AKA Bugs Potter
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jeremyparker.bsky.social
AKA Bugs Potter
@jeremyparker.bsky.social
190 followers 360 following 490 posts
Undistinguished scientist
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Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
andrew.heiss.phd
Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers

“We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.”

(Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)
Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina Adam Scharpf Christian Gläßel Abstract: Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.
January 14, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
wearehub.bsky.social
New year, new job? 🪄

We're hiring for for three great positions at HUB Cycling:

🚲 Community Manager
🚲 Event & Volunteer Coordinator
🚲 Bike Education Instructor

Learn more and apply now at https://bikehub.ca/jobs
January 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
jonthegeek.com
Happy 2026! 🎆

My resolution: put @dslc.io on a sustainable footing.

I’m soft-launching our Patreon to cover costs (Zoom, hosting, etc). If you love #TidyTuesday, our Slack help, or our book clubs, you can be an early supporter before the official launch Monday!

patreon.com/DSLC

#RStats #DataBS
Data Science Learning Community | Patreon
Tools to learn data science, e.g. weekly TidyTues.day dataset
patreon.com
January 1, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
hockeyviz.com
I post a handful of charts every day but there are thousands more on my delightful website, hockeyviz.com. Many of those are free, and many of them are paywalled. If you give me money, you get the charts, and everybody gets houseplants that flourish. Subscribe at hockeyviz.com/subscribe and \o/.
January 1, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
clairelamman.bsky.social
Thread of my Christmas gingerbreads 🌌⬇️
December 25, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
jeymccreight.bsky.social
If any journalist wants to talk to a trans man with a PhD in Human Genomics who was trained in labs that studied the evolution of sex, I'm right here

Or just keep platforming Republicans who have a 5th grade understanding of biology so they get more trans people killed, sure 🤷🏻‍♂️
December 18, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
spokesmama.bsky.social
Careful #BikeYVR! The traffic light at Ontario & 12th Ave is out! It's difficult to cross by bike or on foot! #311 @cityofvancouver.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 6:48 PM
jeremyparker.bsky.social
Shout out to all the drivers plowing through intersections with lights out due to power outages this morning, and to our NDP government for making it easier to get a driver's license @bcndpcaucus.bsky.social @governmentofbc.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com
HARD BOILED DETECTIVE: another cruel sunrise over the city of the damned. another corpse. another widow. another cup of black coffee to drag my sorry ass back to life- *sputtering*

ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin

DETECTIVE:

ME: are you getting apricot notes
December 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
tryangregory.bsky.social
So spare us the "why not both" platitudes. Science is being starved in Canada and has been for decades. Recruiting "superstars" from elsewhere is not how we will strengthen Canadian research.
December 16, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
trudiagogo.bsky.social
Hey #Vancouver - feeling the giving spirit? The DEWC needs more gifts for the 200 holiday hampers. They made it easy - you can order online and ship directly to them.

Bring a little joy to someone

@cbcstephenquinn.bsky.social (maybe share?)

www.listful.com/dewc/list/de...
Downtown Eastside Women's Centre's Wishlist | Listful
View Downtown Eastside Women's Centre's wishlist on Listful. Find the perfect gifts they actually want for birthdays, Christmas, and special occasions. Free wishlist sharing platform.
www.listful.com
December 12, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
syrupmooserecords.bsky.social
Hey if you're in Vancouver, and are also cool, this is TODAY.
www.hollywoodtheatre.ca/events/somna...
SOMNAMBULIST The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at Hollywood Theatre
SOMNAMBULIST The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Dec 10, 2025 at Hollywood Theatre - 3123 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC. Get tickets and more info on upcoming shows.
www.hollywoodtheatre.ca
December 10, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
andrew.heiss.phd
Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...
Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future? No. Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course? These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this). However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code. In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner: …to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability. There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability. The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma. This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle. This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too): Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.) It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything. You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy. As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible: To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use. Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled. So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting. You’ve got to learn first.
December 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
mihai-cirstea.bsky.social
The streetscape where this happened. No sidewalks, the only bit of gravel space beside the road used for more parking (despite massive driveways and garages at each house). This is a half block from a daycare and elementary school.
December 7, 2025 at 10:22 PM
jeremyparker.bsky.social
I like this but 4 times a week I'm at Smithe and Burrard where there's five (5) signs explaining the right-turn signal to drivers, and still somebody's running the red at least once per week
visionzerovancouver.ca Vision Zero Vancouver @visionzerovancouver.ca · Dec 5
"The City’s own data indicate that conflicts involving right-turning vehicles are among the most common types of pedestrian collisions ... If adopted, these changes would mark one of the most significant intersection-safety reforms in Vancouver in years."

