Pyperkub
LightNews LightNews
pyperkub.bsky.social
Pyperkub
@pyperkub.bsky.social
650 followers 330 following 8.6K posts
University Sysadmin, UCLA Alum, Science/Space geek, Fantasy/SF Fan, College Sports (especially Bruins!) fan.
Posts Replies Media Videos
pyperkub.bsky.social
Psst, they won't. 98% will likely go to owners of Large Farms. storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/49a7...
Snip from article showing 42% of US Agriculture is run by folks with over 5,000 acres and only 2% by family farms on under 100 acres
December 9, 2025 at 1:24 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
A gray and wintery day on the SF Bay Trail, but still good to get a ride in
View of the wetlands bordering the SF Bay Trail on a cold gray day. Pyperkubbike ride on the Bay Trail on a cold gray day.
December 7, 2025 at 12:59 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Cory Doctorow published his SF Writer's speech on it today - pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
snip from article: From now on, we're going to get an instantaneous second opinion from the AI, and if the AI thinks you've missed a tumor, we want you to go back and have another look, even if that means you're only processing 98 x-rays per day. That's fine, we just care about finding all those tumors." If that's what they said, I'd be delighted. But no one is investing hundreds of billions in AI companies because they think AI will make radiology more expensive, not even if it that also makes radiology more accurate. The market's bet on AI is that an AI salesman will visit the CEO of Kaiser and make this pitch: "Look, you fire 9/10s of your radiologists, saving $20m/year, you give us $10m/year, and you net $10m/year, and the remaining radiologists' job will be to oversee the diagnoses the AI makes at superhuman speed, and somehow remain vigilant as they do so, despite the fact that the AI is usually right, except when it's catastrophically wrong. "And if the AI misses a tumor, this will be the human radiologist's fault, because they are the 'human in the loop.' It's their signature on the diagnosis." This is a reverse centaur, and it's a specific kind of reverse-centaur: it's what Dan Davies calles an "accountability sink." The radiologist's job isn't really to oversee the AI's work, it's to take the blame for the AI's mistakes.
December 6, 2025 at 12:38 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Serious 1936 Olympics vibes here. Going to need an international Jesse Owens to step up.
Image of Nazis at the 1936 Olympics
December 5, 2025 at 8:26 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Some fascinating stuff in this article on toxicity in gaming, which wouldn't just apply to gaming, but more success seems to have been found with face to face games than online... www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/toxicit...
snip from article: Players with higher levels of impulsivity and narcissism as well as those who are motivated by destruction or frequently engage in competitive brackets were more likely to engage in hateful conduct than those with more positive personality traits and broader motivations for play. snip from article: The SkunkWorks folks tried to think differently about their gaming events. One example is the way they set up chess tournaments. Instead of the typical one-on-one approach, they established teams made up of one incarcerated person and one corrections officer or other prison staff member, such as a librarian. “Our chess event that we did with the officers was formulated from our previous research, and it was a first-of-its-kind competition,” Bannon says. “We learned that adding the component of collaboration between people who were normally on opposite sides from one another was a key to breaking down barriers.”
December 5, 2025 at 7:57 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
And this:
first edition top secret rpg box
December 5, 2025 at 1:19 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
And this:
First edition gamma world RPG cover
December 5, 2025 at 1:17 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Had this too:
Traveller box image allegedly first cover of first edition
December 5, 2025 at 1:16 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Yeah, this was mine - just a bit after the white box:
Image of the cover of the first D&D basic set
December 5, 2025 at 1:14 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Which needs to be followed 'up' with the Astley Paradox:
from @spunkyturnip: Nobody: What's your favorite paradox? Me: If you ask Rick Astley for his copy of the movie UP, he cannot give it to you as he will never give you up. However, in doing so, he lets you down. Thus creating the Astley Paradox.
December 4, 2025 at 7:22 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Since we did have some NIN for '89, I thought this would be a fun place to drop this! 🤣
thread from Ryan Atotharimaten O'Doud - parent post: "If you invert the lyrics to Rick Astley, you get Nine Inch Nails" Sub-post (same author): "I will give you up/I will let you down/I will run around and hurt you/I will tell you lies/I will say good bye/I will run around and desert you.
