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Vera Tobin

@vtobin.bsky.social
848 followers 356 following 702 posts

Cognition, language, literature, occasional possums, potatoes. Being difficult. Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot.

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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 1h
Real talk, seal talk "No one has ever seen a leopard seal mate in its natural environment." "Southern elephant seals often bunch together in muddy pits called wallows, using their small flippers to cover themselves with wet sand." "Weddell seals are incredibly placid sedentary animals."
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 2h
Things Said of Seals (of one kind or other): is a relatively large and abundant true seal is a modest diver display their dominance by showing their noses develop quickly on their mothers' fat-rich milk attack, kill and eat several kinds of ducks have been some of the common vagrants in South Africa
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 7h
Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him.
From DISCVR blog's Facebook page, a momma bear & a yearling cub on her back in the shallow water.  I think the background has been swapped out, and I can't rule out some AI use there?  God, Facebook has become the social media for AI slop : (

The title of the article, which I link below, is "How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack"
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 28/09/2026
I say "I miss laws" out loud pretty often, and it sounds like a bit, and I wish it was a bit.
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doleful moo of a cow @oulipien.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
high decoupling is like the cartoon where the wolf and sheep clock in, and the wolf tries to kill and eat the sheep, but when they clock out at five, if the sheep is still alive they go shoot pool together, because it's just a job. one problem is that you can't clock out of life so easily
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While Pounties and Mounties have such similar plumage that even experts have trouble telling them apart, Counties are easily distinguished with or without their characteristic prey
An altered version of the Addams comic from the quoted post, with the role of the mountie (or pountie) and his Pan now filled by a vampire, getting his can.
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Jorts (and Jean) @jortsthecat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
If you adopted a feral cat to the inside and he keeps meowing maybe he just really wants to smoke real cigarettes. You don’t know what he was up to before
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Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 26/09/2026
retvrn
A picture of a piece of old torn and aged paper label, fragile and cracked with age, that states THIS BLUESKY POSTER COMPLIES WITH AUSTRALIAN STANDARD No. PM-00 FREE FROM POSTER'S MADNESS PUBLISHED BY THE STANDARDS AS.... and the remainder is torn.
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
HE: people are savaging the new Taylor Swift song ME: the one about Cleveland? HE: yes. it sounds real bad ME: yeah, that’s what songs that aren’t good do
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we have elizabeth at home @spindlypete.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
i don't know if that character is old enough to be in the public domain yet but EMOTIONALLY he is. like snoopy. snoopy and superman belong to every american but especially the ones who happen to be three
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we have elizabeth at home @spindlypete.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
just mainlining superman content. he especially loves the illustration of the fortress of solitude. he looks at it and goes, "that's the fortress of solitude" and i say it sure is buddy
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
i have a firmly held opinion i want to get off my chest and here it is: Lowly Worm fucks
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 18/09/2026
I'm really glad that Code Switch included this part of my interview, because I think these are the points that so often get lost in the discussion of trans panic and why the WNBA might be an ideal target for those anti-trans groups to latch onto. www.npr.org/2026/09/15/n...
We're talking about actual bigotry and the belief that this group of people shouldn't have, like, the same human rights as another group. It legitimizes them. And so the WNBA is a big platform for them to be able to do that. But I think what's actually really insidious about being the target is that transphobia is rooted in white supremacist ideas of who is allowed to be a woman and what a woman should look like. Those beliefs have, you know, negatively impacted Black and brown and non-Western women throughout history.

So what you have is a league in the WNBA that is full of Black women, 7-foot-tall women, masculine women, women who don't fit kind of the traditional markers of conventional white Western ideas of womanhood. And so I don't think it's surprising that transphobic ideas around the acceptable kind of woman are coming and impacting this league.

And I think the last piece that I will say is, I think, in some ways, the lack of visibility that the league had for a lot of years really protected it. Like, it wasn't as successful as it should have been because of racism and homophobia and misogyny. And once it becomes successful, the flip side of that is it really does become a different kind of victim of those ideas. And the fact that you have a league that is all women, predominantly Black women, largely queer women who have been successful and they don't need men to do it, and their product is not necessarily for men. I think that's a threat to the status quo. And so it's not just about protecting women's sports. It's actually about dismantling them from the inside.
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PSL_4Loko @psl4loko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The whole speech is good, but this part in particular is particularly relevant now. www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/publ...
A screenshot of a section of the linked speech by former President Harry Truman:

I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.

