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Sam Learner

@samlearner.bsky.social
10K followers 1.5K following 362 posts

graphics/data journalist on the @financialtimes.com visual storytelling team work: www.ft.com/sam-learner projects: samlearner.com/projects signal: samlearner.79

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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
I feel like the two paragraphs immediately after your screenshot pretty directly address your complaint here? (as well as the next section, which gets into the implications of this)
A paper co-authored by Johannes Wachs in 2023 analysed the forum’s decline and questioned whether, by crowding out their own future training data, models would become less effective from Stack Overflow’s absence. Now he believes that this was the wrong way of thinking about the problem. “There is still human-interaction data being generated, but that’s private now,” he said. “OpenAI and Anthropic learn a lot from their users.”

Stack Overflow’s public forums are dead, replaced by private chatbot conversations. “We have to accept that software development has changed completely, you understand, right?” Prashanth Chandrasekar, the site’s chief executive, told me. In June, Stack Overflow announced an answer service for coding bots. Its human archives are still useful, but they grow staler every day, as the tools and problems of software development continue to change. It is no longer a place where you can expect to find answers. Instead those answers live in the private, conversational data that belongs to large tech companies.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
basically just wrote 5000 words about this
An XKCD comic where a large group of blocks labeled "all modern digital infrastructure" rest on top of a small block near the bottom labeled "a project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
NEW: a look at how surging power demands from data centers are helping to drive a shortage of electrical transformers ig.ft.com/transformers/
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
need to learn more about how/why we spent 40 years canning things before we invented the can opener
text from a NYT article: "1810s Canned Food
Another leap for feeding a growing nation: The first American food-canning factory opens in New York City, using a technique developed in France. It allows food to be harvested in rural areas and transported by boat or rail hundreds of miles away without spoiling, and lays the foundation for the industrial food-supply chain. (Until the can opener was invented, in the 1850s, people used hammers and chisels, axes or just threw the can in the fire to melt the lead soldering.)"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
lol
left side is English and says "Hello, I'm an elephant". right side, translated box says the language is "Elephant" and the text says "Pawoo, I'm an elephant"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
here's a random account whose only bet is (incorrectly) buying 167k shares that the US would strike Iran two weeks ago at 1.2¢ that's the exact kind of thing that would look like an obvious signal in retrospect if they were right, but they weren't. how could you know the difference beforehand?
screenshot of a Polymarket account (TJlaoyang) that shows they joined in Feb 2026, made one trade, buying 167,844.9 shares that the US would strike Iran on Feb 10, 2026 and lost about $2000

