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Matt Baline

@mattbaline.net
633 followers 132 following 64 posts

Anthropologist, strategist, technologist, designer, maker.

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Reposted by Matt Baline
Matt Ufford @mattufford.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
kudos to New York Times for breaking another "Man Who Destroys Safety and Social Order for a Living Suffers Brief Emotional Discomfort on Vacation" story. masters of the genre.
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Matt Baline @mattbaline.net · 30/09/2026
That symbol should be on the ground. Wait right on top of it to trigger a green light for your direction of travel. I believe it’s a bike-scale sensor, as opposed to a car-scale sensor nearby.
A cyclist waiting on the symbol on the ground.
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Matt Baline @mattbaline.net · 25/09/2026
The Colorado Sun is amazing! coloradosun.com/about-us/
coloradosun.com
About Us
Learn more about The Colorado Sun, a journalist-founded, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/09/2026
huh, this piece nailed the AI bros like a decade ago
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Outside the obvious timebomb of selling out trans kids to appeal to ~16 bigots in deep Ohio, an underplayed part of the whole "trans kids in youth sports" stuff is making the most psycho Little League parents the most important political demo in America. They're joy vampires for the kids themselves!
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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Which is, of course, why thousands of people subscribe to my FREE newsletter, where I am willing to go to extreme depths (looking at college football message board politics sections) for you, sign up here heartlandsignal.com/newsletters/
heartlandsignal.com
Newsletters
State-level moments that matter — caught early. Radio Free America is Heartland Signal’s free weekly newsletter by Aaron Kleinman — tracking the statehouse fights and political moves shaping your righ...
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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
So thoughtful of your parents to put together their very own fall tv preview! Read it here: www.newyorker.com/humor/shouts...
Shouts & Murmurs
Your Parents’ Fall TV Preview
By Josh Gondelman
Published 9/17/2026

A photo of an older white couple sitting on a couch watching tv.“North of South of the Border” on Paramount+

