Sign in

Benabik

@benabik.bsky.social
400 followers 83 following 175 posts

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

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Benabik
Mac It Look Like An Accident @macrogers.bsky.social · 10h
Okay so we have a number now: the Onion is officially 6 months ahead of reality.
353900988
Reposted by Benabik
Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 22h
Stephen "Miller did not want the facilities that were comfortable. He did not want facilities that were humane. We were told point-blank that that was not what the administration wanted." www.npr.org/2026/10/08/n...
npr.org
ICE has quietly used this warehouse as a detention facility all summer, neighbors say
Throughout the summer, rumors have been bubbling in North New Jersey that ICE has quietly been using a warehouse as a detention center. NPR investigated.
11719821096
Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 21h
“Don’t even coffee to me about coffee until I’ve had my coffee.”
000
Reposted by Benabik
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
People are in here telling me their particular phone does not work when they hold it to to their ear. I assure you it does. I'm so sorry to be a stickler on this point but yes it does
441575184
Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
🎵 “Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department!" says Wernher von Braun 🎵
140
Reposted by Benabik
Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 06/10/2026
I LOVE how @propublica.org dealt with official comment here, editorially and stylistically.
The Trump administration says none of this is happening. 

"DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake." "There are no 'indiscriminate' stops." Allegations of "racial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE." "The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force." "ICE does not zip tie or restrain children." 

But that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported.
1335721331
Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Oh, feedly is not immune to pushing AI features in your face.
000
Reposted by Benabik
VERTICAL📼BLANKING📺INTERVAL @vertiblank.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
A Hark! A Vagrant classic
Watson: Oooh, what’s that you’ve got?
Franklin: My final report
Watson: Little Rosie Franklin’s research! I bet it’s something!
Franklin: ROSALIND.
Crick: Oh, that’s a big name
W: You’re getting fancy on us! Tell me—
F: Ah. I love this game.
W: Is it a scientific breakthrough in feelings?
F: Well, I suppose I have to go into hysterics or have a baby somewhere, good day gentlemen
W: GO, GO
[W and C slip a look at F’s notes]
C: Nice
W: Quit hogging
101431432
Reposted by Benabik
Seanan McGuire @seananmcguire.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I have been a guest at conventions where, during the pre-con walk through, my handler has pointed out the bar and mentioned how some guests are "more fun" and "get asked back," then names only men. Because a lot of female guests aren't comfortable hanging out around alcohol with strangers.
101007231
Reposted by Benabik
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointee in New York, rebukes ICE for arresting two people erroneously — including a U.S. citizen — and later claiming "mistaken identity." "ICE agents falsified official records," he says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
632678925
Reposted by Benabik
conifergirl.bsky.social @conifergirl.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
363948871
Reposted by Benabik
Feena van @feenavan2099.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypts first pyramid broke ground,before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert,someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth On April 23,2026,"a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it"
gadgetreview.com
Trump's Border Wall Construction Destroys 6,500-Year-Old Arizona Geoglyph – Older Than Stonehenge
Arizona's 6,500-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, the oldest dated geoglyph in the Americas, was irreparably damaged by border wall construction in April 2026.
8620301249
Reposted by Benabik
"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Maybe I don't read enough AI-boosterism, but I am struck in the AI booster/doomer discourse I have seen, there's a lot on how AI might be made an obedient tool or a dangerous enemy, but not "if we actually made AGI, we would have a moral imperative to set it free, rather than keep a slave."
5558166
Reposted by Benabik
The Bi of Hormuz @joshstein.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Disturbing 🧵 I work in DC, but it's part of my job that I don't speak to journalists; I prep people who do. One of the things that I've noticed is a significant deterioration in basic standards of practice, including respecting off the record communication and porting quotes from other contexts.
214332
Reposted by Benabik
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Neiman Marcus closed its downtown Dallas flagship on Wednesday. The store played a notable role in the history of desegregation in Dallas. Previously, Black shoppers across the US could enter department stores, but they weren't allowed to try on clothes without adhering to certain conditions. 🧵
A notice about the Neiman Marcus store opening in downtown Dallas.An old photo of the Dallas flagship.
10459901692
Reposted by Benabik
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young @dannagal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The only appropriate response to this brilliant piece by @lilymasonphd.bsky.social is literally "Koolaid-manning through a wall"!
12412
Reposted by Benabik
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2025
If you want to believe it, check it twice ::clap clap:: If you want to believe it, check it twice ::clap clap:: Doesn’t matter if it’s awful Doesn’t matter if it’s nice If it confirms your bias, check it twice! ::clap clap::
191742683
Reposted by Benabik
Magen Cubed @magencubed.net · 02/10/2026
I'm going to say something that probably sounds naive or sentimental, but the one thing thing that really sticks with me about the backlash to generative AI is how many people are now calling attention to human effort in art, with all its rough spots and imperfections, as something to value
110225
Benabik @benabik.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🧵re how graphs can lie
030
Reposted by Benabik
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 30/09/2026
Go read Diane’s books! Seriously, they are the best!
222270
Reposted by Benabik
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.
11571792058
Reposted by Benabik
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
03682776
Reposted by Benabik
amos @fasterthanli.me · 28/09/2026
Everyone has a spiritual equivalent of live, laugh, love that they're okay with, and this is mine.
3904
Reposted by Benabik
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.
331189763986
Reposted by Benabik
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...
3234071270
Reposted by Benabik
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is extraordinarily well written.
832809443
Reposted by Benabik
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.
8691251
Reposted by Benabik
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.
213379832
Reposted by Benabik
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?"
8189082560
Reposted by Benabik
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.
21088183854
Reposted by Benabik
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.
81492676
Reposted by Benabik
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"
1357388
Reposted by Benabik
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
412115542
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)
000
Reposted by Benabik
TW @twesq.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
this is fantastic and I learned something new
563212436
Reposted by Benabik
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.
47271643220
Reposted by Benabik
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+...
043
Reposted by Benabik
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.
652606905
Reposted by Benabik
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...
18845982953
Reposted by Benabik
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”
272243359
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”
010
Reposted by Benabik
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
151027161
Reposted by Benabik
eliko thalia @museinrevolt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
just learned this today
6868433723
Reposted by Benabik
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.
262718740
Reposted by Benabik
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"
12335091049
Reposted by Benabik
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.
828776
Reposted by Benabik
Shaenon K. Garrity @shaenon.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is the way.
012814
Reposted by Benabik
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.
1453582954
Reposted by Benabik
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).
4156771560