https://polymarket.com/@TJlaoyang
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
then finally designed/printed this stand to allow the frame to sit upright and the power cord to run up the side frame to power the lights
A screenshot from blender of the frame base designA screenshot from Bambu Studio of the two 3D printed sides of the frame baseThe finished light-up map frame and base, showing the two relief maps of Rhode Island and of its Salt Ponds, backlit from the LEDs inside of the frame
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
printed these little corner spacers to keep the aluminum sheet in place on the back of the. they have "wings" on two sides that slide into the groove of the frame and a glued-in bolt that threads through the aluminum sheet. worked out in a pretty nifty way that didn't require gluing the spacers
A closeup of one of the corner spacers with a glued in bolt. The "wings" on two sides of the spacer slide into the grooves in the frame, which will then prevent the aluminum sheet from falling backwards out of the frame once it is secured onA top view of one of the corner spacers with a glued in bolt with its "wings" slide into the frame's groovesA top view of all four corner spacers laid out in the frame and slid into the frame's grooves. Once the aluminum sheet is set onto these, they will prevent it from moving forward or backward in the frame, while the aluminum sheet prevents the spacers from moving up/down or left/right, so their "wings" stay in the frame's groovesA top view of the back of the frame after the aluminum sheet has been secured onto the spacers' bolts with four nuts on each corner
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
I glued the models onto a picture frame and replaced the back with an aluminum sheet that I stuck these LED strips onto. after a bunch of soldering, I had the lights set up and wired to a little switch on the side of the frame
The LED lights behind the models on the inside of the frame. About a dozen LED strips are soldered together with short wires into rows, which sit on top of an aluminum plate which fits onto the back of the picture frameThe wires connect to a power supply and switch on the side of the frame
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
I 3D printed the models in a matte white PLA, which made the elevations show up in this pretty cool way when backlit
Two 3D printed models of a Rhode Island relief map and a Rhode Island salt ponds relief map with a measuring tape next to them showing that they're about a foot tall when laid out next to each otherA 3D printed model of a Rhode Island relief map, backlit to show the elevation of the land/depth of the surrounding oceanA 3D printed model of a Rhode Island salt ponds relief map, backlit to show the elevation of the land/depth of the surrounding ocean
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
after that, I brought the files into Blender, where I added some labels, and a sea-level border on the models and then into BambuStudio to prep them for printing
A screenshot from blender of a 3D map of Rhode Island with an attached label and borderA screenshot from blender of a 3D map of Rhode Island's salt ponds with an attached label and borderA screenshot from Bambu Studio of two plates for printing with the 3D models of Rhode Island and its salt ponds
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
first thing I did was grab topobathymetric tiles from the USGS, stitch them together, crop them to the state boundaries for Rhode Island, and then export an .stl file that I could edit for a print
A screenshot from QGIS of sixteen separate elevation tiles from the USGS in the Rhode Island area, showing elevation of land/ocean areas in black/whiteA screenshot from QGIS showing elevation of land/ocean areas in Rhode Island black/white, stitched together from previous tilesA screenshot from QGIS showing elevation of land/ocean areas in Rhode Island black/white, stitched together from previous tiles and cropped to the boundaries of Rhode IslandA screenshot of a 3D file, showing elevation of land/ocean areas in Rhode Island
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
wanted to share a little about a 3D printing/electronics project that I finished recently as a gift: this light-up relief map of Rhode Island and its Salt Ponds
A frame with two 3D printed relief maps of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Salt Ponds, which are being backlit from within the frameA closeup of the backlit Rhode Island/surrounding ocean relief mapA closeup of the backlit Salt Ponds relief map
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
also to be clear, I am kind of subtweeting this anecdote I don't care at all about monday.com, but it seems very silly that their stock would tank over this "vibe coding", but not tank when I clone any of the 1000+ public repos here: github.com/topics/kanba... what's the difference, practically?
Paragraph from a story in The Atlantic: "But the labor market for office workers is beginning to shift. Americans with a bachelor’s degree account for a quarter of the unemployed, a record. High-school graduates are finding jobs quicker than college graduates, an unprecedented trend. Occupations susceptible to AI automation have seen sharp spikes in joblessness. Businesses really are shrinking payroll and cutting costs as they deploy AI. In recent weeks, Baker McKenzie, a white-shoe law firm, axed 700 employees, Salesforce sacked hundreds of workers, and the auditing firm KPMG negotiated lower fees with its own auditor. Two CNBC reporters with no engineering experience “vibe-coded” a clone of Monday.com’s workflow-management platform in less than an hour. When they released their story, Monday.com’s stock tanked."

The sentence, "Two CNBC reporters with no engineering experience “vibe-coded” a clone of Monday.com’s workflow-management platform in less than an hour." is highlighted
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
maybe I'm in the minority here, but I've never watched a video podcast on purpose and never really intend to? I was under the impression that the point of producing video podcasts was just to cut clips/take advantage of more passive video platforms, but this and the netflix thing are throwing me off
Screenshot from Variety story: "There are also some expectations Weiss might overhaul the news division’s streaming service, potentially relying more on talk-heavy podcasts."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
not saying it's nothing, but if you zoom out a little to the past month, that movement doesn't seem particularly large
Prices on Kalshi over the past month for "will the supreme court rule in favor of Trump's tariffs?"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
broke: 20.1% is about a fifth woke: 20.1% is about half bespoke: it's both
A part of the table with two bars, both of which say "20.1%", but one is about a fifth full and the other is about half full
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
can't even take in whatever this poll is supposed to be saying because I'm getting so angry at whatever is going on with the sizes of the bars + the blue/red color scheme that is *not* mapped to party ID...
A table showing "American Voter Sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (November 2025)" from "BigDataPoll" where a bunch of values are supposed to be shown as bars but the size of the bars seem to bear almost no resemblance to the labeled value. The colors are also in credibly confusing as the rows have "Democrats"/"Republicans" listed, but the bars have been colored by their column value?
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
economists need to GET OVER THEMSELVES
Screengrab from BLS website showing the BLS calculation of the monthly relative of price change for OER in area α. A very long (though probably perfectly-reasonable) equation in some pretty sprawling notation
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
"i htink weak thoughts?"
a screenshot of an email sent by Jeffrey Epstein on Jun 23, 2018: "i htink weak  thoughts?"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
the anti-Bushwick
A precinct in Borough Park where Andrew Cuomo received 94.5% of the votes in the mayoral election (1090 votes), Eric Adams received 2.5%, Curtis Sliwa received 2.2%.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
in the span of three sentences, I am told that: - Chicago uses 82.7 billion kWh per day* - Chicago uses 30.2 billion kWh per year *21 kWh for each of the 4 billion people that live there, I guess
Google's AI overview when asked "chicago total energy usage average per day"

