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Jeff Beal

@jbbeal.bsky.social
624 followers 415 following 1.1K posts

Dad and software engineer. Live in southern CA; like running and beer

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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The em dash — named for being the width of a capital letter M in traditional printing — is just good typography; don't assume it means something is written by AI
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I write software for a living. I've been doing this for 26 years. IMO this article doesn't touch on the biggest, most important, and most consistent problem in all of software development: PBKAC www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/t...
nytimes.com
Why It’s Difficult for Tech Companies to Rein In A.I.
Researchers say artificial intelligence is developing faster than the systems put in place to monitor and control it.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Maybe this is the answer
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I don’t trust any tech billionaire a lot, but Musk’s alignment here should make us all suspicious. What’s the ulterior motive? What’s going on behind the scenes? Are they trying to justify lower earnings than they bragged about or something else?
Screenshot of Washington Post logo with the headline:

“Top AI leaders unite to warn the technology is advancing too fast”

Followed by the subhead: 

“Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, long at odds with each other, found common ground in calling for a slowdown in AI amid mounting fears about its dangers.”
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug, but I keep thinking that most investors are desperately looking for places to put their money and are thus susceptible to compelling, yet unsubstantiated, stories of a new wunderkind who will show them the way www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
The 24-Year-Old Who Lost Billions
Leo Aschenbrenner claimed to know the future of AI.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I think that when historians are writing about our time, there will be entire chapters titled things like, “How could they have been so stupid?”
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
My cats ate my avocado
Corpse of a perfectly ripe avocado, innocent of any wrongdoing, sitting on the floor, mauled to death, flesh gouged out by wicked claws and fangs
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Is health care a business or not? Massive amounts of money change hands and many, many people get rich, but in most businesses, loyal customers get good treatment. We've crossed $1MM in medical bills this year; my wife is a patient at Cedars-Sinai and we have not seen one MD today
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
How do I find the person at a hospital who doesn't have "all I can do" or "it's policy" in their vocabulary?
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
If LLMs are trained on public domain content, then the public should own the LLMs
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
It seems that the oil industry is convinced that they will lose the trial under Colarado state law, and that the damages would be "ruinous" to their industry. Doesn't that argument concede the fact that the oil industry is causing harm? insideclimatenews.org/news/2308202...
insideclimatenews.org
Boulder, Colorado, and Big Oil Prepare for High-Stakes Clash in Supreme Court - Inside Climate News
The case, which the justices will hear in early October, could be consequential for more than two dozen climate liability lawsuits pending against the fossil fuel industry.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The Supreme Court has only themselves to blame. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
wsj.com
Build First, Ask Questions Later: Trump’s Ballroom Puts Supreme Court in a Bind
The administration says it is too late to unwind the project, even though two courts ruled against it.
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Reposted by Jeff Beal
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 02/08/2026
Vance, Farage and Weidel posted fear-mongering messages about a Spanish migrant crisis that weren't true. They haven't retracted them. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
The Far Right Is Distorting Ceuta
We’ve seen this before.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Don't listen to the people who say Nolan strayed too much from the source material. If he'd called the movie something different and given all the characters different names, those people would be complaining it was a blatant ripoff of the Odyssey and practically stole from Homer word for word
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Wealth is created by repeatedly charging customers more than you pay your workers. We should start calling workers "wealth creators" instead
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
I am not religious anymore and do not believe in God, but the principles I took away from Sunday School and a mission for the Mormon church cannot tolerate this type of hypocrisy. To say that your Christian faith is why we don't want "low wage foreigners" hurting "normal Americans" is EVIL
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
"The U.S. and Iran were in dispute Tuesday over whether Tehran had agreed to allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites." If you're in dispute about whether or not you are in agreement, you are not in agreement. apnews.com/article/iran...
apnews.com
US and Iran dispute whether Tehran has agreed to nuclear inspections
The U.S. and Iran disputed whether Tehran had agreed to allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
apple.news/AqjL5jK_oSjm... "The ruling is a departure from a series of decisions by the Supreme Court expanding religious freedoms in recent terms" It is NOT a departure once you consider that the "series of decisions" referenced all prioritized the Christian religion over other beliefs.
apple.news
Supreme Court says Rastafarian can’t sue prison officials over shorn dreadlocks — The Washington Post
The ruling dealt with legal technicalities but is a departure from a series of decisions by the justices expanding religious freedoms in recent terms.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
There is no anger like the anger of Brazilian football fans when the game starts buffering
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Happy Juneteenth everybody!
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
We didn't ask for AI. We didn't ask for them to use that AI to take our jobs. We didn't ask them to take our land to build data centers to run that AI. We certainly didn't ask them to build rockers to move those data centers into space to run the AI and take our jobs.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
How is a company that lost $4B on $18B revenue supposed to be valued at over $1,700B? Make it make sense
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Cybertrucks are ridiculous. Whenever we see one driving by, we should point and laugh
