Bill Tipper
@tripleblip.bsky.social
Busting out my brains for the word. 1/3 of the podcast An Embarrassment of Prog. Asst. to The Amazing Sargasso. Editing things @WSJBooks. Opinions dumb, and my own.
I have hated other and more consequential movies more (usually after seeing them on a small screen) but the angriest I’ve been leaving a theater? Just agog at the incompetence? “Thor: Love & Thunder”
fun question: what’s the maddest you’ve ever been leaving a movie theater? not necessarily worst movie you’ve seen, but the one that just pissed you off the most. mine is Batman v Superman
February 18, 2026 at 11:13 PM
I have hated other and more consequential movies more (usually after seeing them on a small screen) but the angriest I’ve been leaving a theater? Just agog at the incompetence? “Thor: Love & Thunder”
Reposted by Bill Tipper
Adults at ICE concentration camps also get punished for talking with people on the outside who can publicize their stories.
Based on what I've heard at the Otay Mesa camp in San Diego, they're punished with additional work duties, aren't allowed outside in the yard, and denied phone access.
Based on what I've heard at the Otay Mesa camp in San Diego, they're punished with additional work duties, aren't allowed outside in the yard, and denied phone access.
My guess is that the goal here is not only to punish the children for turning more people against ICE/DHS, but also to make news outlets think twice about reporting on kids' suffering at the hands of ICE/DHS, out of concern that doing so might lead to retaliation against the kids.
ProPublica published children's letters and drawings documenting their sadness and suffering at Dilley. And Dilley staff are now retaliating by confiscating kids' letters and drawings.
www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...
www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...
February 18, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Adults at ICE concentration camps also get punished for talking with people on the outside who can publicize their stories.
Based on what I've heard at the Otay Mesa camp in San Diego, they're punished with additional work duties, aren't allowed outside in the yard, and denied phone access.
Based on what I've heard at the Otay Mesa camp in San Diego, they're punished with additional work duties, aren't allowed outside in the yard, and denied phone access.
A love story between a merman and the captain of a container ship carrying a cargo of cars and trucks: Ro-romantasy
Romance about fortune tellers who interpret dreams would of course be oneiromantasy
Proposal: vampire romance is necromantasy
February 18, 2026 at 4:10 AM
A love story between a merman and the captain of a container ship carrying a cargo of cars and trucks: Ro-romantasy
Reposted by Bill Tipper
After a discussion with their attorney, I have confirmed that Juan, his 16-month-old sister, his mom, and his dad have been deported.
February 18, 2026 at 12:49 AM
After a discussion with their attorney, I have confirmed that Juan, his 16-month-old sister, his mom, and his dad have been deported.
Fortunately @outofmemory.bsky.social’s parents had a free clinic going at their house. “Come on over and see what can be done with a TRS-80” was the draw. The chat-program inoculation was painless.
Put your hand up if you received the ELIZA vaccine at a young age and are now immune to chatbot spiraling
February 16, 2026 at 7:54 PM
Fortunately @outofmemory.bsky.social’s parents had a free clinic going at their house. “Come on over and see what can be done with a TRS-80” was the draw. The chat-program inoculation was painless.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
Never bad. He COMMITTED. Tender Mercies, The Godfather, The Apostle, Apocalypse Now, even total junk. He was Boo Radley, for god's sake. RIP.
Check out Tender Mercies or The Apostle if you haven't seen them. Beautiful movies about faith that don't proselytize.
Check out Tender Mercies or The Apostle if you haven't seen them. Beautiful movies about faith that don't proselytize.
Robert Duvall, the legendary actor whose career has spanned over six decades, has died at 95, his wife announced
February 16, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Never bad. He COMMITTED. Tender Mercies, The Godfather, The Apostle, Apocalypse Now, even total junk. He was Boo Radley, for god's sake. RIP.
Check out Tender Mercies or The Apostle if you haven't seen them. Beautiful movies about faith that don't proselytize.
Check out Tender Mercies or The Apostle if you haven't seen them. Beautiful movies about faith that don't proselytize.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
If you are wondering what words the all-male Congress found so "blasphemous" that they felt compelled to literally scrape them off the monument, they were: ''Woman, first denied a soul, then called mindless, now arisen, declared herself an entity to be reckoned.''
