The_Turtle_Moves
@theturtlemoves.bsky.social
Recovering quantitative economics practitioner (data scientist). Interested in things. Appreciate of physical objects and light. Failure modes fascinate and horrify.
Occasional woodworking and house projects.
Dog. Cat. Cute
Occasional woodworking and house projects.
Dog. Cat. Cute
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
"This story doesn't need a sandworm"
This is almost always wrong. Arguably, EVERY story benefits from adding a huge subterranean worm with quasi-mystical or semi-supernatural powers, or equivalent (similar to Moby Dick).
Obviously the bigger the worm, the more literary quality it adds.
This is almost always wrong. Arguably, EVERY story benefits from adding a huge subterranean worm with quasi-mystical or semi-supernatural powers, or equivalent (similar to Moby Dick).
Obviously the bigger the worm, the more literary quality it adds.
what is your least favorite piece of writing advice and why? 👀
December 23, 2025 at 6:28 PM
"This story doesn't need a sandworm"
This is almost always wrong. Arguably, EVERY story benefits from adding a huge subterranean worm with quasi-mystical or semi-supernatural powers, or equivalent (similar to Moby Dick).
Obviously the bigger the worm, the more literary quality it adds.
This is almost always wrong. Arguably, EVERY story benefits from adding a huge subterranean worm with quasi-mystical or semi-supernatural powers, or equivalent (similar to Moby Dick).
Obviously the bigger the worm, the more literary quality it adds.
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Over public dissents from Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch, #SCOTUS refuses to allow President Trump to deploy federalized National Guard troops into and around Chicago.
This is a major loss for President Trump, even if, per Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence, it’s temporary and on narrow legal Q:
This is a major loss for President Trump, even if, per Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence, it’s temporary and on narrow legal Q:
www.supremecourt.gov
December 23, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Over public dissents from Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch, #SCOTUS refuses to allow President Trump to deploy federalized National Guard troops into and around Chicago.
This is a major loss for President Trump, even if, per Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence, it’s temporary and on narrow legal Q:
This is a major loss for President Trump, even if, per Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence, it’s temporary and on narrow legal Q:
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
December 21, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
You know who isn’t in the Epstein Files and who doesn’t have to repeatedly redact and delete his name and photo from the Epstein Files? This actual orange leader.
MeanCat. The Leader We Deserve
MeanCat. The Leader We Deserve
December 20, 2025 at 11:13 PM
You know who isn’t in the Epstein Files and who doesn’t have to repeatedly redact and delete his name and photo from the Epstein Files? This actual orange leader.
MeanCat. The Leader We Deserve
MeanCat. The Leader We Deserve
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
I had been searching earlier for a map of this sort.
One cannot help but notice exactly none of these locations are particularly close to the continental United States, nor are most of them on any course that would ever become close.
Just murder for murder's sake.
One cannot help but notice exactly none of these locations are particularly close to the continental United States, nor are most of them on any course that would ever become close.
Just murder for murder's sake.
I'm not sure if people realize the murder strikes are taking place across a large region. It's quite staggering.
www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...
www.newsweek.com/map-us-strik...
December 16, 2025 at 7:20 PM
I had been searching earlier for a map of this sort.
One cannot help but notice exactly none of these locations are particularly close to the continental United States, nor are most of them on any course that would ever become close.
Just murder for murder's sake.
One cannot help but notice exactly none of these locations are particularly close to the continental United States, nor are most of them on any course that would ever become close.
Just murder for murder's sake.
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
![Comic. [Two people one one side of a pile of seven apples, next to person with long hair next to five apples.] PERSON: Okay, with my seven apples added to your five, we have… let’s se… twelve apples! PERSON 2 [with hands raised]: Incredible! Perfect agreement with the theory! [caption] Experimental Mathematicians](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreifgv5skm72kzcxgexs4hbpex45met5vxhb6kf2aqshmktmo37nl5a@jpeg)
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
I wrote about Yankee Swap, one of the most popular but most mid of the gloriously dumb games you should be playing this month.
open.substack.com/pub/mattglas...
open.substack.com/pub/mattglas...
The Game Theory of Yankee Swap
A deep dive into the most mid holiday party game
open.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:55 AM
I wrote about Yankee Swap, one of the most popular but most mid of the gloriously dumb games you should be playing this month.
open.substack.com/pub/mattglas...
open.substack.com/pub/mattglas...
