Richard Hellinga
@richhell.bsky.social
Books, running, and coffee. Turtle Mountain Chippewa. Protect trans kids. He/Him
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
This is very well done but I’ll add that he was one of the few actors in history who never lied on camera
There was a complete authenticity to his performances that is unparalleled
He simply is
An achievement that is Herculean on a set
Tender Mercies is ❤️
This is very well done but I’ll add that he was one of the few actors in history who never lied on camera
There was a complete authenticity to his performances that is unparalleled
He simply is
An achievement that is Herculean on a set
Tender Mercies is ❤️
Robert Duvall, All-Purpose Actor With Few Peers, Dies at 95
The seven-time Oscar nominee, a winner for 'Tender Mercies,' also was memorable in 'The Godfather,' 'Apocalypse Now,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Lonesome Dove.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com
February 16, 2026 at 6:22 PM
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
This is very well done but I’ll add that he was one of the few actors in history who never lied on camera
There was a complete authenticity to his performances that is unparalleled
He simply is
An achievement that is Herculean on a set
Tender Mercies is ❤️
This is very well done but I’ll add that he was one of the few actors in history who never lied on camera
There was a complete authenticity to his performances that is unparalleled
He simply is
An achievement that is Herculean on a set
Tender Mercies is ❤️
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
I find the responses here pretty compelling! Point taken, fuck these things
i see Michael's point but we already have bikes and e-bikes, which don't take jobs away from delivery workers, don't clog up sidewalks (ideally) and aren't harvesting your data for creepy surveillance tech firms
Everyone seems to hate these things but aren’t they better for the climate and urban traffic than getting stuff delivered by car?
February 16, 2026 at 5:06 PM
I find the responses here pretty compelling! Point taken, fuck these things
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Feb 16 Conversation:
New study finds that funding surgery and hormones cuts down dramatically on mental health needs for trans kids and adult and would easily save national health services like Medicare tens of millions annually.
New study finds that funding surgery and hormones cuts down dramatically on mental health needs for trans kids and adult and would easily save national health services like Medicare tens of millions annually.
Funding surgery and hormones for trans people can save Medicare millions: new research
Until now, we haven’t had research that tracks how accessing hormones or surgeries affects how much trans people use mental health services and medications.
theconversation.com
February 16, 2026 at 4:41 PM
@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Feb 16 Conversation:
New study finds that funding surgery and hormones cuts down dramatically on mental health needs for trans kids and adult and would easily save national health services like Medicare tens of millions annually.
New study finds that funding surgery and hormones cuts down dramatically on mental health needs for trans kids and adult and would easily save national health services like Medicare tens of millions annually.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Looking through the e-mails, I was disappointed how many astronomers/physicists were in contact w Epstein. People who interviewed me for faculty jobs, were friends' PhD advisors, selected professional prize winners, were in charge of promotion & tenure. I felt like the tree is rotten to the roots.
The victims and survivors of Epstein’s crimes deserved better than these men (and sometimes women) looking the other way.
I’m also very conscious that these same people have had a lot of power over the lives of women and girls in science.
Epstein liked powerful people. These were powerful people.
I’m also very conscious that these same people have had a lot of power over the lives of women and girls in science.
Epstein liked powerful people. These were powerful people.
February 16, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Looking through the e-mails, I was disappointed how many astronomers/physicists were in contact w Epstein. People who interviewed me for faculty jobs, were friends' PhD advisors, selected professional prize winners, were in charge of promotion & tenure. I felt like the tree is rotten to the roots.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Thank you to @gtconway.bsky.social for lifting this up. American science is in free-fall, pushed off the cliff by Russell Vought, RFK Jr., Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew Memoli.
February 16, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Thank you to @gtconway.bsky.social for lifting this up. American science is in free-fall, pushed off the cliff by Russell Vought, RFK Jr., Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew Memoli.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Among the reasons I’m burned out and inimical to tech now is in my last job I watched social media companies fund meaningful outside research into halting the use of their platforms by terrorists and violent extremists at a platform design level and then ignore it all or do the exact opposite.
for all this social media research we have we sure don't actually use it to inform the social media we build
February 16, 2026 at 7:23 AM
Among the reasons I’m burned out and inimical to tech now is in my last job I watched social media companies fund meaningful outside research into halting the use of their platforms by terrorists and violent extremists at a platform design level and then ignore it all or do the exact opposite.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Can this myth please die already? Take it from a therapist who works with tons of trans youth (and has many colleagues who also do so), kids aren't ending up in our office because they're mistaking normal gender-nonconformity for being trans.
