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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

whether the mission of epidemiology should include the eradication of poverty; and whether the mission of public health is inherently pro-justice; and whether those things add up to a field that can be called "purple".

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

destroying public health infrastructure right now. Sincere apologies for coming down hard on what is at face value a very modest goal ("unbiased"), but a framing that even implies that right & left have equal claim to public health is just so frustrating. Perhaps you can ask Dr Galea (hi, Sandro)

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

that lead to human flourishing. Of course "science" (there is not such thing) "should" (um) be "unbiased" (ha), but that doesn't mean that right and left, red and blue, have equally valuable approaches. To frame it as though they do is pandering to the people who are actively and deliberately

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

belts, or better yet, bike helmets) but that's not really a right-left issue; that's an issue of public health goals vs other goals ("freedom", perhaps, and don't tell me that freedom is a right-wing issue). Public health is inherently anti-poverty and pro-justice, because those are the directions

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

because poverty is very bad for people's health outcomes even just on a narrow biological level, never mind the broader goals of public health as "not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO 1958). Yes, of course, there are cases where public health conflicts with other goals (e.g. seat

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

poverty - so no, we should not be means testing, either. This reminds me of the horrid "epi wars" of the late 1990s, when v smart people were asking v dumb questions like "Should the mission of epidemiology include the eradication of poverty?" (Rothman Lancet 1998). YES OF COURSE IT FUCKING SHOULD

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Should people who receive government assistance pass a drug test? If they don't, will you let them die? The bias here is heavily left because the pro-testing view has demonstrably worse outcomes. There's lots of evidence that we spend more on means testing than on actually alleviating the issues of

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

First I have seen of Unbiased Science, but I am feeling triggered. The framing sounds like a centrist "everyone has different opinions" trope, but as a famous conservative once said, reality has a liberal bias. Left-v-right is not about ice cream flavors, but about ethical stances with huge impacts.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

awesome. For a slightly more Christian perspective, I also adore Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" (we have them all in the bookshop, of course, next time you're in town! 💜)

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

btw Rupert is fairly loony -- I found his stuff in the early 1980s and fell into a whole pyramids-sharpen-razor-blades rabbithole -- but both his sons are incredible.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I would *love* to read this (and soon! please!). For an anti-positive-thinking approach, see Oliver Burkeman's "The Antidote", a fantastic read.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

ok that's a dick, not an arm; he's holding the laptop with one head-arm & his dick. Does he have a 2nd head-arm? My theory: Yes, but the artist caught him in the act of scratching his butt, so the 2nd head-arm is hidden behind the torso-stick. I saw something like that in a Bosch painting once

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I don't think this is useful info just yet, but apparently DRM-free audiobook indie Libro.fm is going to start selling ebooks soon; that might prove to be the best hope for DRM-free ebooks

libro.fm

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

O frabjous day! Finally American English has its own contribution to all those stupid "only this language has a word for this emotion" lists. The Danes have "hygge" and the Czechs have "litost" and apparently the Germans have both "Schadenfreude" and "Torschlusspanik", but now we have "hornnui"

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Always needed! Even the best-resourced cities still have areas where there is sometimes no virtue haranguing at all, so there'll never be a shortage of opportunities

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This could be a useful way to detect psychopaths, though: Anyone who proposes this kind of show should immediately be put on all kinds of lists

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"I spent an ending-world-poverty amount of money building a machine that I'm convinced might kill everyone... but hey, at least it wasn't used to materially improve anyone's life."

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I dunno, most of them don't have a lot to highlight. But i'll suggest one addition: One Greyhound ticket good for unlimited travel for one month. They want to make their pitch to the voters, let them come talk to us.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The explainer is an art history MA thesis about Manhattan that starts off discussing the cinematography and slowly falls apart as the author realizes what the film is really about

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

subject very hottt tho, that helps

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Christ Talarico you're digging yourself a hell of a hole

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Either Milli or Vanilli (no one is sure which) agrees to perform at an anti-trans rally... umm, ok. (How is it even possible that we are less relevant than Milli and/or Vanilli??)

