Reposted by Proportionwheel𝐑𝐞𝐦 🕋 @obsidian.blacksky.app · 16/09/2026Would 20 y/o you be impressed or disappointed by you today? 528116638
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Strangely, however, this has not made me a billionaire. 020
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026my guiding principle is that I’m rational and you’re not. 030
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026their sheer arrogance alone is quite enough reason to reject “EA” 130
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026This is so sad. Americans don’t know what they’ve got ’til it’s gone. 130
Reposted by ProportionwheelSean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 10/09/2026My thoughts on existential risk: * Humanity isn't going to be wiped out any time soon. * Negligible chance that AI by itself causes catastrophic damage to humanity (millions dead). * Some nontrivial chance that human beings will leverage AI to help them do something catastrophically harmful. 2930047
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 09/09/2026there may be much learned about the Universe and our place in it, by way of close study of Lunar soil. To me a SETI breakthrough seems less likely than a breakthrough in Astrophysics or Cosmology or adjacent 020
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026all making sense now. plus Theil’s fascination with feudalism or at least the BT 020
Reposted by Proportionwheelandy™ @andylevy.net · 08/09/2026werner herzog on AI filmmaking (from here www.indiewire.com/features/int...) 8379822144
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Probably it was a station-by-station decision (or lack of one) from the feeds. I was in my mid-fifties, watching in a YMCA men’s lounge in Burlington, VT. I remember thinking about those falling poeple and trying to grasp what I was seeing. 020
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I have never even opened a ink to or otherwise opened any ”AI” anything, and I have zero FOMO. 131
Reposted by ProportionwheelGary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I want someone whispering in his ear when he's on his death bed like Princess Isabelle whispered to Longshanks at the end of Braveheart "They've started tearing down the ballroom." 4385
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026This belatedly explains so much to me. The “nonverbal communication” thing hit the campus of my alma mater in 1968 when the campus chaplain, also a psychology prof, started holding workshops about it. I met my (still) wife at one, where we were paired off to try to nonverbally communicate. 130
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026FIX YOUR HEART! Honestly you”ll feel better afterward 020
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 05/09/2026amateur astronomers (big overlap with amateur radio there). I’d guess 30% of my astro club are also hams. 150
Reposted by Proportionwheeljamelle @jamellebouie.net · 04/09/2026turns out the guy who looked, talked and dressed like he didn’t give a shit about the job…doesn’t give a shit about the job 1234805755
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Me at about 16 c.1963 with the telescope I made, at Stellafane 2100
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I know quite a few academics, but it just hit me that I probably know >more< ex-academics. Like the former prof who put in my kitchen floor. 020
Reposted by ProportionwheelSnitty @clofsnitville.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Dear media organizations: Pete Hegseth is not something-something-opposing DEI. He is discriminating against Black and female members of the military. Openly. Get it right. 125268
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 29/08/2026S&T at Stellafane skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...skyandtelescope.orgStellafane or BustThe legendary Stellafane has been blowing away expectations for a century, and plans are in place to make sure it continues to do so. 020
Reposted by ProportionwheelPost Mo Thóin (Dave) @davebrowne.bsky.social · 27/08/2026The difference is that Nero fingered a fiddle while Trump has a Harp. 261
Reposted by ProportionwheelCheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026It sounds like that thing about burning iron from a few weeks back. Turns out that a lot of people don't understand thermodynamics. 2113
Reposted by ProportionwheelJoshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 26/08/2026White racists complaining about how woke Harvard is (from the New Orleans Times-Democrat, 1/17/1903) 225963
Reposted by ProportionwheelDan Nexon @dhnexon.net · 26/08/2026In 2015, if you asked me the major “legacy” power-political advantages the U.S. had, I would’ve said: - unprecedented alliance network; - experienced military w/ strong mechanisms for cultivating human capital; - extensive, institutionalized diplomatic capital; - immigration & reverse brain drain 1115340
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026“if I weren’t born a girl I’d be a drag queen” —my new fave Dolly quote, from a letterman show appearance. 020
