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Mark Szpakowski

@mszpak.bsky.social
122 followers 83 following 640 posts

Sanity seeker at the tech-society-earth commons — Msit No’kmaq: All My Relations.

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Reposted by Mark Szpakowski
David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 08/10/2026
This was basically the entire point of conservatives' Master Plan that legalized corruption and bribery. masterplanpodcast.com - pass it on
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Brian Eno News @dark-shark.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
801: T.N.K. (Tomorrow Never Knows) - from their 1976 album, 801 Live; synthesizer and vocals by Brian Eno www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Va...
m.youtube.com
TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows) (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall,United Kingdom/1976)
YouTube video by 801 - Topic
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Jon of The North @krauza.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Trump-backing Ellisons are the #1 🇺🇸 supporters of the IDF Now they control all of this Are Y’all paying attention?
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Israel now denying "right of return" to Jews who want coexistence with Palestinians. Israel is not a home for Jewish people, it is home for Zionists who want to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This article seems completely unaware of Hannah Arendt's work on “the banality of evil”, that otherwise “good humans”, thru active ignoring (especially of intentions) create or contribute to great evil. Good Jews, good Americans, wake up & examine yourselves! www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
theatlantic.com
The Missed Opportunity of ‘NAZA’
A provocative Israeli documentary should make viewers think about their own moral parameters. Instead, it distances them from the war.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Mitochondria talk to each other—they form a social collective connected through: Nanotunnels Cristae Alignment Mito-derived vesicles (MDVs)”
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Biogenesis (including evolution?) is agential, driven by mitochondria. “In most cell types, including brain neurons, mitochondria surround the nucleus. This puts them in a perfect position to turn on and off gene programs.” www.martinpicard.energy/mito-life/
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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Your AI future: "It’s like a game of Spot the Errors. Everything about the map is wrong. The bridge doesn’t go over water. The name of the bridge is wrong. Barrington Street is in Dartmouth....The green arrows are directing drivers into head-on crashes with each other."
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Chris Conti @chriscontiphoto.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In short, for lay-people: Israel is not Judaism. Judaism is not Israel. Zionism is not Judaism. Judaism is not Zionism. You can be Jewish and not Zionist. You can be Jewish and not support Israel or its current far-right govt, or its atrocities. Protesting/boycotting Israel is not antisemitism.
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Halifax ReTales @halifaxretales.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It can not be expressed what an accomplishment it truly is to become Canada's #1 for high rents Doing all this without wages coming even close to keeping up
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Current Affairs @currentaffairs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Only Democracy In The Middle East™
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is ridiculous: "the average human body—if there’s anything like that—contains two quadrillion mitochondria. That’s 2,000 trillion little mitos, working together as a social collective to let your energy flow." We _are_ multitudes. tseenergy.substack.com/p/10-cool-th...
tseenergy.substack.com
10 Cool Things About Mitochondria
Breaking Old Stereotypes and Revealing their Remarkable Behaviors
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Reposted by Mark Szpakowski
Samuel Coavoux @scoavoux.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"Many scientific fields are already drowning in plausible-seeming but unverified papers": this is publish or perish, not LLM. Science has been drowning before chatGPT and is just drowning more. If LLMs are used for more papers, they won't improve science. But they could be used for better papers.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Wow! "Molecular complexes and cells possess a form of intelligence—an ability to acquire information, integrate it, evaluate alternatives, remember past states, and modify themselves to improve future performance." www.searchingformind.com/post/the-lif...
searchingformind.com
The Life of p53: From Stress Sensor to Guardian of the Genome
p53 is widely known as the “guardian of the genome,” and it is the single most commonly altered protein in human cancer. Yet the modern p53 molecule did not appear all at once with the rise of multice...
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
No, I was quote-posting Caitlin Johnstone
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
If your vote for Democrats is all about being against Trump, then you're just reinforcing the Democrat-supported status-quo that lead people to vote for Trump-alikes. Trump & his kin are symptoms of a deep bipartisan oligarchic rot; without addressing that you're contributing to America's downfall.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I’ve seen too much to believe we cannot become a conscious species. I am more convinced than ever that we are headed there already. It’s going to be a shambling, shuffling mess of a journey, but we’ll get there. We can’t run from our true nature forever.
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Jon of The North @krauza.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Congress has worked so few hours this year that lawmakers wouldn't even meet the Medicaid work requirements they passed.
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Humanity Must Win @humanitymustwin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The inability to forcefully and strongly stand up against a genocide livestreamed for 3 years is the essence of moral bankruptcy.
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Lori Emerson @loriemerson.net · 18/09/2026
just remembered walking down a street in Warsaw last week, with a friend, looking up, doing my usual half conscious clocking of surveillance cameras that are now ubiquitous across all US cities (on every pole, at every intersection, along every street and path) and suddenly realized I only saw…one.
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Thomas Piketty @thomaspiketty.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Before the UN general assembly next week, I joined 1,500+ academics from 100+countries in calling on global leaders to create an International Panel on Inequality modelled after the IPCC, as recommended by the G20 Committe on Inequality led by @josephestiglitz.bsky.social last year. Please share.
theguardian.com
Global leaders urged to join initiative to fight extreme inequality
More than 1,500 academics and economists sign letter, calling growing gap between richest and poorest ‘a policy choice that can be reversed’
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Susan Kiddie @susankiddie2.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
what a privilege it is 
to not take sides 

