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Bill Shein

@billshein.bsky.social
843 followers 611 following 2.4K posts

Writer | Journalist | Friend to animals | Graying rapidly | Words/etc at reasongonemad.com.

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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 1h
I like that my guy takes his Saturday-morning-while-I’m-reading-and-drinking-coffee position on my lap, falls asleep in eight seconds, waits patiently nearby when I head to the kitchen for a refill, and then calmly returns to his place and falls asleep again in four seconds. #caturday
Orange cat curled up and sleeping on a human’s lap.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 19h
#caturday My guy cares not for the word “dog” in “dog bed.”
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Reposted by Bill Shein
Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I found a few more entries in the ever-popular "babushkas buffing bombs" genre of photography... (*I recognize that not all are authentic babushkas, but the alliteration was too great for me to resist, I apologize)
mopping RDS-1, the first Soviet atomic bombpolishing RDS-4, the first Soviet tactical nuclear weaponmore buffing of RDS-1, with attention paid t the distinctive eye-like radar altitude sensors that give it such a kawaii facea non-babushka cleans behind RDS-1's ears
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
#writing
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Reposted by Bill Shein
Greg Shill @gregshill.com · 29/09/2026
They did the cartoon!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sentence for the ages www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Mobile Wash” has a fleet. Curiouser and curiouser! #nyc
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
To save money, the NYC subway system recently reduced by 50 percent its use of the letter “O.” Thanks for your careful stewardship of residents’ tax dollars, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
#nyc
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Please explain.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Well, that was definitely a hoot. Silly Sunday Fun(TM).
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Don’t boss me, jerk.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Good to know.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Lunch is served.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Limited budget. Should I spend it on Tom Ford, Gucci, or turkey?
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
For thousands of years, ancient wisdom has been unmistakable: Nightclubs are The Way.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This driveway is getting its daily steps in, it seems. Will ensure a long life of drivewaying!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This man apparently has a van and is also easily reachable.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Possibly noncontroversial take: This is not right.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Free books at a coffee shop on 14th and 7th this morning. Excited to read about Spencer Tracy, model trains, and then study for the GMAT! #carpediem
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I don’t know … my schedule is pretty full, but thanks!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometime yo—“ damn you 1970s jingle-writers!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
So good to be back in #NYC, enjoying the fine #journalism that makes this city great.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
New from me: Updated reporting on the accelerating nuclear-weapons-related defense buildup in the Berkshires. Recent contracts are bringing 400 new jobs, along with broader economic effects across the region—and no local media coverage of the expansion.
reasongonemad.com
FIELD NOTES & EVIDENCE: The Nuclear Berkshires Just Got a Little More Nuclear
New U.S. Navy spending has pushed the Berkshires’ nuclear-weapons-related contract total to nearly $1 billion since January 2024. The expansion is bringing new jobs—and little public discussion.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Early fall in western Massachusetts.
A gravel road beneath trees, blue sky, and sun.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I just ordered a laptop battery from a joint called DrBattery. And got a pretty good deal. Given where health care is headed in the U.S., I'm inclined to make ol' Doc Battery my new primary-care physician. I mean, c'mon: Free shipping!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tonight’s project: Get this sucker working again. (The weather station, dog works just fine.)
An AcuRite 5-1 weather station in a plastic bag on a grey Adirondack chair, waiting to be cleaned/fixed, with a brown-and-white dog sniffing it.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The tomatoes are throwing themselves at me. Missed, suckers!
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tough life.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Will this work in the Metaverse? Because that's where I've been living for several years. ME (in Metaverse): Hey, where is everyone? SFX: Crickets
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Me too! But I eat two cups. Mr. Emanuel’s morning routine involves waking up at 4 a.m., stretching for 40 mins and then doing breath work, sauna, meditation, an ice plunge and infrared light therapy before ingesting a protein shake and a cup of live worms to fight off “the bad bacteria in my gut.”
nytimes.com
5 Takeaways From Ari Emanuel’s Memoir
