James Pitt
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sahelanth.bsky.social
James Pitt
@sahelanth.bsky.social
this is all Tiktaalik's fault
Reposted by James Pitt
New article! That we live in uncertain times is almost certainly and understatement. How do humans deal with uncertainty? Is it the same everywhere? How do we cope in the face of chaos, turbulence, and unpredictability?

hraf.yale.edu/coping-with-...
Coping with Uncertainty: Oracles, Divination and Decision-Making | Human Relations Area Files
hraf.yale.edu
January 30, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
OK, so Musk was planning to go to Epstein's island, but it's not like he went there with the intent to go to a wild party or something, it was probably just some business. Excuse me, an email just came in.

*Reads:* "What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?"
January 30, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
The US Ambassador to Israel and close friend of Joe Biden, Jack Lew, personally blocked the distribution of a cable written by USAID which accurately described the situation in northern Gaza
Another banger from Jonathan Guyer, who's been on the USAID-Gaza beat for a few years.

If anyone wonders why I really, really hate Joe Biden and his administration? It's because I had to work for them on Gaza. They're evil, evil people who deserve prison.
January 30, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
i think part of the key is simply doing away with the preconception that cooking has to look like a meal capable of impressing others
The basic psychology is that if you never learned how to cook, it feels like an incredibly complex and daunting task. When in fact it is very simple to master the basic principles of cooking, and from there you can make a lot of things. bring back home ec tbh
The sociology of food delivery apps needs to be studied more. These apps arrived ten years ago, accelerated rapidly during COVID, and now some people have seemingly no ability to function without it, to the point of substantial financial ruin, even though it is incredibly easy to exist without
January 30, 2026 at 6:25 PM
<annoyed grunt> is a complete sentence
January 30, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
STEP 1
Work hard to achieve my goals.

STEP 0
Figure out what to do to achieve my goals.

STEP -1
Figure out what my goals should be.

STEP -2
Establish sound methodology to interpret and resolve deontic questions.

STEP -8
How is it that some things are, while others fail to be?
January 30, 2026 at 6:05 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
Using a comprehensive dataset of posts from a major platform for anime- and manga-style artwork to study the impact of the launch of a prominent text-to-image generative AI, from Sueyoul Kim, Ginger Zhe Jin, and Eungik Lee www.nber.org/papers/w34733
January 29, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
Yeah I’m into philosophy of games (balaban and ullman’s ‘physics versus graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition’)
January 29, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
Moving stuff
January 30, 2026 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
In Nebraska, a student at a high school was hospitalized, after an SUV with a Trump flag crashed into her during a student walkout against ICE. After striking the student, the car then drove away. northeast.newschannelnebraska.com/story/534142...
Protester struck by SUV displaying Trump flag at Fremont High School
FREMONT, Neb. — A girl who was part of a protest against ICE taking place at a Nebraska school is injured after being hit by a vehicle displaying a Trump flag. It happened around 2:30 p.m. Thurs
northeast.newschannelnebraska.com
January 30, 2026 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
I'm hearing from multiple people that students who submitted ecology GRFP proposals are having those proposals rejected without review, despite ecology being listed as an eligible field. If this is a programmatic change, this is devastating. Ecology is the study of Earth's life support systems.
A number of our students got the following comment back on a rejection for the NSF GFRP. They are in an eligible STEM field. Is this something people in other places are getting too? Is it a quirk or targeted?
January 29, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
Every night I have a devil on my shoulder saying "Why not skip brushing the baby's teeth? You both have had a long day she doesn't even eat sweets" and I sigh and brush her teeth while she calls upon The Entities to destroy me, her little mind a burning psychic beacon to all malevolent forces
January 30, 2026 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
pitch for new type of guy: reasonable centrist in the French Revolution who only wants half the king’s head chopped off
January 30, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
They’re already complaining about the platform. AGI
January 30, 2026 at 2:03 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
College approached and paid student to write op-ed in The Dartmouth
The Dartmouth ran the article on Nov. 17 without knowledge that the College had been involved.&nbsp;
www.thedartmouth.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
Qikiqtania attempts to prevent brother Tiktaalik from making a terrible mistake. Unlike Tiktaalik, Qikiqtania remained waterbound and could not support its weight on land.

#paleoart #SciArt #art #artist #paleontology #artistonbluesky #originalart
January 29, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
MANHATTAN:
We’ve just added a full Know Your Rights, ICE Watch, and neighborhood coordination training for people who live or work in Manhattan this Saturday, January 31st, from 12-4pm. All other boroughs, you can sign up for our waitlist — link in thread.
MANHATTAN BOROUGH-WIDE TRAINING · Hands Off NYC
Date: THIS SATURDAY, January 31 | Time: 12 PM - 4 PM Location provided after registration Important: previous wait list members received first notice of this training. If this event is at capacity, ...
www.mobilize.us
January 30, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
Timeline cleanse featuring penguins frolicking in the snow at the Pittsburgh Zoo!
January 30, 2026 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
we're running into the problem again that you probably can make good art with ai but in order to be like. good. it will take a bunch of time and patience and effort which are the things people advocating for ai art want to get rid of
love that early american colonial vinyl siding
January 30, 2026 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
Fox News poll: The Democratic Party is favored by voters on transgender issues by 22 points
Fox News Poll: An early look at the 2026 midterms
Fox News poll shows Democrats leading Republicans 52% to 46% in generic congressional ballot for midterm elections, highest Democratic support recorded.
www.foxnews.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
#hourly #wah https://api.tinyfox.dev/hourly/wahs/photo_353@10-11-2018_15-04-33.jpg
January 30, 2026 at 1:00 AM
A Minneapolis-based factory announced a lot of snack food got contaminated. (Affects Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota)

Presumably a lot of workers who‘d normally keep it clean couldn’t come in, because of ICE.

people.com/thousands-of...
Pringles, Nutella, Cheerios Among Thousands of Products Recalled for Exposure to Rodent Waste
The company is urging consumers who purchased the affected products to “destroy the products as soon as possible,” per the recall announcement
people.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
The lyrics to maybe the best-known Napalm Death song are "You suffer, but why?"
January 28, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
January 28, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by James Pitt
Also, it’s relevant to discussing Trump’s overall policies re: immigration, refugees, etc. Anne Frank’s family tried to escape the Nazis but were hindered by US immigration quotas, anti-refugee public sentiment & other rules designed to restrict immigration of ‘undesirable’ populations.
Anne Frank’s Family Was Thwarted by U.S. Immigration Rules, Research Shows (Published 2018)
www.nytimes.com
January 28, 2026 at 9:32 PM