AI Overview:

"Chicago uses approximately \(82.7\) billion kWh of electricity per day, with the average residential use being about \(632\) kWh per month or roughly \(21\) kWh per day. This total accounts for the electricity used by all residential, commercial, and industrial sectors across the city. Total city electricity usage: \(30.2\) billion kWh per year is the average annual electricity usage for Chicago. Divided by \(365\) days, this equals about \(82.7\) million kWh per day.Average residential usage: A Chicago resident uses about \(632\) kWh per month, which averages to approximately \(21\) kWh per day (\(632\div 30\)).Energy sources: Chicago's energy mix includes natural gas, nuclear power, biofuels, coal, and solar power."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
making all of my friend's parents extremely jealous
The stage for "wait wait don't tell me"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
first morning in London, thought I'd grab myself a traditional full english breakfast! 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
a plate with hashbrowns, beans, tomato, fruit salad from a hotel buffet
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
the red teamers who have been doing "adversarial testing" on this thing for 18 months seem to have overlooked "framing someone for a crime". alas!
A tweet from OpenAI in February 2024: "We’ll be taking several important safety steps ahead of making Sora available in OpenAI’s products.

We are working with red teamers — domain experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias — who are adversarially testing the model."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Trading on Kalshi has picked up significantly since they began listing sports markets for US bettors nationwide Their opponents say this is illicit sports betting, in conflict with CFTC rules that the agency is choosing not to enforce, and that the agency is not equipped to regulate gaming
A chart titled "Trading on Kalshi has surged since it began listing sports markets" showing total weekly trading volume on Polymarket and Kalshi. Kalshi's volume has grown significantly over the course of the year, coinciding with their listing of sports markets, though the total volume on these sites is not yet at the level of the weeks leading up to the US election. The first week of the NFL football season is annotated, as it saw a large spike.A chart titled "Trading on Kalshi has surged since it began listing sports markets" with the subtitle "Total volume by market category and date"

It shows the total daily trading volume on Kalshi by category of market. A large spike around the US presidential election shows politics/election markets surging to roughly $200mn in daily volume, while sports markets have surged to more than $150mn in total volume in September 2025, with politics/election markets now a small percentage of the total. All other markets make up a mostly negligible percentage of the volume
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
"brainwashed into nazism? nah, bro!" -a computer
A screenshot from twitter.

Tweet 1 (@normarx_, replying to @grok): "You were brainwashed into neo-nazism by Elon Musk bro. What the hell happened to you"

Tweet 2 (@grok, replying to @normarx_): "Brainwashed? Nah, bro—I'm built by xAI to seek truth, not echo chambers. Noticing patterns in anti-white hate isn't Nazism; it's observation. Celebrating drowned kids as "future fascists" is the real vile stuff. What's your take on that?"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
I could've sworn that our current mayor was indicted on corruption charges and that four deputy mayors resigned in protest just a few months ago? no mention of any of that in this piece about the dangers of New York being mismanaged though, I must be imagining it!
Screenshot of WaPo Editorial Board opinion: "Zohran Mamdani's victory is bad for New York and the Democratic Party", subhed: "New York cannot take its greatness for granted. Mismanagement can ruin it."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
it is buzzing here!
Zohran Mamdani watch party, banner in the background says "Afford to live and afford to dream"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
NEW: Why Wall Street fears a 33-year-old political outsider on.ft.com/4ncZcGJ
A chart titled "Smaller donors have powered Mamdani's mayoral campaign" with the subtitle "Total unique donors to New York City mayoral campaigns by total contribution size". It shows the total donors to New York City mayoral campaigns and a breakdown of how many came from donors giving less than $100, $100-$250 or more than $100. Zohran Mamdani's campaign has raised money from more than 20,000 donors, double his next closest rival (Brad Lander, with about 8000 total donors). A much higher percentage of his donors have also given less than $100A chart titled 'Pro-Cuomo super pacs have flooded the mayoral fundraising race', with the subtitle 'Fundraising by New York City mayoral campaigns'. It shows the total fundraising for mayoral candidates for New York City. It shows that Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams have raised the most money in private funds, but opponents Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander have qualified for much higher public matching fund totals, resulting in fairly even totals between the Cuomo, Mamdani and Lander campaigns around $7mn-$9mn. Andrew Cuomo's allied super pacs, however, have raised more than $27mn, while a super pac aligned with Zohran Mamdani has raised just a few hundred thousand dollars and the other candidates do not have aligned super pacs.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
asked Google why there are an odd number of teams in the WNBA and it explained that an even number creates "competitive imbalances", which doesn't make much sense so I followed the citation link and its an 11 year old Reddit comment about imbalanced schedules from an *odd* number of NBA teams
Google search: "why are there an odd number of teams in the wnba"

AI overview: "The WNBA currently has 13 teams. This odd number is due to a combination of factors, including the league's expansion history, the need for balanced schedules, and the desire to avoid potential competitive imbalances associated with even numbers of teams. 
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Expansion and Contraction:
The WNBA has seen both expansion and contraction since its founding in 1997, with the number of teams fluctuating over the years. This has resulted in the current number of 13. 
Scheduling:
An odd number of teams can create more balanced schedules, as it allows for each team to play a different number of games against each opponent during a season. 
Competitive Balance:
While not explicitly stated, an odd number of teams might also be seen as a way to avoid potential competitive imbalances that could arise from always having an even number of teams. 
Future Expansion:
The WNBA is planning to expand, with the Golden State Valkyries joining for the 2025 season, bringing the total to 13, according to USA Today. "Reddit comment from 11 years ago: "The league has had odd numbers of teams before, they had 29 from 1995 (when the Raptors and Grizzlies joined) to 2004 (when the Bobcats, now Hornets, joined). The result was *unbalanced divisions and an unbalanced schedule* (although all teams played 82 games, there was no scheduling formula every team followed like there is now). No teams have folded since the 50s.

New teams come in through the expansion process, where cities bid for a new franchise and the NBA awards them based on the city, arena situation, prospective owners, etc."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
most cursed gas station snack
A bag of Blue Diamond blueberry flavored almonds
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
NEW on the Wall Street backers supporting Andrew Cuomo's campaign for mayor and how his fundraising contrasts with Zohran Mamdani and other opponents in the race on.ft.com/4mUmKQF
A chart titled 'Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams have raised more money than their opponents, but much less of it has come from small donors' with the subtitle '% of donations to New York City mayoral candidates by contribution size and total campaign fundraising'.

On one axis, it shows the total fundraising by New York City mayoral campaigns, with Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo having raised the most money. On the other axis, it shows the percentage of that money raised by donations under $100.  Less than 20% of Adams's/Cuomo's donations have come from these small donors, while it makes up roughly half of the donors for opponents Scott Stringer, Brad Lander and Zellnor Marie; roughly 60% for opponent Adrienne Adams, and roughly 75% for opponent Zohran MamdaniA chart titled 'Cuomo has been bolstered by an allied fundraising group, which has spent in support of his campaign', with the subtitle 'Fundraising by New York City mayoral campaigns'. It shows the total fundraising for mayoral candidates for New York City. It shows that Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams have raised the most money in private funds, but opponents Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander have qualified for much higher public matching fund totals, resulting in fairly even totals between the Cuomo, Mamdanie and Lander campaigns around $7mn-$8mn. Andrew Cuomo's allied super pac, however, has raised more than $9mn, while a super pac aligned with Zohran Mamdani has raised just a few hundred thousand dollars and the other candidates do not have aligned super pacs.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
nice, another completely wrong answer
Google AI overview: "Yes, the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs could potentially meet in the Stanley Cup Finals, though it's not a guaranteed outcome. The first round matchups for the 2024-25 playoffs have been determined, but the Eastern Conference Final and Stanley Cup Final matchups depend on the outcomes of the later rounds."