But when a Democratic candidate goes out and explains what the New Deal and fair Deal really are--when he stands up like a man and puts the issues before the people--then Democrats can win, even in places where they have never won before. It has been proven time and again.
We are getting a lot of suggestions to the effect that we ought to water down our platform and abandon parts of our program. These, my friends, are Trojan horse suggestions. I have been in politics for over 30 years, and I know what I am talking about, and I believe I know something about the business. One thing I am sure of: never, never throw away a winning program.
This is so elementary that I suspect the people handing out this advice are not really well-wishers of the Democratic Party.
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
seriously. FOCUS, MOTHERFUCKERS!
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yessss! Another entry for the collection. I love these so much. (Please join me in calling them "Outerbridges".) #linguistics
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 19/09/2026
The truth was that if United Health had an AI that was accepting a shitload of claims with a 90% error rate, United Health would stop using the AI in about 0.2 seconds.
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Stephanie 🍉 @ageofoddish.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
mmygod
the slut gnomes of false berlin jeopardy bluesky posttoday's jeopardy categories. the last 2 are "false berlin" and "bizarre little men"
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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This point, from my recent interview with @perrybaconjr.bsky.social for TNR, is so crucial. Trans people are desperate for relief from the relentless Republican attacks impacting all of us. When Democrats move right, they signal relief may not be coming, and that engenders a lot of despair.
And so for Democrats to say, They have a point on some of this, it is engendering a lot of hopelessness and a lot of fear in the trans community, because we have been just trying to hold on, hoping that this time would end and we would be able to get back to where we were five years, six years ago. And what Democrats are signaling is, like, No, we’re going to keep things as they are, and maybe even make them worse.
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The real alignment problem was, quite literally, the friends they made along the way
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
it's almost as if there's some kind of problem with the alignment of their goals
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
living in Ohio is just a great way to get to be so, so furious all the time
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I don't think people really understand the psychic impact of knowing that multiple times a day every day your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and everyone who could ever have any power over you is being flooded with agitprop designed to make them hate you
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 15/09/2026
I was trying to write about this yesterday because I feel like a clear and neutral explanation for normies about why frontier labs are Like This would be really useful but I just couldn’t bring myself to explain it because it’s so fucking TIRESOME.
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vortex_egg @vortexegg.com · 15/09/2026
This is of course not how you do either risk analysis or statistical decision-making. It's one of the reasons why the people making the frontier models are a) actually a major source of risk in themselves, and b) constantly bug fuck out of their minds, and c) in a cult (a cultural way of knowing).
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vortex_egg @vortexegg.com · 15/09/2026
One of the problems here is that making up quantifications for existential risks in order to make them sound like scientifically assessed statistical measurements is the cultural status quo of the existential risk community. Like, read anything by Toby Ord or Nick Bostrom — they do this all the time
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SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
separately i think those organizations are clearly not up to this, but one of the reasons they are not up to this is that their belief in AI alignment risks are essentially theological beliefs that are conveyed to them via strong social bonds and emotionally compelling writing
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Matt Weiner @mattweiner19.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
ok not the grimmest thing but maybe the most offensive to me personally? thiel is a devastating counterexample to "read some books" but reading some books would've been a good way for many people to avoid being enraptured by the charisma of yud's prose
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Asa @asa.engineer · 10/09/2026
we take privacy very seriously; for example, check this shit out. the users don't even know we have it lol. everyone gather round and take a look
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11/09/2026
i think it is bad that the president is that helm of a deranged cult of personality
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Andrew Hickey @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 09/09/2026
Oh my God. I thought the "Blackshorts" thing was just the OP doing a Wodehouse reference. But no. They're actually wearing black shorts. Just like Roderick Spode. I think my brain is finally *fully* broken by this. Someone say "Eulalie" to Daniel Thomas
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Cooper Lund @cooperlund.online · 09/09/2026
OpenAI are naked capitalists who don't think that any ethical concerns or guardrails should get in the way of development, and Anthropic seems to believe they're priests tending to the machine god. It's no wonder that AI has a public image issue when there's not a reasonable-presenting AI company.
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 08/09/2026
