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Stephen Watkins

@fogforestwaves.bsky.social
1.6K followers 3.2K following 433 posts

Husband. Dad. Unrepentant geek. Aspiring renaissance man. Bookish gentleman-adventurer. Sco Ducks!

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Reposted by Stephen Watkins
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 8h
Holy shit.
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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 12h
I think the problem is that for whatever reason, society/the media/whoever have correctly determined we need a way to reintegrate millions of people into society and from that incorrectly determined the way to do so is for the people who were wronged to apologize to the people who wronged them.
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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 15h
no....no!!!!!
lowly worm is now driving the trolley problem trolley :(
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Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The image is of a four panel comic.
The first panel shows Sarah, the protagonist, working at a desk. A brain next to her says, "We need to take breaks!"
The second panel zooms in on Sarah's face. She is annoyed. She says, "What if I don't listen to you?"
The third panel shows the brain smiling.
The fourth panel shows the brain reaching towards a lever. The brain says, "I'LL MAKE YOU."
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
GO-phers!
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Museum of Twitter @museum-of-twitter.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
@JFriedhoff

me at 13: wow i can't wait til we have immersive computers everywhere like star trek
me at 30: wow i can't wait until we destroy all computers like in dune
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Everyone involved in this process — including the Palantir employees — have to be investigated and probably go to jail.
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Ah, Fall—the time of year when I start hating Southern California.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/10/2026
I recommend people read this to get a sense of the president's grave cognitive impairment. Trump is either unwilling or unable (or maybe both) to answer the questions he's actually asked, so he just rants and raves while the interviewers do their best to provide structure to his random brain firings
time.com
Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript
The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.
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Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The same Brendan Carr who wanted to investigate NBC because Kamala was on SNL? The same Brendan Carr who wanted to dismantle independent fact checking and accused them of being a “censorship cartel?” Periodic reminder that the corruption is a feature, not a bug.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 30/09/2026
Reminder: Cosplay Patton here is 0-1 in wars and he took an L to a B-level power
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
🤡 Schmitt beclowns himself 🤡 Schmitt concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory that Smith traveled to Atl for a Hawks game and to collude with Fani Willis, & flashed his "evidence" before accusing Smith of perjury. There's just one problem -- his facts were totally wrong. Here's the whole sequence:
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is not something you say if you actually like education or children
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
If that atrocious behavior wasn’t representative of USC’s program you wouldn’t have had so many other players and staff dapping up Stephens after the hit.
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 27/09/2026
Every three weeks it’s like but white supremacists who mostly care about testosterone and killing minorities were supposed to fix the economy
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Desman Stephens is the face of USC.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I feel you, Daniel L
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The literacy crisis is not just referring to people's ability to literally read and write. It's also people's inability to read for context. I've been a public educator for over 20 years and I have never, ever seen it this bad.
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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.
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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Do not carry a cold beverage in their presence. Politely decline any drinks or sweetmeats they may offer. Keep a plain iron nail in your left trouser pocket and a sachet or paper twist of coarse salt in your right shoe. Enter and leave your chair moving clockwise. Follow up with a thank-you note.
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What a fascinating modern age we live in.
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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.
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Room empties out at the UN as Netanyahu begins his speech.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hurting the president’s feelings isn’t a national security threat Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Child: This is my first time meeting a mayor. Mamdani: Wow, have you ever met a prime minister? Child: No Norway PM Jonas Gahr Støre: *walks over*
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 22/09/2026
JD Vance is using AI to kick hundreds of thousands of people off health insurance. These are AI death panels.
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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is not great
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Rob Pilkington @robpilk.com · 22/09/2026
weird day to be worried about state-run tv, gavin!
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21/09/2026
it's JD's first day at standing school (Kent Nishimura/Pool via Getty)
pic of JD standing while talking to reporters on an airport tarmac looking off balance and a bit like 3 kids in a suit
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21/09/2026
LMFAO -- Trump is holding an event at the White House right now but there's no audio because the press pool isn't there. The Newsmax host notes that this is an example of Trump's attacks on the press "backfiring just a little bit"
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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Republican Governor Jim Pillen has been a champion of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. But at least 20 of his family farms employed undocumented immigrants, according to a new investigation by the Flatwater Free Press and The New York Times. youtu.be/5RZgrR1_7Dc?...
youtu.be
This GOP governor said ‘illegal aliens’ have ‘invaded.’ His family farms EMPLOYED them, report finds
YouTube video by MS NOW
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
last night we had ed sheeran apologizing for saying what’s happening in palestine is bad and at the same time david byrne putting up a huge graphic that says MAKE AMERICA GAY AGAIN and showing footage of ICE brutality to a sold out crowd. you can actually be famous and successful AND give a shit.
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Mr. Joshua @pantspants.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Pen, watercolor, black & white charcoal pencil.

