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alexbutoffline.bsky.social

@alexbutoffline.bsky.social
290 followers 521 following 15 posts

Alex 33 He/Him

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"Trump has moved the ethical line" drives me crazy. It pretends there are no other actors with agency in 🇺🇸 politics or the media. You could have treated this as a nonstop five-alarm scandal & crisis for democracy. You didn't do that. You did for EMAIL & BIDEN OLD. Other choices were right there.
nytimes.com
An Outrage in 2019. No Problem in 2026. Trump Has Moved the Ethical Line.
The president’s decision to hold an international summit at his own private golf club, an idea rejected in his first term, illustrates how much he has shattered norms.
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GOLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 05/10/2026
i know some of you live in these states, go check your registration right now
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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 05/10/2026
This is the oldest sample of Hebrew text with European musical notation. It's an autograph manuscript of Obadiah the Proselyte, a Norman-Italian priest who converted to Judaism in 1102. He traveled to Egypt and Syria, using his knowledge of Gregorian Chant to record Hebrew poetry. @theul.bsky.social
Torn brown paper manuscript with about 20 red-ruled lines with sporadic musical notes and Hebrew text. The background is a blue and a yellow label reads T-S K5.41 (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-K-00005-00041/2).Torn brown paper manuscript with 6 lines of Hebrew text and musical notation. The background is blue and a yellow label reads T-S K5.41 (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-K-00005-00041/1)
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alexbutoffline.bsky.social @alexbutoffline.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Banished the demons of my failed butterscotch brownie attempts. (Don't ask me what went wrong the last two times I don't know and it crushed me) Childhood recipe!
Cut butterscotch browniesA pan of butterscotch brownies
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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Over at #Patreon, I've been discussing my latest #specevo #dinosaur piece for my upcoming book. Meet Thalassoraptor maximus: non-bird dinosaurs have finally made it into the oceans! About time, guys, sheesh. Lots more detail at www.patreon.com/markwitton/p....
Two large blue-black animals, looking like a cross between a bird and a sea-lion, perched on rocks lapped by gentle waves. White birds with blue bills sit and stretch nearby, wondering what the crazy motherhubbards next to them are all about.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/10/2026
it didn't even occur to me that the government might try to execute someone a second time if they torture the person but fail to kill them during a first botched attempt. truly grotesque and a moral stain upon all involved.
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disc horse bot @horsedisc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Most cultures in Portland, Oregon are transhumanist and politically correct
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Dark Laughter @darklaughtertdb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Between this and the Cultural Revolution rocket scientist gang war, I feel like it might be worth starting a list of all the cases where people have managed to turn art and science into Gangs of New York street fights.
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Thorne 🌸 - Play Cozysters! @ens0.me · 27/09/2026
This is why "deep state" took hold. It provided a convenient explanation for why everything is still somehow the liberals' fault. It doesn't matter that Republicans control everything, there are secret shadowy Democrats everywhere transing your children or whatever
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Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 27/09/2026
You don't have an inalienable right to be an antisocial dipshit because you're doomscrolling all day and it makes you feel terrible. There are no qualifiers to this. You are not released from the obligation to try to be decent just because Elon Musk is lighting the world on fire.
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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
2015-353 Enceladus Random IR-GRN-UV -- B - From Ian Regan - flic.kr/p/NSuAMK
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Thomas Jerome @thomasjerome.com · 24/09/2026
Naming the "Ableism" list so that a screen reader pronounces it "Four bee ell three one ess em", 10/10 bit
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
“It reminds us of our responsibility to protect human life and dignity.” Appreciate these intersections of archaeology and international law.
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Minor Spear Carrier @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Sometimes it be like that.
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A post that’s so eye-opening because this is exactly what liberals will say is GOP distraction tactics, almost as a parody— and here it really is what Gaetz is saying unironically as his GOP message.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/09/2026
whenever i hear some variation on "but what if trump does X or Y or Z" i think of this ulysses s. grant remark to a subordinate during the wilderness campaign.
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Museum of Twitter @museum-of-twitter.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
@Very__Regular

george lucas, 1975 (in tunisia, severely dehydrated, over budget) sure, yeah. put the little blue guy in the background. is alec still in his trailer

guy who gets mad for money on youtube, 2024: and now disney made Deebo Threebo green. that's how little respect they have for you
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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Water tower Friend, NE
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19/09/2026
i thought this was very funny
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Ed @ed3d.net · 17/09/2026
🪿🪿 WHAT MANDATE 🪿🪿
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Shoe-per Intelligence @shoe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Republican victories are getting closer and closer to Berlin.
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Stellbound: Stellraiser II @antlervel.vet · 24/08/2024
My brother is in a touring hardcore band and just arrived at his venue for today
[photo of a punk venue with Statler and Waldorf puppets in their own little nook]
TEXT: I cannot mess up any songs tonight
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Cristian Ramirez @cristianramirez.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Taylor doing the bit, but sincerely
Screen shot of a social media interaction. 
OP: Can't wait to gamble today. Literally shaking. That's called dedication.
7:29 AM • 30 Nov 22

