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tōph

@toph.bsky.social
250 followers 375 following 129 posts

Queer. Public health & epidemiology. Raver, occasionally makes music. Writes code. Terminally sociology-brained. Finishing things is hard (ADHD lol). Continually rethinking. Abolish ICE, free Palestine, Black Lives Matter, fuck fascism, etc. they/he.

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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 23/09/2026
ICE snatched up a Senegalese college basketball player with an ACL injury in a Kentucky airport. She’s “in so much pain” and needs surgery, but is being transferred from camp to camp with little more than ibuprofen. www.kentucky.com/news/state/k...
A picture of Amina Seck in her Kentucky State jersey on a basketball court.
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Rebecca Fielding-Miller @rebeccafieldingmiller.com · 21/09/2026
I literally *just* wrote a fellowship application about this. However much you might be thinking "what the fuck???", get ready to think it a lot more
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Instead of workslop, now we have warslop. Some dipshit analyst asked a chatbot "what's on this ship" and it said "nuclear materials" and then put that in a report that he also made with AI, and sent it off. Possibly the best example of how a "human in the loop" just human-washes the generated text
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Microsoft and OpenAI documents unsealed in the NYT case call scraping the web "the largest theft of labor in human history". Sounds about right to me.
theverge.com
OpenAI and Microsoft knew they were starting a ‘doom loop’ for the web
OpenAI and Microsoft knew they were driving us toward Google Zero, and they did it anyway. 
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Some Ableton plug-ins write every frame of a parameter you drag with the mouse to the undo history, and that's not fun.
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Gmail and Apple Mail's built-in categories kinda frustrate me. They both have categories called Primary, Updates, and Promotions. For the fourth category, Gmail has Forums and Apple Mail has Transactions, which seems more better
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
it's easy to OD on the think break in an ableton session, where the only thing i can hear is the reverb & room tone
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Alder Cheems @aldercheems.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
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The PS1 startup sound as a lesbian @janus.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
what an insane timeline where i gotta come on here and post shit like “I Stand With Macklemore”
theguardian.com
All supporting acts withdraw from Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore
Four openers and live band for Sheeran’s tour depart after removal of Macklemore over ‘free Palestine’ comments
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Frederick Deknatel @freddydeknatel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If Biden or Obama had started a war that led to attacks like these on American bases—and then covered it up for months—the political backlash would eclipse Benghazi. One service member: "We're not defending these bases. We're just watching them get destroyed." www.cbsnews.com/news/new-pho...
cbsnews.com
New photos show widespread damage at U.S. positions caused by Iranian missile, drone attacks
The images were sent to CBS News by active service members under condition of anonymity.
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is something I think about often.
researchagenda.news
The Waymo effect: how AI is quietly making research less collaborative
How frictionless technologies teach us to prefer our own company – and why research leaders should worry.
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Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 09/09/2026
Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
a screenshot from an iPhone and Apple Watch showing "recaps" of conversations from ambient audio.
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Uhhh the new Apple Watch features are hella creepy. www.theverge.com/tech/991812/...
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I guess the iPhone Duo is only for right handed people
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 08/09/2026
“Elon Musk destroyed USAID as a mechanism for killing off as many of the global poor and non-white as he can before they kill him first (as he, insanely, believes)” is not a conspiracy theory. In truth, it’s very hard to conclude anything else.
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Tom Wallach @mdwallach.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I want to make sure everyone in the city is aware that SUNY Downstate operates a large and extremely skilled LGBTQ and gender affirming care clinic, and we have repeatedly reiterated our intention to go to jail before we stop.
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brent 🌹🗽 @therealbrent.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Holy shit
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Jen , the MT liberal bird lady @liberal-jen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A murmuration of starlings above Sardinia, Italy. One of my favorite natural phenomena.
