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Avi Rappoport

@avirr.bsky.social
782 followers 110 following 977 posts

Trying to be more curious. It’s hard to post anything but politics as our nation implodes. But the Medievalsky community is delightful. FYI: I rarely follow additional accounts that post really often. It’s not you, it’s me.

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Reposted by Avi Rappoport
Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Fascinating account showing how a false claim can become widely accepted (and propagated by multiple independent sources) as a result of a common academic shortcut: citing a source you haven't actually read after seeing it cited by another source: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
is.gd
Academic urban legends - Ole Bjørn Rekdal, 2014
Many of the messages presented in respectable scientific publications are, in fact, based on various forms of rumors. Some of these rumors appear so frequently,...
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 1h
Housing prices can’t rise infinitely, so I’m not sure how much of that we can blame on Trump. The interest rates, yes.
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 11h
Wonderful news!
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Dr Rebecca Tyson @tyguson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
For those who found the thread I wrote on the Norman invasion fleet of interest, I am on the new episode of The English Heritage Podcast talking about the maritime aspects of the Norman invasion in more detail. #MedievalSky podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
1066: Build up to the Battle | Episode 2
Podcast Episode · The English Heritage Podcast · 12 October · 35min
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Pesky actual facts! The meme was so very satisfying
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Germany in the early 20th century was a beacon of cultural sophistication, artistic innovation, economic prosperity, and scientific advancement. It happened there. We were supposed to learn from that.
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Anfor @anforsorrow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In 1518, Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) was one of the largest cities in the world. Today, very few traces remain of that Mexica city, but the Portrait of Tenochtitlán project created a fantastic 3D reconstruction using historical and archaeological sources: tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl/index.html
3D recronstruction of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1518, for the Portrait of Tenochtitlan project. Render by Thomas Kole.Aerial view of Tenochtitlan and its twin city, Tlatelolco. 3D render from the Portrait of Tenochtitlan project. Render by Thomas Kole.The Sacred Precinct, with the Templo Mayor. 3D render from the Portrait of Tenochtitlan project. Render by Thomas Kole.Rain coming from Lake Texcoco is reaching the two cities. 3D render from the Portrait of Tenochtitlan project. Render by Thomas Kole.
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
OK, since this thread has blown up a bit, I think it's worth clarifying in a new thread to what extent the 'GenAI is asbestos for the mind' analogy might hold up, and where it breaks down (as even useful analogies always do): 1/n
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
This from @ethanmarcotte.com is very good, and hammers on an important point I've been making for years: "personalization" is just something desperate execs push because they have no other ideas, so they translate advertising logic into product features. "Here's more of the same" is a shit pitch.
ethanmarcotte.com
All watched over by algorithms of loving grace. — Ethan Marcotte
If you liked that, have you considered you might enjoy: more of that
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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
In my newest Substack, wrote about second acts and the midlife advice that doesn't work for everyone. irinadumitrescu.substack.com/p/this-is-no...
irinadumitrescu.substack.com
This is not your father’s second act
Or: why you shouldn’t tell people how to do their midlife crisis
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
My second act was a the rise of the Web in 1998, and the expertise from my degree and ten years of semi-related industry. There was very much a teaching element but I got paid consultant rates. It was a unique time and I was incredibly lucky. And then AI ate my niche.
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Get paid for labor. Even if it’s a lot.
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I have my misgivings about Prop 40 but Prop 42 is clearly much worse, and it’s painfully obvious that Gavin is primarily backing it to do donor maintenance for his DOA presidential campaign.
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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
well done lads, it's 2026 & you've managed to allow the fucking Sun to position itself as slightly less hostile to people who support LGBT+ rights than The Big Supposedly Gay Dancing Show
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
all those people who called me "irresponsible" for advocating air strikes against specific data centers better be eating crow.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Goose chasing someone meme, with the top caption "violent threats to elected officials from whom, New York Times?" and the bottom caption "publicly encouraged by whom?"
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Representative Becca Balint @balint.house.gov · 11/10/2026
Happy National Coming Out Day! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ I wanted to take this opportunity to share my coming out story and send my love to all the people who are in the closet today. May you all find the support, love, and community you deserve!
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Joe Egerton @joeegg.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Its proponents are promoting positions condemned outright by the Second Vatican Council and by the teaching of a number of Anglican bishops. Lamentably a badly designed questionnaire used by Theos exaggerates opposition to Islam. jegerton.substack.com/p/theos-rese...
jegerton.substack.com
Theos research: worse than sloppy, evil
When a badly designed questionnaire provides ammunition for far right racists is is not just careless - it is gravely wrong and rightly called sinful
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Really rich people dont’t get the important part of their wealth from work, it’s investment income from stocks, real estate, financial shenanigans. They’re rentiers.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11/10/2026
Chris Murphy: "Donald Trump was so fundamentally unprepared for this war that within days of the war starting, our billion dollar air bases and naval bases in the region were obliterated by the Iranians. Every single American should be furious about that."
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Dr. Samantha Montano @samlmontano.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
In my experience ranking disasters is not a productive exercise, and I do not in anyway want to minimize the pain of this shooting for the survivors and victim’s loved ones, however, calling the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting the second worst terrorist attack on US soil is simply ahistorical.
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I didn’t like untangling his sentences, but admire some of his stances like this
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Anne Thériault @annetheriault.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It’s the middle of the night here, I haven’t slept more than four hours in a night for 6+ weeks, but here’s a video that’s been bringing me joy:
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
They are lovely, wonderful voices. Brings back memories of my favorite a capella folk group, Oak, Ash and Thorn www.oakashthorn.com
oakashthorn.com
Oak Ash & Thorn Home Page - Traditional A Capella Harmonies, Drinking Songs, Sing-Alongs, English, Celtic, American
Oak Ash & Thorn A Capella Sing-Along humor Traditional Music
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🎃 Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
