Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
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pearlbear.com
Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
@pearlbear.com
Black, Trans, Queer, multi-genre writer. Ph.D. Neuroscience. MFA student Antioch University. Cazadero, CA & Seattle, WA

https://maxwellpearl.com
https://overlappingmagisteria.com
Pinned
A 🧵on my books, in order:

The Casitian Universe Omnibus
📚 3 Novels
👽Good aliens
🌈Queer characters
💖Love stories
🌼Optimistic
🚀Space travel (a little)
🪐Planet colonization
⚠️ Culture clash
Soon to be out in paper!

author.maxwellpearl.com/pages/the-ca...
I love this rubric for figuring out AI slop from the real stuff. I mean I could go on for fucking *hours* about the motivations of a *minor* character, or a specific world-building choice, let alone what my major character's flaws and foibles are.
Seems more promising than "there was an em dash it must be fake!"

And yeah, I might not be able to remember every detail about the stuff I've written, owing to my moth-brained memory, but you risk me launching into a loving 6 hour presentation if you ask me questions about a scene or character.
December 4, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Wow, for once the scanning machines at SFO didn't throw a "gender error," and I got through without a pat-down!
December 4, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"
December 2, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Let's just go ahead and pick *all* of the worst things SF dystopian fiction has to offer and put it in the same fucking timeline.
New acting director of CDC Jim O'Neill expressed being pro paid organ donation.

"There are plenty of healthy spare kidneys walking around, unused."
December 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I knew this. Nice to have confirmation.
@pearlbear.com has swears! They've used 42 profanities in their last 675 posts.

🥇 "fuck" (12 times)
🥈 "fucking" (9 times)
🥉 "shit" (5 times)
November 29, 2025 at 6:06 PM
November 29, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Ha ha! First comment!
"spaff on me minge"
November 29, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
The guy shot two random people with a gun, I don't think you can say he wasn't assimilating into our culture
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
And now AI slop is taking a serious bite out of SocArXiv.

Thread:
In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps:
/1
November 27, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
Holy shit

6 x 7 is 42
Seen on Reddit:

"42 is just old people 6 7"

And... well... yeah. Can't really argue.
November 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen.

David Bowie
Bruce Cockburn
Tracy Chapman
Sarah Vaughn
Bobbie McFerrin
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen.

Steeleye Span
Spirit of the West
Sex Pistols
Billy Bragg
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen.

The Prodigy
Rammstein
Madness
Nickelback
Electric Six
November 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Ah, yes, it's the executives that make their $ by exploiting workers and paying them shit that say that "work-life balance isn't realistic."
November 27, 2025 at 7:23 PM
When I was a scientist, it was *really hard* to get a paper published in Nature - I didn't even try, I mostly published in "lesser" journals (like the Journal of Neuroscience). The fact that this paper was published by Nature is just mind blowingly bad. Why even bother anymore? What's the point?
"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
November 27, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
I am a little tired of being yelled at for this but apparently not tired about: heroin addiction is not RFK’s problem. He’s a sociopath. Most addicts aren’t. Honestly, walk into an NA meeting, grab the first person with a few years to be head of HHS and they’d probably do a better job than Bobby.
This is what happens when you put a privileged, 14 year heroin addict in charge of health. Duh
November 27, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
somehow it's "hoarding" when I keep my old tech as long as possible and resent forced obsolescence

but not "hoarding" when billionaires and tech companies suck up all the money and burn though the planet in search of endless growth
stupid young people, stop buying a new phone every year if you don't want to be broke. wait no, not like that.
November 26, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
Starting January 1st, California will mandate that any use of AI-altered real estate photos in listings be disclosed, and that a link to the unaltered image be included.

It will be a criminal offense to fail to make this disclosure.
November 25, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
If you're planning on shopping during black Friday or cyber Monday, why not consider supporting artists, writers, creators? Buy a book, purchase an indie video game, commission an art piece, gift someone a Patreon. Your support means everything.
November 24, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
Breaking: Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old
Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died
Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old.
www.whatimreading.net
November 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
We need it. Not only are the classes full, but also concert halls, libraries - we've gone to a bunch of classical concerts this year as an antidote to despair and guess what - they are full. They were not as full before, but they are now.

"Humanities are shrinking" is artificially imposed top down.
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
Wish this was true!
The great thing about Bluesky is, everyone else is also exactly 40 years old
November 23, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
NEWS: Libraries WIN in federal court!

A judge in RI issued a permanent injunction stopping the Administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum & Library Services and nullifying all actions taken to do so.

Read the ruling: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... (More to come from ALA)
November 21, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Max Pearl 🏳️‍⚧️
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM