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James Fitzwater

@jsfitzwater.bsky.social
433 followers 1.6K following 22 posts

Absorb, wonder, help improve where I can, and marvel . . . valid until the Pittsburgh Penguins move onto bsky and hold my attention hostage. [update: invalidated]

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Reposted by James Fitzwater
Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 1h
Join us on Thursday at noon Eastern, right here on the internet, for a virtual rally to learn about the latest on the academy of natural sciences fiasco, and what YOU can do about it. We've got a killer lineup of speakers and more coming soon. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
a poster for a virutal rally to save the academy of natural sciences. There's a stag beetle in a headseat, on a zoom call with Alie ward who is a praying mantis, Kory Evans who is a splended garden eel, Jessica Ware who is a white shark, Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian who is a weevil, Isa betancourt who is a snail, and Tykee James who is a green boa. The stag beetle is saying "learn about actions you can take" and a bluejay is saying "Join us Thurs Oct 15th, Noon-1pm ET"
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James Fitzwater @jsfitzwater.bsky.social · 15/10/2024
www.reddit.com/r/clevercome...
Screenshot of a Reddit comment, by user (all one word) Asher The Frost, that states, "Every Columbus Day I celebrate the traditional way: by kicking in my neighbor's door, loudly insisting he actually lives the next town over, and stealing all his food and jewelry."
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Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
In my Gender and Jim Crow class, we have a whole session on lynching images. I don’t show the victims, I show the crowds. We zero in on the faces in the crowds, their expressions, the children, the mothers, the picnics, the jubilation…all of it.
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Nicole Foy @nicolefoy.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
For almost 2 years now, DHS has repeatedly told me they're not detaining U.S. citizens It's simply not true So @propublica.org published the receipts: a searchable database of the 500+ citizens detained by immigration agents during this Trump administration projects.propublica.org/american-cit...
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Mike (They/Them) 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @mxmike.co.uk · 11/10/2026
Bethany wore a “Protect The Dolls” t-shirt during rehearsals. The BBC posted it on their socials then quietly deleted and reposted it without showing her from the front. On TV last night they actually blurred the message #Strictly
Bethany Antonia rehearsing for Strictly Come Dancing in a Protect The Dolls t-shirt Bethany Antonia rehearsing for Strictly Come Dancing in a Protect The Dolls t-shirt that’s been edited to look like a plain white t shirt
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Marry us
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
CLAIM: the ICE agents fired into a vehicle with a child in it for no reason at all FACT: these keys here are jingling isn't that interesting? isnt the sound they make really something?
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Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 08/10/2026
Ms. Rachel is the hero America needed
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Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Damn. What an icon. RIP
news.mit.edu
Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90
Margaret H. Hamilton, a profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA’s Apollo program, died at age 90.
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Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins @ajcousins.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is not deporting people. Literally. Legally. There is a deportation process and this isn't it. This is rendition. This is disappearing people.
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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is human trafficking on a massive scale.
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Zoomer Antimillenarian @surcomplicated.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We need to stop calling this "deporting" and start calling it "marooning", because that's what this is. Tossing ppl into the middle of nowhere to die.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 21/09/2026
JD Vance Booed  By Own Reflection  In Mirror theonion.com/jd-vance-booed-by-own-…
JD Vance Booed  By Own Reflection  In Mirror
Image Calls VP ‘Loser’ Right To His Face
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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James Fitzwater @jsfitzwater.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"bound [them] with rope, placed bags over their heads, and beat them on the head, back, and ribs with elbows, knees, and gun barrels [...and] forced down a staircase still bound and hooded. One was shoved down the stairs and then hauled back up by the rope tied around him as he screamed in pain."
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James Fitzwater @jsfitzwater.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"When a gov't transfers people into custody of a regime whose record of torture it has spent decades condemning, it does not get to look away from what happens next." America Sent Them Into a Dictatorship's Torture Chambers, Then Looked Away | Just Security  www.justsecurity.org/157413/us-de...
justsecurity.org
America Sent Them Into a Dictatorship's Torture Chambers, Then Looked Away
The United States is deporting third-country nationals to Equatorial Guinea despite its documented pattern of human rights abuses.
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 01/09/2026
@nbcnews.com is reporting that ICE arrested 50,000 people in August — 100,000 over the course of the summer. At the pace they're building or contracting jail space, that number can only realistically be expected to go up from here.
nbcnews.com
ICE arrests 50,000 people in August, continuing record pace
ICE is in the midst of a nationwide arrest surge that is not as visible as aggressive enforcement efforts from earlier in 2026.
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escapedexplorer.bsky.social @escapedexplorer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Hey uhhhh in all seriousness why is ProPublica citing to/relying on/giving credit to *The Daily Caller* here the weird axe to grind about the lab-leak conspiracy theory over there is really weird and counterfactual and out-of-step with the quality work you're generally known for, what is going ON
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Dr. Scott Hartman - but not THAT kind of doctor @skeletaldrawing.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Have you ever wanted to visually compare the size of your favorite extinct animals? Now you can, as I'm launching an interactive size comparison tool on my website. Give it a try and let me know what you think: www.skeletaldrawing.com/compare/
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Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Jennifer Nelson’s entry to this year’s Minnesota State Fair crop art
A localized version of Guernica with a loon at the center and a person holding an ICE OUT sign 