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
As you may know, I have stopped using Twitter, and have decided to reproduce some of my more memorable threads here for posterity. Here’s one I hold wrote after a particularly engaging swordfighting lesson.
Buckle up, swordfighting fans, because I *have* studied my Agrippa!
[BIG ASS THREAD]
Buckle up, swordfighting fans, because I *have* studied my Agrippa!
[BIG ASS THREAD]
a man reading a book to a young boy
Alt: a man reading a book to a young boy
media.tenor.com
June 5, 2025 at 11:20 AM
As you may know, I have stopped using Twitter, and have decided to reproduce some of my more memorable threads here for posterity. Here’s one I hold wrote after a particularly engaging swordfighting lesson.
Buckle up, swordfighting fans, because I *have* studied my Agrippa!
[BIG ASS THREAD]
Buckle up, swordfighting fans, because I *have* studied my Agrippa!
[BIG ASS THREAD]
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Ain’t wrong
This one is a banger, too:
“So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude, three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.”
This one is a banger, too:
“So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude, three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.”
"As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free," goes harder than any Civil War song has any right to go.
December 9, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Ain’t wrong
This one is a banger, too:
“So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude, three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.”
This one is a banger, too:
“So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude, three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.”
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Again, the illegality of firing on shipwrecked mariners is so absurdly well established that it is used in the manual training material as the example of an order *so obviously illegal* that no further information would be required for a servicemember to be obligated to refuse it.
December 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Again, the illegality of firing on shipwrecked mariners is so absurdly well established that it is used in the manual training material as the example of an order *so obviously illegal* that no further information would be required for a servicemember to be obligated to refuse it.
Oh look, the pirates know that you're supposed to rescue survivors, not murder them. Hegseth could hold survivors of his illegal strikes for ransom, that's practically due-process-adjacent! And then he'd only be as bad as the Houthis!
search.app/1VEVm
(Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek)
search.app/1VEVm
(Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek)
Houthis release crew of Greek-operated cargo ship struck in Red Sea
The crew of the Greek-operated cargo ship Eternity C, which sank in the Red Sea in July after being attacked by Yemen's Houthis, have been released, an official with the ship's operator and a maritime...
search.app
December 7, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Oh look, the pirates know that you're supposed to rescue survivors, not murder them. Hegseth could hold survivors of his illegal strikes for ransom, that's practically due-process-adjacent! And then he'd only be as bad as the Houthis!
search.app/1VEVm
(Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek)
search.app/1VEVm
(Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek)
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Thing is, Cotton served, so I think he knows this and just doesn't care.
I will say, the fact that these guys aren't combatants already and their boat is just a boat. With no weapons. It becomes tricky to figure out when they're hors de combat when they were never, uh, de combat in the first place.
I will say, the fact that these guys aren't combatants already and their boat is just a boat. With no weapons. It becomes tricky to figure out when they're hors de combat when they were never, uh, de combat in the first place.
December 4, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Thing is, Cotton served, so I think he knows this and just doesn't care.
I will say, the fact that these guys aren't combatants already and their boat is just a boat. With no weapons. It becomes tricky to figure out when they're hors de combat when they were never, uh, de combat in the first place.
I will say, the fact that these guys aren't combatants already and their boat is just a boat. With no weapons. It becomes tricky to figure out when they're hors de combat when they were never, uh, de combat in the first place.
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
File under "charts that need no explanatory context to make the story clear" wapo.st/4iC8oCR
December 4, 2025 at 1:23 PM
File under "charts that need no explanatory context to make the story clear" wapo.st/4iC8oCR
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lol yes when you tell Europe to rearm, this is what happens, you absolute muppets
Can’t wait for the hand wringing that happens when they rediscover stupid nationalistic tendencies and get another arms race going followed by a fucking massive war
Which was all preventable
Can’t wait for the hand wringing that happens when they rediscover stupid nationalistic tendencies and get another arms race going followed by a fucking massive war
Which was all preventable
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau today slammed European NATO allies for prioritizing their own defense industry over American arms suppliers, according to three NATO diplomats.
