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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

@funnelfiasco.bsky.social

540 followers 530 following 1.7K posts

Author of "Program Management for Open Source Projects" and all-around opinion haver. Always looking for my next tornado. I get too invested in sports. https://funnelfiasco.com https://duckalignment.academy

funnelfiasco.com

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Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 1h

BREAKING

In a new video, Dolly Parton, the Queen of America, says she’s going to be ok.

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 2h

Glad I could "help"

The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 2h

Change the pronunciation and then you can die of environmentalist instead

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 2h

If you've ever wanted to buy a copy of my book but at 60% of the list price, then I have good news for you: my book is one of today's PragPicks titles. Order directly from @pragprog.com and you can save 40% with coupon code "PragPicks"

The cover of "Program Management for Open Source Projects" with text 40% off today at pragprog.com with coupon code PragPicks at checkout.

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 3h

What the jellyfish?

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 3h

You can buy "Program Management for Open Source Projects" from @bookshop.org and support your favorite indie (or @2ndflightbooks.bsky.social if you don't have a favorite indie)

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 3h

You made it halfway through the week *and* we still have free shipping? Sounds like the perfect time to treat yourself to a new book and support indie bookstores in the process. 📚

Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 8h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 1d

Claude AI’s logo is unironically Kurt Vonnegut’s butthole drawing

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Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @cosmicrami.com · 14h

DOLLY IS OK AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS RIGHT NOW.

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 4h

Sharts

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 6h

Ruby Central’s lesson in how not to do it

Community-driven projects run on consensus. To make changes, you need buy-in from the core members, at a minimum.

Ruby Central’s lesson in how not to do it

Community-driven projects run on consensus. To make changes, you need buy-in from the core members, at a minimum.

duckalignment.academy

The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 17h

Thanks, Obama!

The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 21h

Created an Instapaper account today because I saw Kobo now supports it and it seems like a good way to keep articles from accumulating in my Firefox tabs forever. Reading their blog post about the premium service, I saw this comment, which made me laugh because Pocket goes fully dark tomorrow.

Screen shot of a Tumblr comment that says "'The next ten years of Instapaper'. Came for the roadmap, stayed for the post about pricing, left for Pocket."

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 21h

I am the usual grocery shopper in our household and I still have not adjusted my mental model to Today's Prices™ despite seeing them every week.

Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 1d

“Who was president in 2020?” is the question of our time

Senator Jim Banks V
@SenatorBanks
Follow g..
The 2020 Census was a fraud. The Biden admin used a shady "privacy" formula that scrambled the data and miscounted 14 states.
It included illegal immigrants and handed
Democrats extra seats. Americans deserve a fair count and l'm fighting to fix it.
Zinited Statcs SScnate
MASHNORON DEYNN
October 6, 2025
an. Thow arewutn
Socretary
U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, DXC 20230
Dear Secretary Lutaick:
I urge you to investigate and correct erroes from the 2020 Census that handed disproportionntd political power to Democrats and illogal alicns. The Census Burcau adoptod a now and opaque
voting districts. As preparod by the Biden administration, the 2020 Censas roports miscountod the population of fourteen states, ' wrongly allocating six congressional scats aod Electoral
xx conwuu tmora uy, toc taroro tu mot đoo tnn Cunu lc pung t imber of votine districts. And the reoorts de aniovety inchaded ilecnl nhens widhout track those aliens' citiz enship status, If left uncorrected, these erroes will coetinue diluting the political power of American citizens.
Consus data plays a crucial role in allocating political roprescntation and goverment funding
Under the Constitution, cach state gets Congressional represcotutives and Electoeal College votes- based on "the whole number of persons" within the state." The number of persoes is in
tum clabaabod by a consttubocalty-mandalcd dcccacaal ccavas. Pcual agcco nely on census data to allocate billions of dollars in federal funding, much of which hinges ee opulation. And states use consus data to deaw congrossicnal and voting districts, »hich the
The it eiy of tie soaren alie n tor dur at ce hor inc ae oam toy ee n
nght wilbout statsica ly signilicant ciroo.
Diffcrcntial privacy is opaque and liable to mistakcn count totals. Sure cnough, the 2020 Ccnsus ovarocunted the noculation in cicht states and undercounted it in six." Tihe most extrcmi andercount was Arkansas, at 5.04%, and the larg…

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 23h

Maybe she wants to breed Travis out? *She* will only have two kids, but he can father the whole block.

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 23h

My team (Purdue) was given a very reasonable treatment in the poll. I don't know what to do with myself now.

The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 1d

The "you guys are getting paid?" meme with the text" you guys are getting sexts?"

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 1d

When you've lost Joe Bastardi...

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 1d

NICE

The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 1d

I have never "WTentireF?!"ed a story as much as this one. And I like it for some reason?

Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 1d

Good morning! Let's tether some shit to the facts today.

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Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

eric shamow @botmatrix.myatproto.social · 1d

As a reminder, one reason AI moderation was not going well a few years ago is that it was disproportionately likely to punish in-groups for talking about their own issues/reclaiming slurs and less likely to catch coded/TOS-skirting abuse

apropos of nothing at all

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 1d

Here is how I appealed the suspension. It took them about an hour to respond. All in all I was down for about 4 hours.

Hello, I have been suspended for a post accusing me of threatening violence. If you look at the thread the post is part of, 1 am describing the evangelical belief system about the rapture, which includes the mass murder of Jews.
I, a Jew, was not making threats against Jews.
I, a Jew, was educating about the dangers that the evangelical community poses to Jews in order to *protect us*
This is obviously and clearly not a threat or an excuse for suspension.
Please reinstate my account.

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The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 1d

The 16yo doesn't have time to come home for dinner between practices tonight (he'll get food, don't worry), which is crappy, but at least it means I won't be rushing to get dinner done on time for the first time in...a while. Every night most week, at least one kid has an evening activity.

Reposted by The Life of a Ben Cotton (he/him)

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 1d

Important to note ICE tends to drop off detainees before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m., which is why people were protesting at 5 a.m. to begin with. It's not because waking up at 4 a.m. was a convenient time for protesters!

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 2d

New: Broadview, IL Mayor Katrina Thompson issued an executive order today - her first this year - limiting protest outside the Broadview ICE facility to between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The order cites "recent escalation of violence by ICE" at the facility as reason to restrict protest there.

An executive order restricting protest at the Broadview ICE facility. Full order can be found here:

https://broadview-il.gov/reference/latest-news/village-of-broadview-executive-order-no-2025-01/

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