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Mike Urbancic

@urbancic.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.4K following 4K posts

college instructor, faculty unionist at the University of Oregon | pedagogy, astronomy, tabletop gaming, parodies, data visualization, maps, sundry | #TeachEcon #EconSky 📈📉 | alum UArizona & Berkeley Econ | he/him

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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 2h
Strip Law but *not* animated?! Hats off to @hellocullen.bsky.social if this is a teaser for a revival in a new medium.
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Eric R Fairhurst 📚 🦋 🎷🎨 @efairhurst.bsky.social · 23h
Yes…exactly
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
from 2001. no one’s doing product testimonials like this anymore. t.co/PEswCtbEZz
Toyota's unease at being associated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda is evident. In its September statement, the company said,
'Toyota does not have a sales or distribution channel in Afghanistan, and we do not export vehicles to that country."
Somewhat less laconic was Wade Hoyt, Toyota's spokesman in New York, who put the best corporate spin on the situation this week.
"It is not our proudest product placement," he said. "But it shows that the Taliban are looking for the same qualities as any truck buyer: durability and reliability."
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 03/10/2026
University leaders seem to forget that "the public" includes students, faculty, and staff who study and work at the institutions they lead. The "public" is not some external, amorphous thing to the university. If you can't treat the people on your campus with decency, then yeah, they won't trust you
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 03/10/2026
Higher ed leaders are worried about the "decline of public trust"; what are they doing about the fact that faculty, students, and staff at their own institutions do not trust them to lead effectively, defend academic freedom, and meet the challenges of the moment?
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Happy German Unity Day!
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Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever
A tweet by SarahStarberry that says "oh god read the vertical axis" on top of a chart measuring AI models' release dates and model numbers rather than any real capabilities
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
or 1,000,000 millionaires instead of 1 trillionaire
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I'd rather have an economy that makes 1,000 millionaires than 1 billionaire.
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Antti Rasinen @ars.iki.fi · 02/10/2026
I think this situation needs the characters reversed
A school girl labeled "Finnish language" is looking for a Terminator, hiding under the desk, labelled "Machine translation"
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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There are other people out there who care as much as you do.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There's still a month left, and he's going to shit so many beds. It's like someone let him loose in a mattress warehouse.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
best slide I've ever made
annotated topographic map of a section of Pine Mountain in central Oregon, with elevations shown in feet.

at the upper left corner, a textbox that reads:

Think of elevation, H, as given by a function of x and y, where x is how far east we are and y is how far north:

below the textbox is a small set of axes labeled x and y, with H(x,y) in the space bounded by the axes.

annotated with horizontally aligned braces are ranges of the topographic map below where the partial derivative of H with respect to x is positive, negative, positive, and then negative again, where one of those transitions between those ranges happens at a peak.

similarly, there are vertically aligned braces showing ranges where the partial derivative of H with respect to y is positive and then negative, with the transition between them happening at a peak.

on the east side of the map, along a road up the mountainside, is superimposed the phrase: 

"brush with death somewhere around here"

...alluding to my nearly catastrophic misadventures in driving to Pine Mountain Observatory by approaching the mountain and the observatory from the south rather than from the north.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
goose chase meme

in the top panel, the goose asks "LessWrong than what?"

in the bottom panel, the goose chases the fleeing person while yelling: "less wrong than what?!"
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Matt Kavanagh @mattkavanagh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My neighbor told me his AI company keep eating all his investors’ capital so I asked how much capital he has and he said he just goes to the market and gets more capital so I said it sounds like he’s just feeding institutional investors to AI then his CFO started crying.
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Cooper S. Beckett @coopersbeckett.com · 29/09/2026
Took me way longer than I'd like to admit to make this video of Eric Schmitt R-MO being utterly inept with Jack Smith as Katie Britt R-AL looks on
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
fueled by schadenfreude, I may live another day
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
the buried lede is that they won't even be able to use their favorite AI
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Peoria Bummer @peoriabummer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I gave it an identity crisis.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
the waning gibbous Moon giving the new lamppost an assist
given the angle, the Moon appears to shine in the night sky right above a lamppost that doesn't yet have its light installed at its top.

in the background in the left of the image is the north side of the Knight Library at the University of Oregon.
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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If I was a DA defending my decision to drop a rape case that's received international attention, I'd proofread my statement before releasing it. You know, to remove ctrl-c/ctrl-p errors that might make people think I used Chat and question my competence. www.tompkinscountyny.gov/News-article...
In November of 2024, the Cornell University Police Department (CUPD) informed the DA’s Office of their investigation in this case and asked us to review a statement provided by Jane Doe to determine if her allegations constituted a crime under New York law. Law enforcement agencies commonly consult with us on questions of evidence, matters of law, and potential charges, if any. 

In November of 2024, the Cornell University Police Department (CUPD) asked the District Attorney’s Office to review a statement provided by Jane Doe. This is not unusual. It is common practice for law enforcement agencies to consult with the DA’s Office when investigations involve significant or legally technical matters such as those involving allegations of sexual conduct and questions about the legal definition of “lack of consent.”
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Art.
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OPB @opb.org · 28/09/2026
University of Oregon researchers have a new study that says the mobile crisis counseling service CAHOOTS — Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets — diverted far more calls from the Eugene Police Department than first thought.
opb.org
UO researchers: CAHOOTS call diversion rate ‘substantially greater’ than first estimated
University of Oregon researchers have a new study that says the mobile crisis counseling service CAHOOTS — Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets — diverted far more calls from the Eugene Police Department than first thought.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The horrifying implication is that Wilford Brimley was not yet 48 years old when The Thing was released in June 1982.
static.klipy.com
Wilford Brimley: I Don't Know Who To Trust
Alt: GIF of Wilford Brimley in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982): a balding man with gray hair and glasses shakes his head and says: "I don't know who to trust."
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Matt Salomone @matthematics.com · 27/09/2026
Let's make the Musk doc into the next Rocky Horror: a destination event with scripted audience participation that plays in perpetuity in every college town
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
reminiscent of McCringleberry's excessive celebration youtu.be/0POHJVPld8A?...
youtu.be
Colin Simmons called for unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after this sack 😳 | ESPN College Football
YouTube video by ESPN
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Björn Friðgeir @bjornfr.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Day to us all and now more than ever remember that the Computer Said Yes.
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The Alternate Histoween 🎃 @althistorian.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day. Today we celebrate the life of a man who saved billions by not believing a computer. May we all learn this valuable lesson.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
📌 for the 21st-century WPA
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Lane Stellmaker @hipcrimevocab.net · 25/09/2026
INSTEAD WE ARE GOING TO POINT OUT VERIFIABLE HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT THE KHANATE CULTURES AND THEIR ENCOUNTERS WITH THIRD GENDERS. BUCKLE THE FUCK UP JOANNE WIZARD SCHOOL IS IN SESSION AND YOU ARE LATE FOR A POTIONS CLASS.
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April Wright @wrightam.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The highlighted quote is fantastic. There’s a real desire among admin to capitalize on something that is fundamentally very difficult to predict: a future job market Fundamental skills - critical thinking, strong oral and written communication, and ability to learn - are always in style
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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
tech ceos are openly salivating about the idea of kids losing basic literacy and numeracy. this tells you pretty much all you need to know
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Dr. Bucky Isotope, PhD, BOFA @buckyisotope.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a 01100010 01100001 01101110 01100111 but a 01110111 01101000 01101001 01101101 01110000 01100101 01110010
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I’m old enough to remember when the Tea Party whipped up a frenzy among conservative parents (and eventually others) around how Common Core’s “new math” was allegedly causing children to struggle to learn math. There’s a latent frame there if someone (a political candidate?) wanted to activate it.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
entering my Spiders Georg era
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Rachel Bachman, WSJ sports reporter @realbachscore.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"THE COSTLINESS OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS PRESENTS YEARLY A MORE DIFFICULT PROBLEM FOR SOLUTION." -- New-York Daily Tribune, May 25, 1902
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Kevin @kmichaelwilson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Perversely, the scarcer positions get, the more that people who win the academic lottery insist upon their own merit and superiority, distancing themselves from the "unwashed hoards" of surplus phd holders and not realizing the isolation they're reinforcing makes them even more vulnerable
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
for when your '20s aren't sufficiently Roaring
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Meanwhile, I couldn't resist exploring why the lights were on in this underground hallway at the bottom of a darkened lecture hall late last night.
bright light shines through the entrance of an unseen hallway into the bottom of an otherwise dark lecture hall with hundreds of shadow-shrouded seats
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
a trafficconated dodecahedron! (extremely rare)
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Quasar 3C 273 is the farthest thing I've ever seen through a telescope. The photons traveled ~2.4 BILLION light-years before bouncing off two mirrors and passing through the eyepiece on the way to my retina!
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Steve Desch @deschscoveries.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It’s me! I got the ball rolling a year ago. Tim McCoy was instrumental and Allison McGraw helped. We got two asteroids named, thanks to discoverer Bobby Bus: (14330) Tomlehrer and (14331) Alyankovic. Two of my musical heroes, as you can tell from the citations I wrote.
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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
When I tell you this is one of the most riveting, concise and accurate depictions of the catastrophically defective thought processes behind Effective Altruism and the larger Broligarch Epistemic Universe... Run, don't walk, to read the whole thing (link below), which concludes thus:
Example of the problematic thinking behind Effective Altruism.
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
tired: we must think of the unborn children! wired: we must think of the unimaginably vast throngs of billions of years of unborn progeny! inspired: love thy neighbor as thyself
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
NEW CAT-IN-BOX PARADOX JUST DROPPED!
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Mike Urbancic @urbancic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
*struggling-to-breathe laughter*
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OPB @opb.org · 18/09/2026
Classified employees represented by SEIU at Oregon's public universities have authorized a strike, which could begin as early as Sept. 28.
opb.org
Oregon university classified employees authorize strike, could hit picket line this month
Classified employees at Oregon’s seven public universities have voted to authorize a strike, which could begin as early as Sept. 28.
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
*stares in Stanislav Petrov*
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Britt Paris @hellobrittparis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Join us Monday for our second @aaup.org AI pushback toolkit webinar on Monday 9/21 1pm ET. If you’ve ever wanted to find out what your admin signs away in tech vendor contracts to organize around it, this is for you. www.aaup.org/event/foias-...
aaup.org
FOIAs for Better Shared Governance Around Technology
This webinar provides examples of how to conduct public records requests to gather and analyze information pertaining to an institution's technology contracts, correspondence between institutional adm...
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