Joel 🍦's avatar

Joel 🍦

@polyparadigm.bsky.social

431 followers 465 following 5724 posts

Materials scientist:some range and depth, interested in making arcane topics a little more accessible. Prior place photo was from the aughts; figured I should update.

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Carl Zimmer's avatar Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.bsky.social
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On Wednesday the official number of cases in which cows gave people the flu rose to four. Today in my email newsletter, I look back at H5N1's evolutionary trail and imagine its possible paths from here. 🧪buttondown.email/carlzimmer/archive/fridays-elk-just-when-i-thought-i-was-out/

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Stupendous range. Much like the noted rock and roll singer, Jim Van Morrisey.

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András Forgács W's avatar András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social
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the very worst thing about social media is the inability to recognise anything between two extremes either "change through poasting" or "everything is pointless why bother" and nothing in between

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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If you request footnotes as a work accommodation, sometimes the writer will put in daggers and double daggers, so there’s that

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Total dishonesty is difficult to pull off: you have to invert each fact, and also choose to do so within a misleading frame Tough to construct a well-formed statement without some honesty slipping in

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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To clarify I am saying NYT overall (aka The Grey Lady, so I used “she” for NYT) has been on the wrong side of politics since the Civil War and honestly through WWII, and this would only be a continuation of hostilities opened by their owners, not a new conflict.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Florida is going to become a blue state pretty soon, and it’s a race between whether it does so first on the political map or the physical map.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Well, but that’s more because it’s essentially bleach, just a special bleach that we developed an immunity to that one time 99% of our ancestors were oxidized to death and a majority of the remainders found niches that remained anaerobic

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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I have always declined offers of such a body mod Never fielded one from a person who seemed a remotely careful or sanitary surgeon tbh

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luke the myoclonic jerk's avatar luke the myoclonic jerk @coolhand.bsky.social
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This was needed elsewhere, so a quick important distinction: From Greek: • psychosis: mind-condition • in psychosis: temporarily disconnected from reality • psychopathy: mind-suffering or - disease • a psychopath: a person with a persistent antisocial personality disorder they’re unrelated

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Worst of the New York Times's avatar Worst of the New York Times @nytimes.wtf
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In case you're curious where the Heritage Foundation's warning that we were in the midst of a "second American revolution" that would only remain "bloodless" if the left allowed it to be ran... page 20

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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“All men” in this exact context is clearly intended mostly to be read as “George III and the undersigned”

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Naomi Alderman's avatar Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social
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Through my childhood, on election nights, my dad was the man under Peter Snow’s desk putting interesting facts on notecards into his socks. That’s how it was done before Google, kids. You got a very clever ASD man with some Oxford degrees to just remember interesting constituency histories.

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Pwnallthethings's avatar Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social
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Tory party's strategy of having their entire talent pipeline just be being rich and having had your empathy beaten out of you as a child by the South England Boarding School For Making Monstrous Children apparently not helping them connect with voters

8 replies 48 reposts 290 likes

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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I wouldn’t guess many Tories felt the pain, but the overall effect might explain how a normal-height person might look huge on a packed stage.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Thatcherism wasn’t so great for child nutrition outcomes, from what I have read.

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Dan O’Sullivan's avatar Dan O’Sullivan @osullyville.bsky.social
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There is a 7 foot tall guy behind Rishi Sunak who likely ran for office just to be able to hold a printed out L behind him during his concession speech.

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Ed's avatar Ed @notdred.bsky.social
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The problem with this death spiral of news coverage is that any asshole can just throw in misinformation and it will get taken seriously

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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I didn’t read the article: it’s saying these dozens of voters want to retain legal access to emergency contraception pills? Because that might be reason to vote tactically against Trump and his supporters, almost no matter who the candidate is.

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Lily Baker's avatar Lily Baker @lilybaker.bsky.social
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Someone who is good at voting please help me budget this. my democracy is dying

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Atticus Goldfinch's avatar Atticus Goldfinch @atticusgf.bsky.social
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"wow insane they wanted to do a debate when biden has severe mental decline, just doesn't make sense!" yeah we know. turns out "biden has no mental decline besides being old and just had a bad debate" literally explains all of these weird questions you have! whodathunk!?

