Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
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nonration.al
Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
@nonration.al
I write software, run teams that write software, and talk to people about how to make better decisions, usually in relation to writing software.
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Congratulations to all the Democratic candidates who won tonight. It’s a reminder that when we come together around strong, forward-looking leaders who care about the issues that matter, we can win. We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter.
November 5, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Today is only the beginning.

Our time has come, New York. Our time is now.
Today is only the beginning.
YouTube video by Zohran Mamdani for NYC
www.youtube.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
This is Annie. She freaking loves fall. 13/10 (FB: James Osborne)
September 22, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Check out Justice Eddins’ complete repudiation of the Roberts Court here. It’s worth reading in full. It’s quite brave—and exceedingly rare—for a sitting judge to speak so candidly and scathingly about SCOTUS’ partisan contortions of law, history, and fact.
www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/u...
September 20, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Extreme views are heavily over-represented on social media

Social platforms’ tendency to reward hostile content creates incentives that systematically reward simplistic messages and extreme positions and this fuels populism www.ft.com/content/9251... via @jburnmurdoch.ft.com
September 8, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
it is a stochastic intern and that abstraction works well enough for me to interact with it without going nuts
current theory: LLMs exist in a cognitive uncanny valley. we are incapable of seeing them as anything other than weird humans. they get ranked up/down in our esteem the way a human would be. that they are a totally different thing, with totally different problems, is impossible to integrate
and this seems like a legitimate cognitive problem. somehow the exact niche in the cognitive uncanny valley they fall into is just impossible for us to process. nothing else has ever existed that looks anything like this before! it's a person. it's an oracle of truth? maybe it's a book. hmmm
September 3, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back.
"The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."
August 28, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Well, I'll be damned.

It's royalty free and there's already six, generic manufacturers lined up.

newatlas.com/infectious-d...
The first 100% effective HIV prevention drug is approved and going global
An epidemic that's been sustained for 44 years might finally be quelled, with the milestone approval of the first HIV drug that offers 100% protection with its twice-yearly injections. It's a landmark...
newatlas.com
July 27, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
August 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
A Texas researcher is facing deportation after being held for over a week by immigration authorities at San Francisco Intl. Airport. Returning from an overseas trip, he was detained upon arrival, forced to sleep in a chair, and survived on airport food during the ordeal. apnews.com/article/texa...
Texas researcher faces deportation after being held for week at San Francisco airport
A legal permanent resident with a green card who flew back to the U.S. after visiting family in South Korea was detained by immigration authorities and held for more than a week at the San Francisco I...
apnews.com
August 3, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Holy shit. This guy saved a PNG to a bird.

(he drew a bird into a spectrogram, played that sound to a starling, and the starling reproduced it back to him with enough accuracy he got his bird drawing back in their call's spectrogram) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQC...
I Saved a PNG Image To A Bird
YouTube video by Benn Jordan
www.youtube.com
July 28, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
The fact that the President of the United States posts a fake video of a kneeling Barack Obama being handcuffed and we’re supposed to pretend it’s perfectly normal, everyday stuff shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.
July 21, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
writing new black mirror episodes must be pretty tough these days
July 14, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
I imagined the Chatsubo in 1984. 41 years later I opened its door. Neuromancer is in production.
July 1, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
nyt op-ed: we cannot normalize the left’s brazen attempt to win voters by talking to them
June 25, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Thank you for modeling a different approach to politics. Solidarity for the win!
Hope and solidarity won tonight, and will win again in November.

Congratulations, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
June 25, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
I've said it before, I'll say it again: pitch it as increasing SCOTUS to at least 100 Justices, with randomly selected pools of 9 to hear each case, such that no single Justice matters so much.
There should be an earnest call to pack the courts by Dem leadership. It should be a thought out campaign to explain to the American people why it’s necessary.
It's becoming increasingly clear is that the right wing of this Supreme Court is extreme even among federal courts. The district courts and appellate courts keep appropriately halting this shit, expressing appropriate outrage, and trying to hold the line. Then SCOTUS blows it all up.
June 24, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
Happy Juneteenth! On this day in 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, TX, finally learned of their freedom, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, we celebrate Black freedom, and reflect on our understanding that queer liberation is deeply tied to Black liberation.
June 19, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
CLARIFICATION :

The Trevor Project's hotline will still be live. But basically this means LGBTQ people can no longer be connected to it through the US national 988 suicide prevention hotline.

They will need to be contacted DIRECTLY

So spread this around

They can be texted. They can be called.
June 18, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
June 7, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
A three-year-old brought me a bit of black paper. "Look", she said, "I found a piece of night!"

We're all born poets, but slowly we forget.
May 31, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
“No! Mis hijos estan en La escuela! (My kids are in school!) Por favor!”

Tennessee’s @davidwontshutup.bsky.social on a very difficult video to watch of ICE grabbing a mother outside immigration court in Texas.
May 31, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by Alan Norton 👨‍💻∉ ℚ
insane moment in world history right here
May 14, 2025 at 10:27 PM