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Gaurav

@mrvaidya.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.5K following 710 posts

"I guess we're just going to have to become firemen." — MLK Jr Research software engineer at @RENCI @UNC. Big fan of #wikipedia #TheBeatles #democracy #liberalism

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Yael Schacher @yaelschacher.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I am in Cap Haitien interviewing people deported from the United States. I have been doing this kind of work for almost a decade and it literally does not get more dire than this. People have lost everything they built in the U.S. and are terrified and have no place to go or way to live.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854
Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…
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Norm Eisen @normeisen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Presidents use blind trusts so nobody has to wonder if the guy setting economic policy is trading on it Trump skipped that part —- Thousands of stock trades, nearly $2B in his pocket later Nothing like it in American history More on @cnn.com 👇 -TN
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 15h
Aside from the obvious about how he’s psychotic, the only reason it’s constitutional for any POTUS to accept the peace prize is because the Nobel foundation is not part of the government of Norway as such. Otherwise it’d be a forbidden foreign emolument. Obama asked for an OLC opinion on this point.
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Love Wins Always @lovewinzalways.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
They did; the Graham Act allows Trump to do this, and its proponents (including many Dems!) simply refused to believe he would.
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ladies and gentlemen, the weekend 😌 @craigweekends.bsky.social · 16h
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Micah @rincewind.run · 22h
sincerity is important here - when I see Gavin Newsom talk about how much Republicans suck, I don't think he actually believes it, I think he's playing a game will Ossoff do everything that needs to be done to impose consequences on these people? I don't know but I do believe he hates them
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Bo Thompson @gaudipern.bsky.social · 18h
There should be a thing for the estates and foundations of deceased musicians like Aaliyah where newer generations of musicians are tapped to do tribute albums reimagining their original albums for charity. A chance to both remember all they were and could have been, and help the world.
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Gaurav @mrvaidya.bsky.social · 18h
Totally agree. The John Lennon version of this is fantastic; just Avril Lavigne’s cover of “Imagine” is worth the price of admission. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant...
en.wikipedia.org
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur - Wikipedia
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
So let's get this straight: Russia just murdered over 65 people in Ukraine in less than 48 hours. Crushed a building on top of sleeping families to celebrate Putin's birthday. And today, the U.S. announces that they are lifting sanctions on Russian diesel and planning to buy some,
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Trump announces that the U.S. will buy Russian oil. This is just a few weeks after Trump signed the Lindsey Graham Russia Sanctions bill, which authorized him to place 100% tariffs on countries that are the biggest importers of Russian oil/gas. Are we going to tariff ourselves now?
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cat @aisleofcats.bsky.social · 23h
from lao tzu's's tao te ching (leguin's rendition)
excerpt from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, as translated and interpreted by Ursula K LeGuin, including a footnote from the latter

76
Hardness

Living people
are soft and tender.
Corpses are hard and stiff.
The ten thousand things, the living grass, the trees, are soft, pliant.
Dead, they're dry and brittle.

So hardness and stiffness go with death;
tenderness, softness, go with life.

And the hard sword fails, the stiff tree's felled.
The hard and great go under.
The soft and weak stay up.

---

In an age when hardness is supposed to be the essence of strength, and even the beauty of women is reduced nearly to the bone, I welcome this reminder that tanks and tombstones are not very adequate role models, and that to be alive is to be vulnerable.excerpt from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, as translated and interpreted by Ursula K LeGuin

78
Paradoxes
Nothing in the world
is as soft, as weak, as water; nothing else can wear away the hard, the strong, and remain unaltered.
Soft overcomes hard, weak overcomes strong.
Everybody knows it, nobody uses the knowledge.

So the wise say:
By bearing common defilements
you become a sacrificer at the altar of earth; by bearing common evils you become a lord of the world.