“Roll the Calls,” the new book by the Hollywood mogul, is an entertaining and expletive-filled read that surprisingly pulls some punches.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"Sometimes people just don’t want to have their personal lives automated, even if the technology is good enough." Sometimes?
nytimes.com
I Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown Away
Muse, Meta’s A.I. agent, helped handle my dental insurance, booked dinner reservations and created a podcast for me. It also required my most personal data, and trust.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#truethat "Our professional opinion is that the other parts of the body have virtually no effect on your physical well-being. The singular marker of medical fitness is how much your veins are bulging out from your arm muscles."
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𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚖𝚙𝙻𝚊𝚋 @stamplab.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Today is the International Day of Peace.
Cat.#6104 /2026 / U.S.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Nope.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
My standard reaction when invited to a destination wedding requiring zillions in airfare and hotel is, "Um, maybe they're streaming it?"
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Reposted by Bill Shein
Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 20/09/2026
blue plaque
jacob von hogflume
1864-1909
inventor of time travel
lived here in 2189
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Belated #caturday
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
From the “with friends like these…” file, published in Dexter Filkins’ @newyorker profile of Jared Kushner
At the press conference, the American negotiators made baffling statements. Witkoff accused the Iranians of using the Tehran Research Reactor, a facility that produces medical isotopes, to illegally enrich and stockpile uranium even though repeated I.A.E.A. inspections had found no evidence of military use. "You can tell by what Kushner and Witkoff are saying that they don't understand a lot of the technical issues," Kelsey Davenport, a nonproliferation expert at the Arms Control Association, in Washington, D.C., told me. A friend of Kushner's was blunter: "He's a lovely guy, but he is way the fuck out of his depth."
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Anyone have experience with Ecowitt weather stations and sensors (temp/humidity/water detection)? Seems AcuRite is destroying its business with a terrible new app (900 mostly one-star ratings)—and so my AcuRite 5-1 weather stationand home monitoring sensors are enjoying their last few weeks.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I feel like we’re just days away from a Netflix or Amazon Prime plan that’s “$4.99: Nothing But Ads”
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Has the invite for keynote speaker at next spring’s White House Correspondents Dinner gone out yet? Because this year’s continues to age very, very, very poorly.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Re-upping this because it’s a good idea and we still have $10 million to go…
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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 19/09/2026
Goodnight. The Tube Station Cyril Edward Power, 1930′s
he composition features a curved, bright red train entering from the left and a single station worker standing on the platform. The tunnel's vaulted ceiling is decorated with geometric arches of blue, teal, and cream, with three large destination boards hanging from the center. In the background, a headlight shines from a dark, circular tunnel opening. The artwork uses bold lines, repeating shapes, and a muted color palette to convey the speed and modern design of the subway system
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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 19/09/2026
John Cage, Lecture on nothing, 1959
LECTURE ON NOTHING
I am here
and there is nothing to say
If among you are
those who wish to get somewhere
let them leave at
any moment
What we re-quire
is ; : ;
silence
but what silence requires
is
that I go on talking
Give any one thought
a push
it falls down easily
but the pusher
and the pushed
pro-duce
that enter-
tainment
called
a dis-cussion
Shall we have one later?
TIP
we could simply de-cide
not to have a dis-
What ever you like.
But
there are silences
and the
Or cussion now words silences
make
help make
the
I have nothing to say
and that is
poetry
and I am saying it
as I need it
is organized
This space of time
We need not fear these
silences,

LECTURE ON NOTHING/109
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Late-stage capitalism is ... quite a thing. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/b...
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A certain Kim Jong Trump vibe spreading further in the capital.
nytimes.com
CNN and MS NOW Reporters Barred From White House After Trump Announces Ban
The prohibition on certain journalists was a stark escalation in President Trump’s war on the media, and will probably face a legal challenge.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Someone needs to explain to President Trump how the First Amendment works,” said Tim Richardson, the journalism and disinformation director at PEN America.
nytimes.com
Live Updates: Trump Bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico From the White House
The president made the announcement in an insult-laden social media post. It was unclear how such a ban would be enforced or defended in court.
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Bill Shein @billshein.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Quaint, considering…
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