Joel
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polyparadigm.bsky.social
Joel
@polyparadigm.bsky.social
2.5K followers 1.5K following 15K posts
Materials scientist:some range and depth, interested in making arcane topics a little more accessible.
Prior place photo was from the aughts; figured I should update.
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polyparadigm.bsky.social
Huh

Ok
Screenshot of a Wikipedia article about the Benjamin Harrison administration, showing who he chose for his secretaries of state, treasury, etc.
January 20, 2026 at 4:08 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Just imagine the speech balloon
Samson pushing over the pillars of a temple for one last victory
January 20, 2026 at 2:06 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Time’s illustration of how illegal and stupid his military strategy has become is absolutely brutal
Trump “playing chess” but he’s chosen to play all kings as though this doesn’t make him abysmally vulnerable His opponent has all pawns and therefore cannot be placed into checkmate He has responded by moving the queen of a third player, whose pieces are gold; gold also can’t lose
January 19, 2026 at 3:14 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
There has been the occasional modest proposal, yes
Poster for Sealab 2021, an animated show about a research facility on the ocean floor not staffed by serious people and generally cynical and snide in tone but every episode ends with the facility being destroyed, so there was some realism to it
January 19, 2026 at 7:36 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
“legal” as a category of person
Still from Inglorious Basterds where a secret agent saboteur is trying to pose as a German and his accent is passable but he counts on his fingers beginning from his index finger like an anglophone type rather than starting from his thumb like the nationality he’s trying to pretend to be. A Nazi officer is in frame noticing this and looking smug and uncomfortable; he’s about to explain shibboleths to the character who has just stumbled into one, and a firefight will ensue Except in this case writing within the conceptual frame that some persons are “illegal” is a sign that one supports Miller’s pogroms and is trying to undermine effective measures against secret police kidnappings, rather than being a leftist commentator
January 19, 2026 at 4:25 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Stone Soup protagonist looking on like
Dude looking disappointed and frustrated, hands on hips with a gentle frown and eyebrows pressed slightly toward one another He seems to be a sports spectator; two people in the crowd behind him are wearing shirts with small Pakistani flags printed on them in maybe an A6 sized grid pattern He’s in a mostly red tartan flannel shirt with white and some blue in the pattern, and puffy navy blue vest
January 18, 2026 at 11:07 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Absolutely perfect
Red Meat, a comic by Max Cannon in which Milkman Dan is a recurring character. This is “pecking order puncture wounds” from 2021 Karen (a young child): I hate this, Milkman Dan. All the other kids tease me because I'm the smallest kid in the third grade. Dan: Gosh...that's a tough one for me, little lady. You see, I was always among the biggest, and I fondly recall how much enjoyment I got out of picking on the shrimpy kids. So, surely you can understand that I'm psychologically torn between offering words of comfort and maintaining my dominant rank in the social hierarchy. Tell you what... how about I let you off easy this time with a mild 'Indian Burn?'
January 15, 2026 at 2:45 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Still from Heavy Metal: damsel in distress pleads for help from air-taxi driver Still from Heavy Metal: fighting chick in a bandage dress confronts antagonist wearing a futuristic business suit and partial helmet from which a shock of hair flops over
January 13, 2026 at 2:52 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Not if you can find a citation:
From the Wikipedia article: This hypothesis was originally put forward by comic book and TV writer Dwayne McDuffie in a 2002 blog post titled Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere, [81[91 as a reductio ad absurdum argument against making strong statements about fictional continuity based upon guest appearances. [citation needed]
January 10, 2026 at 10:07 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
At least we’ll all be billionaires first, maybe even trillionaires
Black & white photo of a gentleman pushing a cart full of fat stacks of banknotes, and looking grumpy about it because the currency has been hyperinflated and ridiculously large amounts of paper are now worth tiny amounts of value, which means he not only has to deal with huge weights when carrying out transactions, he also loses a lot to devaluation in the time he holds that money
January 9, 2026 at 2:01 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
For some reason, the thought of escalation for its own sake brought this to mind.

I continue to hope people make wise and safe decisions (rather than what is pictured), fwiw.
Cartoon character at the top of the Springfield escalator to nowhere: many stories in the air, placidly standing at a precipice he is being moved toward by the mechanism he standing on Cropped image from The Simpsons: "Marge vs. the Monorail" Season 4 / Episode 12 (22:06)
January 7, 2026 at 8:44 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
“we do not set fire to batteries when we use them”