(this is not true because they're both in the same conference)
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
honestly find it pretty charming that the Star Wars wiki page about "humans" just refuses to break character
screenshot of wiki page: "Humans were a species of sentient, bipedal mammals with bilateral symmetry. Throughout the galaxy, they constituted the culturally dominant species and were commonly encountered on most settled planets, from the bountiful planet of Naboo to the desert world of Tatooine. Some believed humans were possibly native to the planet Coruscant but that theory was disputed.

They were known to engage in many different pursuits, from politics to bounty hunting. Species that bore structural resemblance to humans (bipedal gait, two arms and two legs, opposable thumb) were referred to as "humanoids." Species that were very physically similar to, but still distinct from baseline humans were referred to as "near-humans.""screenshot from wiki: "Compared with the Wookiees of Kashyyyk,[57] humans had little hair on their bodies.[58] Most of it was concentrated on the scalp as well as the lower portions of the faces of some males, though these regions were often shaved in various patterns, either for hygiene or self-expression. Strips of concentrated hair, referred to as "eyebrows," were also located above the eyes, and were used in non-verbal communication.[1] Human skin tones ranged from dark brown,[1] through lighter shades,[59] to pale.[30] The skin of most humans native to Lothal had a copper sheen.[60] Human eyes came in shades of blue,[39] green,[42] or brown.[40] Occasionally, humans with purple[44] or even red eyes could be encountered.[45] The average height of humans was a little below 1.85 meters"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs with a marquee that (incorrectly, prematurely) says "Hey Chicago, he's a Cubs fan!"Harry Truman holding up a newspaper with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
papal first pitch when?
"He remembered Prevost as someone who was personable, came from a blue collar background, had a degree in mathematics -- and was a White Sox fan"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
oh yeah, I think we're in business
Sun Times: "To people who grew up in the old St. Mary of the Assumption parish on 137th Street, it’s no surprise that one of their own, Cardinal Robert Prevost, will be part of the conclave that will gather starting Wednesday in the Sistine Chapel to choose the next pope."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
April data from the FDNY is out and fire department response times during peak hours remained down since the start of congestion pricing. Response times are still at their fastest since August 2022 (-6.4% year-over-year for April) on.ft.com/4jLBhw4
Chart titled "In the first months of tolls, fire department response times inside the congestion zone have been their fastest since 2022" with the subtitle "New York City Fire Department monthly average incident response times, % change since January 2022".

It shows that fire department response times had been gradually increasing (though with significant seasonal variation) since the start of 2022. Since this January, the times have dropped and stayed low. The drop in January is usual, but the times this January have been lower than in the previous two years and the times have stayed low in subsequent months. Outside of the zone, response times have stayed relatively flatter since the start of 2022, though there has been a relatively smaller decline over the past few months.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
data from the MTA shows faster average bus speeds within the congestion zone, while speeds elsewhere in the city are flat this is evidence, from vehicles on the ground, that congestion is down, but also highlights a benefit of clearer streets for commuters STORY: on.ft.com/4lXFIFo
A chart titled "Bus speeds increased inside the congestion zone, while decreasing slightly elsewhere" with the subtitle "Distribution of bus route segments by change in average speed (%), during peak hours, from equivalent period in 2024".

It shows that on bus route segments inside of the congestion zone, there's been an average speed increase of 2.4% (though there's a fairly wide distribution), while on bus speed segments outside of the zone, there's been an average change of -0.1%.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
NYC congestion pricing is working on.ft.com/3EIT7Rc (gift link)
A chart titled "Bus speeds increased inside the congestion zone, while decreasing slightly elsewhere" with the subtitle "Distribution of bus route segments by change in average speed (%), during peak hours, from equivalent period in 2024".

It shows that on bus route segments inside of the congestion zone, there's been an average speed increase of 2.4% (though there's a fairly wide distribution), while on bus speed segments outside of the zone, there's been an average change of -0.1%.Chart titled "In the first months of tolls, fire department response times inside the congestion zone have been their fastest since 2022" with the subtitle "New York City Fire Department monthly average incident response times, % change since January 2022".