Top US official berates Europe over cutting American industry out of defense buildup
Washington is unhappy that some European arms programs limit U.S. participation.
www.politico.eu
December 4, 2025 at 3:51 PM
lol yes when you tell Europe to rearm, this is what happens, you absolute muppets
Can’t wait for the hand wringing that happens when they rediscover stupid nationalistic tendencies and get another arms race going followed by a fucking massive war
Which was all preventable
Can’t wait for the hand wringing that happens when they rediscover stupid nationalistic tendencies and get another arms race going followed by a fucking massive war
Which was all preventable
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
DOD IG report on Signalgate, which notes that investigators had to rely in part on the transcript that we posted, because messages on Hegseth's cell phone had auto-deleted. media.defense.gov/2025/Dec/04/...
media.defense.gov
December 4, 2025 at 4:14 PM
DOD IG report on Signalgate, which notes that investigators had to rely in part on the transcript that we posted, because messages on Hegseth's cell phone had auto-deleted. media.defense.gov/2025/Dec/04/...
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Pls also note that FBI HQ is reportedly demanding that an investigation of the most aggressive and invasive type be opened into members of congress (including senators), less than a month after GOP senators threw a hissy fit over the FBI looking at their phone metadata during the Jan 6 investigation
December 4, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Pls also note that FBI HQ is reportedly demanding that an investigation of the most aggressive and invasive type be opened into members of congress (including senators), less than a month after GOP senators threw a hissy fit over the FBI looking at their phone metadata during the Jan 6 investigation
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
I’m just a foreign policy wonk, standing in front of the GOP, asking them to read at least one fucking book about the history of US interventions in Latin America. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
December 3, 2025 at 10:15 PM
I’m just a foreign policy wonk, standing in front of the GOP, asking them to read at least one fucking book about the history of US interventions in Latin America. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Everybody else: double tapping the survivors is a crime
@lawfaremedia.org: attacking civilian boats at all is a crime
@lawfaremedia.org: attacking civilian boats at all is a crime
The airstrikes conducted by the Trump administration on alleged drug boats boats are likely against international law. Gabor Rona examines how unlawful policies of previous post-9/11 administrations laid the groundwork for the current admin’s legal overreach.
Venezuelan Boat Attacks: Utterly Unprecedented and Patently Predictable
The unlawful policies and practices of the previous post-9/11 administrations laid the foundation for the Trump administration’s current legal overreach.
lawfaremedia.org
December 3, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Everybody else: double tapping the survivors is a crime
@lawfaremedia.org: attacking civilian boats at all is a crime
@lawfaremedia.org: attacking civilian boats at all is a crime
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
I believe the adage is that: if a test is open book, the book won't help you; if a test has no time limit, time will not help you; and if a test is take-home then you will forget where you live.
December 2, 2025 at 9:49 PM
I believe the adage is that: if a test is open book, the book won't help you; if a test has no time limit, time will not help you; and if a test is take-home then you will forget where you live.
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Every day I get angrier abt that wretched Harper’s Letter, and the broader feckless, bothsider-poisoned media environment that treated it as legit.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?
December 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Every day I get angrier abt that wretched Harper’s Letter, and the broader feckless, bothsider-poisoned media environment that treated it as legit.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
I’m profoundly disappointed in the left-leaning types who gave reputational cover to a nakedly bad-faith doc.
And furious at the on-going silence.
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Former US military lawyers speak out:
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
November 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Former US military lawyers speak out:
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
Happy Victory for US Arms and Down With Treasonous Slavers Day!
Uncomfortable with the First Thanksgiving Narrative? Good News, it’s Actually a Civil War Holiday
Take heart, all you who grow unsettled at the time of year where the narrative of friendly Pilgrims and American Indians is spread around to make us feel good about a brief moment in American histo…
angrystaffofficer.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Happy Victory for US Arms and Down With Treasonous Slavers Day!
This is nice! Moreover, it's old nice, a reminder that we've known what nice looked like for a long time.
crookedtimber.org/2025/11/27/o...
crookedtimber.org/2025/11/27/o...
Occasional artwork: Because It’s The Dream — Crooked Timber
crookedtimber.org
November 27, 2025 at 4:10 PM
This is nice! Moreover, it's old nice, a reminder that we've known what nice looked like for a long time.
crookedtimber.org/2025/11/27/o...
crookedtimber.org/2025/11/27/o...
Reposted by The_Turtle_Moves
LLMs make it much more difficult than in the past to distinguish sincere hard effort from automated boilerplate, so that it is harder to tell a sincere boss committed to helping you work better from one who is lazy and couldn't care less about you. There are similar dynamics for other situations.
November 25, 2025 at 11:18 PM
LLMs make it much more difficult than in the past to distinguish sincere hard effort from automated boilerplate, so that it is harder to tell a sincere boss committed to helping you work better from one who is lazy and couldn't care less about you. There are similar dynamics for other situations.