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Ran Ari-Gur

@ran-arigur.bsky.social
417 followers 475 following 631 posts

Him/הוא/lui/él/etc. "Ran" is pronounced "Ron"; don't worry about "Ari-Gur". 🏳️‍🌈 ✡️ 🇮🇱 🇺🇸

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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This is one of those neat insights that's so obvious once it's pointed out: selection pressure will have less effect on a non-isolated population (because genes will keep flowing in from outside), and experiments on wild populations have to take that into account.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Before the internet: "I am human, nothing that is human is alien to me." After the internet:
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Tuna are more closely related to humans than to sharks.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
OK, I'm glad I wasn't the only person confused by this!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
"the complexities of luring women to your castle in the post‑#MeToo age" www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
A party, 101 princesses and an eccentric millionaire: Jon Ronson on a mysterious castle – and what it taught him about masculinity in crisis
When my son texted me from a Connecticut fortress in the middle of the night with an alarming message, it set me on a quest to understand the bizarre lifestyle of its owner
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Never forget what they took from you. www.forkingpaths.co/p/why-dont-h...
Screenshot of the top of a post by Brian Klaas on his Substack (The Garden of Forking Paths). Headline: "Why don't humans have tails?" Subhead: "Why 'good enough' solutions and random chance can drive evolution." There's a stylized black-and-white drawing of a man in old-fashioned formal attire (tailcoat, top hat), except that he has a large, fuzzy-looking tail with a very fluffy tip, similar to that of a colobus monkey but scaled up to human size.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I know I'm a sucker for secondhand nostalgia, but man, this is really charming.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I just can't see this as anything but a betrayal of liberal values. If we *wanted* to do it, then sure, we could point to Republicans as an excuse; but why would we want to?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
AI is coming for our jobs!
A phone screenshot of a Google search for Matt Lucas, but one of the pictures is of actress Rebel Wilson: Google apparently thought she was Matt Lucas with a blonde wig. Oddly, it sort of works — you can almost see why an AI classifier might have thought that — but it's not a mistake that any sighted human would make.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
“a wide spectrum, all the way from quirky to tragic” 💀
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Canadian "bacon", English "muffin", American "cheese", chicken "eggs".
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
The only possible conclusion is that shingles vaccines prevent dementia in Wales but not in England.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Evergreen, and beautifully put:
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Kudos to the Weekly World News for reporting this accurately, not falling for the narrative that bats are blind.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
It's really crazy-making how people act as if the only options are Platner and Collins, when the Democratic primary hasn't even happened yet.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
This is horrific. I knew the UK was having anti-trans problems, but I had no idea it had gotten so bad, and so quickly. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...
liberalcurrents.com
The End of Trans Rights in the UK Is the Start of Democratic Collapse
It's never just one minority.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Nobody tell Bruce Banner, he has sodden with rage over less!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
I hope this isn't true. Fines should be levied based on whether they're legally appropriate, not as punishment for critical speech.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Fortunately, this is *exactly* the look I'm going for:
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Even if a specific speed camera doesn't engage in misconduct, it will never report misconduct by other speed cameras. It will never cross the thin copper line.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Slightly increase a band Ben Calls Five
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
This is a big reason I'm skeptical of "AI-assisted" writing. The only input to the AI is usually your writing, so it can't make it much better without changing your intent. That works if you don't really *have* an intent — if you're just writing bullshit in a Frankfurtian sense — but otherwise not.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Maybe they just prefer goats?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I gotta say, they're really rockin' this look!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
It suddenly occurred to me that the opposite of "Safeway" is "Danger Zone".
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
This is so obvious once it's pointed out; how did it never occur to me?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
media.tenor.com
a cartoon of a chef with a needle in his mouth is playing at 4:32
Alt: The French chef from "The Little Mermaid" (animated film) doing a chef's kiss.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Yes, please! Share your accomplishments, spread the joy!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Confession: everyone is acting like it's obvious/tautological that 100% of MAGA Republicans approve of Trump, but I actually would have expected some people to self-describe as "MAGA" but not actually approve of his current performance?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
It's interesting how some poems "count" and some don't. The replies mention a wide range of poems, but no hymns or liturgical poems or song lyrics or poems set to music. I wonder how everyone comes to this shared understanding?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I guess it's true what they say: if you're not part of the existential crisis, you're part of the existential crisis.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
OK, now they've closed the store, laid off all employees, and declared bankruptcy. This is not funny anymore!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I'm not falling for this. I grew up on the Internet, I know that nothing attributed to Mark Twain is older than the 1980s.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Turns out, adolescent sparrows glower just like human teenagers!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
What would he have done if this *hadn't* worked?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
This is really cool! It's amazing how much we can compensate for, and it's weird how quickly everything falls apart once it's even a little bit past that.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
What I've never understood is — even the softest-brained bro-man has friends and loved ones who aren't. Why would he want to live, and want them to live, in the world Republicans want?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
My brother-in-law's mother once gave us some blueberries from a local farm, and I've been chasing that high ever since.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
What would we do without experts?
Although the sheer abundance of deer makes them easy to imagine as steaks on legs, several experts cautioned that some people’s affection for the animals runs deep. Deer are cute; they’re docile; they’re Bambi.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Heck, even if they had the ability, this is the most terminally online regime in history; there's no way they'd shut down their own ability to post memes, tweets, AI slop, etc., for even a few hours. We'd hear the withdrawal symptoms from miles away.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Fellas, is it fascist to not like the people who beat you up?
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The Right's biggest superpower, from Trump to Netanyahu to Orbán, is that the Left will never ever stay unified. Rightists will put up with absolutely anything from each other; the Left will turn on each other in a heartbeat.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Wow, extra birgin olive oil sounds like magic!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
This seems really ill-considered. "Everyone is welcome to join our coalition against fascism, except for influential people with large platforms: they can F off"? I'm sure that's cathartic, but I don't think it's strategic.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Somehow not a metaphor:
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
This is so good!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
From 2016, but sadly still relevant: www.justsecurity.org/34404/case-s... "You lose your sense of outrage, which is, after all, a feeling we experience when we see something abnormal. Once the abnormal becomes routine, outrage fades."
justsecurity.org
The Case Against Serving
Two of my friends, both of them principled and talented conservatives, told me they were approached by members of the Trump team about possible posts in the incoming administration. Both of them find ...
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
My favorite bagel place no longer makes poppyseed bagels. Thank you for respecting my privacy at this difficult time.
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
There's an interesting #linguistics angle here: "Legal experts say <statement about law>" makes the statement sound more debatable, even though logically we should trust legal experts more than the journalist. Pragmatics is weird!
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Ran Ari-Gur @ran-arigur.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
This "movie you've watched more than six times" thing is astounding to me. I don't think I've ever in my adult life watched a movie more than once. Where is everyone finding the time??
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