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The Bob (aka AFNIman)

@bobcoxauthor.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.2K following 1.4K posts

Retired NIH scientist. Caltech grad. Sci-fi author. Hiker: especially Nepal and the American Southwest. Happily married. Out of the blue DMs better be damn impressive.

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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Trump ran casinos into bankruptcy and made a lot of $$. When the Dems control Congress, he's still Prez. His attitude might well be "screw the people - I'll break the nation and profit in the process." Our best hope is dementia.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Well, I've half-voted. My mail ballot is filled out and in its envelope. But I still have to walk to the nearest drop box - about 1.5 miles. Waiting for Gosia to fill hers out so we can go together. But my legs are saying, "Bob, go for a walk."
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The new Dem Speaker needs to announce the conversion of some basement space in a House office building to detention cells for use on witnesses held in contempt. Don't bother referring to Toad Blanche for prosecution.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The sad situation is that the USA can no longer be trusted at all in major or minor affairs. Even after Trump is gone, the world will think, "How long until the Americans elect another one of those?" MAGA voters have created the exact opposite of what they believed they wanted.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I find it very unlikely that AI will want to kill us in its own. On the other hand, bad actors could use AI to bring down huge pieces of tech based economies. And then lots of people die.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Cool Bob selfie in Indiana.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Artificial Intelligence now needs Artificial Morality to be woven deeply into its structure. That's probably not so easy, as we Natural Intelligence types have been struggling with this issue for a LONG time.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
View from top of Sepulcher Mt in Yellowstone NP. 3 hour slog to get up here this morning. Lunchtime! (Have signal since can see town of Gardiner MT.)
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Shoshone petroglyph of an owl, in Wyoming.
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Reposted by The Bob (aka AFNIman)
Romy Lorenz @romy-lorenz.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Please share widely! 🚀 I am recruiting a PhD student for an exciting cross-species collaborative project using layer fMRI to investigate how interoception shapes cognitive control - Application deadline is: 1.10.2026 - Start: Jan 2027 www.mpg.de/26934670/phd...
mpg.de
PhD Position (m/f/d) | Ultra-High-Field Layer fMRI of Cognitive Control and Interoception
PhD Position in Ultra-High-Field Layer fMRI of Cognitive Control and Interoception
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The common thread of MAGA is cruelty. * Immigration - cruelty. * White supremacy - cruelty. * No disaster aid to Blue states - cruelty. * Guns for everybody - willful blindness to cruelty. * Christianity - cruelty in the name of God. Outside such domains, MAGA people can be very pleasant.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
My wife took this picture at a zoo. My caption would be "You want WHAT from me now?" You, of course, are free to invent your own captions.
Gorilla staring
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
If this becomes law, the administration will twist it to take away his pension. "Go ahead, let him sue" is the mantra.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The standard names "climate change" and "global warming" don't convey what's happening. Those concepts are downstream results of large amounts of extra energy being trapped in the atmosphere and then being transferred to the oceans. Energy isn't just "warming", bad as that can be to ecosystems.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
When it comes to the afterlife, I'm just saying that I do NOT want to be in Mar a Lago heaven.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Last night I had a dream. I was on the Moon with a pig. No one else with us. I woke up and thought, "That's weird", and fell asleep. Today, I kept thinking about the pig. And I came up with a story idea. 800 words so far. Don't know how far it will go. Spoiler: pig's name is Hambo. 💙📚🪐
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
@skeetofgod.bsky.social - The recent smiting in the DC area has been good, but the aim is still a little off. Please try to do better.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Republican primary voters.
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Reposted by The Bob (aka AFNIman)
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The Supreme Court's fifth and final decision is Blanche v. Lau, another 6–3 split. Per Thomas, the government does NOT require clear and convincing evidence that a green card holder committed a crime before divesting them of their lawful status at the border. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
National Park Service employees in the DC area have been asked to "volunteer" to clean up the Reflecting Pool mess on their own time.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
One of the greatest lessons from social media has been learning how many fucking stupid people there are in America.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
This legal post is an important document to read about the Trump/Blanche slush fund. balkin.blogspot.com/2026/05/is-n...
balkin.blogspot.com
Balkinization: Is the New “Weaponization” Compensation Fund Lawful?
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
American's have been hard charging towards the future for a long time now (trampling anyone in the way, like the Natives). Now, a large fraction wants to turn around and charge into the past - coal power, formalized misogyny, state religion, neo-Jim Crowism, huckster medicines, .... What happened?
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Never use "Neanderthal" as a put-down again! wapo.st/48WvYXj
wapo.st
A 59,000-year-old tooth reshapes what we know about Neanderthal dentistry
Neanderthals used rock drills to treat an infected tooth, according to a study that pushes back the earliest known evidence of dentistry by more than 40,000 years.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
The Trump attack on Iran is a mirror image of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Done without warning during negotiations over the points of contention between two nations. "A date which will live in infamy."