“My piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica, a work that was his response to the Nazi's bombing of the Basque town. I thought there was a fitting parallel between these incidents about the high price paid by ordinary people when aggressive regimes try out new tactics of war, as well as a fitting juxtaposition of the darkness of living such an experience and the light we shone through it in our own resistance and care for one another. The patterns near Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s mouths are actually their last words in Morse code: ‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’” 

Jennifer Nelson
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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 27/08/2026
Today's @xkcd.com
It's a stickman holding a hammer, lifting up his leg, and saying:

"Listen up, leg. I've been sending you rich, oxygenated blood for years, while you send me worthless used-up blood with no oxygen. Time to teach you a lesson about not ripping me off!"

It is captioned: tariffs
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Max Moran @maxmoranhi.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
"I've never seen a feature for a word processor that I said 'That's so cool we should bet the world's economy on it, and by the way, we should probably also put all the writers in a woodchipper now that it exists.'" - @doctorow.pluralistic.net
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Yale Stewart @yalestewart.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
The official Mister Rogers YouTube channel has been posting full episodes recently, and believe me when I tell you that watching one is a great way to take a break from the general state of things. www.youtube.com/@MisterRoger...
youtube.com
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
Welcome to the official Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood YouTube channel! For more than 30 years, Mister Rogers created a relationship with millions of children, each of whom felt like they were visiting ...
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This cruelty has no need but cruelty. Haiti remains deeply dangerous; a country in the throes of anarchy. Hundreds of thousands of people are SAFE. They are safe. They are safe here and the nation has decided to make them unsafe. We are embarking on a tragedy and we cannot look away. We cannot.
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Bill Amend @billamend.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…
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Yael Schacher @yaelschacher.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
So many immigrants I've interviewed break down about this. "Monsanto Maler was one of several Haitian immigrants who traveled from Springfield for a check in...after an ankle monitor was attached to him, Maler was seen collapsing to the ground and crying." www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/hundre...
springfieldnewssun.com
Hundreds rally at site were Haitians required to check-in, get monitors after end of TPS
Hundreds of people gathered outside a federal immigration office Sunday morning to show support for Haitian immigrants from Springfield who were called to report for immigration check-ins.
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optimisticsoap.bsky.social @optimisticsoap.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Libraries make us a harder target for authoritarianism. Equal access to info, ideas, and space that doesn’t require a purchase to belong. Also: using the library means money stays in your community instead of streaming out to Amazon. 📚 What’s checked out on your card right now?
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 03/08/2026
BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: Five months ago, we learned that ICE seized drawings and letters from children in the Dilley ICE concentration camp. I sued under the Freedom of Information Act. Today, I got responsive documents. www.muellershewrote.com/p/breaking-e...
muellershewrote.com
BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: ICE Seized Drawings from Children in Detention. I Sued, and Today I Got Them.
Five months ago, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for papers seized from children at the Dilley ICE Detention Center. Today, I got a heartbreaking response.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
AlphaFold was always bait-and-switch; now Google confirms it. A hyper-narrow bioinformatrics model with actual science bolted on whose guesses can be experimentally checked was never a licence for socially-applied slop at scale, but it's done its job. Effort transferred to LLMs.
Screenshot of Financial Times headline reading "Google DeepMind dismantles Nobel-winning AlphaFold team in strategy shift" with photo of Demis Hassabis & John Jumper
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Once you understand that this is a model of science written by non-scientists who hate universities but love venture capital and redirecting money to political allies, everything makes a lot more sense. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
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Bénédicte C @benecal.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Science, Enshittified
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
On Tuesday, the full Fifth Circuit granted DOJ's request for a "precedential stay" of district court rulings holding that the Due Process Clause requires bond hearings for immigration detainees w/in 90 days of their arrest. Today's "One First" explains why that's a really big (and problematic) deal:
stevevladeck.com
Bonus 239: The Fifth Circuit's "Precedential Stay" in Sosnava Rodriguez
The Fifth Circuit once again did the government's bidding on immigration detention—this time through an unexplained procedural move I've never seen before.
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 21/07/2026
The U.S. Secretary of Defense just stated that—so far—the war with Iran has cost $37.5 billion dollars. That's since February. That same amount is how much the United States spent on planetary science from FY2013 through FY2026 inclusive. Thirteen years of planetary science or five months of war.
The Curiosity rover on Mars. At about $2.6 billion, it buys you about ten days of Iran war.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The Trump admin's latest strategy to mass generate removal orders is diabolical: - Take a huge group of people with hearings scheduled in late 2026, 2027, or 2028. - Send them a physical letter rescheduling all of their cases to next week. - Those who inevitably miss court get ordered deported.
thecityreporter.nyc
Deportation Orders Soar in NYC as Trump 'Mega Master' Hearings Accelerate
A new report finds removal orders for people who missed hearings more than doubled in New York City in June, as a new tactic of hastily scheduled court dates rolled out.
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tinyfrightening.bsky.social @tinyfrightening.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I’m disabled and my income is below poverty level, but my living costs don’t break down into monthly bills, so the SNAP people couldn’t figure out how to deduct them from my income. So I get $24 in SNAP a month. Lots of people fall into the cracks like this.
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Andrew Russeth @russeth.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
"Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
nytimes.com
Faced With Piles of New Paperwork, People Are Losing Food Stamps
Arizona’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rolls have plummeted, offering a possible preview of national trends as states try to avoid new federal penalties.
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
“I learned what asylum was when I was 9 years old… I learned that if a boat of children arrive on your shores and you send them back to their deaths, that is an evil act. The reason we have asylum is because we tried the alternative, and the result was evil.”
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Life under a two-tier justice system. There is a real process for people to seek pardons. But its been set aside for cronies, crooks and donors
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Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
5-year-old Camila's crayon drawings in detention look just like my 5-year-old's drawings. We need this to end, and then we need prosecutions for everybody who had a hand in harming these families. www.ctinsider.com/news/article...
ctinsider.com
5-year-old spent 118 days on her own in federal immigration custody in CT
On any given day there are more than two dozen immigrant children detained without a parent or guardian in programs run by Connecticut nonprofits.
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Lauren Turek @laurenfturek.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Current policies that disinvest from education and science and turn away from efforts "to attract the most able from around the world is one that courts long-run decline. No amount of short-run economic news, especially when paired with unsustainable government debt, will stop it."
nytimes.com
Opinion | Look Past the Jobs Numbers: Three Ways Trump Is Strangling the Economy
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Luigi de Guzman @ouij.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I recently had to explain qualified immunity and the near-impossibility of holding the police accountable in the United States to my dad. "Then we live in a police state," he said.
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Matthew Buckley @physicsmatt.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Since we're apparently getting the Incredibly Stupid And Pointless Space Mirror, here's why a space mirror is incredibly stupid and pointless. www.physicsmatt.com/blog/2026/5/...
physicsmatt.com
The Dumbest Thing I've Read This Week II: Space Mirrors — physicsmatt
Mirrors in space are a dumb idea. Put that aside for a second. I want to talk about math, and how physicists use math. And why you need to be better at using math as part of your thought process...
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Taylor Mitchell Brown @tmitchellbrown.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Scientists just found the first-ever name of a Maya astronomer. His name was Sak Tahn Waax, meaning “White-chested Fox.” Maya astronomers have long lived in obscurity, uncredited for their work. Now we finally have a name. #Archaeology #AncientMaya @antiquity.ac.uk 🧪🏺 New at #NationalGeographic
nationalgeographic.com
Archaeologists decipher the name of a Maya astronomer for the first time
His moniker translates to "White-chested Fox."
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
No hell too hot. www.sunjournal.com/2026/07/13/i...
The little girl was still in Bluey pajamas.

