Reposted by Todd Rowellrahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Boosting again for people getting COVID vaccines (thank you for getting vaccinated!!) because my mentions are full of people finding it helpful. There is way more detail (and citations!) in the thread both up and down but this is the key info! 19498239
Reposted by Todd Rowellkottke.org @kottke.org · 16/09/2026Danny MacAskill Plays in the Endless Light of Norway. A gorgeous video of MacAskill riding three different mountains in Norway above the Arctic Circle, backed by a Max Cooper soundtrack. [kottke.org]kottke.orgDanny MacAskill Plays in the Endless Light of NorwayScottish trials rider and mountain biker Danny MacAskill, who I first featured on the site more than 17 years ago, recently took his Santa Cruz eMTB north of the Arctic Circle to Narvik, Norway. He rode three different m 071
Reposted by Todd Rowellkottke.org @kottke.org · 16/09/2026We Must Create the Shit Machine. “I asked everyone I know at the BIG TECH HUMAN CENTIPEDE ROUNDTABLE, and we all agreed that UNCONTROLLABLE SHIT-RAIN IS USEFUL AND GREAT, and that EVERYONE WANTS IT.” [mcsweeneys.net]mcsweeneys.netWe Must Create the Shit Machine“For as long as humans have created SHIT with our BODIES AND BUTTS, we have been asking this FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION: What if there were a COMPUTER that could ALSO SHIT? 1226
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 28/08/2026I just heard an ad from Meta portraying their changes to their apps (required by this settlement) as something they did because they care about users so much. Hypocrites. 110
Reposted by Todd Rowellkottke.org @kottke.org · 22/06/2026AI Economics for Dummies. “The Wall Street Journal’s business editor moves into Alex’s house, having accepted a part-time position as Alex’s human footstool. He never asks to see the books.” [mcsweeneys.net]mcsweeneys.netAI Economics for Dummies“Xavier owns an apartment that he rents out at a loss of $1 billion/month. Seeing this success, he decides to make financial commitments to construct $850 bi... 0161
Reposted by Todd RowellAnnette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Don’t know who to credit for this. But it is how I feel. 5497183011
Reposted by Todd Rowellkottke.org @kottke.org · 18/06/2026“The prevailing emotions among scientists right now are rage and shock.” U.S. Science Is in Chaos. “This compact that has existed since World War II, that made the U.S. the successful, prosperous nation that it is, is being dismantled.” [scientificamerican.com]scientificamerican.comAmerica’s compact between science and politics is brokenHow did we get here? 1148
Reposted by Todd RowellJeff MacArthur @jeffmacarthur.bsky.social · 15/06/2026I just came up with the term "emotional abuse casino" for "social media" and I quite like it, especially with respect to young people on social media. That is all. CC: @ambermac.bsky.socialstatic.klipy.comDog ScrollALT: Dog Scroll 0279
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 21/03/2026Jesus H Christ is right This is so bad you’d think it was Facebook daringfireball.net/linked/2026/...daringfireball.netGoogle Search Is Now Using AI to Rewrite HeadlinesLink to: https://www.theverge.com/tech/896490/google-replace-news-headlines-in-search-canary-coal-mine-experiment?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjI0Q05IV0dlS3EiLCJwIjoiL3RlY2gvODk2NDkwL2dvb2... 020
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Turns out, imperialism isn’t free. (Imperialism is also not imperative.) 010
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 05/02/2026I keep wondering how the people who insist these models are conscious somehow think it’s OK to use a consciousness as a tool and that it’s not slavery. 030
Reposted by Todd RowellPopehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 27/01/2026But lots of these are rape whistles, why would Republicans want to ban ooohhhhh right 542205365
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Wait wait wait, I got it! “Lil’ Duce” Eh? Eh? *reads news* Shit, a week too late. 020
Reposted by Todd Rowelldougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 19/01/2026Here's a phrase we all need to start using: weeklysift.com/2026/01/19/e...weeklysift.comExpand your vocabulary: the Dual State[I haven’t done an Expand Your Vocabulary post in several years, but “the Dual State” merits one. We should all become fluent in its use.] It’s commonplace these days to com… 1104
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 19/01/2026@getskyscraper.com are you planning to support using lists as feeds? Or is that here and I just can’t see how to do it? 210
Reposted by Todd Rowellkottke.org @kottke.org · 18/12/2025The people want a Knives Out Muppet movie (w/ Daniel Craig as the only human). To tide us over, Netflix & Sesame Street have teamed up for “Forks Out”, in which Beignet Blanc solves the mystery of who ate Cookie Monster’s triple berry pie. [kottke.org]kottke.orgForks Out: A Benoit Blanc Sesame Street MysteryFor years now, the people have wanted only one thing: for Daniel Craig’s chicken-fried detective Benoit Blanc to feature in a Muppet movie (with Craig as the only human). Earlier this year, Netflix picked up the streamin 0568
Reposted by Todd RowellBrian Hughes @bmhughes.bsky.social · 01/12/2025This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥 5682879511201
Reposted by Todd RowellKate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 01/01/2026HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HORSES! IT IS HORSE BIRTHDAY! HORSE!!!!! 936011174
Reposted by Todd Rowellve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 19/10/2025I keep thinking about how so-called AI is literally just time-displaced human intelligence. Bottled human decision-making, by converting human acts of perception and description into data via effective slave labor, that can be replayed for first-world elites who have given up on thinking themselves. 816943
Reposted by Todd RowellPopehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 02/10/2025Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later. harpers.org/archive/1941...harpers.orgWho Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson 26391113509