Right words sound wrong.
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Thanh Neville, MD, MSHS @thanh-neville.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
#Pickle, I have a lot to do before leaving for vacation this weekend, and you laying across my to-do list and keyboard isn’t helpful
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Gaurav @mrvaidya.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The genetic secret is "AAA after TTT except before CTG", you're welcome.
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Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Is the genetic secret "be a tortoise"
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This is completely outrageous and disgusting. This must immediately be blocked by Congress and Trump should be impeached for this. The US is now funding Putin’s war machine as he murders civilians including children. We are lost as a country.
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Comic Book Club @comicbookclub.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Grant Morrison is the new James Bond... For IDW, which will take over the comic book license for the Ian Fleming character.
comicbookclublive.com
Grant Morrison Is Your New James Bond… Writer (For IDW)
Shaken AND stirred.
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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 09/10/2026
last night eyewitnesses saw Oscar Belgal — the man shot by ICE with his 5 year old in the car — discharged from the hospital into ICE custody, with feds speeding off as NYPD cleared the roads for them of protesters. his attorneys don't know where he is; he's seemingly been taken out of NY state.
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audreyii_fic @audreyii.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Something hilarious: if Ossoff ends up being our guy (and I really think he is), then Gen X will not have had a single president. That will be their payment for having not fought off the Boomers and then going all in on Trump: being passed over for leadership. Millennials aren't waiting.
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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It would really be great if folks not affiliated with the Trump Administration could stop using "Department of War." The Department of Defense is a statutory creation, and the name is statutorily given--the administration cannot unilaterally change it.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Indeed, Trump himself has 34 felony convictions and was facing a further 92 felony charges... but nothing is going to happen to him, because SCOTUS threw a blanket of immunity over him. I think this is what he means.
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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 09/10/2026
And no, he doesn't just talk like this because he is +10 up in the polls. When he debated David Perdue, they were in a dead heat. Competence. Integrity. Conviction.
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Dr Alex Fitzpatrick @animalarchaeology.com · 09/10/2026
why do they all look like me at different times during work
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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
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Eric Levai @ericlevai.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Now THIS is how you write a story. Devastating.
Screenshot from this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/politics/fort-hood-execution-streamed-public.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVE.Rw7O.Sj-0_s5YONzL&smid=nytcore-android-share
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Gaurav @mrvaidya.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
What a beautifully lit creature.
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Dex Anderson @dexanderson.com · 09/10/2026
I am very proud to be represented in Congress by a Somali-American woman who came to this country as a refugee. But even if I wasn't, Somali people are my neighbors. We already taught the world once: we Minnesotans love our neighbors with our lives.
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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Some favorite octopuses I've drawn to celebrate #WorldOctopusDay
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 09/10/2026
I am angry tonight. Because tonight ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his five year old child was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 09/10/2026
Kind of a buried lede in the results of this Supreme Court approval rating poll from Marquette: Overall support for Supreme Court expansion, which even Democratic politicians were dismissing as "radical" just a few years ago, is now at 53 percent today.marquette.edu/2026/09/marq...
Proposal	Favor or oppose
Favor	Oppose
Enforce strict ethics code for justices	89	10
Limited terms for justices	79	21
Increase number of justices	53	47
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey: Sept. 2-9, 2026
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Matt Boggie @mattboggie.com · 09/10/2026
If someone could pick me up an F train bench I’d really appreciate it (actually serious, if you’re going) 🚇
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This thing has made me go do a lot of reading tonight, and the Wikipedia page about the last public execution in the United States is well-written. It was Rainey Bethea, a Black man hanged in front of a crowd of 20,000 in 1936, a spectacle which embarrassed Kentucky enough that they ended hangings.
Hanna placed the noose around Bethea's neck, adjusted it, and then signaled to Hash to pull the trigger. Instead, Hash, who was drunk, did nothing. Hanna shouted at Hash, "Do it!" A deputy then leaned onto the trigger, which sprang the trap door. citation needed! Bethea fell 8 feet (2.4 m), and his neck was instantly broken.
Afterward, two doctors confirmed he was dead.
His body was taken to Andrew & Wheatley
Funeral Home. Icitation needed! He wanted his body to be sent to his sister in South Carolina so that she could arrange for him to be interred next to his father, but against these wishes, he was buried in a pauper's grave at Owensboro Cemetery (also known as City Cemetery and
"Potter's Field") in Owensboro. 14]It was estimated that a crowd of about 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution.!9! One man, 36-year-old Leonard A. Peters, was killed in a car accident while driving to Owensboro to witness the hanging. Three others, including his wife, were injured. 15. Afterwards, Hanna complained that Hash should not have been allowed to perform the execution in his drunken
