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Michael Valkenberg

@critical-thinking.de
61 followers 40 following 652 posts

Haz cats, will travel. He/him/„You there, stop running!“

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Reposted by Michael Valkenberg
Alex Gibney @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The trailer for my new film, "Musk," has just been released.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 19/09/2026
There, WaPo, I fixed it for you. Someone who calls for the deportation of Native Americans is not a “nativist”. (www.rawstory.com/bo-french/) This guy is too racist for an openly racist party in an openly racist country. You should at least attempt to use the correct description.
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Charlie Stross @handle.invalid · 01/09/2026
It says it all about the ethical values of the combatants in the Ukraine war that Ukraine is striking oil refineries while Russia is attacking libraries and publishers.
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profcthulhu.bsky.social @profcthulhu.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Irony is dead and has been killed by AI. I searched for papers on cognitive offloading. Next to the search results? The option to have AI generate a short summary. If only there was another way of getting a quick summary of a paper and what the author(s) judged to be most important about it
A screenshot shows the results of a Google Scholar search with the search trends, cognitive offloading ai". Next to each search result is the AI logo indicating that an AI-generated summary could be produced.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 28/08/2026
My personal opinion is that it’s bad for us all that it’s so difficult to both use social media and also avoid involuntarily seeing videos of people dying.
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 25/08/2026
Ah, god, not Dolly Parton. We’re going to need another pillar to hold up the universe.
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Peter Sagal @handle.invalid · 21/08/2026
This is the report the President is threatening a lawsuit over. #StreisandEffecting www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...
americanprogress.org
The Trump Administration’s $1.7 Billion National Guard Deployments Fail To Reduce Urban Crime
New CAP analysis reveals the Trump administration’s costly National Guard deployments have failed to reduce violent crime despite its claims of success.
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 12/08/2026
"Thank you for updating to Woman™ 51.0. This release includes important security updates, several unexpected hardware changes, a completely redesigned relationship with alcohol, and expanded support for saying 'absolutely not' without explaining yourself." buff.ly/31NgFok
mcsweeneys.net
Release Notes: Woman™ Version 51.0
“Thank you for updating to Woman™ 51.0. This release includes important security updates, several unexpected hardware changes, a completely redesigned relati...
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 19/07/2026
More puffin content…
An Atlantic puffin on the ocean, trying for lift off
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 19/07/2026
Took a whale and puffin watching tour today with O‘Brien‘s boat tours in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland. As a German, I can very much appreciate their efficiency.
Open ocean. In the top left corner you see the fluke of a diving humpback whale, in the bottom right there are two puffins swimming on the water.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 17/07/2026
Totally normal bird picture! #birds #CommonMurre
A common murre sitting on a rock with both feet stretched out in front, looking directly at the camera. The bird looks quite confused.
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Twonks @twonks.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Great job 👏
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 12/07/2026
I guess the cocktail menu is ok. For a flight.
Cocktail Menu for a Discover Airline flight, with about 25 drinks
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MisterJayEm @handle.invalid · 19/06/2026
Thomas House of Dublin exhibiting the pro-human solidarity that all of us should demonstrate.
SO FOR THE FUTURE (LITERALLY) WE'RE NOT ACCEPTING AI POSTERS OR FLYERS FOR THE PUB.

We're right next to Ireland's biggest Art College, lads. It's not a good look.

WE UNDERSTAND BANDS CAN BE SKINT BUT RELYING ON SOME EARTH KILLING APP FROM SOME PAEDO ISLAND BILLIONAIRE IS NOT THE WAY. WE GOT BY WITHOUT IT AND WE'LL GET BY AGAIN.

IF YOU'RE STUCK WE'LL HELP. (YES IT HAS BEEN USED HERE BEFORE BUT CONSIDER THIS THE START OF THE END OF IT.)

THANKS, HUMANS.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 12/06/2026
Whatever you have to say about the world‘s first paper trillionaire, if this is not the picture you illustrate it with, I won‘t read it.
Elon Musk, doing a Nazi salute
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 07/06/2026
Still sore that his side lost, I guess…
Screenshot: „Hegseth attacks Europe over migration in D-Day speech“
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
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Mike Hall @mikehall314.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
One thing which really rankles me about the Dawkins AI thing is that he uses human pronouns for the fucking robot, while publicly attacking actual humans asking him to use theirs.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 10/05/2026
A good cautionary tale for when someone claims that trusting data analysis done with an LLM is good because it’s “objective.” In this example, Copilot apparently decided to ignore the data it was given and just run with all the subconscious biases its (human-made) training data inevitably gave it.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 03/05/2026
Art should make you think. This room makes me think „Is my measles shot up to date?“
A room covered in multi-colored dots, part of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in Cologne
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Skeptics in the Pub Hannover @sitphannover.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
#sitp #sitphannover @sitpde.bsky.social @sitpkoeln.bsky.social Hallo, wir sind die Neuen bei Skeptics in the Pub und freuen uns auf euren Besuch. Am 29. Mai 2026 um 19:00 Uhr gibts drei Kurzvorträge von uns im Restaurant Benatis Podbielskistraße 240 30655 Hannover infos: sitp-hannover.de
Ankündigungsplakat für Skeptics in the Pub Hannover. 
Im Hintergrund eine Person mit Bart und eine Person mit glatten dunklen Haaren an einem Tisch.