She has the gall to praise the new school guidance banning social transition and requiring a doctor's oversight to get a haircut and change names but then complains that there's too much pressure to conform to gender stereotypes.
February 15, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Can this myth please die already? Take it from a therapist who works with tons of trans youth (and has many colleagues who also do so), kids aren't ending up in our office because they're mistaking normal gender-nonconformity for being trans.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
It's true these spaces are only being used this way because of a noxious combination of money being no object and safety not being on the list of priorities.
But on a deeper level, Sarah is right. Every time we're told something "can't" be done it only means they're not willing.
But on a deeper level, Sarah is right. Every time we're told something "can't" be done it only means they're not willing.
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
February 15, 2026 at 5:57 PM
It's true these spaces are only being used this way because of a noxious combination of money being no object and safety not being on the list of priorities.
But on a deeper level, Sarah is right. Every time we're told something "can't" be done it only means they're not willing.
But on a deeper level, Sarah is right. Every time we're told something "can't" be done it only means they're not willing.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
So the United States will only use empty warehouses to house people it wants to terrorize, not people it wants to shelter from the cold.
We really are not a very good-natured country.
We really are not a very good-natured country.
February 15, 2026 at 7:24 PM
So the United States will only use empty warehouses to house people it wants to terrorize, not people it wants to shelter from the cold.
We really are not a very good-natured country.
We really are not a very good-natured country.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
February 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
When people talk about AI being a con, this is the con part. The companies are holding out the possibility of LLMs actually being intelligent or becoming intelligent any day now and using that to raise investment. LLMs are not going to be intelligent, as Marcus said. That’s a fiction, a swindle.
I wish more people understood how LLMs really work, even on a basic level. I think that would eliminate most of the problems we have with these things. But instead, because some of them convincingly sound human, people attribute them with having intelligence.
February 15, 2026 at 1:25 PM
When people talk about AI being a con, this is the con part. The companies are holding out the possibility of LLMs actually being intelligent or becoming intelligent any day now and using that to raise investment. LLMs are not going to be intelligent, as Marcus said. That’s a fiction, a swindle.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Been a weird week since i posted this this. It got picked up by a handful of news outlets, was shared tens of thousands of times, and then it too, started showing up in the 2026 data. All of that happened before the news exploded again after the week's events, and boy are the latest headlines grim.
Part 3: "The astronomical rise in stories about trans people that I’d collected over the previous year told a different story. This massive, messy dataset was brimming with increasingly vile headlines that only seemed to metastasize with time. ... two years later we know how the story turns out."
Welcome to the anti-trans outrage factory — Jessica Kant
When I first wrote Anatomy of a moral panic in February 2024, I had only a faint glimmer of what was to come.The astronomical rise in stories about trans people that I’d collected over the previous ye...
jessk.org
February 14, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Been a weird week since i posted this this. It got picked up by a handful of news outlets, was shared tens of thousands of times, and then it too, started showing up in the 2026 data. All of that happened before the news exploded again after the week's events, and boy are the latest headlines grim.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Wow. You should read this.
‘Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole’: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty – and Reform
She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Wow. You should read this.
Did Marco also offer to do lines with them back at his hotel suite?
US Secretary of State Rubio tells MSC European civilization at risk from mass migration and denies Washington wants to dismantle the UN and other global institutions. www.dw.com/en/rubio-gives-hig...
MSC: Marco Rubio pleads with Europe to embrace US agenda
The US secretary of state hailed US-Europe ties in his speech at the Munich Security Conference while also accusing allies of being too "scared" to defend themselves. DW has the latest.
www.dw.com
February 14, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Did Marco also offer to do lines with them back at his hotel suite?
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Restore Customs and the Secret Service to the Treasury.
Restore TSA and the Coast Guard to the Dept. of Transportation.
Restore FEMA to its original independent status - hell, make it a whole Department, we're going to need it.
Restore all the small random agencies to Justice.
Be done with it.
Restore TSA and the Coast Guard to the Dept. of Transportation.
Restore FEMA to its original independent status - hell, make it a whole Department, we're going to need it.
Restore all the small random agencies to Justice.
Be done with it.
shutdowns aren't generally a negotiating strategy—people don't usually get more than they otherwise would have out of a shutdown.
but in this case I think Ds are hearing from the base that they'd rather the thing just be defunded.
but in this case I think Ds are hearing from the base that they'd rather the thing just be defunded.
February 14, 2026 at 6:58 AM
Restore Customs and the Secret Service to the Treasury.
Restore TSA and the Coast Guard to the Dept. of Transportation.
Restore FEMA to its original independent status - hell, make it a whole Department, we're going to need it.