Another featured piece from the Spooky Pants book.

A man in a sweater stands with his hands on his hips looking out of a large window with the curtains open. Things aren’t looking good outside, reader. A massive winged demon is emerging from the clouds as dozens of little ghosts and bone demons rip through the sky. On the ground below we see townsfolk running through the grass. Our man in the window is in no mood for this. He lets us know, “Oh, I am in no mood for this.” His dog looks out the window as well, wagging its tail. 

Fantasia (1940) inspired drawing. I think I could’ve gone a little heavier with the chaos outside but we’ll try again with fresh drawings this October. I like how the clouds turned out. Trying to balance my sloppy lines with more detail can be tricky but I think we achieved a good result.
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👻Skulliam🎃Boo-tler🍂Yikes🕷️ @yeets.biz · 19/09/2026
i need to know what happened
sign in a restaurant "due to recent events Bigfoot discussions are no longer permitted on the patio"
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It...uh...is not meant to be a competition
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Damn that's a lot of words to say "literally exactly the same as it has been for 80 years"
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Jason Leopold @jasonleopold.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
HUGE EXCLUSIVE from @bloomberg.com Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School Pentagon investigators discovered that flawed intel, outdated imagery & overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School
Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab.
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
theguardian.com
No more book bans: how Florida students are pushing rightwingers out of school boards
Local communities are fighting back against the influence of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty in education
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Stephen Watkins @fogforestwaves.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Cover ups always bode well…
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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It’s very simple. A reality TV host became dictator because he turned down a role for Sharknado 4 and that’s why the king of outer space, who cheats at Diablo, got to kill Africa. Now the economy is controlled by a sex cult that has something to do with Harry Potter fanfic because of robots.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026
i am genuinely bewildered by people who say that the rise of white nationalism in the republican party is a response to the "woke left." like, did the woke left cause pat buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign? is the woke left why steve king had a long career in congress?
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18/09/2026
Trumpers, famous opponents of border walls
Every communist country eventually builds a wall. It's never to keep people OUT.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026
RFK Jr. wants people to get sick. He wants them to get sick and he thinks it is a good thing if they die, since those who live will have "natural immunity" and emerge stronger and fitter.
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 18/09/2026
Humaning.
A four-panel comic. In panel 1, a Northern Cardinal and American Goldfinch perch above a busy crowd in a city, looking down. The cardinal says "It's a nice day to go humaning." The goldfinch says "Just look at them. Majestic." In panel 2, a close-up of the two birds. The cardinal says "Nobody tells you that you'll reach a certain age and suddenly get into humaning. I hit 3 years old, and then bam."The birds are looking out over the crowd scene. In panel 3, the cardinal says "Their calls sound funny to us, but each one has a unique meaning." Below, people are saying various things: "I'm tired." "Where's my phone?" "I'd murder a burrito." In panel 4, the birds look down excitedly at a man walking by. The cardinal says "Wait, is that a guy who got dressed in the dark and put his shirt on inside out and backwards?" And the goldfinch exclaims, "Holy... that's a lifer!"
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Joe Rogan suddenly acting like he was an innocent bystander for years and had no idea what Trump was all about until now and did nothing to help get him elected is pretty weak and pathetic. Just own it.
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Same people who seem to think it’s bad for China to beat us at AI are perfectly fine with China beating us at high speed rail, solar energy, wind energy, shall we go on
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17/09/2026
Trump looks at a placard that reads "Kennedy Center DEMOLITION" as he lands at Joint Base Andrews tonight (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty)
pic of Trump through the plane window looking at a placardzoom in on placard where text is visible
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Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It’s insane that people in Congress are paid over $174K a year in taxpayer dollars whilst making millions of dollars from insider trading whilst getting 18 vacations a year as Americans all over the country struggle to pay for rent, gas and groceries.
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