Welcome to El Paso, where men are men and women are cast mostly in nonspeaking roles. Taylor Sheridan’s latest drama stars Mel Gibson as a Border Patrol agent who feels conflicted about his work because his bosses won’t let him arbitrarily deport Jews and Greek people. Sheridan’s shows currently take up so much of Paramount’s programming that there isn’t enough time in the day to air “North of South of the Border” as its own hour-long drama. It appears exclusively in snippets on television sets that characters are watching within the show “Landman,” which your parents refer to as “Yellowstone.”“Tendershire Farms” (Season 18) on BritBox
Maude Tendershire (Olivia Gingerbottom) works as the caretaker for her family’s historic chamomile farm. That’s about it. The show is so cozy and soothing that the actors frequently fell asleep during takes and can be spotted snoozing in the background. This season, low-jinx ensue after Lord Gilderoy (Hankleton Dunderthorpe III) stops by for a visit, but he’s already eaten so he doesn’t stay for tea. A lamb wanders off but soon returns. And for one entire episode, a gentle breeze rustles the branches of a weeping willow tree as an inaudible conversation takes place nearby.“Dr. Shaft, M.D.” on Fox
An underground facility known as Drive Shaft, Maryland, is home to the Washington, D.C. metro area’s most cutthroat drag-racing scene—and there’s a new driver tearing up the quarter-mile track. Other gearheads know him as Smooth J., but at his day job, at the Foggy Bottom Urology Clinic, Jason Shafterton goes by Dr. Shaft. Will his addiction to fast driving undermine his commitment to providing affordable penile health care to residents of our nation’s capital? Only time will tell. Your parents really aren’t that interested in the racing scenes or, frankly, the medical stuff. But your mom refuses to miss an episode because the show stars Daveed Diggs from the original cast of “Hamilton.”
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 17/09/2026
I didn't trust AI to tell me whether AI will kill us all in the next decade. So I turned to the one branch of science more reliable than LLMs: Bracketology
theringer.com
The AI Apocalypse Bracket: Just How Doomed Are We, Really?
Is AI really likely to wipe out humanity within the next decade? We used the most scientific tool in existence to get an answer.
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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Basically the 2028 Democratic nominee needs to run on the cleansing fire of the rule of law for everyone involved in the last 4 years of corruption plus increasing domestic refining capacity
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scaachi @scaachi.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
bad news, we all have to like macklemore now slate.com/life/2026/09...
slate.com
A Major Artist Was Just Kicked Off a Tour For His Political Beliefs. Now I Have to Do the Unthinkable.
Yes, we're talking about the man behind "Thrift Shop."
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Kyle Clark @kylec.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
NEW: Denver is preparing for emergency lines to be swamped by callers on 9/11 as United Airlines flies a passenger plane flanked by fighter jets over the city for a "private ceremony" www.9news.com/article/news...
9news.com
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Dr. Joanna Horrocks-Paschedag @joannahorrocks.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
So many of these read like something from The Onion. Gaze upon your state's official statue of Charlie Kirk while your chicken faces off with a robot cockfighter, and make sure your teen takes their legal concealed weapon to school. Yes, most of them are more serious, but they're all just as stupid.
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Amanda Mull @amandamull.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I love these kinds of stories so much
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 03/09/2026
I have plunged into the dark, icy depths of Lake America and returned with a column about MAGA's obsession with names
theringer.com
MAGA’s Big, Beautiful Quest to Rename the Entire World
The Lake America story is spectacularly dumb. It’s also spectacularly important.
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Peter Abraham @peteabeglobe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Story wins it with a rocket to center. His third RBI in the last three innings. Sox 9, Mariners 8, final. Guess they were right not to release him. Lol.
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Chad Finn @chadfinn.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The Red Sox just cannot restore Trevor Story to his old role.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Talked to @samblum.bsky.social at Inc. about turning The Onion around and making InfoWars into a cult. “Do you want to live in an incredibly extractive world where you’re just one of 55 companies that still exist? Or do you want to create your own path and build an army? We’ve just built the army.”
inc.com
The Onion's Audacious Plans for Infowars Are Not a Joke
Owner Jeff Lawson, CEO Ben Collins, and comedian Tim Heidecker tell Inc. how they found themselves owning goblinlove.net and selling gay frog plushies, and what it means for the future of 'The Onion.'
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 26/08/2026
I wrote about Natalie Harp
theringer.com
Why Is Natalie Harp Suddenly the Most Important Person in America? An FAQ.
There’s a new main character in Trumpworld—and the meltdown surrounding her is getting more normal all the time
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
her very existence was an indisputable reminder of how many things framed as inevitabilities were actually just someone’s choice. there actually is enough money for everything. the wealthy could fully fund literacy and public health and the arts and child welfare. they just won’t
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I wrote about the importance of literary friction and how the acts of thinking and learning and growing are anathema in our increasingly fascistic world. Which is all the more reason to double down on them. lithub.com/in-praise-of...
lithub.com
In Praise of “Wordy, Old Prose.” (Or, F*ck Your AI Reading Buddy)
More than two years ago I wrote an angry piece about how lame the bulletpointization of books is: the point of reading and engaging with books is not so the reader can consume little bullet points …
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 19/08/2026
I wrote about the most urgent danger now threatening the United States of America
theringer.com
Why the Most Urgent Threat to America Is Actually a Bee
The giant, coordinated movement against them is not enough. Just ask these extremely credible experts.
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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Yes....YES.......
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Matt Baline @mattbaline.net · 19/08/2026
Nice! You can update your Bsky handle to sports.cool or Rodger.sports.cool too!
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
These stories don’t happen without Ossoff lighting the spark. This is what I have been arguing for almost 20 years.
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Kyle Clark @kylec.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Marx is trying to pivot his campaign theme from Christian revival in Colorado to affordability, but when asked how he would make Colorado more affordable, Marx replied, "I'm gonna consecrate the state back to God" then told his running mate to handle the question on affordability
