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Bob Wieman

@bobwieman.bsky.social
59 followers 45 following 608 posts

Scholeologist. Mathematician. I “heart” posts to signal my support for the person posting, not approval of the thing posted.

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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 9h
Actually, “manifesto” is a borrowing from Italian. I think there should be a more fun word for diminutive suffixes, like the “-y” added to teddy or puppy, or the “-o” in “friendo”. I have a to-do list names “taskos”, to make them seem more friendly.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
“Somebody Somewhere” is a great series, highly recommended, and part of the reason I’m posting this is there’s no way I’ll remember the title in a few years.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Just saw a pre-release viewing of “One Night Only”, and it was much better than its premise. Ridiculously studded with star cameos, lots of little clever jokes, and absolutely delightful parody commercials. I will never see another plaque psoriasis ad without giggling. Would buy the soundtrack.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Excuse me Richmond area peeps, I’m looking for a primary care doc and am interested if anyone has one they’re happy with who’s accepting new patients. Being able to get an appointment sometime this century is a big plus.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I know it’s hot. Can I recommend going inside an air-conditioned building, rather than surfing your phone in your parked car, burning your expensive gasoline to make hot explosions to run your air conditioning? I can. I am recommending that.
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
It may be idealistic, but I still believe it’s worth asserting that the meaning of the word “black” doesn’t change just because pots are calling kettles black. Lying isn’t how the language evolves. Meaning isn’t determined by popular vote, much less by noisiest speakers (“screamocracy?”)
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Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net · 28/01/2026
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
youtu.be
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
so, hear me out, here’s one weird trick that will both make AI much less of a threat to academia AND will revitalize our language departments:
a screenshot of a Google AI reply to a search with the search text “matlab version mai copilot included automatically”.  The Google AI Overview is in a non-Roman alphabet, possibly Hindi.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
I never noticed before, but: a) there really is a lot of cowbell in some banging 80’s music b) the best of 80’s music stands up as some of the best popular music so I’m pretty sure the syllogism closes with c) Christopher Walken’s character is just right about this.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
birthdays that are forcing me to realign my timeline: Chubby Checker is 84. Lindsey Buckingham is 76. Keb Mo is74. Clive Owen is 61. Janel Moloney and Gwen Stefani are 56. G.Love is 53. Keiko Agena and Neve Campbell are 52. Seann William Scott is 49.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Why is there an imminent government shutdown? They passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, didn’t that decide taxes and spending?
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
I have gotten junk voicemails offering personal loans from every town in New York.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
I remember the “Do Not Call” registry. I was on it, but you couldn’t tell now. Why have we embraced the sad idea that technology sucks?
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Okay, Facebook did the Facebook thing of showing me a post that inspired my thoughts and then made it disappear into the ether by the time I thought of what I wanted to say. The post was about two guys overheard on the subway. 1/several
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
I’m gonna try a recipe from the newspaper with my son and we have a square pan the is 8 3/8” by 8 3/8” and honestly how can a pan company hate me this much
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Why is phone spam trying to get me to take out a loan so bad, and why aren’t we blaming Trump for it?
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corn on macabre, haunted @catfort.fightins.online · 20/07/2025
if any of youse were at renaissance fairs in the 90s and got a CD called Songs That Get You In The Heart by the now-defunct band Double Indemnity, I will pay you so much money for a copy of that CD
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
It seems to me that the administration wants to be able to declare asap a benchmark number of deportations, and it’s telling that to do so, legal immigration statuses (humanitarian parole, e.g.) are being terminated to make people who “came in the right way” deportable.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Maybe it’s unfashionable, but I prefer both economic news and governance generally to not require, for accuracy, the word “whim”.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
coiffeur: hairdresser coiffure: hairstyle or hairdo coif: same as coiffure quaff: drink, esp. at a Ren Faire quaffer: one who is drinking coffer: chest or box where money is kept OR a recessed panel as a decoration (“a coffered ceiling”) cough: throat spasm cougher: someone coughing
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
It seems like Trump wants to bully Canada into becoming a state. As people suggest, it would most likely electorally become another California. Which would elect a Democratic President and possibly flip the House. A rational (but unrealistic) approach would be for Canada to reach out to Dems 1/2
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
I go on about the Repair Shop — the emotions are so raw and pure and honest. In the one I just saw, Suzie is just fearless in showing her emotion and her brother comforts her and it’s the sweetest thing I’ve experienced in a week.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
No Excuses All Apologies Get Off This Big Time Sensuality Laid Locked Out Watch the Girl Destroy Me I think it’s a pretty decent poem. It’s the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks numbers 5-11 from Feb. 26,1994.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Poli sci research isn't surprised by Trump siding with Putin's Russia. As @profsaunders.bsky.social explains in @goodauth.bsky.social, national leaders matter a lot when it comes to foreign policy, and things like flattery and transactional deals rarely if ever change a leaders' core beliefs.
goodauthority.org
Trump’s verbal attack on Zelenskyy was shocking – and predictable
In bullying Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Trump showed his core beliefs.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
I understand but do not approve of the politicians swiftly displaying their loyalties by saying the Friday debacle went this way or that way. I wish I could hear a relatively disinterested diplomat’s perspective. What was this public event supposed to achieve? Why was Vance there? How bad is it?
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
So, this is nott so much a rhetorical question, but a question I hope you answer for yourself - I don’t need to know your answer. Back when the Musk-Ramaswamy government efficiency group was announced, did you think it was a cute sop to get them to support Trump? Did you think the name was a 1/2