condition. Hanna further said it was the worst display he experienced in the 70 hangings he had supervised. citation needed]
The spot where the scaffold stood
(approximately 37.775248° -87.116462°) is now part of a drop-off/pick-up lane in front of the Owensboro Convention Center. citation needed]へ
End of public executions in
Kentucky
As the Kentucky General Assembly had been meeting in its biennial sessions at the time, the media circus surrounding the Bethea execution embarrassed members of the Kentucky
legislature. In spite of the humiliation, they could not amend laws regarding executions until the next session in 1938. However, the trial judges in two separate Kentucky rape cases ordered that the hangings of John "Pete" Montjoy and Harold Van Venison be conducted privately. Montjoy, age 23, was privately hanged in Covington on December 17, 1937.On January 17, 1938, William R. Attkisson of the Kentucky State Senate's 38th District (representing Louisville), introduced Senate Bill 69, repealing the requirement in Section 1137 that executions for convicted rapists be conducted by hanging in the county seat where they raped their victims. The bill was promoted in the Kentucky House of Representatives by Representative Charles W. Anderson Jr., one of the attorneys who assisted Bethea in his post-conviction relief motions.
After both houses approved the bill, Governor Chandler signed it into law on March 12, 1938; it became effective on May 30 of that year.
Chandler later expressed regret at having approved the repeal, claiming, "Our streets are no longer safe." The last person ever legally hanged in Kentucky was Harold Van Venison, a
33-year-old African-American singer, who was privately executed in Covington on June 3, 1938.
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ranked responses to winning the Nobel: 3. Anne Carson (see below) 2. Peter Higgs (Went for a walk in order to hide) 1. Doris Lessing www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBO...
youtube.com
British author Doris Lessing reacts to Nobel win
YouTube video by ReutersLC
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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
From the Death Generator, an edited SOTN screenshot with Dracula and Richter. "Obsessed with Dracula." "Frequent whip oil purchaser. Yours, I presume?" Drac is staying to him lazily from his throne
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 09/10/2026
Ossoff: "These tariffs are crushing out state, and we'll repeal them. I'd like to hear the congressman explain why he's voted for them over and over and over again."
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 09/10/2026
Ossoff says that Mike Collins has "hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office"
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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
seeing the Mall area mostly back to normal is so nice
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Gaurav @mrvaidya.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"Ally McBeal" had this in 1997.
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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Barbarous.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is so dangerous! President Trump is deliberately inciting race hatred against an ethnic minority, calling on the people of Minnesota to "fight back" against "Somali immigrants." This must be a terrifying moment for the Somali community (who are overwhelmingly US citizens).
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Nire Bryce @nirebryce.breadthcharge.net · 08/10/2026
www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026... Maybe stop launching so many satellites then jackass
theregister.com
Starlink's plan to avoid orbital near-misses: Ephemeris sharing
Hang on. How about not chucking tens of thousands more satellites into space?
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I've been immersed in research on Reconstruction in Lousiana and it's a very difficult truth to absorb that the white terrorist movement in the South was among the most successful terrorist movements in global history. Took 10 years but it won a total & complete victory through murder and atrocity.
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Erica Henderson @ericafails.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Guys, this post got me a Bsky blue check. I couldn't be happier that this is how it happened.
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 08/10/2026
okay I am ten minutes in to episode one and this is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my LIFE “We have doors slamming, taps turning on, a fishbowl in the kitchen spontaneously smashed,” home inspector walks in: “okay so first off, I see they have a cat”
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Thorne 🌸 - Play Cozysters! @ens0.me · 07/10/2026
Still looking for a good remote job. I'm a tech lead/staff engineer-level coder with chops in a lot of languages and technologies. I have tons of experience with AI, web & mobile, crypto, & more.
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Scott 🥐🐟📈🦆🏈 @fishecon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
At times I am very proud to work for NOAA 
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pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Octopus Mosaic in Pompeii, Italy
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 08/10/2026
We need a national reckoning on campaign donation solicitations. It’s completely out of control.
Screenshot of text message asking “Will you please please please please pretty please pitch in $15 to Sherrod Brown's campaign today? sherrodforoh.org/l/qsEKwf

Text STOP to quit”
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paper beetles OUT NOW! @sneepsnorp3d.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
inside you there are two Weevils
Low poly, toon-shaded acorn weevil. An arrow points to the weevil with text that reads, "Has never heard of Excel."Low poly acorn weevil wearing a tie. Text above the weevil reads, "Weevil who knows Excel."
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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 08/10/2026
It’s (probably) not at an “I will I get fired if I put ‘artificial intelligence’ in an email” level but the WH is making clear that the expectation is to use Trump’s politically correct terminology in public communication
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