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Gene Tracy

@genetracy.bsky.social
560 followers 1.7K following 471 posts

Physicist, sci-fi fan, news junkie. Scribblings have appeared at Aeon, Lapham’s Q, and American Scientist. he/him. Author of The Icarus Question: Essays on Science, Technology, and the Search for Home in a Changing World. gene-tracy.com

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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 6h
I always loved this picture. She seemed very human here, like someone I could chat over coffee with and get my mind absolutely boggled by her thoughts. Often the “women in stem” seem unattainable in their official portraits or in intense focus. This made her seem like a person.
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 11h
“Good friends, laughter and a small glass of sherry every night”
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Matt Darling @besttrousers.bsky.social · 12h
This would be so useful.
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PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
🧵 Nearly 12,000 (11,982) books were banned in public schools during the 2025-2026 school year, according to PEN America’s newly updated Index of School Book Bans. #BannedBooks #BannedBooksWeek
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Gene Tracy @genetracy.bsky.social · 9h
Important 🧵
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 9h
The best and true thing about this is the tiny little slice radio astronomy gets 😂😅
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Kathleen Belew @kathleenbelew.bsky.social · 13h
Very happy to announce the Spanish edition of Bring the War Home, coming 10/19 from @capitanswing.bsky.social. Though it has been almost a decade since its publication, this history still has much to teach us about white supremacy, racism, violence, & the way these forces structure society.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 14h
I’m going, so should you. ✊
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
One thing I find endlessly funny about the rise of AI is that it has revealed that there is a large number of people who believe that the reason they wrote essays at school or university is their teachers were desperately waiting for them to provide a definite answer to “Lear: what’s up with him?”
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Nathaniel William Horadam @horadam.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
October Surprise!
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S.J. Pearce @homophonous.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
“Your students study astrophysics… philosophy, artificial intelligence, and something called Operations Research and Information Engineering, which I do not understand but assume is more complicated than calling 911.” Congrats, Cornell, you’ve killed satire on top of everything else.
mcsweeneys.net
An Open Letter to Cornell University from the Mother of a Prospective Male Student
“Seven former Cornell students are accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually assaulting another Cornell student who says she was incapacitated. Messages alleged...
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
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Illia Ponomarenko @ioponomarenko.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
We always love you, nations of the free world! 🇺🇦
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Caolan Robertson @caolanrob.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Just a reminder that there is a city in Europe where Russian drones hunt civilians 24/7.
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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Goddammit. The contempt these people have for everything wondrous and good and *human* is so grotesque.
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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I don't think I'll ever fully get over the confidence people have in declaring something "stupid" that is based on reading large amounts of scholarship when they haven't read any of the relevant scholarship. So many people can't accept "hmm maybe my superficial understanding is wrong".
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 04/10/2026
Alll of this. I started my career in construction, working office jobs alongside people who worked trades. Know how many 60-year-old guys I saw working as bricklayers? Doing demo? Zero. How many 50-year-old roofers there are? Zero. One reason unions fight for high wages is because careers are SHORT.
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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Let the AI Rapture happen already. I am begging to be left behind.
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Gene Tracy @genetracy.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
👇👇👇💯
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Adolph Menzel, Death as an Unwelcome Guest, 1844/1845. Watercolor and gouache. 5.1 x 3.6 in. (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). Death politely recognizes that this is a shoe-free house.
Death, dressed in a top hat and overcoat, rings the doorbell as he removes his shoes. Inscribed: "1844: Plusquamperfectum" ("more than finished")
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David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 20/09/2026
We spent $100m building a robot that can pirouette at 5000 rpm and performs Swan Lake beginning to end in 30 seconds. Ballet is solved.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Cannot be emphasised enough that Trump II will plausibly cause the kind of death count we associate with the worst dictatorships of the last century. Unspeakably bad that he came to be president of the world's most powerful nation.
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Nancy Kelley @nancymk.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This government has made life dramatically harder for trans children and their families. The human costs are enormous. Cal is not the first parent I know that has made the gut wrenching decision to leave the country. Read this then start fighting for a world where trans kids can live and thrive.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 02/10/2026
The rush to accuse, without anything approaching due diligence, artists of using "AI," should be treated with contempt. An artist gets their work *ripped off* to train a plagiarism machine, which then shits out inferior versions of that work, so then you accuse the artist of using "AI"? Fuck you.
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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 01/10/2026
listen, I will always have twelve-year-old feelings about the blackbird, but I'm not gonna pretend that those feelings are worth taxpayer dollars in 2026
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Gene Tracy @genetracy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
open.spotify.com/track/2FDrAC...
open.spotify.com
Dove of Peace
Lola Lexy · Dove of Peace · Song · 2026
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I think it's not a great argument against AI eating a lot of the arts to say that AI can't be creative/original. Setting aside the question of whether they can... does *most* art strike you as extremely original? The vast majority of people, including great artists most of the time are mid.
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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026
"The US has grown used to the swift and dramatic erosion of women’s health and status that has followed Dobbs," writes @moiradonegan.bsky.social, "to the horror stories and upward ticking body counts, grown into ease, and even a kind of compliant boredom, with women’s death and indignity."
theguardian.com
Why has abortion faded from America’s national conversation? | Moira Donegan
The US has already grown used to the horror caused by abortion bans. And Republicans have sought to quash the stories
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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I know there is a hell of a lot going on right now. But not all of it is bad. Some is astonishingly good - like the results of this study from June. Cervical cancer is a terribly cruel thing. This might, at long last, be the beginning of the end of it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC News headline "Young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab"
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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
And as a reminder - vaccine innovations can & have ended the threat of many diseases over the last century (at least technically, barring the hopefully temporary outbreaks caused by anti-vaccine paranoia).
Chart from Our World In Data showing the many vaccine innovations since 1880, in some cases technically eliminating diseases entirely, like polio and typhoid.
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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026
At the height of the ICE raids earlier this year, agents in armored military vehicles rolled through residential neighborhoods. Masked agents patrolled public parks and stationed themselves outside elementary schools; squadrons of ICE agents snatched pedestrians off the streets. 🧵
Federal agents line up in front of community members at the scene where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2026.