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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
"Instead of giving up, scientists and UN officials recommend trying to limit excessive warming and then bring the temperature back down to the agreed-upon threshold. But it still will mean decades of increased weather-related disasters, rising seas, extinctions and melting ice and glaciers."
cbc.ca
For the first time, a key UN report says the 1.5 C global warming threshold is lost | CBC News
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. Officials say the...
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I can't think about this kinda stuff without letting out a deep sigh 😮‍💨
restofworld.org
I refused to train the AI that could replace me
AI companies are paying highly educated workers to teach machines the judgment they spent years developing — even when those systems could eventually replace them.
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Aditya Mukerjee 🦦 🏳️‍🌈 @chimeracoder.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Promoting genocide is a bright line. Here is the email I sent to support@1password.com and business@1password.com condemning their donation. I encourage you all to do the same. Full text is in the alt text, to make it easy to copy/paste and adapt to your own message.
To Agile Bits Leadership,
I am a longtime 1Password user. But beyond that, I am an information security professional. In that capacity, I am responsible for convincing literally countless companies to adopt Business and Enterprise plans for their companies and helping them onboard. I haven't bothered to add up exactly how much recurring 1Password revenue I am personally responsible for, but needless to say, it's a lot.
In addition, I am also a desktop Linux user and have used Linux as my primary OS for nearly twenty years. 
I am shocked to see that 1Password has become the first independent corporate sponsor of Omarchy, a Linux distribution created by a man who openly supports genocide of ethnic minorities: David Heinemeier Hansson.
I am also appalled to see that 1Password has responded to other people who share my concern by trying to draw a meaningless distinction between the Omacom Foundation and David Heinemeier Hansson. There is no way to support Omacom without tacitly condoning the reprehensible behavior of its founder. The statement "1Password does not endorse hateful, dehumanizing, or exclusionary views" is completely at odds with the fact that 1Password has pledged $300,000 to a foundation controlled by a man who openly calls for repeating a genocide previously enacted by Adolf Hitler himself. 
I am mortified that I am responsible for driving revenue to Agile Bits only for the company to turn around and spend that money in such an odious way. If Agile Bits is truly committed to its stated values of "not endorsing hateful, dehumanizing, or exclusionary views, the company must rescind its deal with the Omacom Foundation, refuse to pay the remaining $200,000, and claw back the $100,000 already paid.
Unless Agile Bits reverses course on this funding, I will not in good conscience be able to continue recommending 1Password professionally, or to use it personally. 
Genocide is a bright line, and it is imperative that we all stand on the correct side of that line.
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Hearing my mum and aunt react to a video on Facebook: "Oh, that's cute… oh wait, it's probably AI though." "Yep, that's AI." I'm so proud!
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This seems like a good summation of the Omacom stuff. So many fascists!
brennan.day
Normalized Fascism in Open Source: $12 Million Given to DHH
Open source has become a safe harbor for far-right politics, from David Heinemeier Hansson's white-nationalist rhetoric and the Omarchy Foundation's $12 million in patron funding to so-called apolitical projects that treat marginalized contributors as political, and why a united boycott of complicit tech companies is our only way forward.
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Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 03/08/2026
There are 7 PR people for every journalist in the US. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
chart showing 280k pr specialists to 40k 'news analysts, reporters, and journalists'
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
there are shitposts, and then there are shit posts
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 25/08/2026
Have never read a piece on adaptation like this. Amazing words and imagery - go read it too
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Betcy Jose @betcy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
If there is a morally reprehensible option to take in any situation, this administration will take it
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Shana V. White (she/her) @shanavwhite.blacksky.app · 22/08/2026
This thread.
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Dr Abolish ICE @pwr2dppl.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I don't know if water filter websites is a thing people need but please consider this site that is saying no to genAI.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 19/08/2026
Democratic Socialism: Myth Vs. Fact theonion.com/democratic-socialism-m…
MYTH: The government will take away your money and give it to the poor.