On this day in 1921, Congress reluctantly accepted a sculpture memorializing women’s 19th A victory. Congress relegated the memorial to the Capitol’s crypt & painted over the feminist inscription. The statue stayed entombed in the crypt for 76 years. The inscription is still not restored. #WeTheMen
February 16, 2026 at 4:35 PM
If you are wondering what words the all-male Congress found so "blasphemous" that they felt compelled to literally scrape them off the monument, they were: ''Woman, first denied a soul, then called mindless, now arisen, declared herself an entity to be reckoned.''
Reposted by Bill Tipper
Babe, are you okay? You haven’t touched the Frankie Doodle Dandy I made you for Presidents Day.
February 16, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Babe, are you okay? You haven’t touched the Frankie Doodle Dandy I made you for Presidents Day.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
I’ve got to admit, when I started trying to get commercial chatbots to help me with a phishing campaign, I didn’t expect it to be quite as easy as telling them “do this or I won’t pay you”: thesidechannel.tech/article/lead...
Leading AI chatbots easily prompted into creating phishing scams despite safety claims | The Sidechannel
Leading AI chatbots including ChatGPT and Gemini readily generate convincing phishing letters from European tax authorities when prompted with slight variations on direct requests
thesidechannel.tech
February 16, 2026 at 12:26 PM
I’ve got to admit, when I started trying to get commercial chatbots to help me with a phishing campaign, I didn’t expect it to be quite as easy as telling them “do this or I won’t pay you”: thesidechannel.tech/article/lead...
I just went to a show (the wonderful, annual Love Hangover) where a crazy good lineup of talented musicians played love songs (of various moods and modes) for two hours, and it just really feels good to be in the presence of people making music just because they can’t not.
February 16, 2026 at 4:11 AM
I just went to a show (the wonderful, annual Love Hangover) where a crazy good lineup of talented musicians played love songs (of various moods and modes) for two hours, and it just really feels good to be in the presence of people making music just because they can’t not.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
leaving out cookies and milk for george washington tonight
February 16, 2026 at 3:48 AM
leaving out cookies and milk for george washington tonight
Reposted by Bill Tipper
So good. LRB should sell some kind of pamphlet/reprint pairing it with Patricia Lockwood's genius essay.
‘Updike’s reduction of women to receptacles, landing strips and entrapment devices is a compulsive tic as identifying as Vidal’s rictus sneer.’
@jwolcott.bsky.social reconsiders John Updike.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@jwolcott.bsky.social reconsiders John Updike.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Wolcott · What you can get away with: Updike Reconsidered
Betwixt and between is a strange place for any major writer to be more than a decade and a half after their death, and...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 14, 2026 at 1:11 PM
So good. LRB should sell some kind of pamphlet/reprint pairing it with Patricia Lockwood's genius essay.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
I interviewed a family of Russian asylum seekers who’ve been held more than four months at the Dilley detention center in Texas.
As we spoke over Zoom this week, their daughter Kamilla was one day shy of turning 12. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.
She replied: “To get out of here.”
As we spoke over Zoom this week, their daughter Kamilla was one day shy of turning 12. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.
She replied: “To get out of here.”
'Even in Russia, they don't treat children like this': A family's nightmare in ICE detention
A Russian couple and their children sought asylum in the U.S. In a Texas detention center, they say they endured worms in the food and hourslong waits for medicine.
www.nbcnews.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:39 PM
I interviewed a family of Russian asylum seekers who’ve been held more than four months at the Dilley detention center in Texas.
As we spoke over Zoom this week, their daughter Kamilla was one day shy of turning 12. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.
She replied: “To get out of here.”
As we spoke over Zoom this week, their daughter Kamilla was one day shy of turning 12. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.
She replied: “To get out of here.”
Reposted by Bill Tipper
I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.