REUTERS/Tim Evans
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 26/09/2026
do they maybe need someone to play guitar and also shoot fire on top of a truck while being held aloft by some sort of bungee cord, asking for a friend
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I could quote pretty much this entire article by @mjrobbins.com on the bizarre psychology of the AI apocalypse freaks, but you should just read it instead. Such a relief to see someone express my feelings so eloquently. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...
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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
They warned us Mamdani would impose Sharia law. Instead, he unleashed the real threat: line dancing in Bryant Park.
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The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
My nuclear reactor “went rogue”. Sorry to the people of Chicago but there was nothing to be done to control Artificial Energy
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Definitely watch Reservation Dogs
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is so great!
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Gene Tracy @genetracy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#MusicSky youtube.com/watch?v=3Rgg...
youtube.com
Son House "Preachin' Blues (Larkin Poe Cover)
YouTube video by Larkin Poe
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Steely Dan’s album “Aja” turns 49 today. So take a few seconds to watch Jay Graydon replicate his iconic guitar solo on “Peg”. 🎸 💕
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We are about to see an avalanche of AI generated animations. I think all those low-quality children's animations can already be replaced, which suggests they will be soon. Opus 5.5 is incredibly powerful and cheap. The weirdening is accelerating. Like, this isn't even obviously AI.
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Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
World Championship Pond Crossing at the Sugarloaf Bike Park in New Brunswick, Canada 🇨🇦 IG: @crankworxsummerseries www.instagram.com/crankworxsum...
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Every book he claims is DEI is incredible, especially Marlon James’ new one. No indication Bret read any of these books www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The National Book Awards Are No Longer National (Gift Article)
The National Book Awards longlists are a study in tedious political orthodoxy.
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
sitting down to write a column about how too many minorities are getting nominated for prizes these days is real loser shit like scraping the bottom of the racism barrel loser shit
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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
September 21, 2026
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 21, 2026
On September 18, while White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town, Trump suddenly announced he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Free weekend update, a crystallizing week. There are areas where the US is helping Russia and areas where the Ukrainians are showing the initiative. Also, Trump really pulls out the stops to help protect the Russian oil industry--with some laughable lies. phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...
phillipspobrien.substack.com
Weekend Update #203: A Week Which Demonstrated Why Trump Is So Helpful To Russia
Operation Vivaldi; Russia Batters Ukraine At Range; Trump, Diesel And Ukrainian Energy Strikes.
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
every day of my life I think about the people using “she” to describe this computer program who still need to be convinced to use it for trans women
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Rae Radford @raeradford.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I think I'm in love with Kevin 😻 #Caturday
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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It was 95° at 2:45pm as an irrigator in Mettler, CA uses his ATV to transport irrigation pipes from one field to another. This is a vital task as irrigation pipes must be replaced if damaged to ensure that water is distributed evenly among the crops in any given field. #WeFeedYou
It was 95° at 2:45pm as an irrigator in Mettler, CA uses his ATV to transport irrigation pipes from one field to another.
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