Sign in

Mara

@maralinn.bsky.social
689 followers 1.4K following 1K posts

Half pessimistic doom-scroller, half social progressive. Ex-librarian into rug-hooking, cats, dogs, nature, classic film, Jeopardy, US politics, climate. I try to post/repost interesting things in addition to politics.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Mara
Jen Rice @jenrice.bsky.social · 31m
With Ken Paxton trailing in polls, legal experts warn he has powerful tools as TX attorney general to interfere in his own Senate election - and he’s proven he's willing to use them. But they also have confidence in courts to protect the vote. More here from @democracydocket.com:
democracydocket.com
Why top Texas election denier Ken Paxton could cause chaos if he loses his Senate race
Ken Paxton has election interference tools and he’s proven his willingness to use them. But legal experts are confident that courts are up to the task of protecting the will of the voters.
054
Reposted by Mara
Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 45m
MAGA believed their own press clippings about a Latino realignment even as they pursued policies that would be obviously odious to Latinos, with the end result pointing toward a dummymander wipeout.
5497
Reposted by Mara
Maybe It Will Happen Today @today-maybe.bsky.social · 1h
An illustration done mostly with digital colored pencils. Ok, so we have a wooden coffin in the classic top-heavy hexagon shape. The coffin is propped up at an angle on nothing against a background of gray-blue paint splatters as a spooky sheet ghost rises out of it. Although it’s not a real sheet as it’s translucent and there’s nothing inside of it except a gape-mouthed green skull in the approximate head position within the sheet. The ghost is wearing a big. floppy, black witch’s hat and there’s a little brown bat hanging down from the wide brim. The ghost’s arms are extended holding a jack o’ lantern with a one-toothed frowny face carved into it. Popping out of the jack o’ lantern is a a black cat with green eyes balancing the cap of the pumpkin on his head. And on the stem of the pumpkin cap is a very serious-looking brown speckled owl. A series of spooky speech balloons is chained together around all this , each balloon containing one word and associating back tot he spooks and creatures named in the reverse order listed. The lettering in the balloons is red and drippy and reads ‘Maybe it will happen today’.
117466
Reposted by Mara
Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 17h
A interactive video AI model has been developed which its makers claim passed the Turing Test 48% of the time. (I watched the sample video, and it was impressive, which is disturbing.)
Tavus
@tavus
X.com
Introducing Griffin, the first model to pass the video Turing test.
48% of people who talked to it live thought it was a real human. Previous systems have had a pass rate <3%. It is #1 on NVIDIA's benchmark for full-duplex Al video.
It's the first Human Interaction Model (HIM).
76313
Reposted by Mara
kottke.org @kottke.org · 20h
Map of the Lighthouses of the World. Each lighthouse sweeps out its actual arc and the reach of the beams is true to scale. Very cool. [kottke.org]
kottke.org
Map of the Lighthouses of the World
From mapped.earth, a map of every lighthouse on the planet, along with other charted lights like lighted buoys and such. The screenshots above are static but the lights on the real map move: each lighthouse sweeps out it
511857
Reposted by Mara
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 20h
“.. How is that .. number bigger than 100%? Apparently because earlier pledges were withdrawn.” @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/10/01/p...
14548147
Reposted by Mara
Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 22h
“This was a miscarriage of justice, and what happened to Mr. Hearn is an outrage that should shock every American. This administration chose to pursue an unjust prosecution against Mr. Hearn."
nbcnews.com
Judge bars U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from charging ex-Olympian in Reflecting Pool case
The judge dismissed the case against David Hearn with prejudice, citing “exceptional circumstances” that included President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Pirro’s office.
21882251
Mara @maralinn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I got to “This is really exciting” and burst out laughing.
000
Reposted by Mara
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 30/09/2026
surreal scenes -- Trump is out while Howard Lutnick frantically glazes him
68750146
Reposted by Mara
Sarah Weinman @sarahweinman.com · 30/09/2026
Just over 50 years ago marital rape wasn't a crime anywhere in North America and in many, many other countries. This timeline is upsetting as hell and we have made so much progress.
0369
Reposted by Mara
Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 30/09/2026
Oh my. The aurora borealis, seen in ultraviolet light from space. Our planet, putting on a show ✨
19646162
Reposted by Mara
Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I also think about Elon saying Biden's DOJ wouldn't prosecute Sam Bankman-Fried because he was a Dem donor... followed by Biden's DOJ nailing SBF, who now posts about how awesome Trump is so he can get a pardon.
9837137
Reposted by Mara
FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Colorado GOP nominee for governor, Victor Marx, laughs as he recounts a violent fight with his wife: "I remember grabbing her, slamming her into our front door. She bent over and started crying."
5018793
Mara @maralinn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Christ, what an ass.
010
Reposted by Mara
DGC Roadguy @dgcroadguy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
013513
Reposted by Mara
Ben Goggin @bengoggin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We tested America.gov and found that in 4 of 10 answers, the chatbot is linking back to USA.gov, the website launched under Bill Clinton that Trump is seemingly trying to replace with the AI product. www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
nbcnews.com
Trump’s new America.gov AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago
The answers from the AI chatbot often duplicate what’s on the federal government’s existing sites, sometimes with less detail.
3298
Reposted by Mara
Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Lot going on here www.azcentral.com/story/news/p...
Kyrsten Sinema's ex-boyfriend and former bodyguard said he threw her paintings into her swimming pool in part because he felt disillusioned by her relationship with a major
U.S. Artificial Intelligence software developer as the war in Gaza drags on.
801564285
Reposted by Mara
batkaren @batkaren.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Today’s gonna be the day, The New Yorker!
NEW YORKER CAPTION CONTEST

IMAGE: a room full of wolves leaning in like they’re hungry with a lone, terrified-looking pig on a stage sitting atop a barstool holding a guitar in front of a mic. 

MY CAPTION: “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.”
517218
Reposted by Mara
Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
11470822031
Reposted by Mara
Acid Rain @bearysweet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The colder autumn nights in Germany coaxes this magnificent eagle, Oropherion, to spend his nights in his heated indoor winter aviary. This is an African Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), the largest eagle species native to Africa. (Cr @birdsofprey_nathalie_denolf) #birds #eagle
17353221047
Reposted by Mara
Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New: Through a series of complex agreements with cities, the White House built a massive license plate camera database accessible to the feds. The program aggregates data across license plate companies (Flock, Axon, more) & is searchable by many agencies: www.404media.co/how-cities-a...
404media.co
How Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance Program
How the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.
8177132
Reposted by Mara
Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Other states besides Texas with voter registration deadlines over the next 7 days: Arkansas, Arizona, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana , Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, South Carolina.
1276229
Reposted by Mara
Scott Lemieux @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
He had all afternoon and this is the best he could come up with. Great ratio!
1152728246
Reposted by Mara
Matt Kane @mk.gg · 29/09/2026
Hello everyone please don't use this model that's almost as good as ours at 1/10th the cost and without all the guardrails that won't even let you fix an auth bug
320131
Reposted by Mara
Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
And he got dunked on so hard that he deleted it
1024829
Reposted by Mara
Carolyn Petit @carolynmichelle.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Looks like they heard you!
A post from the "Editing the Blue-Gray Lady" Bluesky account, showing that the word "Falters" in the headline "As Jack Smith Testifies, a Senator's Accusation of Perjury Falters" has been updated to "Falls Apart."
2473
Reposted by Mara
Gian D’Oh @giandoh.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
“Yeah Ma, I’m not loving the carpentry thing but I’m kinda killing it as an influencer…. A shirt? Yeah of course I’m wearing a shirt.”
131585284
Mara @maralinn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Question to America.gov: Is North Korea a US ally?

Answer: No, the US does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. The US mutual defense treaty in the peninsula is South Korea
000
Reposted by Mara
Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 29/09/2026
Due to retirements and primary defeats, there will be 99 new members of Congress next year. No matter how many seats change party hands, it is already a change election that can open to the door to reform.
brennancenter.org
Democracy Constrained
The Supreme Court has helped create an electoral system in which competition is scarce, money is dominant, and voting protections are weaker.
39630
Reposted by Mara
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 29/09/2026
OK, this particular America.gov easter egg that occurs when you ask it if a hot dog is a sandwich is actually kinda funny:
is a hotdog a sandwich
713714
Reposted by Mara
Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Official monthly data is in, and US solar power generation hit a new record high, up 21% compared to this time last year!
a graph of US monthly solar generation
161149242
Reposted by Mara
Blue Heron Farm @blueheronfarm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Further, he ordered Sports Illustrated to now be called Athletics Illustrated, to avoid confusion
1211113
Reposted by Mara
NerdyKris @nerdykris.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It's the end game text that runs after you beat the Ender Dragon, but with words replaced.
1241
Reposted by Mara
Nathan Newman @nathansnewman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Schmidt better never mention this outside the Senate since this is as clear a case of malice aforethought and reckless disregard for the truth as you get. He has immunity for saying it in committee but any reference to it at a press event should get a multi million dollar defamation lawsuit.
143
Mara @maralinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Question: How much have other countries paid the US in tariffs? 

