its orbit
November 27, 2025 at 3:55 AM
I hope that this doesn't just become about "Nuzzi is bad" but fosters a wider recognition that our culture of political journalism that didn't just tolerate her, but promoted and celebrated her even after the allegations were known, is rotten to the core and has been for a long time.
I don't know if it's because I grew up in an era of the infomercial, but I have an outsized reaction whenever some video of a Gen Zer gets inserted into my feeds, faking wonder and excitement at the landfill material they're trying to make money from. It's not anger or disgust, but more like pathos.
November 25, 2025 at 3:59 AM
I don't know if it's because I grew up in an era of the infomercial, but I have an outsized reaction whenever some video of a Gen Zer gets inserted into my feeds, faking wonder and excitement at the landfill material they're trying to make money from. It's not anger or disgust, but more like pathos.
A presentation at work had a slide attributing "why fit in when you were born to stand out" to Dr Seuss and if they *really* wanted us to do that, I would have come off mute to point out that is a made up quote.
November 24, 2025 at 11:04 PM
A presentation at work had a slide attributing "why fit in when you were born to stand out" to Dr Seuss and if they *really* wanted us to do that, I would have come off mute to point out that is a made up quote.
This thread excerpt makes me think of the Year Zero ARG, which was moving too fast for @ninhotline to coherently cover. Ninwiki was born & took those reigns; it felt like a big shift for me, an archive guy. Used to collect fan reviews of shows in our forum, now folks just post fleetingly on Insta
social and archival modes of Internet activity have existed all along, there's just an inversion. when www started showing up it felt like the archival was primary and social interaction was more on the fringes. archives are still available, but now trumped by the endless social present.
November 23, 2025 at 2:55 PM
This thread excerpt makes me think of the Year Zero ARG, which was moving too fast for @ninhotline to coherently cover. Ninwiki was born & took those reigns; it felt like a big shift for me, an archive guy. Used to collect fan reviews of shows in our forum, now folks just post fleetingly on Insta
When I have years-long breaks between bursts of physical labor, it takes me a day or two to remember that in order to be productive, I need to start the day with a sugary blend of coffee and milk, washing down a preemptive pair of ibuprofen tablets.
November 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
When I have years-long breaks between bursts of physical labor, it takes me a day or two to remember that in order to be productive, I need to start the day with a sugary blend of coffee and milk, washing down a preemptive pair of ibuprofen tablets.
This entire Q&A feels like it's from another dimension
Q: Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
November 21, 2025 at 10:28 PM
This entire Q&A feels like it's from another dimension
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
whatever the Xai people did to make grok speak more positively about its owner seems to be backfiring
November 20, 2025 at 9:25 PM
whatever the Xai people did to make grok speak more positively about its owner seems to be backfiring
Finally, that creative writing course I took in college, which in its third session, became all about poetry, is about to pay off
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Finally, that creative writing course I took in college, which in its third session, became all about poetry, is about to pay off
It feels like we're getting closer and closer to the pop, and I know it's going to suck in a lot of ways, but i just want to get it over with
November 20, 2025 at 6:50 PM
It feels like we're getting closer and closer to the pop, and I know it's going to suck in a lot of ways, but i just want to get it over with
I went to a meeting about new sound barriers on I-95, wondering why I didn't get a ballot in the mail, to vote on whether we get a sound barrier, and whether it's transparent or concrete.
I didn't get one because my house was marked with a red X as "affected but would not benefit"
Excuse me?
I didn't get one because my house was marked with a red X as "affected but would not benefit"
Excuse me?
November 20, 2025 at 12:23 AM
I went to a meeting about new sound barriers on I-95, wondering why I didn't get a ballot in the mail, to vote on whether we get a sound barrier, and whether it's transparent or concrete.
I didn't get one because my house was marked with a red X as "affected but would not benefit"
Excuse me?
I didn't get one because my house was marked with a red X as "affected but would not benefit"
Excuse me?
Reminds me of the Caterpillar strikes in 1990s East York. A trip down Memory Lane, if you will.
(I'm expecting exactly one person on here to get that reference)
(I'm expecting exactly one person on here to get that reference)
Out here in York, PA where @sbworkersunited.org strikers are BLOCKADING the largest Starbucks distribution center in the country to demand a fair contract!!
November 19, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reminds me of the Caterpillar strikes in 1990s East York. A trip down Memory Lane, if you will.
