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Benabik

@benabik.bsky.social
390 followers 83 following 171 posts

Computer Scientist, Rubyist, Father, Ham Radio Operator. He/Him

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 4h
Go read Diane’s books! Seriously, they are the best!
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 7h
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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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
you will encounter more opportunities in life to change the batteries on a smoke alarm than you will to run into a burning building and no one gives a shit you changed those batteries but it is still very important and why are you waiting on a burning building, know what i’m saying, it’s a metaphor
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amos @fasterthanli.me · 28/09/2026
Everyone has a spiritual equivalent of live, laugh, love that they're okay with, and this is mine.
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In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
After a long day at the aquarium, the otters help tidy their toys away. Payment is made promptly and entirely in ice cubes.
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is the master key to deciphering contemporary debates about free speech. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is extraordinarily well written.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Bless the memory of Stanislav Yevgrafovich, the Man Who Saved the World. At a moment when it mattered, he chose humanity.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
context. sentiment. inferences. People seriously cannot do these things anymore. That’s why they angrily demand you spell out every joke, every reference, super duper promise you mean something only this one prescribed way. They cannot do it for themselves or tolerate the any ambiguity.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
lol holy shit I wouldn't talk about literally anything else if I was the guy running against him. —"What do you think about trans kids in sp-" —"Did you hear my opponent had his patient, who was 8 months pregnant, arrested in front of her son because she didn't pay a $50 medical bill?"
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.
When the Department of Homeland Security sent Nevada a list of 185 names last month that it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote, state election officials got to work.
On Tuesday, the state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen.
"As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens," Greg D. Ott, a deputy attorney general in Nevada, wrote, according to a copy of a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security officials obtained through open records requests.
"You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise."Following the meeting, Ms. Vogt sent a clarifying email to Nevada officials. "I also wanted to be sure I clarified that we did not reduce the 15,903 to 185," she wrote. "We've manually reviewed some of the 15,903 and confirmed 185 are not U.S. Citizens."
Now, Nevada officials are saying even that 185 number is wrong. They also took issue with a letter D.H.S. sent them in early September, in which the agency reiterated its initial claims about nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the rolls and pressured state officials to review each case in a letter to Nevada officials in early September.
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ten years of relentlessly hateful, comically elitist anti-democratic politics across the white people world, helpfully summarised. The wrong people are talking, the wrong people are deciding and it’s harming the careers of important people who actually matter. Smithers! Release the hounds
The incident fits a broader pattern in the discourse around 'free speech' and 'cancel culture': whatever comes from the top down is freedom; whatever comes from the bottom up is bullying and censorship. When Macklemore is dropped at the behest of the billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft, it's an exercise of the freedom of businesses to 'demonstrate their values' by deciding whom to platform. But when Ed Sheeran's fans decide not to buy tickets to his performances, or even demand refunds, it's bullying, mob behaviour. Since most people are not billionaires and do not own stadiums, they can exercise meaningful power only collectively. The collective exercise of power must therefore be demonised.
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K.B. Spangler @kbspangler.com · 23/09/2026
I've been thinking this nonstop.with an extra helping of "always try to put the positive kindness you want into the world" in a death cage match with "lol rofl GOOD"
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Every Film Now @everyfilmnow.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Robin Williams’ daughter is urging fans to stop sharing AI-generated videos of the late actor. “Just because he’s gone does not mean he’s now your puppet. Have some shame.” #RobinWilliams #AI
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Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This judge is past polite suggestions, past direct reminders of the rules, and has hit “no fucks to give” territory I have never seen from the bench. (In my zero hours of practicing law)
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TW @twesq.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
this is fantastic and I learned something new
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Everything the pro-Trump billionaire Ellison family will now own: Paramount+ CBS CNN Showtime HBO Warner Bros TNT TBS MTV DC Studios Nickelodeon Comedy Central And more... With this comes the power to decide which stories get told, but more importantly, which stories DON'T get told. Shameful.
