JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
@rantingnerd.bsky.social
He/him
Former physicist, current Google SRE (opinions my own)
https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org member, https://www.haverford.edu grad
Also https://hachyderm.io/@rantingnerd
Blog: https://rantingnerd.blogspot.com
I am not my cousin's keeper.
Former physicist, current Google SRE (opinions my own)
https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org member, https://www.haverford.edu grad
Also https://hachyderm.io/@rantingnerd
Blog: https://rantingnerd.blogspot.com
I am not my cousin's keeper.
Pinned
NO KINGS
NO SLAVERS
NO NAZIS
NO EXCEPTIONS
NO SLAVERS
NO NAZIS
NO EXCEPTIONS
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
12YO girl signed up to do “stand up comedy” at the talent show. 13YO boy decided to heckle her. Teacher started to tell the boy to leave her alone, but the 12YO comedian said “no, no, let him go, this is the closest he’s ever going to get to having a conversation with a girl.”
What's an insult you'll never forget?
December 26, 2025 at 4:43 PM
12YO girl signed up to do “stand up comedy” at the talent show. 13YO boy decided to heckle her. Teacher started to tell the boy to leave her alone, but the 12YO comedian said “no, no, let him go, this is the closest he’s ever going to get to having a conversation with a girl.”
Attn @straczynski.bsky.social you've been invoked: www.gocomics.com/overthehedge...
Over the Hedge by Michael Fry & T Lewis for December 19, 2025 | GoComics
Read Over the Hedge—a comic strip by creator Michael Fry & T Lewis—for today, December 19, 2025, and check out other great comics, too!
www.gocomics.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Attn @straczynski.bsky.social you've been invoked: www.gocomics.com/overthehedge...
"So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects." - Murderbot
bsky.app/profile/murd...
bsky.app/profile/murd...
techbros: we have created AGI
cognitive scientists: you fucked up a perfectly good spreadsheet is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
cognitive scientists: you fucked up a perfectly good spreadsheet is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
December 18, 2025 at 12:20 PM
"So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects." - Murderbot
bsky.app/profile/murd...
bsky.app/profile/murd...
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
techbros: we have created AGI
cognitive scientists: you fucked up a perfectly good spreadsheet is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
cognitive scientists: you fucked up a perfectly good spreadsheet is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
November 28, 2025 at 9:52 AM
techbros: we have created AGI
cognitive scientists: you fucked up a perfectly good spreadsheet is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
cognitive scientists: you fucked up a perfectly good spreadsheet is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
I'm honestly wondering whether there would be a market for _Anathem_-style "mathic world" universities where you go in and close the gate for a year or ten years.
anathem.fandom.com/wiki/Mathic_...
anathem.fandom.com/wiki/Mathic_...
Computer Science departments in particular need to go all Bulterian Jihad on this shit. Any which doesn't risks imploding.
Predicting that some universities will soon pledge to provide AI-free instruction, and that this will be an advantage in recruiting and training top students
December 14, 2025 at 11:52 PM
I'm honestly wondering whether there would be a market for _Anathem_-style "mathic world" universities where you go in and close the gate for a year or ten years.
anathem.fandom.com/wiki/Mathic_...
anathem.fandom.com/wiki/Mathic_...
Succinct and damning analysis of Trump 47 Administration:
the united states is currently being led by a bunch of little david dukes with a senescent outer-borough grand dragon at the top
Trump’s foreign policy isn’t “noninterventionism,” it is a kind of neo neo conservatism devoted to imposing authoritarian ethnonationalism abroad instead of democracy (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 11, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Succinct and damning analysis of Trump 47 Administration:
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
Showed this to my older child. The response:
“This works for art and music too. AI can’t produce anything great because it will never have imposter syndrome.”
“This works for art and music too. AI can’t produce anything great because it will never have imposter syndrome.”
One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential
December 9, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Showed this to my older child. The response:
“This works for art and music too. AI can’t produce anything great because it will never have imposter syndrome.”
“This works for art and music too. AI can’t produce anything great because it will never have imposter syndrome.”
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
One theory I have is that competence, self-control, responsibility, and expertise have all been feminized, leaving “masculinity” with the realm of impulsivity and petulance. So the divide is not really between “femininity” and “masculinity” so much as between adulthood and childishness.
Everything else aside, the idea that this is a model for many men of *masculinity* is so wild. This? This is "manly"? This is how people think it's cool to act?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-wG...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-wG...
Dave Portnoy Demands NFL Investigate Pete Carroll & Raiders For Rigging
YouTube video by Clasher Sports
www.youtube.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
One theory I have is that competence, self-control, responsibility, and expertise have all been feminized, leaving “masculinity” with the realm of impulsivity and petulance. So the divide is not really between “femininity” and “masculinity” so much as between adulthood and childishness.
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.
December 8, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.
Finally got a chance to watch this. Super well done, lots of meaty background. Nuke the filibuster from orbit, it's the only way to be safe!
made a video on the filibuster — its history and why it's bad — for my youtube channel. check it out!
What's the deal with the filibuster?
YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie
www.youtube.com
December 7, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Finally got a chance to watch this. Super well done, lots of meaty background. Nuke the filibuster from orbit, it's the only way to be safe!
It's quite astonishing how much migration there's been through Europe, including the British Isles. (It's right there in "Anglo-Saxon"! Angles and Saxons were separate tribes who migrated and then mingled!)
This position is fundamentally segregationist—civilization is "erased" by the presence of people who do not share the ethnic background of the present majority—something ironically at odds with the history of Europe, which has been profoundly shaped by migration bsky.app/profile/matt...
