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ballece.bsky.social

@ballece.bsky.social
478 followers 236 following 628 posts

Sci-fi, fantasy, climate, science, animals, pinball, and some tennis.

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Reposted by @ballece.bsky.social
P(aul) Frazee @pfrazee.com · 4h
Meanwhile, at every home office in the world
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 3h
An efficient market isn't necessarily a fair market. I would prefer that people remember the difference. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/…
newsletter.platypuseconomics.com
The Kim Kardashian Problem in Economics
Markets would give Kim K the last slice of pie, and calling that “efficient” is an ethical judgement.
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Phil PlAIt @philplait.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
This is one of the absolute coolest shots of the expanding debris from a supernova explosion I have ever seen, and I've seen a *lot*. So what the heck's going on here with this thing? Hey, let me explain. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/an-incredi... 🧪 🔭
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
An incredible image of a celestial fireworks display
A supernova in the year 1181 produced the spectacular Pa 30 nebula
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Ah, since it was right below "In this week", I thought "First out" was someone that fell out of top 10. I guess it should be interpreted "first one outside of the top 10", and then how many points she's missing to get in.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
But she's got a NCH at rank 11? So she's never been inside the top 10?
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OSINTRadar @osintradar.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
🇺🇸🇺🇦 Zelenskyy’s message to Donald Trump: “Why isn’t the US making a diesel deal with Ukraine?! Kyiv can offer Washington a real diesel deal. We influence whether Russian oil tankers can operate. We determine whether Russian oil refineries can function.”
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Restoration Games @restorationgames.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
From typography to iconography, discover the graphic design choices that bring The Lord of the Rings™: The King’s Gambit together. Read more at today's blog: restorationgames.com/graphic-design…
Illustration of warriors and 'The King's Gambit' title with logos below.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Thanks for the helpful graphic! What's up with Jovic though? Listed as First out -1050pts, but +2 in rankings? I guess I'm not sure what First out means.
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 11/10/2026
WOT?!?!?! 🌟💥 Did you see this image of supernova remnant Pa 30?! Bet you'll never look at fireworks the same way again! noirlab.edu/public/image... 📸 International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Cunningham/J. Miller & M. Rodriguez /T.A. Rector /D. de Martin & M. Zamani
A spherical structure made up of long, narrow, radial spikes emanating from its centre. This is the supernova ejecta. Many stars of the Galaxy surround it.
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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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Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
If that had happened to me, I would have assumed I was being carjacked.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 09/10/2026
Ossoff: "I think Pete Hegseth is frankly a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality all the while he's running a department that is falling into chaos. The guy cannot run the military competently and is spending his time with this kind of obscene medieval spectacle."
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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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ESO @eso.org · 08/10/2026
Ribbons and pearls 🎀 Ribbons of gas & dust wrap around the pearly centre of the galaxy NGC 1398.  NGC 1398’s spiral arms do not begin at its very middle, but stem from a straight bar instead. How many spiral galaxies share this feature? Find out: www.eso.org/public/images/potw1801a 🔭
A face-on spiral galaxy with a glowing central bulge surrounded by spiral arms. Image by ESO.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
New, from me: Kimberly Guilfoyle was caught soliciting money for government favors. Normally we call that a bribe. If she is corrupt, it is only because she has adapted to Trump's corrupt environment, where everything is for sale. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/stop-paper...
donmoynihan.substack.com
“Stop Papering Things”: Corruption in Trump's America
Kimberly Guilfoyle is one more symptom of endemic graft under Trump
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/10/2026
It’s really remarkable to me that 10 years into this people feel compelled to “clarify” Trump’s homicidal and often genocidal fantasies. It is deranged for the president to daydream about American cities in states he hates getting blown up. Full stop.
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Astronomy 🔭 @astronomy.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
NASA has released onboard video of Artemis II's reentry through Earth's atmosphere 🤩 Top speed: about 25,000 mph
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
What kind are you using? Some reusable thing?
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WotSeries ❤️📖📺🤞 @wotseries.com · 07/10/2026
We've refreshed the wotquotes website with a TV series track and a spoiler filter. Help us build this quote repository. What's your favorite quote from the books and/or the tv show? #TheWheelOfTime wotquotes.com
Screenshot of wotquotes.com displaying the quote “Stay behind me… kill the ones I miss.” attributed to Perrin Aybara, from the TV series, Season 3, Episode 7: “Goldeneyes.” The dark-themed page shows a spoiler guard set to “Showing everything” and a “Next quote” button.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
JON STEWART: “So in the FUTURE we WILL use A.I. to cure diseases… but right now it’s mostly murder, surveillance, and surge pricing for the McRib — What a trade! I’m getting the sense you guys might be full of shit.”
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The Heathen Historian @heathenhistory.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The fact that the tree is as old as the United States should not be lost on anyone. What a metaphor.
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TopCat @tiffinjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This. It’s not so much the fact we elected this man in the first place. It’s that we elected him AGAIN and have refused to remove him EVEN AFTER WE FOUND OUT HE WAS TRYING TO BE A DICTATOR.
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Mike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Just saw someone say their AI runs their fantasy football team and I can’t stop laughing. Like, I’m sure everyone’s doing it or something but it’s very funny to me that pretending to be a team manager was so hard that you needed to pretend to pretend to be a team manager
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I had to think about it too. I think the joke is that you only get one neutrino interaction per lifetime, and he said the reason is because the second one kills you. The real reason is just the finite span of your life.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 06/10/2026
You often hear that clean energy is not replacing fossil energy, only adding to total energy, and thereby not reducing emissions. ("There is no transition," they say.) It's nonsense. Read this post from @zekehausfather.com about how much FF has been displaced by renewable energy:
theclimatebrink.com
What if the world hadn't built wind and solar?
Clean energy does not simply “add to” global energy use; it displaces fossil sources that would otherwise get built.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Justice Alito devotes an entire chapter of his new book to the emergency docket—and to responding to people like me (“the most prolific academic critic of the emergency docket”). As I explain over at “One First,” it … didn’t go well: www.stevevladeck.com/p/256-so-une...
In the pre-publication galleys to his new book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country, Justice Alito spelled my last name inconsistently. This is, I suspect, the pettiest possible point on which to open in discussing a Supreme Court justice’s new memoir, and I would never have mentioned it except for the fact that inconsistency turns out to be the organizing feature of the chapter in which I (“the most prolific academic critic of the emergency docket”) repeatedly appear.The central inconsistency of Chapter 8, which is devoted to the emergency docket, is structural: Rather than tackle the subject holistically (as one might expect in a book), Alito mashed together the speech he gave five years ago at Notre Dame Law School with a “postscript.” The former was deeply flawed even at the time (among lots of other things, Alito repeatedly insisted that there was “nothing new” about the Court’s behavior on emergency applications during the first Trump administration and COVID); and the latter tries to move the goalposts away from the specific phenomena to which critics like me have actually objected.The result is to leave readers with a disjointed, inaccurate, and misleading sense of what the debate is even about—to say nothing of how the Court’s own behavior since September 2021 (including Alito’s) has only further undermined the already-flawed claims Alito made back then. Somewhere between the galleys of Alito’s book and the final product (which hits bookstores today), someone apparently figured out that my last name should be spelled the same way (and correctly!) throughout. The other, more significant inconsistencies were, apparently, harder to fix.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The most Republican thing ever is to claim you suddenly care about affordability by giving a speech at a yacht club.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
@npr.org's @radiolab.bsky.social is airing the great episode about an amazing man with an amazing mind! Imagine being in this guy's head?! www.wnycstudios.org/story/a-4tra...
wnycstudios.org
A 4-Track Mind
A neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor, then the impossible happens.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“.. Whatever the reasons were for going in, from an economic point of view the war in the Middle East has been a disaster. .. It’s been disastrous from a cost-of-living point of view, for Australians and indeed for people right around the world.” @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
You guys want to hear a short but adorable story that happened right in front of me at the baggage claim in NYC yesterday? I wasn't part of it and there are bits I didn't catch but holy crap, I can't stop thinking about it.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This one is doing the rounds
A picture of Elon Musk, via the London Economic. The quote says “If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat, while most of the other monkeys starved, scientists would study that monkey to figure out what the heck was wrong with it. When humans do it, we put them on the cover of Forbes.“ – Nathalie Robin Justice. 
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Today's jobs report is a reminder that tax cuts for corporations and the rich don’t create jobs or grow the economy. What's required is investment in working people — and better wages. When workers have money to spend, the economy grows and businesses create more jobs. Remember this.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Amazing! But just 10 images?
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Coach Jerry (referee 🔵) @gopher33j.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I have my great great great grandfathers diary in my possession - he drew this in 1845. There were no photos so he drew what he saw. I am sharing Henry T Whinfield’s art for the first time ever to the world. This is a world debut.
Drawing of a windmill
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WoTtober @wottober.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Death is lighter than a Feather. #WoTtober day 2: Feather. #artchallenge #thewheeloftime
A daily prompt card for the month of WoTtober. White text on a black background reads “WoTtober 2026”, and beneath it, between simple horizontal frames, is written "day 2, Feather". On the bottom are the logos of Instagram and Bluesky with the tag “#WoTtober”.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Slam tilt the patriarchy!
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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WoTtober @wottober.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
When you want a funny ride, call a Jo-car. #WoTtober day 1: Jo-car. #artchallenge #thewheeloftime
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Kristi Yamaguccimane @wapplehouse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
new meme template
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WoTSpoilers @wotspoilers.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
By Grace and Banners Fallen (Talmanes) - A Memory of Light prologue pt1 We’ve decided to start with all of the Talmanes POVs in the prologue. Listen now: www.spreaker.com/episode/by-g... #TheWheelOfTime #WoTSpoilers #AMemoryOfLight #MemoryOfLight #BrandonSanderson #RobertJordan #FantasyBooks
A Memory of Light prologue part 1 - Talmanes. A sword, a lion-emblazoned shield, and an axe. Chapter quote is “This is the Last Battle, you bloody fool.” Background is a Mandelbrot fractal with swirling blue.
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WoTSpoilers @wotspoilers.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A Dangerous Place & Advantages to a Bond - A Memory of Light ch3&4 - EP596 Androl and Pevara exchange life stories. Listen now: www.spreaker.com/episode/a-da... #TheWheelOfTime #WheelOfTime #WoTSpoilers #AMemoryOfLight #MemoryOfLight #BrandonSanderson #RobertJordan #FantasyBooks
A Memory of Light chapters 3 & 4. Camping romantically in an igloo paired with the quote “We need to be focused on the Last Battle”; being trapped in a dark hole with a small door paired with the quote “Tell him that I’m coming for HIM!” Background is a Mandelbrot fractal with swirling blue.
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Aradiapedia (they/she) @bestfirstchair.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A Fart and Run Strategy Louis & Feraz are subjected to sobriety, Katia is introduced to the Desperado Club. Listen now: www.spreaker.com/episode/a-fa... #DungeonCrawlerCarl #DCC #GateOfTheFeralGods #TheGateOfTheFeralGods #GoddamnitDonut #FirstTimeReaderPodcast #Books #LitRPG #MongoIsAppalled
Podcast It, Donut! DCC book 4 chapters 5-8. Donut sits in front of a podcast mic that has Carl’s boxers attached. She is wearing purple sunglasses while a screaming doll head lurks in one corner, bubble diagram as the background.
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Emily Gorcenski @emily.gorcen.ski · 28/09/2026
Here’s the most incredible story you’ll read today. A small plane with four people aboard crashes in a field. Another pilot witnesses it. That pilot happens to be flying a bunch of skydivers. They offer to jump to assist, are given permission. The skydivers happen to be EMTs. Everyone survives.
wisn.com
Skydivers alert emergency crews, assist after plane crashes near East Troy airport
Four people were aboard the single-engine plane when it went down in a cornfield near Carvers School Road in East Troy at about 1:30 p.m.
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Phil PlAIt @philplait.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Have you ever heard of Gabriel's Horn? It's a mathematical shape, a deceptively simple "solid of revolution" that will melt your brain. It's also one of my very favorite things of all time. Oh my yes, you'll love this: badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-geometri... 🧪
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
A geometric shape that will destroy your brain
Gabriel’s Horn is bizarre and literally unrealistic. It’s also super cool.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yeah, both statements are made tongue in cheek. Sorry that didn't make it through the screen.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026
The before and after it's even more haunting.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026
Google finally updated some of its satellite images of Gaza and my god, it's horrific. The entirety of Rafah has been demolished. The majority of Khan Younis is in ruins. Entire towns completely leveled and erased of the map.
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ballece.bsky.social @ballece.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Introduced into the world with a somersault judging by the arrow! How wild are these horses given that they have names?
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/09/2026
I keep telling y'all, electric aviation is a dark horse.
techspot.com
The largest all-electric plane ever flew for 27 minutes, on $5 of electricity
Heart's X1 demonstrator flew for 27 minutes from a regional airport in upstate New York, running on battery power the entire time. The aircraft reached 1,100 feet...
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