"What are we, a bunch of BROWN people?" This is white people doing white people shit. Y'all had picnics under our hanging bodies but sure ok. It's like the Taliban.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854
Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I wish there was a way to buy just this article
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
My man ended USAID, condemning millions to death
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Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦 @kfduggan.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The information below comes from England in the 1200s. Gallows were not usually in the centre of a town. They were often erected beyond town walls or on the outskirts of villages & manors. People didn’t want to see a person being killed nor did they want to see a dead body hanging from the gallows.
A sketch of a man hanging from the gallows drawn next to a case in a thirteenth-century criminal court record. The record and sketch are written in brownish-black ink. The writing is in abbreviated Latin.
Reference: TNA, JUST 1/1028, m. 4
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onion person @junlper.beer · 09/10/2026
its feels like a mass psychosis where tech leaders continue to insist you can be cruel, mean, and hurt the feelings of lines of code
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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
'But what would, say, the German court have thought, full of snobbish aristocrats from old families as it was, to find an authoritative representative from northern Italy’s biggest city called Shit-pesto?' Chris! I do so wish we had better words to describe how much academic colleagues mean to us.
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Jenny Chase @solarchase.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage. If you like these, you might like edition 2 of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website til end of Nov 2026. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...
worldscientific.com
Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon
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Yael Schacher @yaelschacher.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I am in Cap Haitien interviewing people deported from the United States. I have been doing this kind of work for almost a decade and it literally does not get more dire than this. People have lost everything they built in the U.S. and are terrified and have no place to go or way to live.
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Unbreaking @unbreaking.org · 09/10/2026
This week we have updates on Immigration, Medical Research Funding, Medicaid, and Food Safety (and you can always find all our tracked issues at unbreaking.org).
unbreaking.org
Unbreaking
Documenting damage and resistance. Unflooding the zone.
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I’m guessing the didn’t digitize it while they were validating it. damn shame
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Shannon E French @sefrench.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
So tell me again why colleges and universities, who are supposed to care about their students’ actual learning and skill acquisition, are pushing AI down all our throats? Oh, right… money. news.berkeley.edu/2026/10/09/u...
news.berkeley.edu
Using AI for just 10 minutes erodes your ability to persist at hard things - Berkeley News
A UC Berkeley researcher co-authored a study that raises profound questions about how we interact with artificial intelligence in education — and daily life.
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Nithin Coca @nithincoca.com · 09/10/2026
I criticize Japanese companies a lot, but I do like this aspect of Japanese corporate culture - executives taking pay cuts in response to company failures - in this case, actions by subordinates. Can you even imagine something like this in America? www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...
japantimes.co.jp
Prudential Japan executives take pay cuts over staff misconduct
A probe found that issues at the unit of the U.S. insurance group stemmed from structural problems in its governance framework and business model.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 09/10/2026
People in California who are facing a terrible ICE surge: remember that if you need whistles, we are still sending them out for free. In fact, we just passed 1.7 million whistles sent out. linktr.ee/3Dwhistles
linktr.ee
3D Printed Whistles | Linktree
We ship community protection whistles for free. Need some? Click the email link below & tell us how many you need (between 100 - 3000) & where to send them.
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Suppress the wages of grad students — hahaha impossible!
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O. Sharp @o-sharp.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Difficult to watch, but please watch it anyway. Being a U.S. citizen will not protect you from ICE. And ICE doesn't give a damn about the law.
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
That’s adorable, you belong together!
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
1934 and still relevant
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SJ McGee @susansjmcgee.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Gift article This Photo Is an A.I. Fake. Can You Tell? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
This Photo Is an A.I. Fake. Can You Tell? (Gift Article)
We want you to look closely — very closely — at this fake image and spot any errors.
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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 07/10/2026
"As programming increasingly becomes a caffeinated bender with magical bots, this measured pace and emphasis on communal thinking likely holds an important lesson." Love this piece on the development of Zotero. newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
newsletter.dancohen.org
The Slow Formation of Durable Software
How a group of historians took years to imagine Zotero, the research application that would eventually be used by millions
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Haha wow is this comically corrupt. /he didn't end up paying her the money because he said he'd get in trouble with his wife.
By 
Dana Mattioli
, 
Drew Hinshaw
, 
Rebecca Ballhaus
 and 
Joe Parkinson
Oct. 7, 2026 4:53 pm ET

Kimberly Guilfoyle was preparing for her congressional hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express—in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail. 

“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she wrote on Signal, according to messages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Please.”

Underneath is a screenshot of a text. First text is a link to an American Express instructions PDF. Next text says: "You can just send it here. It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that's all that will show." Final text: "Please."
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
oh my GOD
phoenixnewtimes.com
Congressional candidate is raped while repairing her campaign signs
Embarrassed, she initially didn’t want to report attack. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office's investigation is ongoing.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
TEXAS — @jamestalarico.bsky.social : “Why do we have a trillionaire when veterans are sleeping on the streets? The reason poverty exists is not because we can’t feed the poor, it’s because we can’t satisfy the rich.” (From @teamtalaricohq.bsky.social )
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🍂 Simon Threadgold 🎃 @sthreadgold.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Is Aardman pitching for Doctor Who? How do we make Aardman pitch for Doctor Who?
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
good week for feverish speculation about the future of dr who
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Avi Rappoport @avirr.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A lot of Mac software has had no love for years or even decades. Maintenance of the app for reading and rendering PDFs is boring as hell, and no resources are going into cleaning out the cruft.
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