Reposted by Todd RowellThey-Ra @xanindigo.bsky.social · 03/09/2025roses are red violets are blue singular they predates singular you 2331122
Reposted by Todd RowellJohn Scalzi @scalzi.com · 01/09/2025One of the victories of the "AI" industry is that the use of the word "intelligence" for their product has led to people conflating a massive appropriation of intellectual property for an database sorted and outputted with algorithms, with what actually happens in human brain, one artwork at a time. 23710132
Reposted by Todd RowellAlexandra Lanes @ajlanes.bsky.social · 28/08/2025This, from the Quakers, is a pretty good example of how to resist pressure from bigot lobbying groups. Effectively “we legally can allow trans people to use the loo, we morally should, and we tried it and nothing bad happened”quaker.org.uk 6533391332
Reposted by Todd RowellKevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 20/08/2025I want a presidential candidate who promises to construct Union memorials and statues all over the country. And yeah, North and South. Blanket Virginia with statues of Thomas, who actually chose the right side. Hell, put one of Sherman in the middle of Peachtree Park. 34380141296
Reposted by Todd Rowelle.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 15/08/2025the arguments for Butlerian Jihad are becoming increasingly persuasive, but at this point I would probably settle for Wozniakian Jihad 1036057
Reposted by Todd RowellDennis Goris | Cartoons @dennisgoris.bsky.social · 15/08/2025One of these things is not like the other #washingtondc 382435820
Reposted by Todd Rowelle.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 11/08/2025bro, your entire field is built on the vision of fooling people into thinking computers are people and calling it "intelligence," because nobody actually understands what that word really means 51357
Reposted by Todd RowellRCaddy27 @rcaddy27.bsky.social · 12/08/2025The not so invisible tiny orange hand 031
Reposted by Todd RowellA.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 10/08/2025The reason people keep claiming that Republicans and other types of creepy religious freaks want to take away the vote for women is because they keep saying that's what they intend to do. 221065374
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 12/08/2025The Weekly Sift's featured post is about how an authoritarian economy is bad for business (disastrous, really): weeklysift.com/2025/08/11/an-author… 120
Reposted by Todd RowellJohn Scalzi @scalzi.com · 08/08/2025There's not enough money to be made in using tech for the things for which they are most suited and efficient, and there are both too many people hoping to be billionaires, and too many people not smart enough to know when they're being sold hype. 27708100
Reposted by Todd RowellKevin McShane (Verified) @kevinmcshane.org · 08/08/2025Just once, I want to see a job description that says: • Must be able to juggle one project in a slow-paced environment 1123
Reposted by Todd RowellPopehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 08/08/2025When you say "AI is absolute shit" people will say "that shows you don't understand AI and how it's supposed to be used" and I will say "I'm not talking about AI in some imaginary rainbow world where it's used right and not fecklessly monetized, I'm talking about our world, fucknuts." 762273419
Reposted by Todd RowellPopehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 08/08/2025I'm most proud of how flammable it was 551869201
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 10/08/2025I absolutely agree with this characterization of (one of) the harms of “AI” … soul stripping is perhaps the result that makes me the saddest. 03111
Reposted by Todd RowellMC Frontalot @mc.frontalot.com · 07/08/2025Wow. Appallingly, this is real. 3135107
Reposted by Todd Rowellkottke.org @kottke.org · 07/08/2025The Death of the Fourth American Republic. The Roberts Supreme Court means to end the fourth republic, which “began with the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 60 years ago today”, by gutting that same act. [kottke.org]kottke.orgJamelle Bouie on the Death of the Fourth American RepublicThis is a great piece from Jamelle Bouie on the likely death of the Voting Rights Act and, zooming out, the end of an era in American society that began with the Act’s signing. Americans pride ourselves, by contrast, on 14012
Reposted by Todd RowellWilliam B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 06/08/2025I am going to be a massive humorless asshole about woo-woo shit, no matter how seemingly harmless, for the rest of my life due to this. astrology, homeopathic medicine, etc etc it's all bullshit and it's not fucking harmless. there are people who will die due to this who would have otherwise lived. 7658041436
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 06/08/2025BRB gonna make stickers for Teslas that read “this car is trying to kill me and then cover it up” 000
Reposted by Todd Rowelle.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 05/08/2025just wait until you see this in some actual context, Autopilot is the biggest high-tech scandal in modern history 231001248
Reposted by Todd RowellMonteiro @monteiro.bsky.social · 03/08/2025”Society has largely required us to alter our lives to avoid this, rather than society being altered to make us free and equal.“ @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social’s essay in today’s Guardian is VERY much worth your time. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comThe problem is far bigger than Jeffrey Epstein | Rebecca SolnitTreating the scandal as an aberration misunderstands the global epidemic of violence against women 0103
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 02/08/2025I have nothing to add here; luckily, nothing more is needed. 030
Todd Rowell @toddrowell.bsky.social · 01/08/2025The real question is: is there a DNC plant in the GOP, or is this the GOP inadvertently revealing the shitty future they plan for us, or has the GOP drank their own kool-aid for so long they’ve reached CCP/Tiananmen Square-levels of ignorance? 110