Jack Whalen
@jackwhalen.bsky.social
520 followers 430 following 530 posts
Former many things, in many places. Fave thing: Philly cabbie. Or maybe Santa Barbara drummer. Or Eugene 9-1-1 dispatcher. Or really, ethnographer all over the place. Anyway, now full time grandparent. Proud dual-national 🇺🇸🇮🇪
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Reposted by Jack Whalen
dmuma.bsky.social
Just know that “conversion therapy” is three incoherent pseudoscientific ramblings standing on each other’s shoulders under a trench coat. It’s not therapeutic (it doesn’t help, does net harm), it doesn’t convert (practically no “success” documented), and it should absolutely be banned.
jackwhalen.bsky.social
Are you familiar with the YouTube videos of Erik Vinkhuyzen on traffic as *social* phenomenon? Erik is a friend and former colleague at PARC who later worked in the auto industry on self-driving cars, has raised many critical questions on the technology.

youtube.com/@evinkhuyzen...
Erik Vinkhuyzen
Self-driving cars and the social nature of traffic
youtube.com
Reposted by Jack Whalen
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
eventually politicians need to start advocating for criminal and civil penalties for people involved in fabricating stories to get citizens incarcerated.

or, put another way: a society that would like to keep functioning has to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities
jackwhalen.bsky.social
I know! The number of 100 or better pitches this postseason is insane
Reposted by Jack Whalen
aliciadkennedy.bsky.social
I'm doing an end-of-year push for my newsletter in order to bankroll a new publication I'll be launching in 2026. Annual membership is as low as $30 to provide access to a robust community, smart conversation, and culture work that can't be found elsewhere. www.aliciakennedy.news/upgrade
Asking folks to support my independent food and culture newsletter.
Reposted by Jack Whalen
brendanamartin.bsky.social
“…The party was a celebration of all that TIME had done that year. I had forgotten that (Crown Prince) MBS was one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2018.”

Important context: the regime-aligned WaPo fired Attiah, their last black columnist, last month.
jackwhalen.bsky.social
So happy I retired before the AI horror show
jackwhalen.bsky.social
We should not be cruel, ever
jackwhalen.bsky.social
It is really hard, yes. Whenever I found instances of plagiarism or cheating (like two students turning in the same take-home exam essay) I would call them in for a personal conversation, explain the problem, give them a chance to respond, then explain my grading decision.
Reposted by Jack Whalen
cwebbonline.com
More guns than people…

Is it freedom or a national death cult that keeps growing?
Reposted by Jack Whalen
gavinyamey.bsky.social
Medical ethicist Arthur Kaplan, quoted in the NYT:

“The announcement on autism was the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recyling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies & dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority in the world claiming to know anything about science”
gavinyamey.bsky.social
This MAGA/MAHA/Trump/RFK Jr/Dr Oz/Dr Bhattacharya press conference right now is quite possibly the worst press conference—from the viewpoints of medicine, public health, & medical ethics—that I’ve ever seen. These men are so shameless & deeply irresponsible. Wherever happened to science & evidence?
jackwhalen.bsky.social
Sadly no! I suppose they might have been available in Helsinki when I was living there (Nordic world and all that) but I never tried such things there - other than the odd Fazer chocolate lol
Reposted by Jack Whalen
Reposted by Jack Whalen
Reposted by Jack Whalen
samfr.bsky.social
One thing I look at in today's post is the different perceptions of local and national. (And personal and national). This is key to defeating the "burn it all down" tendency.

bsky.app/profile/pete...
peterjukes.bsky.social
Just to confirm my suspicions that people’s perception of the national position (via social/media) is very different from their local perceptions, these graphs from @moreincommonuk.bsky.social via @samfr.bsky.social’s sane and vital Substack, illustrate the difference
Reposted by Jack Whalen
lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com
i think how we got here is that the right's favorite move is working the ref and the radical centrist's favorite move is self flattery that they could never be worked
Reposted by Jack Whalen
mollyknight.bsky.social
My friend Jane Leavy aka @ballgirl.bsky.social
--author of the definitive, blockbuster biographies on Koufax, Mantle, and Ruth--has a new book out today on how to fix the modern game. It's full of great ideas, and not finger wagging at all. It's a really fun read! bookshop.org/p/books/make...
Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
bookshop.org
Reposted by Jack Whalen
motherjones.com
“I’ve never seen this before—I’ve never seen the Democratic leadership not endorse the Democratic candidate. It’s so ugly, it’s so cowardly, it’s so stupid."
Democratic voters want their leaders to stop running from Zohran Mamdani
"It's so ugly, it's so cowardly, it's so stupid."
www.motherjones.com
Reposted by Jack Whalen
francesjones.bsky.social
Exclusive by me: US research agency upheaval costs UK universities millions

Scale of disruption to British medical research caused by Trump’s science cuts revealed

Been working on this (intermittently) for months

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
US research agency upheaval costs UK universities millions - Research Professional News
Exclusive: Scale of disruption to British medical research caused by Trump’s science cuts revealed
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
jackwhalen.bsky.social
this would certainly include the polio vaccine… as a child who attended school - K and 1st - in Jacksonville FL I remember my mother saying how terrified she was of polio but then in 1955, when I was 6, the vaccine was available & she made sure I was one of the first in line for the shot
Reposted by Jack Whalen
adrs.bsky.social
I will die on this hill:

it isn’t hard to say “at the height of the pandemic” or “at the start of COVID” during a podcast interview. Producers, hosts, don’t let your guests say “during COVID” like this thing is over. Correct them. Ask them to say the sentence again. This is your job.
Reposted by Jack Whalen
lizayes.bsky.social
OMG

DeSantis and his Surgeon General are not only utterly stupid, they are lethal to many #Florida citizens of all ages, no matter their immune response status.

Where is the community-mindedness that used to make Americans proud to protect ourselves and our neighbors from death and disfigurement?
kodiak149.bsky.social
Florida Seeks to End State’s Vaccine Mandates - The Wall Street Journal
Desantis and his surgeon general are going to kill people
jackwhalen.bsky.social
This is SO bloody insane - the height of arrogant stupidity, sacrificing the lives of children (and their teachers and families too) just to own the libs, curry favor with the MAGA/MAHA lunatics
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...
Florida Says It Plans to End All Vaccine Mandates
www.nytimes.com