Reposted by ProportionwheelSchooley @schooley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Has anyone polled whether the president should be impeached and removed or are they afraid of what the results would show? 601104224
Reposted by ProportionwheelPhillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 23/08/2026If you haven’t noticed, it is Canada that is fighting for decency and respect in international relations, and the USA that is acting without honor or logic. All Americans who believe in doing the right thing must stand with Canada. 35848170
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 23/08/2026excellent thread, explanatory for us who do not know this stuff. 011
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Lucian Truscott (and Bill Mauldin, sorta) have important things to say. luciantruscott.substack.com/p/stars-stri...luciantruscott.substack.comStars strippedThe big story that’s all over the place this afternoon is the firing of the editor of Stars and Stripes, the quasi-governmental semi-independent newspaper that is provided for free to service members ... 000
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026The fact that Judges are unhappy that they can no longer extend the “presumption of regularity” to federal prosecutors is a microcosm of what we are all experiencing: we can no longer presume that government decisions are arrived at by regular, defined processes under law and Constitution. 010
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Some people here seem to think they have a special right to argue with far more accomplished people in replies, and that their targets are mean if they call attention to their bullshit via quote-skeets. Of course their targets are generally female and/or Black. 010
Reposted by ProportionwheelSean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Thing I didn’t anticipate about living through civilizational decline is how many people responsible for the decline would be loudly convinced they were saving civilization. 1839355
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Yeah, I keep referring to Friday as “tomorrow.” I need for time to stop for a week or two so I can catch up. 110
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 19/08/2026I am at that point where I write something possibly stupid and then go “fuckit” and press “Post” 220
Reposted by ProportionwheelT.C. Aurelius @aurelius.quest · 19/08/2026You can't fully understand American literature and history without some understanding of 17th Century philosophy either. Yet no one suggests that high school students have to have courses on John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. No, we get a 10 minute run-down and that's good enough. Weird, huh? 0414
Reposted by ProportionwheelJohn Sisino @smarmyeod.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Yep. The joke (not joking) back home in Vermont is we keep sending Bernie to Congress because it keeps him from running for Governor (where he could do some real damage). 0401
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Still asking, genuinely too dumb to know the answer: Is lower Manhattan, in an age of drones and cruise missiles, now less vulnerable than it was on 9/11? I mean, I’m sure the Pentagon has all the defensive technology and missiles it needs now, but Wall Street?] 010
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Boston Tom has an uncanny way of articulating my half-formed thoughts before I do. Example: 120
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I’m sort of glad to admit that I am way too old to understand what he fuck this is all about. All I see is toxicity wherever I direct my gaze. 030
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 17/08/2026yeah, NOOOOOOOO! but Richard has been gone for a couple years, and without him, it’s not the same. Not that I ever hung out there, but I miss Blum’s presence locally. 010
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Another shot, from the same roll if not the same day I think. 020
Proportionwheel @proportionwheel.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Burlington, Church Street Marketplace, late 1980s or early ’90s, I think, Pentax K-1000 with f1.7 lens, scanned from film mid 1990s. One of my best photos, I think. Blow it up. 391
![Q: A couple years ago at IDFA, I saw this movie "About a Hero," which is this partly Al-generated hybrid documentary that tries to recreate the atmosphere of your films.
A: The intention of this young filmmaker was never to remake any [of my films], but making something in the spirit. And I immediately said, "You will fail. It is such a stupid idea. It's phenomenally, abysmally stupid. I will not take part in it." He wanted me to explain things and have my voice in it.
I said, "You are alone. There's such a thing as free speech, which I respect. So go ahead and fail." And it is a failure, period.
It's so standardized that Al can step in because there's not real storytelling. It's mimicry of something that has happened before. And I welcome Al to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating until it's ad nauseam.
When it's ad nauseam, please, please, please let Al step in and do the job.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:v5vphilwcf6nunioeyrpxw6g/bafkreibeadpx66jtqlttglhgbgkew6g65haxqngz5yt6p3ybwyi5zney54)
