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Chad Orzel

@orzelc.bsky.social
2.6K followers 452 following 2.3K posts

Physicist, professor, author of books about science for non-scientists. Longer-form stuff at chadorzel.substack.com

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Reposted by Chad Orzel
The Onion @theonion.com · 3h
‘Digger’ Prosthetic Artist Recalls Grueling Process Of Having Tom Cruise Sit Still
‘Digger’ Prosthetic Artist Recalls Grueling Process Of Having Tom Cruise Sit Still
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 18h
I am now officially rooting for them to just cancel my flight. It's Chicago, I'll find a place to sleep that is better than another two hours in this airport bar
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Spooky Blaylock 🎃🕷️ @velodus.bsky.social · 19h
This creature was not built to withstand the scrutiny of being shown 5 times a day to viewers during a sport's playoff season
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 18h
I am "Wow, the Music in This Airport Bar Is Just One Banger After Another" years old.
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Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 01/10/2026
how your email finds me
a star wars guy looking at the camera with a cup of blue milk in the foreground.  it me
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Shout out to the dude changing his pants in an SLC airport bathroom earlier. I hope your day gets better, man.
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Took a side trip on the way to the airport, hoping this will carry me through flight delays...
Fall foliage reflected in Silver Lake
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Had a fun day visiting BYU, where I gave a talk about physics on social media. Crashing early tonight, flying home tomorrow.
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Kate Nepveu @katenepveu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
from the dawn of time right down to today, no one has ever said "I don't want to sound X" and then successfully avoided sounding X. (this includes me, btw. when I find myself starting to say that, I try to take it as a sign to reconsider.)
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Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
a few months ago they had a teen character in blondie with broccoli hair and i just had the thought that maybe it's bc they finally invented a contemporary hairstyle as stupid as whatever's going on with dagwood
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robert j bennett, ceo, results omega @robertjbennett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I react very poorly when any proposed policy or plan is met with "but what if someone like Trump gets hold of it?? then it would be not good, but very bad" because there really is no law or institution that can work when a population is willing to elect the stupidest, worst asshole alive
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Heading to Utah this afternoon to give a talk at BYU tomorrow. Probably shouldn't expect a great craft beer scene in Provo...
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Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Is it me, or does Michaelmas start earlier every year?
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Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 28/09/2026
came across this classic ASW and i gotta say: STILL GREAT www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id...
I figured out how to be happy / but I can't tell you. / You not knowing is a big part of it.
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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 28/09/2026
It’s important to have a variety of text boxes to type your text into, with each of them popping up in front of different sets of people, including the vital Null Text Box that isn’t connected to anything and doesn’t pop up in front of anyone.
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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 28/09/2026
"Levine’s analysis found that the students most likely to benefit from free tuition policies typically come from families with incomes right below the eligibility threshold."
insidehighered.com
Free Tuition Is Most Effective as Marketing Strategy
Policies that make college more accessible to low- and middle-income students have become increasingly popular as admissions regulations have become more restrictive.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 28/09/2026
What’s Rustling In That Leaf Pile?
What’s Rustling In That Leaf Pile?
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
On the one hand, the new Ana and Din mystery from @robertjbennett.bsky.social is an incentive mystery and a fun read. On the other, though, it's SO fun to read that I powered through it in a day and a half and now have to figure out something else to read until the next one. #WriteFasterPlease
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NFL Daily News @insidenflnews.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Jameis Winston tackles Cam Skattebo
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Honestly, I think a lot of this comes out of spaces and situations where intentionally reading 'the enemy' - be that a high school rival, a political outsider, another academic, whatever - in bad faith is rewarded as a display of group solidarity, a demonstration of belonging through hate.
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Dilemma of the moment: ny left hand is super dry and peeling because I have a cast that can't get wet, but the "unscented" lotion @katenepveu.bsky.social has smells a lot like stale spilled American beer
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The Onion @theonion.com · 24/09/2026
Xi Jinping Impressed With How Much Trump’s English Has Improved Since Last Visit theonion.com/xi-jinping-impressed-w…
Xi Jinping Impressed With How Much Trump’s English Has Improved Since Last Visit
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Idly considering asking an LLM to write a strategic plan for a small college and then feeding excerpts of both its output and one of our past strategic plans into Pangram to see if it can tell the difference between LLM slop and artisanal human-generated slop.
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Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I feel like we don't talk enough about how Mark Zuckerberg lit the equivalent of nine years' worth of NSF's entire budget on fire failing to reinvent Second Life.
bloomberg.com
Meta Debuts Dedicated ‘Charm’ Device for Using Muse AI