when the ground 
beneath you
is not the ground 
being taken.

- pavana reddy
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
US reveals it has weapons in space: this opens Pandora’s box. China has consistently opposed the militarization of outer space, but now it would be nearly impossible for China and Russia to avoid taking reciprocal actions. www.ft.com/content/09d6...
ft.com
US military reveals it has weapons in space
Security experts warn announcement could result in the proliferation of weapons by other governments
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Settlements are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bans an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/...
aljazeera.com
Animated map shows spread of illegal Israeli settlements across Palestine
Some 750,000 settlers live across more than 500 illegal settlements and outposts, as Israeli pogroms hit record highs.
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Reposted by Mark Szpakowski
The Liberal BoJack @thelibbojack.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Trump says he’ll give you $5K if you vote against socialism. Sometimes the jokes really do write themselves.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
“Solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this in the world of AI may turn the tool against the primary goal.” But what would von Neumann think? mathandai.org
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
France, UK, Canada: we have intentions to ban trade... Israel: Power comes out of the barrel of a gun. Proverb: "Words don't cook rice."
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
JD stumped by koan, "what is the sound of one person clapping?"
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Reposted by Mark Szpakowski
Jon of The North @krauza.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Henceforth to be known as the "Cobain Study": Ig Nobel goes to Ilona Croy, Tomasz Frackowiak, Thomas Hummel, and Agnieszka Sorokowska, for collecting evidence that babies smell wonderful to their parents but teenagers do not. arstechnica.com/science/2026...
arstechnica.com
Meet the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners
The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and "24/7" lectures.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Upper-class participants proved more likely & willing to engage in unethical activity—cutting off cars or pedestrians, taking candy from babies, lying about their scores—and also more likely to view greed as a positive attribute. arstechnica.com/science/2026...
arstechnica.com
Meet the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners
The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and "24/7" lectures.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
USDA scientists find that levels of fatty acids in farmed salmon have dropped considerably due to switch to soy & canola feeds, making the agency’s advice & that of the American Heart Association outdated and insufficient. arstechnica.com/science/2026...
arstechnica.com
Farmed salmon may not be as nutritious as it once was, new research suggests
The shift in the fish’s diet is having significant downstream impacts on the environment and climate.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"Even deeper behind this is a fight between the Zelensky allies in the British MI6, and the CIA over who is to take the lead in Ukraine." Proxy war indeed: actor Zelensky is the face of MI6? CIA? www.moonofalabama.org/2026/09/insi...
moonofalabama.org
Inside The Fight Of MI6 And CIA Proxies Over Who Is To Lead Ukraine – Moon of Alabama
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Tim Berners-Lee @timbl.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This Is For Everyone is now available in paperback. You might recognise the face on the cover...a younger me at MIT in 1998 when 150 million people used the web. Today it's roughly 6 billion. Read about how the web came to be and where I think it's going ➡️ thisisforeveryone.timbl.com
The paperback cover of 'This Is For Everyone' by Tim Berners-Lee with a photo of Tim in front of a blackboard at MIT.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Canada will warm this century with an estimated increase of 5 C. In Nunavut, warming in winter could exceed 10 C. Glaciers in western Canada will lose >75% of their ice & there's a >60% likelihood that central Arctic Ocean will be ice-free most Septembers. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
cbc.ca
Canadians should prepare for a 5 C hotter future, report warns | CBC News
The federal government's new report summarizing the latest science on climate change warns that under current climate policies, the impact on Canadians will likely be "far from benign."
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Passenger trains need priority over freight so they don't spend hours delayed/waiting, or better yet their own high-speed-capable rails. As well, Nova Scotia entered Confederation on condition that quality transportation to Central Canada be provided — fail!!!
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 03/09/2026
