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pollyannainhell.bsky.social

@pollyannainhell.bsky.social
176 followers 329 following 618 posts

Recovering lawyer, minor public official, (very) former sf/fantasy editor, occasional painter. This is the account I admit to in public.

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Reposted by @pollyannainhell.bsky.social
Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 23h
The Constitution allows it. South Korea has proven it works. If you want to make impeachment viable—and so much else is pointless if you don't—then it can be done by a simple majority adopting a simple rules change: vote on the verdict by secret ballot.
theunpopulist.net
A Democratic Senate Should Adopt Secret Impeachment Ballots on a Priority Basis
Such a change, requiring no constitutional amendment, would free senators to vote their judgment instead of their fears
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Reposted by @pollyannainhell.bsky.social
pumpkin spice doodlemancy 🎃 @doodlemancy.com · 05/10/2026
apparently nappy.co, an invaluable stock photo resource, is shutting down in a few months because, well, AI destroys everything. this blows. their statement: nappy.co/future just fucking sucks that AI dipshits essentially get to take away our choices because they're incapable of making their own
nappy.co
An update on the future of Nappy | Nappy
Nappy makes it easy for companies to be purposeful about representation in their designs, presentations, and advertisements.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Fanboys. These people are very rich Culture fanboys who badly want Claude and its ilk to be proto-Minds. But Iain Banks did that by authorial fiat. The Culture books aren't extrapolation, and longing is not going to make Claude grow up to be the Sleeper Service, or even Flere-Imsaho.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Yes, we do know it, but do You really want us to tell them so?" Or, alternatively: Allegory of my city council. Only none of us, and none of our constituents, have the halos.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"This is Nenya, the ring of adamant, and I am its keeper." Or, package 2 from @peculiarityshop.bsky.social. (Did y'all know this stone has significant color shift, from faintest blue-white to this blue?) Photography can't capture what this does with light. If I'd known I'd have tried to buy all 3.
A ring featuring a blue stone that bears a remarkable resemblance to a blue-white star, twinkle and all, on a delicate band that suggests the fiery trail of a meteor. It's better in person.
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Charles Johnson @charles.littlegreenfootballs.com · 26/09/2026
The stupidest Republican talking point used to be their claim that intercepting drug shipments proved nobody was intercepting drug shipments. But amazingly enough, this one is even stupider.
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Charles Johnson @charles.littlegreenfootballs.com · 26/09/2026
It’s grotesque and infuriating.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 25/09/2026
Age verification is an egregious privacy violation, an inexcusable form of surveillance, and… it’s also voodoo bullshit that doesn’t work. It’s one of the reasons I’m proudest to support @eff.org, who have been leading the fight against the horrible practice for years: www.eff.org/issues/age-v...
eff.org
Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub
Age verification (or age-gating) laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all users’ ages—often through invasive tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious “ag...
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The question is "how would you FEEL," not what would you think or how would you respond. That being the case? You might not tell a pollster that you're in favor of the military stepping in, but still acknowledge that your first and second response would be, America, fuck yeah.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
When you get a package from @peculiarityshop.bsky.social, I think it's traditional to show off the shinies? These synthetic-ruby spikes are everything I love about modern jewelry, and the way it doesn't have to be precious about materials; and they're FABULOUS on. Thanks, team!
A badly-photographed ruby earring in the shape of a narrow spike. Worn by no one, because it's hard to take a picture of your own ear.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My memory reaches back even to the Elder Days. I remember when AO3 and the OTW were glitters in the founders' eyes, because commercial platforms had proved over and over that fandom was just too weird for them. And now look at it. You reference it, you don't even have to explain.
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Reposted by @pollyannainhell.bsky.social
National Security Counselors 🕵 @nationalsecuritylaw.org · 13/09/2026
Saoirse is in an afterschool program, and today she excitedly told me all about the SMART test for evaluating the credibility of information (source, motivation, author, review, two-sources). I can think of a lot of adults who would benefit from this class designed for 4th and 5th graders.