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Marty Day @marty.day · 22/09/2026
We’ve Really Got To Become Media Literate (Or, Marty Rants About The Weekend’s Disney+ Controversy) blast-o-rama.com/2026/09/22/weve-re…
blast-o-rama.com
We’ve Really Got To Become Media Literate (Or, Marty Rants About The Weekend’s Disney+ Controversy)
So, over the weekend, you may've seen something like this: https://bsky.app/profile/ign.com/post/3mvyft3ifdm2r On Bluesky alone, nearly 2,000 people have quoted this, cursing the skies at Disney+ and the streaming movement for once again fucking over us, the loyal customer. So... ...guess what? It's not that at all. IGN has since updated their headline, now reading "Disney+...
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I was deputy M.E. at the WSJ when Murdoch took over, with a similar “editorial independence board.” Within 4 months, our top editor was gone, replaced by a loyal Murdoch deputy. That board raised a quivering objection, but the deed was done. If the Ellisons own CNN, they’ll do whatever they want.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Matt Pearce @mattdpearce.com · 20/09/2026
Onion article with a photo of a traffic jam on a freeway:

“Dispatch
Report: 98 Percent Of
U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others”
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Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🧵, but this one tweet is basically my AI worry. From the article: “AI allows you to have bad ideas faster”
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Micah @rincewind.run · 18/09/2026
genuinely giving a shit about the nuts and bolts of governance - really, seriously, trying to make it work properly - is the real mamdani superpower the charisma is of course a cheat code but it wouldn't be enough if he wasn't actually following through
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eliko thalia @museinrevolt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
just learned this today
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
promise kept
thehandbasket.co
Republicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problem
A spate of recent revelations have shown the ideologies and their adherents are one and the same.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Instead of saying "the Kennedy Center board decided to close" we should note that "a group of Trump appointees including Laura Ingraham and Dan Scavino decided to shut it down"
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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Very interesting, and good to know. I hope that learning about this leads to understanding, and understanding to acceptance.
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Shaenon K. Garrity @shaenon.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is the way.
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 13/09/2026
One time, and I promise this is true, Bush gave a flip remark about violence while playing golf and it became a defining moment for his legacy. This president shrugging about a war he started while overseas at a golf tournament that is lining his own pockets won’t be remembered in two weeks.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I wrote this quickly at a bus stop and didn't realize it would go viral, or else I would have worded it better. But the point is that the media is too credulous about AI killing everyone in 10 years (how?) when climate change is killing people now and will only get worse (we know exactly how).
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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Texas is delaying its typical September 1 release of maternal mortality data until December 1, conveniently timed to be after the midterm election. Recent reports have shown a sharp rise in ectopic pregnancy deaths after the abortion ban went into effect. www.austinchronicle.com/news/texas-p...
austinchronicle.com
Texas’ Pregnancy Death Report Set to Release After Midterms • The Austin Chronicle
Texas’ Pregnancy Death Report Set to Release After Midterms
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Termite Terrace Club @termiteterraceclub.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Happy heavenly birthday to Mel Blanc (1908-1989). For 52 years, he was the voice of Looney Tunes. His Warner Bros. cartoon legacy lives on as a new generation of talent including Jeff Bergman, Bob Bergen and Eric Bauza voice the Tunes in new iterations. #LooneyTunes
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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is spectacular, folks. We live in a moment in American history when the president and his administration are so racist and dumb that a toy company has to put out a statement saying: "OUR GIANT ROBOT THAT TURNS INTO A TRUCK DENOUNCES RACISM AND HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE CURRENT PRESIDENT."
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
you can be arrested if you give water to people waiting on line to vote
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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
🚨 BEWARE of VoteSafe.org 🚨 While it bills itself as a “safe” way to register to vote, it is actually a digital surveillance machine created by Elon Musk’s super PAC.