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all humanity are equal. That they inherently hold certain inalienable rights, among them the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of individual power and agency. Governments must not only protect these rights, but expand them
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
My favorite news
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
If only Congress had power to stop a corrupt President. If only the people who had written the Constitution had considered this possibility and included something they could do. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
GOP lawmakers want to rein in Trump’s $1.8 billion payout fund. Here’s what they can do.
As the Senate returns from the Memorial Day recess Monday, several proposals have been floated, but Republicans are waiting for the Trump administration to weigh in.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Last year, one of my children had to take an ambulance ride. We got a bill for $3,300; we provided our insurance details; insurance paid a portion and said we owed nothing. All good. Today, the ambulance company called looking for the rest of the money. Our medical financial system is terrible
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Software has been sufficiently advanced for a while that almost anything imaginable is possible; the advances in large language models make it even easier. Which means that, more than ever, "Should we?" is by far the more important question than "can we?"
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
One of their best
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Woke up early. Ran 21.1 kilometers. Ate breakfast. Drank beer. Took a nap. Now what?
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I love my country because of the Bill of Rights, not the Dow Jones Industrial Average
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Reposted by Jeff Beal
Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
1/ I guess i'm going to loosely blog the CA governor's debate? First Q: whether or not to cut gas tax. Steyer: blames war, windfall oil company tax instead Porter: wants to "move away from it" posits as green measure Mahan: attacks others, "reform tax" Becerra: no, need for infrastructure
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
“No One is Paying Me” is not the same thing as "I don't expect to make money from this". Is she invested in OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other company working in AI? If so, her statements are still shamelessly self-serving apple.news/Ap9k2z1K7TS2...
apple.news
Reese Witherspoon Confronts Backlash to AI Comments and Says “No One Is Paying Me” — The Hollywood Reporter
The Oscar winner has weighed in after her comments caught fire online and social media users accused her and Sandra Bullock of being paid by AI companies to promote the technology.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
The convenience of at-home charging is unimaginable to gas drivers, and yet, for some reason (gas companies paying for propaganda?) all you hear about are what a pain they are to charge on road trips. (And that is often exaggerated and is a solvable problem.)
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Spent the weekend in Atlanta at the "Take Back Tech" conference sponsored by @conmijente.bsky.social and @mediajustice.bsky.social learning about how different groups around the country are fighting the rise of techno-fascism Have never been to anything like this. Will be back next year
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Snake River on the border between Idaho and Oregon descending into Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America
Snake River; surface still as glass, reflecting hills on the Oregon side of the river. Hills green with spring grass; overcast sky looks like snow when reflected in the water.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
I get irrationally annoyed whenever people mention the 25th amendment. Impeachment is the correct and appropriate lever and, as unlikely as it is, it is more likely than the 25th.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
"Trump threatens genocide" is the only acceptable headline. God save us from this mad man we have unleashed on the world. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
Trump warns ‘a whole civilization will die’ if Iran doesn’t make a deal
The president had issued a deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern time for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, pledging destruction by midnight if leaders don’t comply.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Apparently my first move in Wordle was very lucky today, and eliminated all but five of the remaining words in the dictionary. I went through all five.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
It seems to me that if Iran finds our pilot, they will treat them well and send them home. Very publicly. They know they want the rest of the world to stay away, and torturing a captured pilot seems like a good way to threaten that
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Photographer understood the assignment www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Dozens arrested after authorities fire tear gas at 'No Kings' protesters
More than 70 protesters were arrested Saturday evening after authorities shot tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd, leaving at least one teen with an eye wound and others with skin burns, accordin...
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Lovely weather for some anti-fascism in Long Beach today Didn't get pictures, but Long Beach's finest were lined up along some of our march route, and appeared to be trying to be threatening? Weird for cops to be upset about a bunch of middle-aged normies #nokings #longbeach
Crowd of people holding signs in Bixby Park, Long Beach, CA. Blue Sky with wisps of cloud; green grass; some palm trees and a whole bunch of anti-fascists
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Parents do not have the right to control their children; they have the privilege of loving them.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Our big mistake seems to be not recognizing that some people were viewing dystopian fiction, not as a warning, but as an instruction manual
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
We need a new constitution. Probably without a President at all.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Better Headline: Senate Republicans Allow Iran War to Proceed "Block War Powers Limits" is confusing and basically a double negative www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
nytimes.com
Live Updates: Senate Republicans Block War Powers Limits as Mideast Crisis Widens
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Regime change is the only exit. And by "regime change" I mean: Impeach Donald Trump
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Yes. We are the baddies.
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
My favorite fact check of the day
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Jeff Beal @jbbeal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Dear Canada -- Can you consider joining as the 51st state long enough to give us your votes to fix this mess?
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