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Reposted by @pollyannainhell.bsky.social
Photography by Alfie Goodrich @alfie.photography · 13/09/2026
Getty makes a ton of money out of selling public domain footage. Which is crazy. But that’s Getty. The footage is usually available free elsewhere but it’s hard to find. Great video that helps you understand where and how to find it. youtu.be/2dzqQItDmdg?...
youtu.be
I Killed A Business Model
YouTube video by Elroddd
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Going to say it one more time: We did not ban new data centers in reaction to the Chestnut River proposal. Yes, we like the MGHPCC, but we were concerned with the kinds of projects and impacts we'd seen elsewhere, and the ban proposal was filed prophylactically.
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American Rivers @americanrivers.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Maine's Royal River flows freely for the first time since the 19th century! 🎉 Our Northeast Regional Director, Andy Fisk, gives an update on the Bridge Street Dam removal progress. This restoration project will improve community safety and help restore migratory fish runs in the greater watershed.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is maddening. WTAF is any journalist or media outlet pretending this is anything but what it is: A blatantly illegal fantasy, that would get anyone else investigated and likely indicted before we even get to the impossibility of doing it?
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
For those who are new, Joe DiGenova has spent the last 30 years baselessly accusing Democrats of committing crimes. If he is saying publicly the Trump administration pushed him out because he wouldn’t bring cases because there was no evidence, things are really bad.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Underlying article is from Ha'aretz. I can't evaluate Israeli news media-I just don't know enough-but Marshall isn't as ignorant as I am, so I think this is worth passing along. Detailed, plausible, and in any normal universe would end Netanyahu's political career. He denies all of it, of course.
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Autumnal Astrid🍂 @namitomoon.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Somerville (left) and Cambridge (right) if they were lesbians instead of cities in Massachusetts
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
There have long been algorithms that, e.g., reorder daily papers on the arXiv (where scientists post new results) based on keywords. These can sometimes be helpful but are also dangerous to rely on because they often miss papers of interest. LLMs as the gateway to literature supercharge this bias.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Mountain lions are making American roads safer by frightening away deer. On Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where cougars were most active, deer-vehicle collisions fell 76%. Deer kill up to 440 Americans a year; cougars have killed 29 Americans since 1868. buff.ly/9bDfEKZ #ShareGoodNewsToo
news.mongabay.com
Cougars cut deadly vehicle-deer collisions in the US by up to 76%, study shows
If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range, with abundant food to forage in familiar…
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Patton Oswalt @pattonoswalt.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Apparently people are sharing this far and wide on social media, which I think is horrible. This could cripple ICE operations. PLEASE do not share this.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
@markey.senate.gov? I love you, I voted for you, I closed a polling station for you; but you're wrong about KOSA and this is why. Could you please revisit this, and regulate algorithms instead of trying to age-gate? That goes for you, @warren.senate.gov, too.
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Under pressure, the DOD just released the text of its secret 10-year agreement with the NIH. Here are the biggest revelations from the document 🧵
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Alyssa Harad @alyssaharad.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A Japanese improvement (a really good one) on Paxlovid. I am so grateful for non-US research right now.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 04/09/2026
nice quote from Mandami comms person Emilia Rowland to the New York Times
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 04/09/2026
I'm just utterly disoriented by any democratic staffer that is smart on media reform the party hasn't had a coherent media reform strategy in 50 years, which culminated in the right wing and their corporate friends building the biggest and most effective propaganda machine in human history
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Welp. We don't need to worry about Seth Moulton any more. (Not until he finds another office to run for, at least. I have no confidence he won't. That thing about 'Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man'? If there's a dictionary for sayings, Seth's picture is next to that entry.)
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Whalen for Congress @jeromiewhalen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Did you vote for Jeromie? If you did share one of these stickers! If you haven’t, you have until 8 PM!