Tesla engineers rn
Kento, monkey puppet from the children's series Ōkiku naru Ko, faces stage right with his head and body but looks awkwardly over his shoulder and then pointedly turns his attention back in the direction he is walking as though meekly trying to evade awareness
January 7, 2026 at 4:42 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Well, this is…uh
Merriam Webster.gif screenshot reading: “Your 2026 Word: mortifying”
January 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
What's the last car you stopped to take a photo of?
Cute little Japanese fire truck, a similar format (possibly same chassis as?) many 4-wheel-drive RVs from that country Control panel on exterior side of said fire truck, reading “Tohatsu, Osaka”, with two pressure gauges, warning lights for fuel, oil, battery, pipe lock (?), and some flow schematics with LED indicators
January 4, 2026 at 7:54 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Perché non tutti e due?
Fried zucchini blossoms, traditionally battered in a flour-and-seltzer breading
January 2, 2026 at 8:34 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Got the actual recipe today:
Hand-written index card (adjustments in parentheses): Persimmon pudding 1 (1.5) cup pulp, hachiya persimmon pureed in food processor 3/4 (1+) cup sugar 1 (1.5) cup milk 1.5 (2.25) cup flour 1 (1.5) teaspoon baking soda 1/2 (3/4) teaspoon cinnamon (3/4 teaspoon allspice) 1 (1.5) teaspoon vanilla 1 (1.5) tablespoon margarine Steam in double boiler for 3 hours, will expand
December 24, 2025 at 9:20 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Entirely innocent, and also somewhat iconic
an-old-engraving-of-a-typical-centrifugal-governor-cut-off-valve-on-a-steam-engine-in-the-1800s-it-is-from-a-victorian-mechanical-engineering-book-of-the-1880s-this-centrifugal-regulator-or-fly-ball-governor-controls-the-speed-of-an-engine-by-regulating-the-flow-of-fuel-maintaining-a-constant-speed-as-the-engines-speed-increases-the-spindle-of-the-governor-top-left-rotates-faster-the-two-masses-on-lever-arms-to-move-outwards-and-upwards-against-gravity-if-this-goes-too-far-it-causes-the-lever-arms-to-pull-down-on-a-bearing-reducing-the-aperture-of-a-throttle-valve-bottom-right
December 22, 2025 at 10:57 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
People do still broadcast lawn seeds and pelletized chemicals, even if they use a little cart contraption to do so
Bucket on a stick with two wheels on a drive axle is pushed across a lawn by a person in jeans The bucket is red plastic with a white EarthWay e-z-spread logo; the stick has handles and a control lever linked to some adjustable mechanism The wheels are geared to take some energy from the operator’s pushing and apply it to spinning a little fluted disk at the bottom of the bucket, thereby throwing a coarse powder in about a six foot wide spray toward the front of it
December 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Reminds me of The Cell tbh
A horse seems to stand in an off-white room with a very heavy-duty dark iron track running along the ceiling directly above it, aligned with its spine and a wide red stripe in the otherwise gray floor A curio cabinet and some antique fluid handling equipment dot the edge of the room behind But there are many panes of glass passing through the horse, and there seems to be some green liquid surrounding the horse between those panes The panes are suspended from the track system; further viewing reveals that they are rigged to slide apart
December 22, 2025 at 7:16 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Commiphora goes “MYRRH”
Commiphora myrrha tree growing in the desert; a magus on his way from Persia might plausibly have an opportunity to gather some hardened sap from it on the way to Judea, if the bark had somehow been damaged a while prior, or if it were important to the narrative
December 21, 2025 at 4:23 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you’re using without explanation.
“Monopoly expansion” end cap display: bad retro art inspired by the old ripoff of The Landlord Game and riffing off its dismal anti-capitalist grind mechanic Orange one with a cop blowing a whistle: Go to Jail (turns out, crime does pay) Green one with a money bag: Buy Everything (now everything is for sale)
December 16, 2025 at 5:57 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Specifically, the gingerbread men all have ovaries, on account of being made from wheat seeds
Scientific line drawing of the anatomy of a wheat flower, showing anther and filament of the male parts, stigma and ovary of the female parts, and cross sections of palea, lemma, glume, etc.
December 9, 2025 at 3:29 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
Have you heard about the Hansen Ball (famous from the 90s Dracula movie)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansen_...
Steampunk-looking brass contraption with paper on a half-cylinder underneath a metal dome bristling with artfully engraved letter and number keys, with myriad knurled adjustment affordances of the sort one might find on Victorian optics equipment Looks like a film studio’s props department was given a comfy budget and a brief of “impractical gothic typewriter” But it’s a legit early commercial typewriter
December 7, 2025 at 6:39 PM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
That was a good episode, but not genre bending like the song cover or the Thor crossover comic elsewhere in this thread
Mr. Rogers and Officer Clemons have their feet in a kiddie pool in a 1969 episode of Mr Rogers’s Neighborhood The foot washing part of it is probably a Bible reference but Fred Rogers insisted on casting a Black actor in this role, insisted on the characters being in a pool together It seems to me his purpose in doing so was to show viewers that John Brown and racial justice activists before and since are winning, to invite children to join this winning side, where one can have friends
December 7, 2025 at 6:42 AM
polyparadigm.bsky.social
“Every accusation is a confession” X “taqiyya” (misinterpreted)
Screen shot of Skeet thread by EAII @ealluia.bsky.social I think the thing that made the GOP go completely off the rails more than anything else was the adoption of instrumental lying as a matter of course. This happened as evangelical leadership took over GOP party machinery and brought with them their "lying for the Lord" apologetic culture. When people talk about Trump more as a symptom of Republican culture, I think this is one area in which this is correct. They built a political cultural in which a open pathological liar could thrive. Perhaps it's pollyannish of me, but I think it's a grave mistake for Dems to follow suit.
December 4, 2025 at 5:04 PM