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Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I'll never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky In one word he told me Secret of success in mathematics Plagiarize, Plagiarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
when I am god-empress of the universe it will be illegal for people to disable the ability to paste into a password field
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Mamdani is a charismatic guy but I promise you anyone can replicate this. 1) Unapologetically use the government to help ordinary people; and 2) Tell them about it
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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Woah. This is good news. People may not realize it when they demand this feature, but what they're saying is "I will not buy a car which requires an ongoing subscription to remain fully functional" and it is a good sign GM may be responding to that. carbuzz.com/gm-not-compl...
carbuzz.com
GM May Not Completely Kill Apple CarPlay And Android Auto After All
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available for the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq despite GM saying it's not going to include them anymore.
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The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
For the love of god someone please ask him when he thought Germany was great because I’ve got an idea.
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Have seen this Nature piece about the effects of X's algorithm mentioned again and it bears repeating; exposure to a right wing algorithm makes you - measurably and predictably - more right wing, even after you stop using it. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature
Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...
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Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Sounds like OpenAI’s mentor may have been the great Lobachevsky. youtu.be/gXlfXirQF3A?...
youtu.be
Tom Lehrer - Lobachevsky (with lyrics) '1953
YouTube video by themisfitoddity
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
If I understand this, two mathematicians (one at Anthropic) combined a great deal of human effort with LLM input to come close to a famous problem, showing that the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid mechanics developed singularities. But someone from OpenAI might have peeked at their ChatGPT logs...
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Trapper Sean, M.D. @trapperseanmd.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Drawing 789 / 2026 Artwork 87: Chief Engineer Wile E. Coyote is done with the Captain’s shit. #WileECoyote #CoyoteVsAcme #LooneyTunes #StarTrek #StarTrekArt
Chief Engineer Wile E. Coyote looks angrily at his off screen Captain with a sign that says, “I cannae change the laws of physics.”
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Tom Wallach @mdwallach.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I want to make sure everyone in the city is aware that SUNY Downstate operates a large and extremely skilled LGBTQ and gender affirming care clinic, and we have repeatedly reiterated our intention to go to jail before we stop.
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Geobica @geobica.com · 04/09/2026
it's an AI generated website with fairly naive methodology, which I wrote more on in another thread basically it uses aggregated per-state data with very basic math to average it rather than the raw data which was much more granular bsky.app/profile/geob...
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
For the first time since its inception in 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony was held outside the United States because organizers feared that it is unsafe for foreign guests to visit the United States under the Trump regime.
yahoo.com
Optimised urinals and buried underwear at 2026 Ig Nobels
Underwear buried to test soil quality and urinals scientifically designed to prevent splashing were among the projects honoured as the Ig Nobel prizes again put a spotlight on the quirky side of scien...
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Judy Weston @westonjk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
My gosh. Fetterman pretended to be sick to avoid meeting three paralyzed veterans from rural PA…and then went to do a Fox interview on Israel. He agreed to meet a lawmaker who drove from PA to talk about homeless and working people…and then bailed & met pro-Israel Bruce Pearl.
One morning in June, three paralyzed military veterans in wheelchairs from rural Pennsylvania arrived at the office of Sen. John Fetterman for a long-awaited meeting to discuss legislation that would improve their care.
Fetterman's staff greeted them with bad news: The Pennsylvania Democrat had to cancel. He'd told his staff he may have eaten something bad and wasn't feeling well, according to people familiar with the matter.
Less than an hour after his staffers met with the veterans in his place, Fetterman walked into his office, showing no signs of illness. He had an appointment he didn't want to miss, he told staff: an interview on Fox News to discuss Israel and the war in Iran."He was available. He just chose not to meet with us," Williams said.
Even when Fetterman does agree to meetings, he often cancels, according to former staffers.
Also last April, Fetterman agreed to take a meeting with another state lawmaker, Liz Hanbidge, who drove down from Pennsylvania to introduce herself, and to discuss programs that help the homeless and working poor in her county. But when Hanbidge arrived, according to staffers who were present, Fetterman claimed he hadn't agreed to the meeting. The aides spent more than an hour pleading with him to talk to her; staffers eventually met with Hanbidge in his place.
Fetterman did take another meeting that day-with Bruce Pearl, the former college basketball coach and Israel advocate. The pair discussed legislation that would affect college sports, and Pearl thanked Fetterman for his stance on Israel, Pearl said in an interview.
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