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aslynn is just a ghoul 👻 @aslynnromano.com · 29/08/2026
As a former healthcare recruiter at 2 of the major insurance companies, I sometimes try to mentally calculate all the salaries of the jobs that are involved in gatekeeping care All the support staff, infrastructure, prior auth departments, all of it what if we just used that $ to pay for care?
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Tim Hirschel-Burns @timhirschelburns.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Live report from the Minnesota State Fair, located in the heart of American democracy, where there’s an ICE Out adaptation of Picasso’s Guernica made entirely from crops
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
a million pieces/segments sneering at hasan piker and the co-chair of the DSA, meanwhile a republican congressional candidate in upstate new york named peter oberacker is the grandson of an actual nazi germany soldier and his former staffer was part of the 'i love hitler' young GOP group chat
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Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Note 37-40 seconds in particular. He is operating at a level we haven't seen for some time.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
But what did she say about Taiwan? (And if you're right about the people in South Carolina, isn't it kind of your job to explain to them about Taiwan?)
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Text: Treat your body like a data centre. Consume as much water and literature as possible. Upset local city councils with your existence. 
Background image: a bearded man putting up the frame of aparge tent in a muddy field with trees in the background.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I don't have a way of verifying this, but it's so perfect that if it isn't true, I don't really want to know.
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Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
"The wrong kind of American: The Trump White House needed me—until the fact I am trans became public." In @theatlantic.com (gift) By my @lawfaremedia.org colleague @juliacurlee.bsky.social . www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
The Wrong Kind of American
The Trump White House needed me—until the fact that I am trans became public.
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Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
What could go wrong
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paolo @paolopalma.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
When you have an agenda and when you don’t:
NYT: A stunning loss in Wisconsin show shows the limits of the leftAP headline: No clear direction for Wisconsin Democrats
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
#5. Unless Trump is still president, and then I'm picking #6. I don't know who that woman is, but I bet she and the Cat could change our entire space-time continuum if they had the right prompts.
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Robin Wilson @robinwilson250.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Trump has destroyed the Republican party as a hegemonic force. The last thing the Democrats need is unedifying internecine war, with a 'third way' faction that is so last-millennium targeting not the GOP but a left offering new solutions to today's citizens' concerns: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/u...
nytimes.com
Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left (Gift Article)
One moderate group says the progressive wins are “deeply troubling” and is planning a $15 million effort against democratic socialism.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Are we sure this isn't a mammoth, successful troll? (Could I? I don't know how I'd get through an entire workday if I were forced to use them.)
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
It’s important to understand “age verification” and “kick the kids off social media” laws as a gift to Big Tech. These policies allow surveillance capitalism to chug along full steam ahead and let Silicon Valley giants off the hook. Instead of regulating their biz model, we just put up age gates
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Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 29/07/2026
Scientist falsifies hypothesis, film at 11
Fauci’s diary shows he thought Covid could be man-made. Now he’s telling Congress it was ‘molecularly impossible’
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
And why would we assume that someone who loves a book will also love a film adaptation, whether it's trying to stay faithful or not? The adaptation may miss or contradict everything the reader loved, and the reader, stung too many times, may spend the rest of a lifetime avoiding them.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
This is a remarkable result, though not a surprising one. OF COURSE at least half of us are refusing age-verification beyond that checkmark. What is there on the net these days that feels like it's worth it? Throw in a little FU and there we are: 50%-plus balk rates are everywhere.
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pollyannainhell.bsky.social @pollyannainhell.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Spoiler: This doesn't actually address the environmental case against that data center your zoning code just blocked. Not as it affects your local interests, anyway. It does suggest that maybe you shouldn't let AI write your emails or media posts for you, so there's that.
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Josh Cook @joshthelibromancer.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
This is actually so common, that the NYT had to adjust their bestsellers page. If you see a little dagger icon next to a book title that means a significant % of their sales came from bulk sales like this.
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