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Ryan Dahn

@ryandahn.com
1K followers 1.3K following 661 posts

Editor at @physicstoday.aip.org. Historian studying Nazi science by night. Passionate about Philadelphia urbanism, sports, and politics. All opinions my own. ryandahn.com

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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 6h
why the hell is the nation's paper of record trafficking in the laziest, grossest kind of AI slop ("reanimating" long-dead thinkers)?
nytimes.com
Opinion | What Would John Maynard Keynes Say About A.I.? The Keynes Bot Told Us.
Nearly a century ago, Keynes predicted that technology would liberate us from work. To imagine what he would think of artificial intelligence today, a Princeton economist used A.I.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 25/09/2026
in a sane country, using taxpayer dollars to create propaganda for your personality cult would be grounds for bipartisan impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 23/09/2026
absolutely wack—the original Rocky is a stone cold classic but putting a statue of a fake boxer on the premiere cultural institution in the city is some provincial crap. the prior situation (Rocky "altar" near bottom of steps) was perfect. another example of inept leadership in Philly.
inquirer.com
The Rocky statue moved again and is now at the top of the Art Museum steps
The famed statue's new location caps a monthslong series of monumental moves at the Art Museum.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 22/09/2026
most people have no idea about the Social Security income cap because they don't make $184,500/year. eliminating it is a no-brainer and would go a long way toward ensuring the program is funded long term.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 22/09/2026
prob should have waited till they finished running the top 100. forgot about Chappelle's Show. tough omissions include Reservation Dogs, Say Nothing, Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals, The Rehearsal, Nathan for You, and many more...
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Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Really hard to overstate just how central AI video slop is to the broader authoritarian project. It allows people to visualize fantasies without having to pay the social costs of such actions, while desensitizing people about the act itself. It's 4chan on steroids w a veneer of respectability.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 16/09/2026
any updates on development activity at Melrose Diner site (1901 Snyder Ave), abandoned church at 16th and Mifflin (1900 S 16th St), or abandoned medical facility at Broad and Mifflin (1900 S Broad St)? @jackphillyre.bsky.social @jblumgart.bsky.social
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 11/09/2026
I would prefer to raise taxes instead. Denmark's tax take is 20 points of GDP higher than ours
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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Is science journalism dying? Comparing a ‘science crash’ 40 years ago to today theconversation.com/is-science-j...
theconversation.com
Is science journalism dying? Comparing a ‘science crash’ 40 years ago to today
While science journalism layoffs pile up and publications shutter, more science communication than ever is available via other online venues.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 15/09/2026
one of the first things on deck for the Democratic House majority in 2027 should be impeaching Alito and Thomas (and Hegseth). who cares if the Senate won't convict! it'll allow the airing of tons of dirty laundry and lay the groundwork for court reform. 2027 and 2028 should be impeachment central!
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 14/09/2026
It was a real pleasure to (lightly) edit this interview for publication in @physicstoday.aip.org. 80 years after the first nuclear detonation, over $1 billion of internationally adjudicated damages remain unfunded by the US government. Read the interview to learn more!
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/09/2026
the fact that the papers of supreme court justices are treated as their personal property is outrageous www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...
nytimes.com
How the Supreme Court Locks Away Its Own History (Gift Article)
After Justice Scalia died, the justices held private negotiations about locking away their papers. We may not see the ultimate record of the Roberts court for decades.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 26/08/2026
wasn't familiar with this story till now (although it's been public since the 90s) but was shocked to see Judith Farquhar, who had a cult of acolytes at UChicago and would occasionally show up to HPS workshops, was one of many who knew that Gajdusek was abusing children and did nothing
newyorker.com
The Children a Scientist Took Home
Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for his work on a disease in Papua New Guinea. But his biggest experiment was on the children he took back to the U.S.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 17/08/2026
academic gripe: it's very aggravating that US copyright law doesn't include the "rule of the shorter term," which would allow foreign works to fall into the public domain in the US when the copyright term expires in their home country.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 06/08/2026
I really enjoyed editing this article by three legends of the arms control world. While things may seem bleak—the last bilateral US–Russian arms control deal expired earlier this year—the authors outline how, when political winds allow, scientists can play a key role in nuclear disarmament efforts.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 15/07/2026
well, at least we got the sad Jagger meme out of that game.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 15/07/2026
Argentina really is Messi plus a bunch of shithousers
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
New: the highly controversial AI music generator Suno was hacked. The hacker sent us Suno source code; it shows the company scraped YouTube Music, Deezer, and Genius. In all, Suno scraped *decades* worth of music from the internet. Obviously didn't pay artists www.404media.co/hack-reveals...
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Tim Murphy @timothypmurphy.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
children's books where the rhyme scheme doesn't work....how do so many of these exist, who allowed this, what happened to our country
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 08/07/2026
editing an article for @physicstoday.aip.org about nuclear arms control efforts in the 1980s and 1990s and learned that @edmarkey.bsky.social cosponsored a measure requiring a moratorium on nuclear testing that passed the House in August 1986. impressive!
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 07/07/2026
well, we kinda deserved that after the last 24 hours. seems like the wet president meddling got Belgium fired up as all hell. also bringing on Doku and Lukaku off the bench is such a flex