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
It was the most whiny speech ever given - even more cringy than Jeb Bush's "please clap". Trump's entire text can be summed up as, "I'm wonderful. I'm fabulous. I'm a superman. Everything is great in America. YOU SHOULD ALL LOVE ME MORE. Thank you for paying attention to this matter."
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Trump has "given aid and comfort" to Iran, via Russia - which has given satellite intelligence about US bases to Iran - and which has had oil sanctions lifted by Trump. Trump should be impeached for treason - his actions fit the literal definition, not some colloquial slang.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Impolite people call Prez Trump a liar. But since he doesn't know anything, can he know what he's saying is a falsehood?
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Brain rock encountered in the Grand Canyon, near Deer Creek.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
My great idea for reforming ICE: Refocus it on the REALLY dangerous immigrants - kudzu and tamarisk. Root those interlopers out of the nation!
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Is Trump even happy being President any more? He's obviously not that well, and he's not getting the unconditional devotion of the masses that he craves. Many of his signature policies are unpopular even with Repubs. OK, the Rs are still afraid of him. But is that enough?
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
The US is now ignoring reality, but reality will not ignore the US. Climate change, the increased energy being stored in the atmosphere and oceans, will keep on accelerating, keep on creating chaos. Nations that ignore the future find out the hard way that the future gets here anyway.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
In non-Trump news, we are touring Ha Long bay in Vietnam.
Fishing boat in Ha Long bay Vietnam 🇻🇳
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
The grim visage of Skull Arch in Arches National Park. Actually a nice place to eat lunch as hardly anyone goes there.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This classical visage is ME, as rendered by MRI and AFNI. Obviously, I could have been a Roman Senator back in the Olden Days of which Gibbon wrote.
Black and white image of human head as scanned by MRI.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
How many people is DJT willing to kill for Greenland? He killed about 100 just to snatch Maduro and wife. He might not think in those terms, but that's the calculus of saber/gunpoint rattling. Some goals are worth killing for. But a big old hunk of ice?
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
You know, this whole "sex assigned at birth" thing makes little sense. What if the doctor/midwife/... makes a mistake? For example, a CAIS boy (XY chromosomes) assigned as a girl, due to lack of male genitalia? Or the doctor is just drunk?Is the answer "that's just too bad"?
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Although this looks like it might a brain fresco from olden days ... it was actually a water spot on the floor of a tunnel at the NIH. Overhead was a very slowly dripping pipe.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
These guys are not just psychopathic and evil -- they are stupid. Any sizable nation can spin up fission weapons in a few years (or less). "Force"? Would Trump try to snatch the leader of a nation with nukes? www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/u...
nytimes.com
Stephen Miller Offers a Strongman’s View of the World
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Looking back, it is likely that Jan 6 2021 will be tagged as the effective end of the American Republic founded in 1776 and reforged in blood in the 1860s. Alas, since I loved that nation despite its flaws.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Today I went into the NIH to help fix a problem with AFNI brain image and graph displays on MacOS 26 Tahoe. First time doing C programming in 4 years of retirement. And I've still got the touch, baby!
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Venezuela: I'm afraid we're about to see another playing out of the truism that people who start wars are very very often not pleased with the outcomes.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
I'm late to this game. I just watched Trump's address to the nation. My summary in two sentences. Why don't you all love me more? I'm ordering you to all love me more!
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Graduated Caltech 50 years ago in 2026. Nostalgia: Applied Math 95 (TK Caughey) was one of the pivotal courses for me. Complex analysis. Differential equations and stability. Fourier series and transforms. It all clicked for me, like my brain was just waiting for that stuff. IOW - I loved it.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Deep thought of the day: In all forms of heroism, getting out of bed is a necessary first step. In some cases, it is also sufficient.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
America is at the stage where the rich believe they own the nation. Example: the President believes he owns the government personally -- all that does is his to use/take for his own benefit as he pleases. Other great nations have fallen down this way. It happened to Rome, it happened to China.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
I've been gone from BSky for a while. A month hiking in the desert West, often completely out of cell range. For my penance, here's some pictures from our week long Grand Canyon hike. Including one of the true builders of the canyon: coxklosek.com/BobCoxAuthor...
Gosia at Elves ChasmGosia starting her rappelGrand Canyon Frog
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
No one I know has been Raptured yet today. So ... either I know a lot of ungodly people, OR the Rapture has been postponed for technical reasons. Oh well, next time.
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
If there's a Federal shutdown this October, it will annoy me personally - as I have reservations at the Grand Canyon National Park. I'll take the mild annoyance in exchange for the opportunity for the D's to take a stand at last. Forth now and fear no darkness!
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The Bob (aka AFNIman) @bobcoxauthor.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Well, the Supremes have just given ICE all the powers of the Gestapo, save for the power to execute people without any process or hearings. That ruling will be a few weeks away.
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