this is consonant with the social cognition theory of human "specialness" elucidated by, among others, Tomasello, and which forms the backbone of my "this is what I think LLMs don't got" hypothesis. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
hup.harvard.edu
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition — Harvard University Press
Ambitious and elegant, this book builds a bridge between evolutionary theory and cultural psychology. Michael Tomasello is one of the very few people to have done systematic research on the cognitive ...
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 08/09/2026
the whole thread is good but boy is it a relief to see this; maybe the incoherent-to-meaningless term is here to stay (I've even kinda half given up on my scare quotes) but if we're going to talk thoughtfully about this stuff we can't just assume it has an intelligible consensus meaning
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caroline cash @cashbrowns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Nancy 9/7/26 … Happy Labor Day 🛠️
8 Hours for Work, 8 Hours for Rest, 8 Hours for What We Will. Based on a screenprint by Ricardo Levins Morales after the organizing work done by Robert Owen.
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Dave Itzkoff @ditzkoff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
there's a teaser trailer and everything youtube.com/watch?v=GGJSRFWALTI&feature=youtu.be
youtube.com
You Can See Everything | Official Teaser HD | A24
YouTube video by A24
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m. r. sauter @oddletters.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
i am excited to watch this film face down on my floor and screaming
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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The only difference between football and other youth sports is the amount of brain damage it causes.
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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
As a former professional football player, I can confidently say that this essay is incorrect from every conceivable angle, and contributes heavily to the culture of toxic masculinity that still infests high schools and colleges across the country.
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Goodnews @goodnews.computer · 04/09/2026
Take a break from being depressed that everything you love is being destroyed by slop for a moment and let me tell you about the beautiful symbiotic relationship between graffiti writers, train yard workers, and model train enthusiasts.
A hand holding a model train with a replica of the same graffiti on the full scale train car behind it.A model train with two graffiti pieces on opposite sides.
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Goodnews @goodnews.computer · 04/09/2026
But, because the attention to detail in the model train world is so high, the effects of the writer/yard worker relationship trickle down to the small scale, and even the train hobbyists reflect the rules on their own models.
Two white model trains on top of each other with 2 graffiti pieces on each train.A closeup of the bottom left of the bottom train showing the identification numbers being avoided in the tiny scale graffiti.A model train with graffiti of Homer Simpson sleeping across the entire car.A closeup of the Homer piece where the identification is unobstructed, showing TTGX 694347.
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Hooray! The first issue of our paper subscription to The Onion has arrived. Now I am wondering whether this is a localized edition (!) or if we're just fortunate enough to live in this lucky zone of terrible
not a paid advertisement for the (Columbus-headquartered) Huntington Bank, the "Deeply ashamed partners of the Cleveland Browns."
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The Verge @theverge.com · 02/09/2026
As a new Harry Potter trailer makes the rounds, it bears repeating that there’s no way to watch this show without supporting J.K. Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on the trans community.
theverge.com
There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series
You can’t without supporting Rowling’s transphobic bigotry.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Congratulations to the archivists who made this project happen. It's going to be a gold mine for researchers and students. www.cuny.edu/news/cuny-co...
cuny.edu
CUNY Completes First-Ever Survey of Extensive Archival Collections Across 26 Campuses – The City University of New York
The City University of New York today announced that it completed the first full-scale survey of its extensive archival collections. Overseen by the CUNY Office of Library Services, the Cultivating Ar...
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Vera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
ayfkm
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 01/09/2026
The replies to this are poignant, man. Every one of these new web games is built with ai tools! All of ‘em. 100%. I promise. Also basically all the rest of software. Sorry to be the bearer of that news! I know it upsets people a lot!
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 31/08/2026
hi this is to make you aware that I've just coined "lolp" it's like welp but for lol okay carry on
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Gerard Cosloy @gerardcosloy.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
deepest condolences to all family, friends and musical co-conspirators of Half Japanese’s David Fair
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"she [jae mordant] understands it now" - lethal shooter @mo333.myatproto.social · 17/08/2026
"This is how wrestlers pop out in WWE"
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Blue sky nice ghost @rajandelman.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Trying to figure out whether it was more impressive that Dolly gave away so much money, or that she was a working musician who figured out how not to get swindled out of all the money she earned in the first place
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