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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Random but if you worked for Us Weekly or Entertainment Weekly between 2015 and 2022 please DM me I have an important project.
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pete (goblin time) @ptmoria.com · 13/08/2026
Join the movement for human teeth
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kottke.org @kottke.org · 12/08/2026
I’m Done Using AI. “It made me lazy. It made me stop caring. It made me a worse programmer. It made me depressed. Because I stopped doing the hard work, I stopped learning, I stopped growing, I stopped being the one making the software.” [brettcodes.com]
brettcodes.com
I'm done using AI
Why I'm stopping using AI for coding (and anything else) after using it earnestly for a year and coming to understand the harms it causes on personal, societal, and environmental levels.
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Kathryn VanArendonk @kvanaren.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I am really, really, really, REALLY excited to be able to share the cover of my book, as well a link so you can preorder it for when it comes out in April. Look at the ears!!!! wwnorton.com/books/978132...
cover for my new book, The Bluey Years - blue backdrop with clouds, the words the bluey years written in scribbly writing like a kid who wrote on the wall in crayon, framed with triangular blue ears
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Matt Baline @mattbaline.net · 09/08/2026
Cannot recommend enough the “Parched” podcast on this! www.cpr.org/podcast/parc...
cpr.org
Parched - A Podcast about the Colorado River
The southwestern United States has been in a drought for more than 20 years. It's created a serious problem for the Colorado River, and tens of millions of people in the region. Parched is a podcast a...
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Kyle Clark @kylec.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
CO GOP Gov candidate Victor Marx got caught taking illegally large campaign contributions, so he told supporters to funnel unlimited money to him through a new online merch site. He wouldn't tell us who ran or it where the money is going... so we bought some merch to find out...
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katiebakes @katiebakes.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
wrote about how the internet increasingly feels like a restaurant where ~*~we do things a little differently around here~*~ www.theringer.com/2026/08/04/t...
theringer.com
The End of Google Search—and the Internet—as We Know It
For years now, Google has been tweaking its search formula to prop up AI and bury actual links. Now it’s rounding into its final form—and changing the internet forever.
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Amanda Mull @amandamull.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
there is a strain of lefty discourse where you can’t come to any unflattering conclusions about the populace—those must be explained away by how they are being acted upon by capital—but I think you’ll understand things better if you understand capital can also exploit weaknesses it didn’t create
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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 02/08/2026
I'm not sure why I have to keep telling people this but if you see a mug shot of an attractive woman and some bizarre story attached to it, it's AI generated and a fake story from a Facebook content mill. Stop sharing it!
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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This whole essay is fantastic and if you're a liberal Jew living in the year 2026 it will make you feel less insane, this paragraph in particular jewishcurrents.org/the-shame-of...
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Rainesford Stauffer @rainesford.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
For @time.com, I wrote a short essay on the notes app, and what my sister calls “notes app digest,” or scrolling back through the insight and nonsense in our notes. Loved talking to people about notes they’ve kept, and rediscovering all my old chaotic selves I could never delete.
time.com
Meet Me in the Notes App
Notes have staying power, writes Rainesford Stauffer, as vulnerable chaos, a counterpoint to hyper-curated feeds.
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Mforfuture @bosworthmelissa.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Proud of my local news station @9news.bsky.social @kylec.bsky.social for being a leader in reporting tje elusive ICE deportation flights, starting with DIA in Denver. youtu.be/i-RJyENKYCQ?...
youtu.be
A look at 'ICE Air: Inside America's secret deportation network'
YouTube video by Next 9NEWS
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Chris Scullion @scully1888.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
If you haven't seen it yet, BBC's montage at the end of the World Cup was fucking tremendous www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Fi...
youtube.com
BBC FIFA World Cup 2026 Closing Montage
YouTube video by Pick Six Productions Xtra
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 20/07/2026
I wrote about the game
theringer.com
Ode to Spain, Our Competent Kings of the World Cup
Spain’s style may be dull, but their logistical excellence is strangely inspiring
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George Pearkes @peark.es · 18/07/2026
Oh boy
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 16/07/2026
I wrote about VAR
theringer.com
VAR Is My Mortal Enemy and Should Be Yours, Too
The 2026 World Cup has been astonishingly good, with one nightmarish exception
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
bostonglobe.com
Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe
The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.
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Anthony DiCicco @adicicco.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
No World Cup until Tuesday, but NWSL games today: Reign v. Thorns, 4pm ET (ESPN) Summit v. Dash, 7pm ET (Victory+)
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 12/07/2026
Athletes like Erling Haaland and Alysa Liu hava captured our hearts because we live in a time of incompetent leaders and toxic masculinity. It is such a refreshing rebuke to see people performing at high levels while having fun and being their full selves.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Revenge = Comedy + Time
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Real idea: As part of the effort to get DC and PR statehood, next Dem president should invent about State Weeks. Each of the 52 states gets its own celebration week every year. A random July week is Montana week. Tourism bonanzas. Televised lottery every year for week placement. We ain't above this.
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Matt Baline @mattbaline.net · 07/07/2026
The kids have had enough. They’re ready for the next match.
A “red card” made of construction paper with “Bad call Ref” written in black marker.
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 07/07/2026
I wrote about the lads
theringer.com
The Worst Ending to the Best U.S. Men’s World Cup Ever
The vibes had been immaculate. Suddenly, they sucked.
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