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Drew Magary @drewmagary.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
You know how Trump fucked the Knicks over by coming to that one Finals game at the Garden? This is why I’m not optimistic about tonight.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 02/07/2026
tfw you’re praying the 20-year-old HVAC system in your South Philly rowhome doesn’t crap out
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 02/07/2026
can Trump trade his fake peace prize for Balogun’s eligibility next game?
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Jon Bois @jonbois.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
soccer’s the kicking one
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Bill Barnwell @billbarnwell.com · 02/07/2026
he definitely looks like a Command and Conquer general (extremely complimentary)
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 02/07/2026
kinda love the Bosnian coach rocking a double-breasted suit
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 26/06/2026
this mandatory AI training for work is maybe the most depressing and demoralizing thing i've had to do in my adult life.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 25/06/2026
you honestly can't make this shit up. just another day here in machine-run Philadelphia! www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...
inquirer.com
This Philly City Hall power couple stands to reap up to $750K by briefly retiring — then continuing to work for the city
City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. and City Representative Jazelle Jones are both set to benefit from DROP, a city retirement incentive program which sparked a major scandal in the early 2000s.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 24/06/2026
tfw you find out that your ward leader (Al Littlepage) spearheaded efforts to kill the road diet on Washington
inquirer.com
How a redesign of Washington Avenue got detoured by a clash of competing needs
Philadelphia officials will unveil their latest plan for the five-lane road Tuesday night after community pressure caused them to reconsider previously announced changes.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 17/06/2026
Telemundo broadcaster screaming “Houston, tenemos un problema” after the DRC equalized against Portugal was priceless
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 15/06/2026
Looks like Trump’s toadie Will Scharf, whom I vaguely knew in college (which utterly disgusts me) has started leaking to the Times to set himself up for the future... www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/u...
nytimes.com
Frustrated by Courts, Trump Weighed Suspending a Constitutional Right
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 11/06/2026
let's be real: Trump cursed the Knicks and ruined their mojo.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 09/06/2026
Another great historical article I edited for @physicstoday.aip.org! Our first-ever feature-length profile of Edward Bouchet, the first Black American to receive a PhD in physics, which he completed 150 years ago at Yale.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 26/05/2026
damn, RIP Sonny Rollins, maybe the last living member of the generation that reinvented jazz in the late 1940s and 1950s. so many great records to choose from, but one of my faves is his version of Kurt Weill’s Mack the Knife, the first track on the B side of Saxophone Colossus.
youtu.be
Sonny Rollins Quartet - Moritat (Mack the Knife)
YouTube video by 60otaku4
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 20/05/2026
random election thoughts: shouts to the person in my division who wrote in LeBron James as the Democratic nominee for PA Governor!
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 20/05/2026
nice to get some great news for once! in the division where I work it was a rout—117 votes for Rabb, 10 for Stanford, and 7 for Street
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 11/05/2026
ICYMI: My Oppenheimer piece went live last week!
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 09/05/2026
way too many Knicks fans and empty seats at the Sixers game tonight
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/05/2026
trump and hegseth are presiding over one of the great Ls in american military history.
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Trevor Owens @tjowens.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Be sure to check out this excellent article from @ryandahn.com which provides substantive context and insight on the Oppenheimer oral history’s that the @aiphistory.bsky.social team recently made openly available online.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 06/05/2026
Extremely proud to say that my new @physicstoday.aip.org feature article is live. In it, I explore the history and context of the rare interviews with J. Robert Oppenheimer recently made public by @aiphistory.bsky.social. physicstoday.aip.org/features/opp...
physicstoday.aip.org
Oppenheimer reflects on his early career
Interviews now available to the public bring the famed physicist’s lesser-known early years to life.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 03/05/2026
turns out beating the Celtics in the playoffs feels really good
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Stephen Wolf @stephenwolf.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
A Democratic president with simple majorities in Congress could enact proportional representation for the House—no amendments required. 50%+1 could end the filibuster, expand SCOTUS, expand the House, and enact PR by state. And add new states like D.C. to rebalance the Senate while they’re at it
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 29/04/2026
yeah so we're obviously going to have to pack the Supreme Court.
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 28/04/2026
maybe my favorite archival find in recent years, from a 1956 ad for RCA's missile testing program (didn't know they had one!) in Physics Today: "Florida sunshine provides an ideal climate both for missile testing and pleasant living." guess you can't really argue with that one?
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
the POW/MIA flag might just be the first ever Glonzo
William B. Fuckley
@opinonhaver
Follow
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if 30% of the population believed that a creature called
'Glonzo' caused high electricity prices by chewing on power lines any competent politician would be negligent in not trying to find a way to leverage this belief. this doesn't mean those people wouldn't be fucking morons.
9:55 AM • Oct 23, 2024 • 49.5K Views
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 22/04/2026
unbelievably, he's the fourth Dem to die in office during this Congress. how many more have to die in office before the party realizes it has an optics problem?
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Ryan Dahn @ryandahn.com · 18/04/2026
based on the fact that Sotomayor’s memo is the only one that was unsigned, I’m guessing one of her former clerks was the hero who leaked these documents to the Times. (typically people don’t sign copies of their own memos that are kept for their records.) pretty baller imo
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