Meta Platforms Inc. unveiled a palm-sized, dedicated gadget for using Muse, the company’s popular new artificial intelligence assistant, pushing deeper into the AI devices market with a surprise annou...
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That stage of broken-wrist recovery where I need to figure out something warm that can fit over the cast for a 40F morning dog walk.
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
my eunuchs and viziers are actually honest and loyal to a fault. don't paint them all with a broad brush just because yours scheme. that's a you problem.
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I think ‘rote memorization’ is underrated. Having a ton of shit laying around in your head leads to connections and being able to more precisely describe things.
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The real phenomenon behind of a lot of claims of “bloat” in academia is not the expense of bureaucracy but that its pervasiveness feels like a change in the character of the job of faculty. chadorzel.substack.com/p/the-psycho...
chadorzel.substack.com
The Psychology of “Bloat”
It’s all a matter of feel
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Voice Recognition Typo of the Week: The phrase "assiduous defenders of academic freedom" rendered as "deciduous Defenders of Academic freedom" (odd capitalization [sic]).
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is kind of heavy but very well done: www.nytimes.com/athletic/761...
nytimes.com
An improbable NBA breakthrough, a descent into darkness: ‘We weren’t all that different’
Behind Duncan Robinson’s unlikely ascent was a hidden second life — a decade spent as a quiet lifeline tethering his brother to reality.
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Because we all need more silly word games...
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Today in "Tastes Like... Chicken?":
Screen cap of newspaper headline reading "Cardona's Market unveils breast cancer awareness sandwich"
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Apologies to all Giants fans: I bought tickets for me, The Pip and my dad to go see the Giants play the 49ers in December, so the Dart injury is on me. My bad.
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This Essay Everyone Is Talking About is deeply frustrating to me in ways that I haven't seen clearly articulated but don't think I can do justice to, certainly not On Here: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/m...
nytimes.com
In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?
A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.
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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The type of throw you make when you spent all summer doing fan experience videos from World Cup games
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Spooky Blaylock 🎃🕷️ @velodus.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'm a person of multitudes because I love ABS in baseball but every time I see a virtual measurement in an NFL game, I think "This was so much cooler when they brought out guys using chains to measure it."
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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This may be the real challenge: volume rather than fraud
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Giving a talk next week at BYU, and dug up an older talk that I'm going to modify, which in my head was very recent but turns out to have been given in 2019...
static.klipy.com
Indianajones Ageing
ALT: Indianajones Ageing
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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ethan Coen is 69. On casting Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading: ‘We wrote this part specifically for Brad. Brad came to me and said, "I'm not sure I can play this part. He's such an idiot" I said, "You'll do fine."
static.klipy.com
Brad Pitt Dancing in Burn After Reading
ALT: Brad Pitt Dancing in Burn After Reading
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Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Imagine if somebody were to add an 8th Millennium problem that reads "Produce as many paperclips as possible".
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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 20/09/2026
Obviously going to regret this when Claude starts a nuclear war on Monday.
martinrobbins.substack.com
The AI Apocalypse is Extremely Boring Now
Elites are obsessed with the end of the world. Most people have bigger problems.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
anakin is describing the yoda species high R mating process
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Because, of course, physicists are renowned for our correct and nuanced Takes on philosophy...
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Nathan Altice @altice.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Ian's analysis about a longstanding internal tension in American universities, increasingly laid bare in the past years due to external pressures, is astute, and rings particularly true with my own experience as a 'teaching professor' in the UC system over the past 10 years.
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"Live your life in such a way that Jon Ronson never asks to profile you" seems like a pretty good heuristic. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
A Nation of Strange, Idle Men
Jon Ronson’s “The Castle” argues that men are giving up on society because they have nothing better to do.
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Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Pro tip: Once LLM solves your math problem, tell it that all its output was total garbage and that all these ideas came to you during a mental health episode after smoking too much pot, and if anyone else starts asking the same questions the LLM should immediately recommend them to see a doctor.
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
need a 'people believe things. yes, even people you believe are bad or stupid. yes, even things you believe are bad or stupid.' sign to tap.
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
look man I'll stop getting excited about *** next to the coefficient when they stop scratching my snout and giving me an apple when I find it
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Chad Orzel @orzelc.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
2514 days.
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
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