good to see new rail cars, but the real problem with via is that the feds privatized the rails and now train passengers can’t get anywhere on time. what are they going to do about that?
bnnbloomberg.ca
Ottawa spending $4.7B on new made-in-Canada Via Rail passenger cars
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government is spending $4.7 billion to build 313 new passenger cars for Via Rail.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Escalating aggression against Canada is a bad thing. Good relationship with Canada is a good thing. Good relationship with Russia is a good thing. Good relationship with China is a good thing. Good relationship with others is generally a good thing. Peace does not come from 5% GDP aggressiveness.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The ​Pentagon issued detailed guidance on Wednesday for a new, mandatory testosterone deficiency screening policy for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, ‌a follow-up to a July announcement from U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. www.cbc.ca/news/world/t...
cbc.ca
Pentagon makes testosterone screening mandatory for U.S. service members effective immediately | CBC News
The ​U.S. Pentagon issued detailed guidance on Wednesday for a new, mandatory testosterone deficiency screening policy for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, ‌a follow-up to a J...
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
There are Nazi-era movies where the protagonist realizes that a good, decent, cultured friend/acquaintance is actually a genocidal Nazi. I feel I’m in such a movie, but the friend is a genocidal Zionist. Friendship conflicts with caring and justice, pushing toward silence and acquiescence.
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Regina Schrambling @gastropoda.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Doonesbury has still got it www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2...
gocomics.com
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 30, 2026 | GoComics
Read Doonesbury—a comic strip by creator Garry Trudeau—for today, August 30, 2026, and check out other great comics, too!
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Tim Bousquet @timbousquet.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I was told this is unpossible.
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Atrios @eschatonblog.com · 27/08/2026
Worth reminding yourselves what europe and the US fairly uncontroversially considered to be genocide then, especially when your favorites have regular meltdowns over the use of the term today
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Lloyd Alter @lloydalter.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I am working my way through this, a great guide.
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AnthropoceneMPG 🌊 @anthropocenempg.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Canada 🇨🇦 will not give up its sovereignty.
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Tim Bray 🇨🇦 @timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026
In which I try to clarify the issues around #GenAI watermarking its text output without requiring readers to be computer professionals: www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/202…
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the GenAI giants “watermarking” their output, which to say inserting data so you can tell that it’s been generated by ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude or whatever. The technology for watermarking images is as old as dirt, works as advertised, and doesn’t affect image quality. What’s new and controversial is a claim that they can watermark text output cheaply, simply, and without harming the quality of the text.
I was curious how they did this so I dug in a bit. I’m mostly convinced that it works and is pretty clever. However, all the explanations are full of Computer-Science jargon that you need to be a professional developer to understand. So here’s an attempt to explain to non-insiders and then, indirectly, opinions on whether it’s good and what it means and doesn’t mean.
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Current Affairs @currentaffairs.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
There is a genuine anti-war current on the American right, but its opposition to particular wars should not be confused with opposition to U.S. imperialism.
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Mark Szpakowski @mszpak.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Older people sweat less & their hearts have to work harder as blood vessels do not expand as much. As temps rise, the body eventually cannot cool quickly enough to compensate. 1.5°C global warming stresses old people more than 4°C stresses young people. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/...
aljazeera.com
Why extreme heat is much more dangerous for the elderly than we realised
Human heat tolerance limits are lower than previously thought, and age is a major risk, Stanford researchers say.
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