All this hate for migrants when nothing transforms a culture more than capital. No amount of immigrants will ever change America, the capitol of capital, more than America transforms immigrants into American businesspeople, citizens of money.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/w...
December 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
It's quite astonishing how much migration there's been through Europe, including the British Isles. (It's right there in "Anglo-Saxon"! Angles and Saxons were separate tribes who migrated and then mingled!)
Given that the 14th Amendment was a foundation piece of finding the New Deal constitutional, it has been a clear target of the billionaires/oligarchs for 90 years. For those folks, the destruction of the rest of it is just gravy.
They’ve nullified the 14th amendment once already, they don’t care what the constitution says, only what their political allies want it to say
December 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Given that the 14th Amendment was a foundation piece of finding the New Deal constitutional, it has been a clear target of the billionaires/oligarchs for 90 years. For those folks, the destruction of the rest of it is just gravy.
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
is it good when your product becomes hip slang for “bullshit”
September 24, 2025 at 6:09 PM
is it good when your product becomes hip slang for “bullshit”
If imposter syndrome was more contagious I feel like we’d be in a better place
November 29, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
The reality, of course, is that Miller and a significant portion of Trump’s base are the ones who failed to assimilate to America’s post-WWII culture of multi-racial democracy & religious pluralism…and they are now using their power to destroy that once dominant (and still popular) American 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 1:23 PM
The reality, of course, is that Miller and a significant portion of Trump’s base are the ones who failed to assimilate to America’s post-WWII culture of multi-racial democracy & religious pluralism…and they are now using their power to destroy that once dominant (and still popular) American culture.
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
How Republicans commemorated Thanksgiving in 1869--with a multi-racial/multi-ethnic gathering of people at a table with a centerpiece celebrating universal suffrage and self-government, and with an engraving of Castle Garden, the pre-Ellis Island point of disembarkation for immigrants.
November 27, 2025 at 6:01 PM
How Republicans commemorated Thanksgiving in 1869--with a multi-racial/multi-ethnic gathering of people at a table with a centerpiece celebrating universal suffrage and self-government, and with an engraving of Castle Garden, the pre-Ellis Island point of disembarkation for immigrants.
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
Q: Why did Donald Trump bury Ivana on one of his golf courses?
A: So he could still cheat on her.
A: So he could still cheat on her.
November 26, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Q: Why did Donald Trump bury Ivana on one of his golf courses?
A: So he could still cheat on her.
A: So he could still cheat on her.
This is really good and really important.
New blog post. :) Short version: "We are on the cusp of an age of unreality, and the danger it poses to us, and to the planet we inhabit, is enormous."
theodoragoss.com/2025/11/23/t...
theodoragoss.com/2025/11/23/t...
The Real and the Unreal: A Manifesto
When I was in college, the task of the researcher was to find information. When I was in graduate school, it was to sort through information. This spring, when my students arrive at the university,…
theodoragoss.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:33 AM
This is really good and really important.
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
Someone is going to have the write the thing about how “vibe” has become a substitute for meaningful theory in a world where the theory is so clear — grift and power — but we collectively refuse if because it isn’t sophisticated enough to generate make work for empiricists.
November 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Someone is going to have the write the thing about how “vibe” has become a substitute for meaningful theory in a world where the theory is so clear — grift and power — but we collectively refuse if because it isn’t sophisticated enough to generate make work for empiricists.
"Learn emotional regulation or leave me alone."
Now *that* is a motto.
Now *that* is a motto.
At my big age — and with my life decently- enough lived — I’m simply not taking even the tiniest slights anymore.
Learn emotional regulation or leave me alone.
Learn emotional regulation or leave me alone.
November 21, 2025 at 1:34 PM
"Learn emotional regulation or leave me alone."
Now *that* is a motto.
Now *that* is a motto.
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
I resent spending my time rooting around user interfaces to turn off the AI. I should track these as billable hours and invoice Sam Altman. Wasting my time in a way slaveholders could have only dreamed of owning my labor.
November 16, 2025 at 6:05 PM
I resent spending my time rooting around user interfaces to turn off the AI. I should track these as billable hours and invoice Sam Altman. Wasting my time in a way slaveholders could have only dreamed of owning my labor.
And this is why Buttigieg frustrates the hell out of me. (He also is pro means-testing, which is basically "throw out FDR".)
This is a straightforward Republican attack line, what the fuck is he doing
November 16, 2025 at 2:35 PM
And this is why Buttigieg frustrates the hell out of me. (He also is pro means-testing, which is basically "throw out FDR".)
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
i think a good example of Propaganda Works is the number of you who think that the national Democratic Party spent the years 2013 to 2020 denouncing Americans for insufficient Tumblr-speak
November 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
i think a good example of Propaganda Works is the number of you who think that the national Democratic Party spent the years 2013 to 2020 denouncing Americans for insufficient Tumblr-speak
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
Give a man a fish and someone with a thousand fishes is going to bitch about people getting free handouts. Teach a man to fish? Yeah, that person with a thousand fishes is going to bitch about that too.
November 14, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Give a man a fish and someone with a thousand fishes is going to bitch about people getting free handouts. Teach a man to fish? Yeah, that person with a thousand fishes is going to bitch about that too.
Reposted by JD (not that one) Paul (not that one)
The crisis of elite impunity that is ruining our society cannot be more clearly or convincingly demonstrated than with the fact that all of these people wrote all this stuff into an email and hit Send.
November 12, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The crisis of elite impunity that is ruining our society cannot be more clearly or convincingly demonstrated than with the fact that all of these people wrote all this stuff into an email and hit Send.