Bob Estes
@onscrn.bsky.social
Texas roots but more than half my life in Boston area. PhD in Physics, UC Berkeley; US-Italian Space Shuttle missions; 50-odd poems published: Louisville Review, Gargoyle, Cola Literary Review, The Moth, Masque & Spectacle, The Madrigal…
Reposted by Bob Estes
...and sustains the relationship between the Russian population and their government in the Kremlin."
December 27, 2025 at 11:19 AM
...and sustains the relationship between the Russian population and their government in the Kremlin."
Reposted by Bob Estes
A leaked Justice Department memo directs federal prosecutors to press “domestic terrorism” charges against individuals who record immigration operations.
Justice Department says filming immigration raids is 'domestic terrorism'
A leaked Justice Department memo directs federal prosecutors to press “domestic terrorism” charges against individuals who record immigration operations.
reason.com
December 26, 2025 at 6:58 PM
A leaked Justice Department memo directs federal prosecutors to press “domestic terrorism” charges against individuals who record immigration operations.
Reposted by Bob Estes
Your brain does not store memories like videos. 🧠🧪
Memories are reconstructed each time you recall them through a process called reconsolidation. During this process, details can shift based on emotion, context, and new information, which is why memories can change over time.
Memories are reconstructed each time you recall them through a process called reconsolidation. During this process, details can shift based on emotion, context, and new information, which is why memories can change over time.
December 26, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Your brain does not store memories like videos. 🧠🧪
Memories are reconstructed each time you recall them through a process called reconsolidation. During this process, details can shift based on emotion, context, and new information, which is why memories can change over time.
Memories are reconstructed each time you recall them through a process called reconsolidation. During this process, details can shift based on emotion, context, and new information, which is why memories can change over time.
Reposted by Bob Estes
Reposted by Bob Estes
Great piece, & so refreshing to see commentators reflect on their mistakes
I also find it quite cathartic to admit where I have been wrong
I also find it quite cathartic to admit where I have been wrong
Hi All, Its the annual column of ritual humiliation, where I dissect, with quotes, the biggest mistakes I made in the past year. There are some great ones where I was wrong. This year, to make the column more helpful, I have even included a lessons learned analysis. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
Annual Review 2025: What I Got Wrong
Complete with quotes!
open.substack.com
December 26, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Great piece, & so refreshing to see commentators reflect on their mistakes
I also find it quite cathartic to admit where I have been wrong
I also find it quite cathartic to admit where I have been wrong
Reposted by Bob Estes
Final newsletter of the year! If you want to feel good, do what I did and compare it to the first newsletter of the year. Elites capitulated but regular people said fuck no to fascism. More to come in '26. open.substack.com/pub/ezralevi...
2025: Cowardice, Courage, and Chutzpah
Indivisible's weekly newsletter with analysis and action
open.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Final newsletter of the year! If you want to feel good, do what I did and compare it to the first newsletter of the year. Elites capitulated but regular people said fuck no to fascism. More to come in '26. open.substack.com/pub/ezralevi...
Quite a story! www.newsweek.com/were-zodiac-...
Were Zodiac Killer and Black Dahlia murderer the same man? What we know
Codebreaker Alex Baber says he used AI to conclude a single suspect, Marvin Margolis, was behind both unsolved cases.
www.newsweek.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Quite a story! www.newsweek.com/were-zodiac-...
Reposted by Bob Estes
This is incredibly dangerous.
Trump is now calling the New York Times a national security threat and says they “must be dealt with and stopped.”
December 23, 2025 at 8:18 AM
This is incredibly dangerous.
Reposted by Bob Estes
"...At this point attention must be paid to destructiveness as the psychological basis of the fascist
spirit. The programs are abstract and vague, the fulfillments are
spurious and illusory because the promise expressed by fascist
oratory is nothing but destruction itself."
- Theodor Adorno, 1946
spirit. The programs are abstract and vague, the fulfillments are
spurious and illusory because the promise expressed by fascist
oratory is nothing but destruction itself."
- Theodor Adorno, 1946
December 24, 2025 at 6:52 AM
"...At this point attention must be paid to destructiveness as the psychological basis of the fascist
spirit. The programs are abstract and vague, the fulfillments are
spurious and illusory because the promise expressed by fascist
oratory is nothing but destruction itself."
- Theodor Adorno, 1946
spirit. The programs are abstract and vague, the fulfillments are
spurious and illusory because the promise expressed by fascist
oratory is nothing but destruction itself."
- Theodor Adorno, 1946
Reposted by Bob Estes
Happy Christmas ✨️🎄
Two deer following each other nose to tail. The sculpture of swimming reindeer was carved about 13,000 years ago in what is now modern-day France by a Magdalenian sculptor who carved the artwork from the tip of a mammoth tusk.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Two deer following each other nose to tail. The sculpture of swimming reindeer was carved about 13,000 years ago in what is now modern-day France by a Magdalenian sculptor who carved the artwork from the tip of a mammoth tusk.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
December 24, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Happy Christmas ✨️🎄
Two deer following each other nose to tail. The sculpture of swimming reindeer was carved about 13,000 years ago in what is now modern-day France by a Magdalenian sculptor who carved the artwork from the tip of a mammoth tusk.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Two deer following each other nose to tail. The sculpture of swimming reindeer was carved about 13,000 years ago in what is now modern-day France by a Magdalenian sculptor who carved the artwork from the tip of a mammoth tusk.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Reposted by Bob Estes
I've been thinking a lot about the redactions in the Epstein files. Some of them are pretty straightforward in their nature — obviously about privacy issues. But this is a very odd one — why redact the "acts" described?
December 23, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I've been thinking a lot about the redactions in the Epstein files. Some of them are pretty straightforward in their nature — obviously about privacy issues. But this is a very odd one — why redact the "acts" described?
Reposted by Bob Estes
Hi folks. Just to be clear, a date has not yet been announced for the next No Kings. If a PAC you’ve never heard of asks for donations to “organize” it, please block and report them
December 23, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Hi folks. Just to be clear, a date has not yet been announced for the next No Kings. If a PAC you’ve never heard of asks for donations to “organize” it, please block and report them
Glad there’s some kind of line. Maybe Trump’s unpopularity is also a factor.
Trump’s domestic deployment of the National Guard marks an area where he has diverged from the consensus of the conservative legal movement, with no plausible footing in Federalist Society dogma. And it is extremely telling that SCOTUS finally drew the line here. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Trump Just Faced the Biggest Supreme Court Defeat of His Second Term So Far
But another battle looms in the distance.
slate.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Glad there’s some kind of line. Maybe Trump’s unpopularity is also a factor.
Reposted by Bob Estes
WOW. Trump's approval rating is now 36%. And I don't remember ever seeing him underwater with white people.
December 22, 2025 at 6:17 PM
WOW. Trump's approval rating is now 36%. And I don't remember ever seeing him underwater with white people.
Reposted by Bob Estes
Before and after DOJ realized they left Trump’s name in an Epstein document:
🚨 The DOJ appears to have redacted Donald Trump’s name from the allegations made in this exhibit in the Epstein files.
Trump’s name was in the original release. Now, it’s blacked out.
See for yourself.
Trump’s name was in the original release. Now, it’s blacked out.
See for yourself.
December 21, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Before and after DOJ realized they left Trump’s name in an Epstein document:
Reposted by Bob Estes
I hope people will contact their representatives and say: You must insist that the president undergo a rigorous neuropsychiatric examination and share the results with Congress. We can't continue to ignore this. This man has the power to launch 3.700 nuclear weapons.
December 20, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I hope people will contact their representatives and say: You must insist that the president undergo a rigorous neuropsychiatric examination and share the results with Congress. We can't continue to ignore this. This man has the power to launch 3.700 nuclear weapons.
Reposted by Bob Estes
Pretty much no limit to what we should fear might happen. Must not let it.
Mass Murder Humor at Republican Bash
Just some straight up Holocaust denial at Charlie & Erika Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, whose mission is to radicalize college students.
(The shirt parrots a Nick Fuentes statement that it’d be impossible for Cookie Monster to bake 6 million cookies in an oven.)
(The shirt parrots a Nick Fuentes statement that it’d be impossible for Cookie Monster to bake 6 million cookies in an oven.)
December 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Pretty much no limit to what we should fear might happen. Must not let it.
OK, reality is that I'll probably never even get a submission in, though I had 3 poems I was a little hopeful about all ready to go. I'd set my phone alarm for 6:55 to be safe for the 7 pm opening. Guess alarm went off without my registering what it was for, being distracted by human interactions.
this is open again in ~30 minutes (7pm ET), for another 150 submissions (if you submitted this morning, please leave this for others, thx!)
havehashad.submittable.com/submit/34430...
havehashad.submittable.com/submit/34430...
crow & aaron doing a last call of the year.
open right NOW, for 150 submissions... and then again this evening for another 150. (please only submit to one.)
especially looking for stuff about the holidays and/or "endings"
all genre
500 word max
havehashad.submittable.com/submit/34430...
open right NOW, for 150 submissions... and then again this evening for another 150. (please only submit to one.)
especially looking for stuff about the holidays and/or "endings"
all genre
500 word max
havehashad.submittable.com/submit/34430...
December 19, 2025 at 12:51 AM
OK, reality is that I'll probably never even get a submission in, though I had 3 poems I was a little hopeful about all ready to go. I'd set my phone alarm for 6:55 to be safe for the 7 pm opening. Guess alarm went off without my registering what it was for, being distracted by human interactions.
She’s growing on me.
[email protected] : Do you think you could beat JD Vance in a head-to-head race for president, as polling suggests?
AOC: I would stomp him.
AOC: I would stomp him.
December 18, 2025 at 1:52 AM
She’s growing on me.
As usual, Hil and I went to the every-Wednesday vigil outside ICE HQ & illegal detention center in Burlington, MA today. 1st time expecting a pro-ICE “counter demo.” After an hour or so 4 showed up with big pro-ICE & Trump-Vance portrait flags, clearly professionally made.
December 17, 2025 at 11:49 PM
As usual, Hil and I went to the every-Wednesday vigil outside ICE HQ & illegal detention center in Burlington, MA today. 1st time expecting a pro-ICE “counter demo.” After an hour or so 4 showed up with big pro-ICE & Trump-Vance portrait flags, clearly professionally made.
Pass the cheese!
Supportive evidence: a dose-response relationship; the more high-fat cheese intake, the more reduction of Alzheimer's and all-cause dementia (reminder correlation, not causation)
December 17, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Pass the cheese!
Reposted by Bob Estes
"The only kind of thinking that matters in science is structured thinking. The only way to give structure and substance to your thoughts is to write them down. Writing. Is. Thinking."
Thinking about this in the context of AI tools....
Thinking about this in the context of AI tools....
An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write - Nature Biotechnology
Nature Biotechnology - An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write
www.nature.com
March 25, 2025 at 2:46 PM
"The only kind of thinking that matters in science is structured thinking. The only way to give structure and substance to your thoughts is to write them down. Writing. Is. Thinking."
Thinking about this in the context of AI tools....
Thinking about this in the context of AI tools....
Reposted by Bob Estes
Do not forget that the endgame of authoritarian regimes is to no longer need popular approval.
Trump’s Wager and the Authoritarian Shift
Is Trump getting weaker, or is the authoritarian danger increasing? Yes.
lnk.thebulwark.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Do not forget that the endgame of authoritarian regimes is to no longer need popular approval.
Nice Popeye quote!
Pro-wrestling legend Mick Foley announced this morning that he's parting ways with WWE over the organization's "close relationship with Donald Trump," saying the president's "incredibly cruel comments in the wake of Rob Reiner’s death is the final straw for me."
December 17, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Nice Popeye quote!