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
If I were Bill Gates, I would not be happy with NYT Sunday Business front page. Below a big picture of him, with the text “Bill Gates isn’t like those other tech billionaires,” is the headline, referring to a -different- person, “He’s replacing humans with A.I., and bragging about it.”
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
I wish that there were more “cancellation” of untrustworthy people. I’m thinking of the news media, but it’s a personal norm too. If a politician or official makes up things, speculates without evidence - I’m thinking of the plane crash, but it’s broadly applicable - then their words aren’t news.1/2
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Hey, Richmond? We had a tough few days, and not having water sucked. But when it -was- repaired, the reservoir filled up pretty quick, because we did our job and didn’t fill the bathtub as soon as we could. Publix wasn’t price gouging - they were getting all the water they had into people’s hands.1/
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Jay Blades, on the Repair Shop, regarding a music box that survived a WW2 bomb: “the damage is not to be hidden - the damage is to be celebrated.” Yours and mine too.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
I also feel bad for the poor sergeants-at-arms who are going to have to confirm the “biological sex” of everyone who wants to use the bathrooms in the Capitol.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Spare a momentary thought for the many Republican current and former state attorneys general, who have to look at the current news and wonder “seriously, that guy and not me?” That’s what “makes a mockery of…” means.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
I want to believe that Trump’s team of friends, family, and advisors would provide appropriate responses and support if he had a serious health emergency, like a stroke or other quick-response-necessary event. But I don’t have that belief. I think he’s surrounded by people who will only defer.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 05/10/2024
I am struck by the sophomorism I’m seeing in political jabbering lately. First, willful disregard of context - being born in America doesn’t make me a Native American; when MTG says “they” can control the weather, the issue isn’t about whether seeding clouds is a thing (although it doesn’t …1/3ish
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
So there’s a 50 years of D&D US stamp set available. Can you believe it? Remember the early 90’s, when Mazes & Monsters made “everyone” think it was obsessive and unhealthy? I didn’t think then it’d be celebrated like this, ever. And for whatever reason, I’m reminded of a middle school dance…1/3ish
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 25/09/2024
I have been loving the British series “Victorian Farm”, “Tudor Monastery Farm”, “Wartime Farm”, etc. Two archeologists and a historian relive the period’s agriculture. But it would be much easier to find all the versions if they stuck with one title - I emphatically recommend “Farming with Hats”.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 17/09/2024
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #874,721! If you haven’t gotten a notice yet, this just showed up for me.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 11/09/2024
I’m struck by the takes about how she tried so hard to push his buttons and succeeded. I’m patiently waiting for the “and since he demonstrably is so thin-skinned that he can be easily manipulated, he’s critically flawed as a candidate for the job, as it requires a modicum of self-control.”
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 24/08/2024
I’m struck by the meme (conscious or no) of the bad anti-DNC posts generating ire: “If (the Walzs represent today’s American man/this woman becomes the first daughter), (this country is screwed/we’re [deleted] as a country.) (entirely inappropriate insult)” The political angle as fig leaf for hate.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 02/08/2024
This is about harmonica, but it applies to a lot more. If you’re an athlete watching the Olympics, or an academic researcher at a conference, or anyone watching someone do something and thinking about how you can’t, give this a quick read: open.substack.com/pub/shanesag...
open.substack.com
The Comparison Trap
A Plea to Harmonica Players
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 27/07/2024
If you’re in a state with a ballot initiative regarding Ranked Choice Voting: It’s not scary! It’s good! It is exactly when you’re talking with friends about where to go out, and when you realize no one else wants to do karaoke, you say “well, of those, I’d rather the bar with the good wings.”
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 23/07/2024
Am I misunderstanding this platform, or has @kenwhite.bsky.social not posted or shared anything for 5 days? If so, I wish him well and hope he’s enjoying some well-earned unsocial media time
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 21/07/2024
I wish the people that pretend to offer perspective would step up and highlight this is an important institutional difference. “Oh, they’re both old” has been responded to - by one party. The parties’ responses - to concerns, allegations, or indictments, are stark, and ignored.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
I am now deeply curious about why Richmond was chosen as the first site to roll out DeJoy’s centralization plan. I just heard a local story from elsewhere that seems to suffer from the exact problems DeJoy was trying to address, but Richmond didn’t. Why pick a place that needed less fixing?
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 23/05/2024
This is extremely narrow, but: “The Snake” is a song, written by Oscar Brown Jr.; it was a hit in 1968 when sung by Al Wilson. It is not a poem by Al Wilson, which is what Trump calls it when he reads it out in speeches against immigration (it is not about immigration.)
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 01/05/2024
I would like to all my supporters for helping me in this time of great personal challenge. I have thus far resisted the very-appropriate “right to bear arms” joke that a stranger is, if one reads between the lines, BEGGING me to drop on ‘em. Your applause helps sustain my resolve. Thank you.
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Jessica Greenberg @greenberglawva.com · 30/04/2024
I am going to be offering reduced cost/pro bono representation to protesters who were arrested at VCU last night - this is restricted to students and those who live local to the RVA area. @kenwhite.bsky.social
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 05/02/2024
Okay, I would love to hear more rabble-rousing calling for Biden to appoint to the postal board; the USPS changes under DeJoy seem uniformly bad, and I wonder if what may appear to be locally bad postal issues all come from that common root.
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Bob Wieman @bobwieman.bsky.social · 27/01/2024
PSA for Amazon Prime Video users: the “Learn More” option about the Disney PG movie “Wish” is actually linked to a blurb and trailer for “Wish”, the TV-MA title available on Tubi. They are, um, not the same.
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