No older than 3, she was trying to smell the flowers.

At her side, a pink rolling bag.

Her father, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, had just been fatally shot and yanked from a car he’d been driving. Now, he lay handcuffed in the street, where he would remain for five hours.

 “You took her dad, you took her dad!” a woman nearby yelled, according to Cecelia Humiston, 22, who witnessed the interaction in Biddeford on Monday morning.
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Ami Fields-Meyer @fieldsmeyer.com · 13/07/2026
"They took him to an alleyway and beat him until he lost consciousness." When I read about the horrifying abuses at the hands of ICE agents, I'm reminded of this quote from our reporting in ON COURAGE, from the human rights statistician Patrick Ball. They will not be anonymous. We will find them.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Millions of people do good in their communities every single hour and if we uplifted each example, we would drown out those who spend their time doing evil. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/n... - RIP to both of these men.
nytimes.com
Jayson Conner and Jeffrey Newman, Who Gave Backpacks to Those in Need, Die Days Apart (Gift Article)
The couple, who died within a few days of each other, provided needed supplies, like socks and wet wipes, to people living on New York City’s streets.
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Phil PlAIt @philplait.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
When a politician dies we see a lot of hagiographies about them. If you mention they were a terrible person IRL, you get chastised. My feeling? If you don't want people to talk shit about you after you die, don't be shitty when you're alive.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 09/07/2026
We can see this in the ICE flight data. Domestic “round-up” flights are spiking, and some activist flight watchers report the flights are getting fuller. But deportation and removal flights remain steady. This means the concentration camps are getting packed to the brim. It’s awful to comprehend.
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