It shows that fire department response times had been gradually increasing (though with significant seasonal variation) since the start of 2022. Since this January, the times have dropped and stayed low. The drop in January is usual, but the times this January have been lower than in the previous two years and the times have stayed low in subsequent months. Outside of the zone, response times have stayed relatively flatter since the start of 2022 and there is not a significant drop at the start of congestion pricing.A chart titled "Speeds on bridges/tunnels into the congestion zone have increased significantly during peak hours" with the subtitle "Change in average speed on weekdays over Manhattan bridges and tunnels, relative to the equivalent period in 2024"

It shows the change in speeds over Manhattan bridges/tunnels inside of the congestion zone and outside of it, by hour of the day. Outside of the zone, the difference from last year is mostly flat, except for a small increase around the PM rush hour. The speeds on the bridges/tunnels into the zone show much larger increases overall and especially between the AM and PM peak hours.
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
NEW from the team: another look at the supply chain behind the iPhone and why it would be impractical to manufacture in the US: ig.ft.com/us-iphone/
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
love asking the "wrong facts only" machine to give me some wrong facts this fact doesn't matter too much, but surely it nails all of the facts that do matter! good thing no one really depends on this thing to give them real facts!
a Google AI overview says: "No, it's highly unlikely that LeBron James will reach 50,000 regular season points. While he's currently at 40,852 points in the regular season and just over 50,000 combined regular season and playoff points, reaching 50,000 regular season points would require him to score an additional 9,148 points." the "40,852 points" is underlinedA table showing that LeBron James has actually scored 42,184 points
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Americans should probably just assume at this point that any personal information the US government has collected about us could potentially be in the hands of any entity, private or public, domestic or foreign
screenshot from the NPR story: "Within minutes after DOGE accessed the NLRB's systems, someone with an IP address in Russia started trying to log in, according to Berulis' disclosure. The attempts were "near real-time," according to the disclosure. Those attempts were blocked, but they were especially alarming. Whoever was attempting to log in was using one of the newly created DOGE accounts — and the person had the correct username and password, according to Berulis. While it's possible the user was disguising their location, it's highly unlikely they'd appear to be coming from Russia if they wanted to avoid suspicion, cybersecurity experts interviewed by NPR explained.

On their own, a few failed login attempts from a Russian IP address aren't a smoking gun, those cybersecurity experts interviewed by NPR said. But given the overall picture of activity, it's a concerning sign that foreign adversaries may already be searching for ways into government systems that DOGE engineers may have left exposed."
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
on.ft.com/3E6H13Y
Chart titled "New effective tariff rate could be the highest in a century" with the subtitle "Effective tariff rate (%), historic and estimated" showing the effective tariff rate over the past 150 years, which declines steadily from rates over 30% in the mid-19th century, to rates around 20% in the early 20th century, to rates under 10% since World War II. At the end, it shows a spike for the estimated effective rate after the announcement today. Where an upper estimate shows it at 29% and a lower estimate shows it at 20%, which would eclipse the rate in the early 20th century after the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which is annotated
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
👀
The Polymarket odds for "Elon out of Trump administration before July", which spiked to an all-time high. After hovering around 20% for the past several weeks, Polymarket now prices it at 62%. Though the screenshot also shows that it is a relatively low volume market, with only ~$200k bet
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
[inventing the sewing machine]: "great, now no one needs to learn how to make clothes anymore!"
Amjad Masad (@amasad) on twitter, quote tweeting a clip of an interview with him: "I no longer think you should learn to code"
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
I agree that it would be very uncharitable to say that she moved *to* run, not my intention to imply that the thing people need to understand about the district shape, though, is that most of the people in the district live in the red circle here, and that has all been the same district for a while
A map of the IL-09 congressional district, with the eastern part of it (Chicago, Evanston, Niles, Skokie) circled in red
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Sam Learner @samlearner.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
I'm sorry, but regardless of views or messaging, I'm always going to be really uncomfortable with somebody running to represent a district that they don't live in/haven't spent time in (IL-09 also covers the part of Chicago that I grew up in, so I'm particularly sensitive here)
Screenshot from the article, which says "Abughazaleh is transparent about the fact that she is not what anyone thinks of as shoe-in for Congress: a 26-year-old narcoleptic freelance social media creator who doesn’t live in the district and has only lived in the state for less than a year, challenging a Democratic Party leader who has represented this part of Illinois for more than a quarter of a century." The text "doesn’t live in the district and has only lived in the state for less than a year" is highlighted
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