December 4, 2025 at 6:46 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Needs the important part tho - the google/apple (and assorted apps) duopoly of surveillance to be broken too:
snip from article: Phreeli doesn’t promise to be a surveillance panacea. Even if your cellular carrier isn’t tying your movements to your identity, the operating system of whatever phone you sign up with might be. Even your mobile apps can track you.
December 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Kitty Pryde vs Alien on Christmas was a great issue!
cover of X-Men 143, with Kitty Pryde being stalked by an Alien - Merry Christmas.... Guess what just came down the chimney!
December 4, 2025 at 1:51 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Capitalization is important, so sayeth the Tardis...
snip of google news headline "Doctor Who Gave Matthew Perry Ketamine Is Sentenced to 30 Months"
December 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Maybe this too?
Image of Spock screming, with the text: ROOOOXAAANNNEEEE...!!
December 4, 2025 at 12:05 AM
pyperkub.bsky.social
As Page and Brin predicted while at Stanford:
tweet from ghorwood: google not for whom the bell tolls, for all you will get is ads for whom the bell tolls near me
December 3, 2025 at 11:54 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
For the bibliophiles like me! #BookSky
read-and-be-merry post - List of books to read before you die 1. Any book you want 2. Don't read books you don't want to read 3. That's it 4. Congratulations you did it iammewhooaryou comment - I really like this list. All my favorite books are on it. replay from read-and-be-merry - Thanks I worked really hard on it
December 3, 2025 at 11:35 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Hmm, the classic does appear to apply...
Poster for the movie "A Bridge too Far"
December 3, 2025 at 9:47 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
In honor of Stranger Things S5 and the Kids on Bikes with Walkie-Talkies genre!
If the person who named walkie talkies named everything: Stamps - Lickie Stickie Defibrillators - Hearty Starty Bumble Bees - Fuzzy Buzzy Pregnancy Test - Maybe Baby Bra - Breastie Nestie Fork - Stabby Grabby Socks - Feetie Heatie Hippo - Floatie Boatie Nightmare - Screamy Dreamy
December 3, 2025 at 9:37 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
Loved the Greatcoats series, and the exploration of this conflict is a main reason why (on the other hand, in D&D and videogames, I do tend towards the 'Paladin' archetype, but in a justice sort of fashion):
snip from article: With Traitor’s Blade, I wanted to explore the struggle to keep alive an idealistic view of the law that is at odds with the very foundations of a feudal society. This meant recognizing that, while Falcio, Kest, and Brasti might be heroes to me, they wouldn’t be seen that way by the majority of the population in the world in which they live. Where the knights are admired and respected as military men in service to the will of the gods (which, miraculously, tends to align with the interests of the nobles who employ them), the Greatcoats are despised by the nobility and often reviled even by the peasantry who see them as having failed to bring the justice they promised.
December 3, 2025 at 6:35 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
More on the War on Christmas Tariffs - I went to get some beauty products for Mrs. Kub from one of her favorites - Rituals, but, this is their US storefront where ALL sales in the US are off because of tariffs:
Image of Rituals US page with a woman in a 'praying' yoga sitting position with text stating that all shipments to the US are paused due to Tariffs.
December 2, 2025 at 7:14 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
The key bit is to keep hammering upon how WEAK this really is. If you can't enforce the law without breaking the law, you are weak and incompetent, and the show of force is more weakness than strength. There is scientific evidence to this: arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Snip from article: The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.
December 2, 2025 at 7:01 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
#76 in NET rankings - we're a Quad 3 team. www.cbssports.com/college-bask...
Snip from article: UCLA (No. 76 in NET) -- Ranked No. 18 in last week's AP poll. A loss to Cal this week was its second loss of the season.
December 1, 2025 at 6:41 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
70 years ago today, Rosa chose to walk to work, and helped change the world. www.nps.gov/features/mal...
Snip of top of article of the Civil Rights Hall of Fame, showing Rosa Parks and telling a bit of her story, including the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott starting on December 1st, 1955
December 1, 2025 at 5:33 PM
pyperkub.bsky.social
As expected, when looking at the underlying report, the Trump Admin appears to have taken a step backwards (and that's not including the reversal on shuttering CISA by DOGE) www.fdd.org/wp-content/u...:
Snip of Pillar 1 chart re: Reforming the US Government Structure and Organization for Cyberspace, with the year 2025 highlighted showing how 5 of 11 entries are worse than 2024.
December 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM