Curious Jon
@jmbroad.bsky.social
Librarian, technologist, Special Circumstances Branch. Amateur collector of difficult truths. “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.” @[email protected] as well.
Reposted by Curious Jon
Sick, immature worker ants produce a signal that triggers their nestmates to destroy them, according to a study of a single ant species in Nature Communications. This act is thought to benefit the colony as a whole by preventing the spread of infection. go.nature.com/3Ks2Kqe 🧪
December 15, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Sick, immature worker ants produce a signal that triggers their nestmates to destroy them, according to a study of a single ant species in Nature Communications. This act is thought to benefit the colony as a whole by preventing the spread of infection. go.nature.com/3Ks2Kqe 🧪
Reposted by Curious Jon
Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.
Federal agents use chemical irritant on crowd in Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown
Federal agents have used chemical irritant to disperse a crowd in a heavily Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis. This happened Tuesday during a identification checks amid the Trump administration's cra...
www.mprnews.org
December 14, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.
Reposted by Curious Jon
I hate how much I enjoyed this
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
December 13, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I hate how much I enjoyed this
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
Reposted by Curious Jon
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
December 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
Reposted by Curious Jon
Oh wow, absolute power corrupted you absolutely? That’s so weird, I got absolute power last year and my subjects say I’ve only gotten wiser and more virtuous
December 13, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Oh wow, absolute power corrupted you absolutely? That’s so weird, I got absolute power last year and my subjects say I’ve only gotten wiser and more virtuous
Reposted by Curious Jon
Impeachment is no "sacred constitutional vehicle". It's a tool to remove bad actors during a brawl. The head counts in the chambers matter; the rest is theatrics.
This bogroll from House leaders smacks of a priestly caste trying to control through incantation, not to roll in the dirt and fight.
This bogroll from House leaders smacks of a priestly caste trying to control through incantation, not to roll in the dirt and fight.
December 11, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Impeachment is no "sacred constitutional vehicle". It's a tool to remove bad actors during a brawl. The head counts in the chambers matter; the rest is theatrics.
This bogroll from House leaders smacks of a priestly caste trying to control through incantation, not to roll in the dirt and fight.
This bogroll from House leaders smacks of a priestly caste trying to control through incantation, not to roll in the dirt and fight.
Reposted by Curious Jon
There's a Hill bubble narrative, posing as savvy realism, in treating impeachment as some radioactive poison and so Democrats must squash any talk of it. But there's zero evidence for that. No polls back it up, nor recent history. It's all just pundit-brained conventional wisdom eating its own tail.
December 11, 2025 at 4:21 AM
There's a Hill bubble narrative, posing as savvy realism, in treating impeachment as some radioactive poison and so Democrats must squash any talk of it. But there's zero evidence for that. No polls back it up, nor recent history. It's all just pundit-brained conventional wisdom eating its own tail.
Reposted by Curious Jon
This is exactly the problem. You can't go on... accurately!... about how he's a lawless wannabe dictator who wants to destroy democracy and is leading a floridly corrupt kleptocracy, but then squirm and dodge when asked if he should be removed from office any time sooner than 2029.
It’s a necessity in order to actually describe many of the worst things that the administration is doing because the logical or only remedy for so many of them is impeachment. Probably part of why so many members of Congress have trouble speaking authentically about current political realities
December 11, 2025 at 4:47 AM
This is exactly the problem. You can't go on... accurately!... about how he's a lawless wannabe dictator who wants to destroy democracy and is leading a floridly corrupt kleptocracy, but then squirm and dodge when asked if he should be removed from office any time sooner than 2029.
Reposted by Curious Jon
I'm not sure why, but my LARB essay on reactionary futurism is trending again.
Reactionary Futurism 2025 | Los Angeles Review of Books
Jordan S. Carroll reviews recent scholarship on the alt-right.
lareviewofbooks.org
December 11, 2025 at 1:00 AM
I'm not sure why, but my LARB essay on reactionary futurism is trending again.
Reposted by Curious Jon
I mean, it’s a very fathomable way of doing business; many countries have worked and still do work this way. It’s just that none of them are places you’d want to live.
“.. Much of the analysis from Wall Street .. comes down to ‘Who does Trump like best? It’s an almost unfathomable way of doing business.’”
@theatlantic.com $WBD
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
@theatlantic.com $WBD
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
December 11, 2025 at 12:22 AM
I mean, it’s a very fathomable way of doing business; many countries have worked and still do work this way. It’s just that none of them are places you’d want to live.
Reposted by Curious Jon
An incredible admission at how top down the right is and how the oligarchs propagandists view their followers as lemmings to manipulate through social media rage bait. Now they're upset that they have lost control of the manipulation machine.
December 11, 2025 at 1:22 AM
An incredible admission at how top down the right is and how the oligarchs propagandists view their followers as lemmings to manipulate through social media rage bait. Now they're upset that they have lost control of the manipulation machine.
Reposted by Curious Jon
WOW. So this is obviously a huge violation of this man's rights, and it illustrates a few things we're seeing broadly:
- DHS officers are ignoring peoples' IDs and instead requiring screening through their own systems
- Confirms @404media.co's reports of use of DHS's facial recognition app.
- DHS officers are ignoring peoples' IDs and instead requiring screening through their own systems
- Confirms @404media.co's reports of use of DHS's facial recognition app.
December 11, 2025 at 12:35 AM
WOW. So this is obviously a huge violation of this man's rights, and it illustrates a few things we're seeing broadly:
- DHS officers are ignoring peoples' IDs and instead requiring screening through their own systems
- Confirms @404media.co's reports of use of DHS's facial recognition app.
- DHS officers are ignoring peoples' IDs and instead requiring screening through their own systems
- Confirms @404media.co's reports of use of DHS's facial recognition app.
Reposted by Curious Jon
Ultimately, the struggle over disinformation is a struggle over power, legitimacy, and narrative control. It goes far beyond fact-checking or content moderation.
"The war on disinformation is a losing battle. How the systems that fight misinformation and disinformation became misconstrued and dismantled." www.theverge.com/features/839...
The disinformation wars are here
How Joe Biden’s administration caved to the right in the battle for truth.
www.theverge.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Ultimately, the struggle over disinformation is a struggle over power, legitimacy, and narrative control. It goes far beyond fact-checking or content moderation.
Reposted by Curious Jon
🎯
"The entire project of the US right wing, is re-establishing the permissions structures [for] the persecution and dehumanization of hundreds of millions of people, specifically so that violence, whether vigilante, interpersonal or state violence, can be used to discipline... everyone it sees fit."
"The entire project of the US right wing, is re-establishing the permissions structures [for] the persecution and dehumanization of hundreds of millions of people, specifically so that violence, whether vigilante, interpersonal or state violence, can be used to discipline... everyone it sees fit."
I struggle with the conversations about “political violence,” because so many of them are based in not recognizing it’s a daily reality, not an anathema or some kind of rare occurrence. Any attempt to “deal with it,” that ignores this is doomed. Free to all.
www.patreon.com/posts/138768...
www.patreon.com/posts/138768...
The First Step is Admitting The Problem | Alex Pagliuca
Get more from Alex Pagliuca on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:11 PM
🎯
"The entire project of the US right wing, is re-establishing the permissions structures [for] the persecution and dehumanization of hundreds of millions of people, specifically so that violence, whether vigilante, interpersonal or state violence, can be used to discipline... everyone it sees fit."
"The entire project of the US right wing, is re-establishing the permissions structures [for] the persecution and dehumanization of hundreds of millions of people, specifically so that violence, whether vigilante, interpersonal or state violence, can be used to discipline... everyone it sees fit."
Reposted by Curious Jon
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
December 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Reposted by Curious Jon
Earliest man-made fire discovery [via BBC] 🧪🥼🤸♂️🔥
"heated sediment [] provides the most compelling evidence for anthropogenic fire maintenance at Barnham [some 350,000 yrs before]"
Springer shared the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
#fire #discovery
"heated sediment [] provides the most compelling evidence for anthropogenic fire maintenance at Barnham [some 350,000 yrs before]"
Springer shared the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
#fire #discovery
The moment the earliest known man-made fire was uncovered - BBC News
Archaeologists in the UK have discovered the world's oldest evidence of humans lighting fires
www.bbc.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Earliest man-made fire discovery [via BBC] 🧪🥼🤸♂️🔥
"heated sediment [] provides the most compelling evidence for anthropogenic fire maintenance at Barnham [some 350,000 yrs before]"
Springer shared the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
#fire #discovery
"heated sediment [] provides the most compelling evidence for anthropogenic fire maintenance at Barnham [some 350,000 yrs before]"
Springer shared the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
#fire #discovery
Reposted by Curious Jon
My interview with Alex Guerrero, author of Lottocracy, is out for @jacobinmag.bsky.social. We discuss the merits of sortition style democracy
jacobin.com/2025/12/lott...
jacobin.com/2025/12/lott...
A Lottocratic Political System Would Empower Ordinary People
American democracy seems to be falling into an ever greater crisis. A lottocratic system, in which citizens are randomly selected to serve as legislators, could empower ordinary people and stem politi...
jacobin.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:49 PM
My interview with Alex Guerrero, author of Lottocracy, is out for @jacobinmag.bsky.social. We discuss the merits of sortition style democracy
jacobin.com/2025/12/lott...
jacobin.com/2025/12/lott...
Reposted by Curious Jon
ICE detain U.S. citizen for looking Somali—use illegal chokehold to tackle him to ground.
Man repeatedly begs agents to look at his digital passport ID—they refuse.
Drove him 7 miles away before releasing him alone into Minnesota snow storm—told him to "walk home" in freezing weather advisory.
Man repeatedly begs agents to look at his digital passport ID—they refuse.
Drove him 7 miles away before releasing him alone into Minnesota snow storm—told him to "walk home" in freezing weather advisory.
December 10, 2025 at 7:36 PM
ICE detain U.S. citizen for looking Somali—use illegal chokehold to tackle him to ground.
Man repeatedly begs agents to look at his digital passport ID—they refuse.
Drove him 7 miles away before releasing him alone into Minnesota snow storm—told him to "walk home" in freezing weather advisory.
Man repeatedly begs agents to look at his digital passport ID—they refuse.
Drove him 7 miles away before releasing him alone into Minnesota snow storm—told him to "walk home" in freezing weather advisory.
Reposted by Curious Jon
“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
December 9, 2025 at 8:36 PM
“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Reposted by Curious Jon
it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.
The Take Care Clause was a byproduct of the lessons learned from the Glorious Revolution that the executive should not be able to dispense with the law promulgated by the legislature. It was not a constitutional provision to empower the executive branch— but to constrain it!
December 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.
Reposted by Curious Jon
And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror
December 9, 2025 at 3:47 AM
And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror
Reposted by Curious Jon
VC firm Andreessen Horowitz hired Daniel Penny for choking a black man to death on the New York subway
To recap:
•Rittenhouse killed 2 people at a BLM rally & raised $2M
•Shiloh Hendrix called a Black child the n-word & raised $800K
•Now Crystal Wilsey called a Black customer the n-word & has already raised $100K in 1 day
On thing remains clear—White supremacy remains extremely profitable in America
•Rittenhouse killed 2 people at a BLM rally & raised $2M
•Shiloh Hendrix called a Black child the n-word & raised $800K
•Now Crystal Wilsey called a Black customer the n-word & has already raised $100K in 1 day
On thing remains clear—White supremacy remains extremely profitable in America
December 9, 2025 at 12:49 AM
VC firm Andreessen Horowitz hired Daniel Penny for choking a black man to death on the New York subway
Reposted by Curious Jon
“Put together, these clues suggest that while the conch shells could produce a few musical notes, their sheer volume makes long-distance communication the far more plausible primary use, by Neolithic farmers whose activities likely covered large areas.”
www.sciencealert.com/startling-so...
🧪
www.sciencealert.com/startling-so...
🧪
Startling Sounds From 6,000-Year-Old Shells Hint at Their Ancient Use
Oddly shaped conch shells found at Neolithic archaeological sites dating back 6,000 years could have served as technology for producing an extremely loud noise, scientists have discovered.
www.sciencealert.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:22 AM
“Put together, these clues suggest that while the conch shells could produce a few musical notes, their sheer volume makes long-distance communication the far more plausible primary use, by Neolithic farmers whose activities likely covered large areas.”
www.sciencealert.com/startling-so...
🧪
www.sciencealert.com/startling-so...
🧪
Reposted by Curious Jon
Lots of great lines in this post by @bf.wtf
“A world generates a story. And world-building is what the computer is for. Not in the fantasy sense, but in the practical one. Running your business is world-building. Raising a family is world-building.”
“A world generates a story. And world-building is what the computer is for. Not in the fantasy sense, but in the practical one. Running your business is world-building. Raising a family is world-building.”
Dialogical Design - shimmeringvoid
Humans are world builders
shimmeringvoid.leaflet.pub
December 8, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Lots of great lines in this post by @bf.wtf
“A world generates a story. And world-building is what the computer is for. Not in the fantasy sense, but in the practical one. Running your business is world-building. Raising a family is world-building.”
“A world generates a story. And world-building is what the computer is for. Not in the fantasy sense, but in the practical one. Running your business is world-building. Raising a family is world-building.”