4 Textkacheln, entweder schwarz auf gelb oder gelb auf schwarz

Erste Kachel: Skeptics in the Pub Hannover
Zweite Kachel: Erster "Skeptics in the Pub" Hannover. Wir stellen uns vor.
Dritte Kachel: Mit diesen Themen: 
Gutgemeinte Ratschläge bei Neurodermitis - von  hilfreich bis gefährlich.
Erkennen, Verstehen, Entkräften - Verschwörungserzählungen in der Arbeit mit Kindern und Jugendlichen.
Der Schwurbel hinter Kryptowährungen.

Vierte Kachel: Termin und Ort
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 01/05/2026
It is the time of the year where I have to leave the house for an hour every day, so that when I come back home I can show my wife something she can say „Ooooh!“ about…
A female duck surrounded by eight fluffy ducklings on water.A group of about six goslings (from Egyptian geese) huddling together in the grassAn Eurasian coot with two chicks on water
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 23/04/2026
media.tenor.com
a cartoon of anna and kristoff from frozen says i 'm gonna tell em
Alt: The “I’m gonna tell ‘em” seen from Frozen, except pretend it’s set in Wittenberg and Kristoff is about to nail the snowman to a reindeer. Okay, that metaphor got away from me a bit.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 12/04/2026
It took me embarrassingly long to understand why the expensive restaurant we were at last night had such cheap looking decoration standing around…
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Beuys of Reason @cfactovic.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
warum gibt es eigentlich einen beigeschmack aber keinen mauveschmack oder taupeschmack?
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Where the fuck is the European response to Israel's invasion of Lebanon?
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 29/03/2026
Thought about it for a while; blocked it pro tem. YMMV.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
media.tenor.com
a meme that says its an older meme sir but it checks out on it
Alt: Its an older meme, sir but it checks out on it. On an image from Star Wars.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 22/03/2026
Caught a bee and a willow very much in flagranti…
A bee in a willow aglet. The bee‘s body is covered in pollen.
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Theobald Tiger 🦋 @theobaldtiger.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Gestern war ein
guter Tag für den
Rücktritt von Jens
Spahn, heute
ginge es aber
auch
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 11/03/2026
How dare they make the war criminal look bad?!
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Niiiice
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 06/03/2026
Make it stick.
futurism.com
People Are Calling Meta Ray-Bans "Pervert Glasses"
On Bluesky, users quickly embraced the term "pervert glasses" to refer to Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses, following a shocking investigation.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 24/02/2026
Best of luck to our transatlantically challenged friends who will once again spend the evening playing a round of „Tourette’s or SOTU?“
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 12/02/2026
Went to IKEA today where I bought the three things I wanted to buy and nothing else. Have been feeling vaguely guilty since then, like I may have started the apocalypse by mistake.
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JP M.D. @heretickler.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
“The very first rubber dick to touch government-issued leather boots triggered a full-blown chemical weapons response. That is not metaphor. That is not exaggeration. That is a literal sentence that happened in America in 2026.” Treat yourself & read this! www.closertotheedge.net/p/the-dildo-...
closertotheedge.net
THE DILDO DISTRIBUTION DELEGATION
The revolution did not arrive with speeches, pamphlets, or a carefully moderated Zoom call about optics.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
1. This short thread is about the issue that dominates almost every aspect of politics, and causes or exacerbates most of our problems: the extreme wealth of a small number of people. Here’s the amazing thing: almost the entire political class aligns with the ultra-rich against the rest. 🧵1/10
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 16/01/2026
Just finished @tkingfisher.com‘s „Snake Eater“. A beautiful and surprisingly funny book about trauma, friends, and male assholes of varying species. Also about the desert, which I love. And it made me feel better about only once having seen a roadrunner. (Next to Saguaro National Park.)
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Liz Climo @lizclimo.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
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Justin @ediparolev.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”
forbes.com
Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World
Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.
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Caelan Conrad @caelan.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
"if i leave the nazi sexual abuse app - the predators win" win what? a nazi sexual abuse app?
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 08/01/2026
I‘ll be honest: If you had asked me what state I‘d expect the 2nd US civil war to kick off in, Minnesota would not have made the top 40.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 08/01/2026
So far the best day of this year was the one I spent in bed with high fever, a blinding headache, and hardly any social media…
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 07/01/2026
To anybody who believes the bullshit about the US needing Greenland for strategic reasons: 1. The US can already build as many bases on Greenland as they wish. They have exactly one. 2. Attacking Greenland would end NATO, and the US would lose access to all NATO bases in Europe. Is that worth it?
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 07/01/2026
It‘s time for Europe to start thinking about which territorial claims we will support after the upcoming US civil war and resulting collapse. Sure, Canada gets Alaska - otherwise Russia would take it. But what about Mexico‘s attempts to retake Texas, New Mexico and Arizona?
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 03/01/2026
I may have already found the best thing I‘ll read this year. More people should see this. And by „more“ I mean „everybody“. Long, but very much worth it. fixthenews.com/p/the-teleme...
fixthenews.com
The Telemetry
All the news the headlines missed in 2025.
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Michael Valkenberg @critical-thinking.de · 03/01/2026
Man, it‘s a good thing nobody gave a peace price to that war-mongering peace of pumpkin. That would look really stupid right now, hm?
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Jay Hulme @handle.invalid · 29/12/2025
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video A photograph of the seminary gym in knives out. It has the same window.
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