(I'm expecting exactly one person on here to get that reference)
(I'm expecting exactly one person on here to get that reference)
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
“no pawlitics uwu” is the universal distress signal for conservatives losing an argument
November 19, 2025 at 2:02 PM
“no pawlitics uwu” is the universal distress signal for conservatives losing an argument
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
Thread. “AI is patching up the holes in conspiracy theories and so making them seem more reasonable, making them easier to spread and more resilient to collapse” was not on my bingo card.
AI relieves the pressure of cognitive dissonance. That’s … not great.
AI relieves the pressure of cognitive dissonance. That’s … not great.
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 19, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Thread. “AI is patching up the holes in conspiracy theories and so making them seem more reasonable, making them easier to spread and more resilient to collapse” was not on my bingo card.
AI relieves the pressure of cognitive dissonance. That’s … not great.
AI relieves the pressure of cognitive dissonance. That’s … not great.
We're around 9 years into this home, and one of our LED ceiling lights started to flicker. So, I'm replacing them all. You know how when you get a new phone, you realize how dim your old phone got? It's like that but with the whole house. This is especially nice going into these short winter days.
November 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM
We're around 9 years into this home, and one of our LED ceiling lights started to flicker. So, I'm replacing them all. You know how when you get a new phone, you realize how dim your old phone got? It's like that but with the whole house. This is especially nice going into these short winter days.
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
NEW: In his first interview since his arrest for protesting outside the Chicago-area ICE facility, @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social tells me he has "bruises all over my body."
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
November 15, 2025 at 7:52 PM
NEW: In his first interview since his arrest for protesting outside the Chicago-area ICE facility, @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social tells me he has "bruises all over my body."
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
They’re all just looting the treasury now
November 14, 2025 at 6:07 PM
They’re all just looting the treasury now
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
this is 1. incredible and 2. basically a silversun pickups song
I made a joke in my main Discord server about DOOM E1M1 being in a major key and @abigbagofkeys.sickonedude.com actually made it. Jesus fucking Christ listen to this hahahaha
November 14, 2025 at 4:10 PM
this is 1. incredible and 2. basically a silversun pickups song
One of my pet peeves about taking security assessment quizzes at work is that I lose points for answering too conservatively. I remember getting dinged, years ago, on a multiple choice question about password complexity. No, 12 characters is _not_ enough!
November 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
One of my pet peeves about taking security assessment quizzes at work is that I lose points for answering too conservatively. I remember getting dinged, years ago, on a multiple choice question about password complexity. No, 12 characters is _not_ enough!
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
it's so funny that alex jones was totally right about everything, the government is a bunch of drug-addled pedophiles and masked regime thugs are grabbing people off the streets, and now he has to pretend it's all a hoax
November 13, 2025 at 9:44 PM
it's so funny that alex jones was totally right about everything, the government is a bunch of drug-addled pedophiles and masked regime thugs are grabbing people off the streets, and now he has to pretend it's all a hoax
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
I realize there’s a lot of news happening right now, but it’s still wild to me that Meta is making billions of dollars on scam ads and ads for banned goods and no one is holding them accountable
This week's newsletter is all about the billions of dollars Meta makes on scammy ads and ads for real but terrible products. It's also about how the tech industry thinks we're all dumb and they're entitled to our money, on top of everything else they get.
www.leahreich.com/the-global-f...
www.leahreich.com/the-global-f...
The Global Fraud Economy
Last week, a news story caught my eye, even though it seemed to fly under the radar of general discourse. It was one of those blink and you miss it headlines on the Apple News app, which helpfully ref...
www.leahreich.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:11 PM
I realize there’s a lot of news happening right now, but it’s still wild to me that Meta is making billions of dollars on scam ads and ads for banned goods and no one is holding them accountable
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
Growing up in a time when “selling out” was the most shameful thing you could do and then being forced to live through the 2020s feels like being kicked in the head by a horse every day
November 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Growing up in a time when “selling out” was the most shameful thing you could do and then being forced to live through the 2020s feels like being kicked in the head by a horse every day
Reposted by Matt Dunphy
"On the first question, several jury members struggled to stifle laughter as Lairmore expanded on the hoagie’s alleged explosive properties. 'It was like, Oh, you poor baby,' the juror told me." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Inside the Sandwich Guy’s Jury Deliberations
Can a flung sandwich cause bodily harm?
www.theatlantic.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
"On the first question, several jury members struggled to stifle laughter as Lairmore expanded on the hoagie’s alleged explosive properties. 'It was like, Oh, you poor baby,' the juror told me." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...