Replying to @sloprules
That's called an addiction
8:56 AM • 30 Nov 22

OP: Buddy, I've been gambling everyday for 20+ years. It's all I think about and I still haven't gotten addicted so doubt it's happening.
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JessyMarston @jessymarston.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
How it feels recently
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Mike DODGERS is too cowardly to show up to debate me.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
We never punished the people who authorized torture and the last 20+ years of our politics are a consequence of that.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Matthew Yglesias & @mattyglesias
The GOP operative class is younger, better educated, and more urban than the national average which means their intuitions pull the party to the center.
The Dem operative class is also younger, better educated, and more urban but that means their biases pull Dems off-center.
4:15 PM • 11/7/22 • Twitter for iPhone
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 12/09/2026
Critical information in these trying times
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
they got grandpa on the good pills tonight
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
GOP senators a month ago: for the love of christ do not make this entirely about trump RNC: best I can do is explicitly saying god directly sent him as our savior
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cafkafk @cafkafk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
HOLY SHIT Astra really is good at ascii art this is genuinely stunning
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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 09/09/2026
The teeth in the photo are from 1909, its a model made based on real ancient dental work but from 2400 years ago, not 4000, also not Egyptian but Phoenician, from Sidon, today Lebanon. This account has half a million followers on instagram.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 07/09/2026
2026 really was a fundamentally different summer to 1976 in terms of temperature across the UK and Europe Data: ERA5
Comparing 1976 and 2026 summers in NW Europe
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
ever since he was driven out of the Shire for being Saruman's third-in-command Milei has sought to sow discord
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Sister Bernadette OMalley @srbernadetteom.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Love it! From his post on Reddit
I have been studying sumerian for two years now. My problem has been that I have been studying by myself, from books only, without a teacher. I have been giving myself my own excercises, and checking them myself. As you might conceive, this creates something of an epistemic problem: how do I know if I am in the right or not?

I live in Finland, so I asked the local assyriological society for feedback. They said that Finland mostly has experts in akkadian, assyrian and hittite, with sumerian being somewhat of a blind spot with only one academic-level expert being active. He happens to be the same guy who wrote the textbook I am studying from.

I sent email to the author of my textbook, and I haven't had a reply in some weeks.

My next option was to send a sumerian tablet, asking for feedback, straight to the british museum. So I did just that. In sumerian. In cuneiform. I will give pictures as attachment.

I sent the tablet without any invoice or info about a week ago. Now I got an email that they have sent something to me in response. It means I have written something right, because the only request for a reply was in the tablet, written in sumerian.

I'm going to be entirely honest: I am stoked as hell.
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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 04/09/2026
This Finnish guy has been teaching himself Sumerian, and sent a cuneiform tablet to the British Museum to check his progress. They just emailed him that they've sent him something in the post. I'm now thrilled and excited for a total stranger! Clay tablet mail! www.reddit.com/r/Cuneiform/...
a photo of a hand holding a cuneiform tablet
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Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I picked up a copy of the collected letters of JRR Tolkien for reasons, and this is the most bullshit table of contents I've ever seen. I'm actively angry that it exists
Contents

Introduction - vii

Foreword to the Revised and Expanded Edition - xi

Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien - 1

Notes - 607

Index - 637
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Michael "Fallen Coffee Pot of Shadows" Senters the Sigillite:ABD @mikesenters.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"I have reviewed your service record. Fourteen sorties. You have wept in eleven of them. That is not a ratio befitting a warrior; it is barely a ratio befitting a Ferengi." 10 minutes later… "You apologized while striking me. Do not do that again, it was more offensive than the strike."
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~daniel_barker~ @daniel-barker.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Look if we're being serious about it then Spider-Man should swing both ways
Andrew Garfield renews calls for a gay Spider-Man
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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 04/09/2026
Mamdani is well within his rights to ignore the NYT after they published an illegal hack by a white supremacist to mock him for not even getting into a college he applied to as a teenager. It was an embarrassing story that demonstrated they aren’t being fair or impartial about him.
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Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
this is also true of sleep. often it and exercise are competing for the same finite amount of free time. life is pain
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Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
When the wuxia villain starts monologuing
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teagan white @teaganwhite.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Echoes • 16” x 30” • gouache & watercolor on paper Based on my 2024 residency in the wilderness of Minong (Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior)
greyscale painting of a sandhill crane among burned trees with fireweed silhouettes as silhouettes in the foreground
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Daniel Moser @dmoser.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
Map showing Lower Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I was talking this over with my kids and my son suggested Morocco as a possible origin for the lion, which got me thinking about seaborne trade in the Roman Atlantic, and yeah, it's absolutely plausible that someone sailed north along the Iberian coast and brought the lion to Britain that way.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Reminder that any political party trying to make it harder to vote is sending a clear message: they can't win on their ideas alone. www.propublica.org/article/mail-vot…
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Wikipedia @wikipedia.org · 31/08/2026
This is your sign NOT to go hiking in a humid subtropical climate when it's 30°C outside.
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