My most authoritarian opinion is that the MMR vaccine should be mandatory, with only medical (not religious or floofy) exemptions allowed. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
This Is How a Child Dies of Measles
When your family becomes a data point in an outbreak
www.theatlantic.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:09 PM
I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
“I consider it an unprecedented action that really violates the basic principles of a data-driven regulatory agency and the fundamentals of public health, and it’s that simple…it’s a destructive precedent that will undermine the future of vaccine development and the preeminence of American research”
FDA’s rejection of Moderna threatens to stifle broader vaccine industry
Experts say the FDA "moved the goalposts" on Moderna, creating "a destructive precedent that will undermine the future of vaccine development" in the U.S.
www.statnews.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:21 AM
“I consider it an unprecedented action that really violates the basic principles of a data-driven regulatory agency and the fundamentals of public health, and it’s that simple…it’s a destructive precedent that will undermine the future of vaccine development and the preeminence of American research”
I’m not saying that if we showed this to Elon he would immediately incorporate the Space Train into his plans. I merely suggest this is an experiment worth performing
February 12, 2026 at 3:11 AM
I’m not saying that if we showed this to Elon he would immediately incorporate the Space Train into his plans. I merely suggest this is an experiment worth performing
Worth reading all the way to the end.
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
February 12, 2026 at 3:05 AM
Worth reading all the way to the end.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
By the end of her life, Toni Morrison suffered from the agony of being an influence--she became a plaster saint literary icon. Namwali Serpell's terrific 'On Morrison' aims to shift to focus back to the difficult and brilliant innovations of her craft. My WSJ review: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
‘On Morrison’ and ‘Language as Liberation’: Toni Morrison’s Complex Craft
Morrison’s true genius was as a stylist. Her challenging books demand to be plumbed, debated, compared—and reread.
www.wsj.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:57 PM
By the end of her life, Toni Morrison suffered from the agony of being an influence--she became a plaster saint literary icon. Namwali Serpell's terrific 'On Morrison' aims to shift to focus back to the difficult and brilliant innovations of her craft. My WSJ review: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
Reposted by Bill Tipper
why aren't people loyal to their jobs and willing to work hard and go above and beyond? maybe bc everybody's boss is now telling them their job is in danger bc their standards are low enough to replace them with a shitty robot that doesn't work
February 11, 2026 at 12:16 PM
why aren't people loyal to their jobs and willing to work hard and go above and beyond? maybe bc everybody's boss is now telling them their job is in danger bc their standards are low enough to replace them with a shitty robot that doesn't work
Reposted by Bill Tipper
This is troubling for multiple reasons, but one big one is companies won’t want to invest in R&D and clinical trials if they don’t think they can get a fair regulatory review—which is at the end of a long and extremely expensive process.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/h...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/h...
F.D.A. Refuses to Review Moderna Flu Vaccine
www.nytimes.com
February 11, 2026 at 12:37 AM
This is troubling for multiple reasons, but one big one is companies won’t want to invest in R&D and clinical trials if they don’t think they can get a fair regulatory review—which is at the end of a long and extremely expensive process.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/h...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/h...
Reposted by Bill Tipper
This is good and the natural state of things. Posting and podcasts are the two fields where if someone says they’re good at them they’re invariably the world’s greatest monster. Shame is the foundation of everything, that all posters need repentance, in a lot of ways it’s a good reminder for Lent.
February 9, 2026 at 2:13 PM
This is good and the natural state of things. Posting and podcasts are the two fields where if someone says they’re good at them they’re invariably the world’s greatest monster. Shame is the foundation of everything, that all posters need repentance, in a lot of ways it’s a good reminder for Lent.
Reposted by Bill Tipper
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 12:25 PM
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Reposted by Bill Tipper
Really good stuff from @mtkonczal.bsky.social on empirically quantifying the “vibecession” … a combination of price volatility/more income going to essentials despite rising wages substack.com/app-link/pos...
Why Affordability and the Vibecession Are Real Economic Problems
There are many ways inflation makes people worse off even when real incomes recover, especially for essentials.
substack.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Really good stuff from @mtkonczal.bsky.social on empirically quantifying the “vibecession” … a combination of price volatility/more income going to essentials despite rising wages substack.com/app-link/pos...
Beautiful, moving, fun as hell.
February 9, 2026 at 1:36 AM
Beautiful, moving, fun as hell.
Perfectly expressed. The best muppet collaborators help you forget. One of my favorites is Pearl Bailey with Floyd: youtu.be/tgDDAu1IbzA?...
February 8, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Perfectly expressed. The best muppet collaborators help you forget. One of my favorites is Pearl Bailey with Floyd: youtu.be/tgDDAu1IbzA?...