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Grudgie the Whale's avatar Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social
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The media has been out for Biden’s head ever since he bravely withdrew from Afghanistan. See: making great job reports seem negative. I’m almost coming around to rolling with Kamala just because otherwise there will be no Trump reporting. Only Joe’s age. Though they’ll likely do the same to her.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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If I wanted my children to have maximum advantage over their classmates, starting to have the means to pursue that goal might’ve pushed me rightward. I would kind of rather my children be surrounded by minimal misery and desperation though, instead.

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The Stylite's avatar The Stylite @columnist.bsky.social
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Happy End of Tory Party Day to all those who celebrate, which I’m guessing is most of the Brits on here.

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Shiv Ramdas's avatar Shiv Ramdas @nameshiv.bsky.social
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Think about how much the average person despises Trump and remember half of them hate him even more than that.

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Mat Bowles's avatar Mat Bowles @matgb.bsky.social
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Whut? Adult population of US in 2020: ~258,000,000 Votes for Trump 2020: ~74,000,000 That's 28% These are all publicly available info pieces, and there's a character limit. Everything else I said is VERY WELL KNOWN FACTS Voter suppression and cheating won Trump his victory in 2016

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Fascist attacks on Oregon during the Trump admin were abetted by law enforcement (per PPB SMS records) and at least one member of the state assembly (on CCTV video, letting attackers in the door). Traveling from Washington to riot somehow didn’t trigger federal prosecution of the attackers either.

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Faine Greenwood's avatar Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social
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If you think that we actually just need a civil war to settle this once and for all: 1. No, you don’t. 2. No, you don’t. 3. You are an idiot.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Most mathematicians seem unwilling, on an emotional level, to trade away the beliefs that they would need to in order to be internally self-consistent regarding mathematics, and my guess is that it’s worse regarding domains such as politics & among anti-authoritarian personalities.

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Faine Greenwood's avatar Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social
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Trump’s re-election will mean four hideous years of the GOP playing constant Civil War Chicken at best - as this Heritage Foundation ghoul made clear - and actual civil war at worst. Avoiding that bloody nightmare is a pretty damn good reason to suck it up and vote for Biden.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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The fact that these are distinct is the kernel of truth that every episode of Law & Order opens with in hopes that you’ll swallow their deceptive framing as a unified bundle. I understand why one might reject that whole package, tbh.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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It wouldn’t, though: especially for a GOP candidate, electoral college victories are as divorced as possible from popular vote victories, and popular vote counts are as divorced as possible from genuine popular support (via suppression enabled by Shelby v. Holder and similar maneuvering).

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Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
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Things are pretty fucked up and the future is uncertain — probably the worst in my lifetime (perhaps excepting 1969 before I can remember). When it’s like that, I like to think about my grandparents and what they faced and got through with the Great Depression and WWII. /1

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Search “don’t obey in advance” though, if you want some general principles.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Such a plan, if remotely workable, would hypothetically include extreme care to avoid releasing information about it.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Uh, yes, campaign managers do. Seems like FL and TX are potentially winnable if there’s a landslide but a squeaker it would likely hinge on other states. To maximize presidential-race efficiency, seems like they’re sacrificing some down-ballot FL territory to fight harder in other states, yes.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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Dems are in fact messaging about Dobbs and labor rights, and spooling up ground operations, especially in battleground states like North Carolina. The fact that Trump is a rapist and a convicted felon is de-energizing nominal “independent” voters who had previously supported him. We’re fighting.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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That would be horrific for the US and the world, especially Ukraine, Palestine, and Taiwan; I expect much of the aggression to face inward. Like nuclear war, stakes are enormous but odds aren’t terrible: 2020 Trump had a ground game & Biden didn’t; unions & reproductive rights are on the march now.

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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This might be expanded into a pretty good @rikergoogling.bsky.social bit, where he starts with that query and then alternates between searches for practical info on how to get with a J’naii and earnest bafflement at what went wrong in the minds of TERFs

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Joel 🍦's avatar Joel 🍦 @polyparadigm.bsky.social
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We had a bullet for Ashli Babbitt and we’ll have enough for everyone who decides to try it again this next January. The states are holding the fake electors accountable. I don’t know what proportion of the military is loyal to Trump over the USA, but I am cautiously optimistic it’s few enough.

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Peter's avatar Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social
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a lot of people seem to think my annoyance here is with jokes about political violence, which i’m on record saying are fine and cathartic. my annoyance is with people who disengage with effective forms of politics and replace them with fantasies

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