Restore all the small random agencies to Justice.
Be done with it.
Restore TSA and the Coast Guard to the Dept. of Transportation.
Restore FEMA to its original independent status - hell, make it a whole Department, we're going to need it.
Restore all the small random agencies to Justice.
Be done with it.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Day 11…please #ChatGPT just count to 200 🙏
YouTube video by FatherPhi
www.youtube.com
February 13, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
All right. It’s been over a year of slogging through these grocery price checks here in Chicago, and this is what I found:
(No paywall at the Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Public Media, thanks to our wonderful members)
🧵 (1/5)
chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
(No paywall at the Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Public Media, thanks to our wonderful members)
🧵 (1/5)
chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
Grocery prices in Chicago have climbed double digits in the last year despite Trump's vow to lower them
The Sun-Times has been checking the prices of 35 common grocery items at four Chicago stores for the last year, and most items haven't become cheaper.
chicago.suntimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:27 PM
All right. It’s been over a year of slogging through these grocery price checks here in Chicago, and this is what I found:
(No paywall at the Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Public Media, thanks to our wonderful members)
🧵 (1/5)
chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
(No paywall at the Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Public Media, thanks to our wonderful members)
🧵 (1/5)
chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
nobody posted the clip anywhere so i went and dug the whole episode up
February 13, 2026 at 5:22 AM
nobody posted the clip anywhere so i went and dug the whole episode up
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Youth gender care in the UK had scandalous aspects, only in the opposite direction of the claims the press ran with.
In addition to years long waits for time sensitive treatments, older teens who passed assessment were forced to do a year on puberty blockers before hormones were considered.
In addition to years long waits for time sensitive treatments, older teens who passed assessment were forced to do a year on puberty blockers before hormones were considered.
This entire 'debate' is so maddening. We have been promised that a groundswell of rushed, dissatisfied detransitioners was about to emerge for nearly a decade.
Not only have they never materialized, but academic research continues to show small numbers, long assessments and miniscule regret rates.
Not only have they never materialized, but academic research continues to show small numbers, long assessments and miniscule regret rates.
February 13, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Youth gender care in the UK had scandalous aspects, only in the opposite direction of the claims the press ran with.
In addition to years long waits for time sensitive treatments, older teens who passed assessment were forced to do a year on puberty blockers before hormones were considered.
In addition to years long waits for time sensitive treatments, older teens who passed assessment were forced to do a year on puberty blockers before hormones were considered.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Take that $29 million out of the budget for the police. And permanently reduce the police budget by that amount in future years.
"'She is dead,'" Officer Auderer told Officer Solan, before bursting out laughing.
"'No, it’s a regular person,' Officer Auderer said, adding: 'Yeah, just write a check — $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.'"
"'No, it’s a regular person,' Officer Auderer said, adding: 'Yeah, just write a check — $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.'"
Seattle to Pay $29 Million to Family of Woman Fatally Struck by Police S.U.V.
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Take that $29 million out of the budget for the police. And permanently reduce the police budget by that amount in future years.
We are living in the Golden Age of Fraud.
This is what Amodei and Anthropic's goofball house philosopher who likens training an LLM to raising a child being everywhere all of the sudden is about. We can't allow ourselves to be suckered.
February 13, 2026 at 2:33 PM
We are living in the Golden Age of Fraud.
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
"Racist people are firing and laying off Black women at three times the rate of other women."
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women | Essence
New labor data shows Black women accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses across 2025, especially in federal, education, and care-sector roles.
www.essence.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:01 PM
"Racist people are firing and laying off Black women at three times the rate of other women."
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!
"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."
Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
Some of the most dangerous people in this country are the pardoned January 6 rioters. Not immigrants.
www.npr.org/2026/02/11/n...
www.npr.org/2026/02/11/n...
A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump was convicted of sexually abusing children
A handyman from Florida who received a pardon from President Trump for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted on state charges of child sex abuse and exposing himself to a child.
www.npr.org
February 13, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Some of the most dangerous people in this country are the pardoned January 6 rioters. Not immigrants.
www.npr.org/2026/02/11/n...
www.npr.org/2026/02/11/n...
Reposted by Richard Hellinga
Photo Credit: "Observers record federal agents at the scene after a multi-vehicle crash following an apparent pursuit by a federal agent near the intersection of Selby and Western avenues in St. Paul. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)"
Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
February 12, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Photo Credit: "Observers record federal agents at the scene after a multi-vehicle crash following an apparent pursuit by a federal agent near the intersection of Selby and Western avenues in St. Paul. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)"