dailyhive.com/vancouver/va...
Ban right turns on red at intersections, proposes Vancouver city councillor | Urbanized
OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney is pushing for a ban on right turns during the red-light traffic signal at intersections across Vancouver.
dailyhive.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
hubvancouverubc.bsky.social
Implementing these restrictions would significantly improve the safety of many of the intersections that people on bikes have to navigate daily.

You can submit feedback on this motion here: vancouver.ca/your-governm...
or register to speak to it here: vancouver.ca/your-governm...

#bikeyvr 3/3
Contact Mayor and Council
Contact City Council and the mayor as a group.
vancouver.ca
December 5, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
xadaa.bsky.social
I know there's not really a "for your consideration" process for people's personal AOTY lists BUT I did put out an album this year that I'm deeply proud of and maybe you haven't heard it yet?

themegafauna.bandcamp.com/album/i-owe-...
I Owe This Land a Body, by MEGAFAUNA
13 track album
themegafauna.bandcamp.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:38 PM
jeremyparker.bsky.social
This is offensive to me as an a autistic person, as a scientist, as a dataviz connoisseur, as a cyclist, and as a fexcectorn expert
erikangner.com Erik Angner @erikangner.com · Nov 27
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
Infographic with AI slop published in Nature Scientific Reports
November 27, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
filipvanpetegem.bsky.social
Thanks to the UBC media team for coverage of our statin : RyR1 work. Atorvastatins bind and trigger opening of a calcium release channel critical for muscle contraction.
news.ubc.ca/2025/11/ubc-...

@ubcmedicine.bsky.social
UBC researchers uncover how statins harm muscles—and how to stop it  - UBC News
Study reveals how cholesterol-lowering drugs can trigger muscle damage—and point to a way to make them safer.
news.ubc.ca
November 26, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
rhifaux.bsky.social
Today, despite hundreds of people speaking and thousands writing in opposition, Vancouver's Mayor and his ABC majority on council passed their "zero means zero" budget, which freezes property taxes for those fortunate enough to own homes at the expense of everyone else. 1/
November 25, 2025 at 10:51 PM
jeremyparker.bsky.social
I never read the pine ToS and it snowballed from there 🤷🏻‍♂️
slothropsmap.bsky.social Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · Nov 22
It is important for you to realize that you have probably never once in your life sent a private email. That’s just not how email works. Sure, turn off whatever Gmail features you want, but you’re just playing whack-a-mole with the technical realities of email as a concept.
November 22, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
visionzerovancouver.ca
A map of all instances where a driver has hit a pedestrian in Vancouver in the past 5 years. The largest circle on this map (Main & Hastings) represents 37 crashes. Source: ICBC
November 22, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
ameracadpeds.bsky.social
For decades, scientists have studied the potential causes of autism, and have repeatedly found no credible link between childhood vaccines and autism. Read our full fact-check:  www.aap.org/en/news-room...
November 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
xadaa.bsky.social
Last event thing of 2025.
If you're in #Vancouver and can go check it out that would be huge. It's a screening, so sadly I won't be in attendance.
November 19, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by AKA Bugs Potter
nadinenakagawa.bsky.social
In New West, the political rhetoric has gotten completely out of control, stoked by the New West Progressives. At our Monday council meeting, the two NWP members voted against me attending a conference about countering online harm and misinformation. Meanwhile, on their social media page, there is
November 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM