Rory Solomon
@rorshock.bsky.social
Mesh networks, media infrastructure, software engineering, ham/CB radio (KD2QGX); Asst Prof The New School, Director of Code as a Liberal Art; “very clear & cool, simple but intricate”; he/him
Pinned
Rory Solomon
@rorshock.bsky.social
· Nov 12
All views expressed here are my own and don’t represent those of my employer, but working together we can change that
I love this. From the ebullient first sentence, to James’ riff on Dean Martin, to all the symbolic choices here. Such an exciting moment & a counterpoint to Adams, MAGA, and the state of things
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/n...
Zohran Mamdani Is Sworn In as Mayor of New York City
www.nytimes.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:22 PM
I love this. From the ebullient first sentence, to James’ riff on Dean Martin, to all the symbolic choices here. Such an exciting moment & a counterpoint to Adams, MAGA, and the state of things
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/n...
Reposted by Rory Solomon
One of the most unforgettable images capturing the vibrant promise of the new year, by the great Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy: 7 A.M. (New Year's Morning), c. 1930 www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
January 1, 2026 at 11:59 AM
One of the most unforgettable images capturing the vibrant promise of the new year, by the great Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy: 7 A.M. (New Year's Morning), c. 1930 www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
Reposted by Rory Solomon
The Mazda Command Knob is the solution here. An incredibly designed user interface element
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.
Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its…
wrd.cm
December 28, 2025 at 4:53 AM
The Mazda Command Knob is the solution here. An incredibly designed user interface element
Reposted by Rory Solomon
This is called pillaging.
ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries.
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
December 26, 2025 at 11:51 PM
This is called pillaging.
Reposted by Rory Solomon
Home Depot Introduces New 12-Foot-Tall Baby Jesus Skeleton https://theonion.com/home-depot-introduces-new-12-foot-tall-baby-jesus-skele-1851069460/
December 25, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Home Depot Introduces New 12-Foot-Tall Baby Jesus Skeleton https://theonion.com/home-depot-introduces-new-12-foot-tall-baby-jesus-skele-1851069460/
Explain your username:
My name is Rory and I like working with blots of ink in various forms. Also shoutout to Digital Underground
My name is Rory and I like working with blots of ink in various forms. Also shoutout to Digital Underground
Explain your username:
i dwell in others' burrows. nothing to do with ants
i dwell in others' burrows. nothing to do with ants
Explain your username:
I’m a librarian to narwhals.
I’m a librarian to narwhals.
December 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Explain your username:
My name is Rory and I like working with blots of ink in various forms. Also shoutout to Digital Underground
My name is Rory and I like working with blots of ink in various forms. Also shoutout to Digital Underground
I really try to stay away from RMP but I will wear this comment as a badge of honor. It seems I’ve had at least some success in my efforts to craft coursework that discourages AI use
December 24, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I really try to stay away from RMP but I will wear this comment as a badge of honor. It seems I’ve had at least some success in my efforts to craft coursework that discourages AI use
“Since they are Canadian, I would not rule out treachery”
The Atlantic suggesting, without evidence, that Canada's Global TV broadcasting the '60 Minutes' segment on CECOT that CBS distributed to it may have been an act of "treachery."
🔗: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
🔗: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 24, 2025 at 12:09 PM
“Since they are Canadian, I would not rule out treachery”
Reposted by Rory Solomon
Most media attention has focused on his claim that he would bring the cost of living way down, starting on “day one.” This claim never made any sense, especially because Trump’s policy agenda — centered on tariffs and mass deportation — was clearly inflationary, not deflationary.
MAGA’s Manly Manufacturing Misfire
Understanding Trump’s other big failure
paulkrugman.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Most media attention has focused on his claim that he would bring the cost of living way down, starting on “day one.” This claim never made any sense, especially because Trump’s policy agenda — centered on tariffs and mass deportation — was clearly inflationary, not deflationary.
So you’re saying that given the gender pay gap & the average US salary, you could probably recoup that cost in about 8 years
Dr Oz: "The creation of a penis costs on average in America $150,000 per child ... if you add testicles, that's extra"
December 18, 2025 at 6:32 PM
So you’re saying that given the gender pay gap & the average US salary, you could probably recoup that cost in about 8 years
Reposted by Rory Solomon
This is, fundamentally, an unfixable problem with LLMs: you need rules-based checks/sandboxing and by the time you have the sandbox sufficiently strong (e.g. "min price", "no ordering half-rotten durian fruit" because the limit was "food"), why have the LLM at all except as a chatty UI?
December 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM
This is, fundamentally, an unfixable problem with LLMs: you need rules-based checks/sandboxing and by the time you have the sandbox sufficiently strong (e.g. "min price", "no ordering half-rotten durian fruit" because the limit was "food"), why have the LLM at all except as a chatty UI?
Reposted by Rory Solomon
30 years into the mass internet era, no effort to deliberately study computing as a cultural practice—a scholarly field with local community, degrees, etc.—have succeeded at scale. Few ever started!
Instead, scattered individuals in traditional disciplines and computational methods for old work.
Instead, scattered individuals in traditional disciplines and computational methods for old work.
December 13, 2025 at 1:51 PM
30 years into the mass internet era, no effort to deliberately study computing as a cultural practice—a scholarly field with local community, degrees, etc.—have succeeded at scale. Few ever started!
Instead, scattered individuals in traditional disciplines and computational methods for old work.
Instead, scattered individuals in traditional disciplines and computational methods for old work.
Pretty wild how right wing discourse about education now often celebrates STEM & totally disregards anything about developing emotional-social skills, but then also is deeply afraid of autism.
December 13, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Pretty wild how right wing discourse about education now often celebrates STEM & totally disregards anything about developing emotional-social skills, but then also is deeply afraid of autism.
Big shoutout to New School alum Maliya Malik, just admitted to the School of Social Work at @columbiauniversity.bsky.social!
Always so nice to see former students going on to exciting things and to see letter of rec season bear fruit. Congrats, Maliya!
www.linkedin.com/in/maliya-ma...
Always so nice to see former students going on to exciting things and to see letter of rec season bear fruit. Congrats, Maliya!
www.linkedin.com/in/maliya-ma...
www.linkedin.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Big shoutout to New School alum Maliya Malik, just admitted to the School of Social Work at @columbiauniversity.bsky.social!
Always so nice to see former students going on to exciting things and to see letter of rec season bear fruit. Congrats, Maliya!
www.linkedin.com/in/maliya-ma...
Always so nice to see former students going on to exciting things and to see letter of rec season bear fruit. Congrats, Maliya!
www.linkedin.com/in/maliya-ma...
Reposted by Rory Solomon
Yeah shit’s fucked up at The New School. It’s true. I’m living it. It’s a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere in America. gothamist.com/news/the-new...
The New School faces identity crisis amid planned layoffs, reorganization
The storied leftist university faces a $48 million deficit.
gothamist.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Yeah shit’s fucked up at The New School. It’s true. I’m living it. It’s a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere in America. gothamist.com/news/the-new...
This just makes me realize that if we rebranded socialism as “societal innovation through massively scalable collective synergy," all the Silicon Valley libertarians would be so on board
Rand Paul on his healthcare plan: "What if you could join Costco? Costco has 44m members and if one person negotiated for all 44 and they bought a group plan like Toyota or General Motors does, they would be the largest collective entity in the country. They would drive prices down by sheer might."
December 10, 2025 at 6:59 PM
This just makes me realize that if we rebranded socialism as “societal innovation through massively scalable collective synergy," all the Silicon Valley libertarians would be so on board
Doha (via Midjourney)
December 8, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Doha (via Midjourney)
To my fellow pedagogues struggling to craft meaningful final coursework in the age of AI: I'm trying something different this time that I thought I'd share. (Not really a "thread" guy, but here we go – 1/6)
December 7, 2025 at 3:37 AM
To my fellow pedagogues struggling to craft meaningful final coursework in the age of AI: I'm trying something different this time that I thought I'd share. (Not really a "thread" guy, but here we go – 1/6)
I’m looking California & feeling Minnesota
m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNh-...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNh-...
Soundgarden - Outshined
YouTube video by SoundgardenVEVO
m.youtube.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I’m looking California & feeling Minnesota
m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNh-...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNh-...
Named my fists form and content because I’m about to remediate your face
I named my fists Common and Sense because I'm about to bring the Paine
I named my fists Blood and Meridian because I’m fixing to Judge your ass.
December 1, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Named my fists form and content because I’m about to remediate your face
Reposted by Rory Solomon
Hagueseth
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Hagueseth
wait, this is Tucker coming out right? He says the only people he ever hears use the word fa**ot are gay, then he uses the word a bunch of times. He also says he’s spent “a LOT” of time around gays, jokes about doing something in Morgan’s bedroom & demurs when Piers asks if he could “make him gay.”
1. Tucker Carlson, in a manner bordering on sensuous euphoria, said the word Fa**ot twenty times in his interview with Piers Morgan.
Tucker was saying it as some sort of protest to a woman who was allegedly arrested and charged for using it in response to her domestic abuser.
Tucker was saying it as some sort of protest to a woman who was allegedly arrested and charged for using it in response to her domestic abuser.
November 28, 2025 at 6:07 AM
wait, this is Tucker coming out right? He says the only people he ever hears use the word fa**ot are gay, then he uses the word a bunch of times. He also says he’s spent “a LOT” of time around gays, jokes about doing something in Morgan’s bedroom & demurs when Piers asks if he could “make him gay.”
Reminder that in a just country we would have a nearly 100% inheritance tax. Call it the American Dream Tax: don’t deny the next generation their opportunity to pursue the American dream
The super-rich call them “trust reveals.” Inside the meticulously planned events where the next generation finds out who inherits the ski lodge. on.wsj.com/4pE3ffW
Inside the ‘Trust Reveal,’ Where the Superrich Pass on Generational Wealth
Wealthy families and their cadre of advisers meticulously coordinate plans to make their money last for the next century and beyond.
on.wsj.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reminder that in a just country we would have a nearly 100% inheritance tax. Call it the American Dream Tax: don’t deny the next generation their opportunity to pursue the American dream