Answer; US tariffs are paid by US importers, not by foreign governments
010
Reposted by Mara
Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Mayor Mamdani’s plan to combat antisemitism is a thoughtful, strategic combination of education for tolerance, enforcement of civil rights, and investments in safety.
135768
Reposted by Mara
Patrick Meyers @pmeyers7.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What are the odds Schmitt's team placed this article with Axios, with the intent to use today's "bombshell" line of questioning as a springboard for said buzz (and then promptly stepping on the world's largest rake on live TV). Helluva way to introduce yourself to the country!
1226744
Reposted by Mara
Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A phenomenal moment in the Senate. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta. Smith denies it. Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury. Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland. WATCH IN FULL, UNINTERRUPTED
61668821551
Reposted by Mara
Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 29/09/2026
Trump’s new AI website is kinda fun, it turns out.
Can the president use taxpayer funds to air his old campaign ads on TV?

No. Federal appropriations law has long barred using taxpayer funds for political advertising.
5541151120
Reposted by Mara
@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Truly stunning development at today's Jack Smith hearing as Sen Schmitt tries to take down Smith with accusations of a phony plot involving George prosecutor Fani Willis...But his so-called evidence falls apart because he doesn't know the difference between the Atlanta Hawks & Iowa Hawkeyes. 🧵
35211
Reposted by Mara
Lexington Herald-Leader @kentucky.com · 29/09/2026
Lexington police say officers used their Flock camera database to try to find a car tied to a road rage case. It led them to the home of Samuel Penn, who had nothing to do with the incident.
bit.ly
Lexington police used Flock cams to find road rage suspect. It led them to an innocent man
Lexington police say officers used their Flock camera database to try to find a car tied to a road rage case. It led them to the home of Samuel Penn, who had nothing to do with the incident.
36145
Reposted by Mara
Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 28/09/2026
New Horizons is now *three days away* from shutting off its two heliophysics instruments, simply because NASA has not provided the $2M in funding it had promised to the mission last year or this year. There is no science basis for shutting these off. Our earlier coverage:
science.org
NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding
Decision risks “incalculable loss” of data from the edge of the Sun’s influence, scientists say
16656406
Reposted by Mara
D.M. Schmeyer @dmschmeyer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This works, btw. It's actually pretty incredible and heady just how powerful it is in practice. Every time I've done it the impact is pretty memorable.
3347110
Reposted by Mara
Rory Blank @roryblank.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Introducing Gurpo
A drawing of a small blobby figure inside of an enclosure with string coming off it, with text saying "introducing Gurpo, the new wearable personal assistant. Gurpo is not a computer program, he's a real tiny guy who is trapped inside your medallion necklace. 
Gurpo hates you, but is incapable of doing anything about it, and he has to answer your questions or he gets electrocuted. It's non-lethal.
If you shake his enclosure hard enough, gurpo will throw up!"
421861341
Reposted by Mara
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Whenever you see a pollster or consultant give a take like this, it’s always worth following the money. In this case, Emanuel has paid Anzalone’s firm nearly $300k (maybe more but that’s what I found so far). A consultant class is devouring the Dem Party www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisc...
John Anzalone &
@JohnAnzo
X.com
Underestimate @RahmEmanuel at your own risk.
He knows how to win. He knows how to fight.
And he knows how to message.
And no one will out work him. Regardless of whether he wins the Democratic nomination in 2028 he will make an impact on the race. You can be sure of that. Don't take your eyes off of him. At the minimum, learn from him.
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
From nytimes.com
6:47 AM • 9/26/26 • 274K Views
2253396833
Reposted by Mara
Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
One note about this, because I was curious: remarkably, the state-level explanatory power of Google searches for testosterone and Trump vote survives controls for education, income, and rurality.
1126383
Reposted by Mara
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Republicans want people to use more gasoline, no matter what it costs them, so that fossil industry profits will rise. No, really. This is not a culture war. That’s why they’re making cars burn more gasoline.
13710
Reposted by Mara
Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 28/09/2026
This year's record setting El Niño will impact many different parts of the world, with some experiencing severe drought and others flooding. In a new analysis at The Climate Brink, I explore what impacts happened during past events and which are most likely to occur this year
theclimatebrink.com
The impacts of this year’s record-shattering El Niño
El Niño will drive severe drought from Indonesia to the Southern Africa and northern South America, with wetter winters from the US Gulf Coast to Southern South America.
513965
Reposted by Mara
Dr. Merritt Rae Turetsky @queenofpeat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I am a mom and scientist begging everyone to look closer at the muck. We’ve been conditioned to see wetlands as wastelands. But three decades of research, I see a fiercely defiant wilderness. The boreal mire is a dynamic carbon-trapping vault that in some places has outlasted ice ages. 1/
A woman scientist - me! - standing over the boreal forest in interior Alaska.
11464125