FACT: You are the poor.
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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
👇👇👇👇 I've been saying this for years as well. She very much helped kickstart the anti-vax movement in the US.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
“X’s algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” www.404media.co/xs-algorithm...
404media.co
X's Algorithm Feeds Off Ragebait and Impacts Democrats More, Study Finds
X is driving engagement by making users fight in the replies.
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AmeriKraut @inchargeofthegirls.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New Public Comment on the self-interested case for quitting X publiccomment.blog/p/it-is-past...
publiccomment.blog
It Is Past Time for You to Quit Elon Musk's X
Yes, I'm talking to you. 🫵
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
This article from @lopatto.bsky.social points out the same phenomenon (or maybe you could call it "sickness") in the way Zuckerberg describes spending time with his daughter. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Text from The Verge’s article:

Zuckerberg uses an example that is telling, in a grim kind of way: He asked an Al to pick out a
"personalized" recipe to bake with his daughter.
He could have considered what kind of baking his daughter enjoys, what her skill set is and what he might be able to teach her, then picked a recipe. Maybe he would have picked a bad recipe, and they would have bungled it - but that might have been a fun experience and a good story. Or maybe he would have picked a family recipe, and it would have given him the opportunity to tell her about when he was a child, or what his grandmother was like.
Certainly he's a busy man, but wouldn't that make the gift of his attention to her hobby even more precious? Perhaps he might have come to understand her better by spersing more time thinking about what she likes. Without that attention, the baking they do together seems more focused on accomplishment than quality time
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I do think it's possible to use AI as part of a software dev workflow in a useful way. But it's clearly easier to use it to shit out software without putting any care or attention into it. AI reinforces a culture that prioritizes outcome over process and you get this kinda thing happening.
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tōph @toph.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This take spiked my anxiety with how right it is 😮‍💨
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Yeah these guys gotta go. When they lose the House or the Senate their markets will be used for election denial. Gotta rip the wires out.
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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 11/02/2026
If you're wondering whether your town was a sundown town? Check this map. Shout out to everyone that immediately noticed that most sundown towns were not in the South.
justice.tougaloo.edu
Sundown Town Map | History and Social Justice, inspired by James W. Loewen
A database contributed by people across the nation underlies these maps and the tables you can generate.
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SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 10/08/2026
Hmm
Node js linked to virginity
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laura olin @lauraolin.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Abdul El-Sayed on capitalism: “I’m capitalist who just knows about capitalism. I have a bad habit of reading, I’m so sorry.”
We’ve spoken about capitalism versus socialism.

Do you want to talk about capitalism? Let’s talk about capitalism. Are you recording? Capitalism is about leveraging the laws of supply and demand to efficiently allocate capital expenditure to maximize value. When capitalism works, it’s because you have free entry and exit into markets. So if you believe in capitalism, you have to believe in government regulation to protect markets. In fact, right now, we have exactly the opposite. You don’t have to be a socialist to believe that you should be taxing billionaires their wealth. In fact, if you are a capitalist, you should believe in that. So, I’m capitalist who just knows about capitalism. I have a bad habit of reading, I’m so sorry.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
a reason that Stevens lost and other AIPAC candidates are losing despite the huge infusions of money is that Dem voters don't want to vote for a candidate who is funded by the same org who will immediately turn around and fund the Republicans
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 05/08/2026
thus do we understand half the reason for the NYT’s seething anti-Mamdani grudge
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Pokéntomologist 🪲🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🍉 @pokentomologist.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Words cannot contain my rage about this. And it is journalistic irresponsibility to just go along with the tr*mp admin’s underlying assumption that college degrees are supposed to be pre-job training. Education is valuable for its own sake and so many reasons beyond what can be quantified.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 01/08/2026
🤷🏿‍♂️
Features:
- Live signal field: likely glasses appear as blips with rough proximity and confidence
- Local alerts the moment a likely device starts broadcasting — even with the app closed
- Sightings history: repeat encounters, confidence, distance, and why each signal was flagged
- Register your own glasses so they never trigger alerts, and see when they were last heard
- Snooze alerts for an hour or the evening, right from the notification
- Home-screen and Lock Screen widgets with the latest status and a pause button
- Control Center toggle to pause or resume scanning, even assignable to the Action Button
- No account, no ads, completely local and private
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Midatlantica @midatlantica.com · 30/07/2026
As @reckless.bsky.social noted, it says something about our society that tech is willing to throw these features in their platforms to prevent AI content (some of which is fine) but need court orders before they’ll do anything about racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny or the like
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 29/07/2026
Haven’t been watching but I hope people understand that Rand Paul hates Fauci mostly because Fauci repeatedly embarrassed him so Paul is trying to return the favor.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
The policy take-home of our new study, in 15 words: 🏭 Fossil fuels kill children 🔋 Decarbonization will slow malaria expansion 🦟 Malaria eradication will save lives everywhere 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The past and future impact of climate change on childhood malaria in Africa - Nature
Climate and econometric modelling reveal that human-induced climate change is shifting the burden of childhood malaria in Africa.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
“boy george admits he used AI to create his new pro-israel song” is now a sentence we can say
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 28/07/2026
say what you will about AI, always-on voice recording and auto dictation has been a game changer for my workflows. Save post and close app. Yeah Footlong meatball sub on white. No veggies. Don't toast it. Ranch and barbecue sauce. Yeah, ranch and bargecue sauce. More. More. Little more please
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