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Black.Metronome 🇧🇧 🇧🇲 @blackmetronome.blacksky.app · 10/09/2026

I vastly underestimated how evil a large portion of this country is, and that includes the people who are willing to throw minority groups to the wolves to ensure that their own comfort isn't disturbed.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Amazing... although Ivan Illich (and many others) told us this 50 years ago.

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Snitty 🎃 @clofsnitville.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I'd even up that a couple of notches to "why would I want to know about kids' genitals, the fuck is wrong with you?" as an easy thing to say.

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Alex Winter @alexwinter.com · 08/09/2026

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Same for coffee! I am very well hydrated

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

He's really confessing to the deepest possible stupidity.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I'm sure this is old hat to you newtologists (Newtonians?) but if I recall correctly, the original Old English was something like "eut/evt", and in one region evolved into "eft", and in another region transformed by the absolutely magical slight-of-hand "an eut" -> "a newt". Words are incredible!

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Is he the kind of scholar who does the legwork and backs up his arguments with papers that he badly misunderstands, or the kind who fills the reference section with AI hallucinations?

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Honestly, this is going to make giving directions so much easier. "You just take Highway America #1 until you get to Lake America, turn right at the America Mart, and then bang your first left on America Street. If you find yourself in Americaburgh you've gone too far."

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Circular logic. Just bc you think you can see into someone's chromosomes doesn't mean you can. I bet you've been wrong many times. The Olympics used to do genetic tests on women, but stopped because they kept outing women who didn't know they had chromosomal differences. It's not simply DNA.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Looks to me like the computer said "hey! Här har" but maybe your Finnish is better than mine. Congratulations!!

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Jaya Saxena @jayasaxena.com · 26/08/2026

The best way to honor the two who have left us recently, imo, is to keep being as gay as possible

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It's so heartwarming to see you so happy and charged up about this. You fought the power, and you beat it. 💜

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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

in a world of JK Rowlings be a Dolly Parton

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Given the presumptive etymology of Ontario as "great lake", it seems likely that the province is named for the lake, and not the other way around. It would be so much funnier to keep the lake's name but insist that Ontario change theirs

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

(Aside: I think the big tech data is often very easy for the govt to access, since they can just buy it off a data broker. No warrant required.)

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It's a different context. You know someone is probably looking over your shoulder when you're using an app. But Flock could be watching you out in public whether you're driving or walking down the street. Most surveillance is in your phone; Flock might be anywhere.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Have you ever once in your life interacted with someone whose karyotype you actually had direct knowledge of? No? Didn't think so. Then how can this be about DNA?

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I mean, as if "rogue radical professor" wasn't enough, that picture of you the Times used was stunning

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Christian Science Center? That's a cool spot, I love that globe, although it gives me a little itch every time I realize that all the landforms are drawn backwards because you're inside it. And there's the analogous problem with the stars at Grand Central... 😬

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The "urban renewal" and highway plans for Albany were devastating. For ex, 787 exits straight into the parking lot under empire center (itself a nightmare) so that suburbanites need never set foot in the city. The same is true in Boston, where Prudential demanded its own exit off the Mass Pike.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I don't see a place to put batteries, but regardless, please... don't put batteries in it. Or expose it to the sun. Or let it get wet. Or look at it directly. Or recall its image in your mind's eye. Or touch it, for gods sake. Or leave it unattended in the same room with a pet. Or let it smell any

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

to address the Times' question, his goal is to live forever (& he will spend millions on this manifestly stupid project) because he is a fucking coward. Facing mortality is one of the true challenges of life. Stick this jerk with the gom jabbar & he'll shrivel up dead before you can turn it on.

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rye of the tiger @ryehow.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It's been awhile since I looked at this in detail, and in fact we may be in a public comment period still. But my recollection is that the revised form 4473 says (will say?) that you must provide "biological sex at birth". Even for someone who has updated all records legally, this may be a trap.

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