Tessera
Folgen

Rob von Thaden

@rvontha.bsky.social

Denizen of the North Coast who cogitates about cognition, sacred texts, and other sundries. Should be writing about Galatians. (Views are my own)

5542 Posts2804 Follower1466 Folgt
Ancient Jew Review@ancientjewreview.bsky.social · 15h ago

The fifth installment in our review series for Jacqueline Vayntrub's Body Language comes from Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme. www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2026/9/7/de-hemmer-gudme-review

Fleshy, Embodied, Embedded Speech — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

When reading texts from the Hebrew Bible or ancient Rome, it is tempting to focus on the similarities between ‘them’ and ‘us’, our shared humanity, and the very familiar descriptions of longing,…

ancientjewreview.com

Hildur Knútsdóttir@hildur.bsky.social · 2d ago

This post is making the rounds again for some reason and therefore I feel I must inform you that they’ve hired another one so there are now TWO forensic pathologists working in Iceland.

Hildur Knútsdóttir@hildur.bsky.social · 3y ago

My favourite fact about Iceland is that we have many, many crime writers but only one forensic pathologist, and he was so busy answering all of their questions that he decided to have a small seminar for writers to get some peace. It immediately sold out so he had another one that also sold out.

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave@wolven.blacksky.app · 23h ago

You know how I keep saying that "AI" people since the 90s & 2000s all have the same metaphysical commitments & that the best way to understand them is through the lenses of comparative religious studies in new religious movements, mythmaking, & occult studies? I am not now & nor have I been kidding

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · yesterday

The U.S. AI industry is being run by a batshit rationalist sex cult, and no, I am not being hyperbolic - they’re genuinely Like That:

Erin Redwing @realizingerin I went to an rationalist/EA Al doomer event last night with the goal of meeting someone who could calmly explain to me the argument for how they get to the conclusion that Al will kill everyone. Because these are rationalists, I expected to find people who could lay out a serious extinction pathway, walk through the assumptions and intermediate steps, identify choke points where negative pathways could potentially be regulated, and entertain disagreement about where their assumptions might break down. My experience was the exact opposite. The people I spoke to seemed psychologically unable to entertain the possibility that their conclusion (that Al literally kills everyone, which was a point that many would not even budge on) might be wrong. Their most extreme conclusion was treated as an axiom. I had multiple people walk out of conversations with me when I questioned their inevitable extinction premise. At one point during a panel, the moderator asked everyone in the audience who was still skeptical of Al doom to raise their hands. About half the room did. He then told all of the skeptics to leave the panel and go with one of the speakers, who would answer their questions separately. They filtered out all the skeptics, and continued the panel only with the subset who accepted their extreme position. I genuinely felt like a heretic just for questioning whether superintelligent Al inevitably leads to the extinction of humanity, or entertaining the possibility that the future might actually turn out well. That does not mean Al safety is fake. Obviously there are serious questions about rapidly advancing Al systems and what happens as they become much more capable. Those are exactly the conversations I went there hoping to have. But what I encountered was an apocalyptic death cult. These people are not rational. They are deeply afraid, they reinforce that fear in one another, and they have become so emotionally committed to apocalypse
Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 3d ago

All of this is also apiece with their collective support for destroying global public health architectures, networks and labor.

Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH@gavinyamey.bsky.social · 3d ago

Eugenics: a common thread throughout the MAHA Administration Example: Bhattacharya & Memoli, who lead the NIH, say the US government should stop doing pandemic preparedness & instead the government must just urge individuals to get healthy so that at least the healthy survive the next pandemic 😳

Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 3d ago

And the outcomes he wants are explicitly eugenicist: the "culling" of the weak and vulnerable.

Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH@gavinyamey.bsky.social · 3d ago

RFK Jr said he wanted to “give infectious diseases a break for 8 years”—that’s a crucial motivation for why he degraded or dismantled infectious disease control programs at the CDC, laid off so many experts in ID control, & accelerated his extreme anti-vaxx push. He’s getting the outcomes he wanted😢

Rob von Thaden@rvontha.bsky.social · 4d ago

Things I was frightened of as a child: -Bigfoot -UFOs -Bermuda Triangle (my family did not travel by air, mind you) <Basically anything on Leonard Nimoy's _In Search Of..._> -Sleestaks -The Diaper Man (a local creeper) -Spiders

Jacqueline Antonovich@jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 4d ago

Things I was frightened of as a child: -Rattlesnakes -Quicksand -The Terminator -That one episode of the Twilight Zone where the girl falls under her bed into another dimension -June bugs (those things fly right into your face) -The Night Stalker

Rob von Thaden@rvontha.bsky.social · 4d ago

Grateful that I got to do my 20 miler down on Presque Isle today (wasn't looking forward to running past the water treatment plant again). They clearly did an amazing job cleaning up, but from what I could see the Frontier neighborhood, Frontier Park, & the Erie Cemetery got hit way harder than PI.

Seth Cotlar@sethcotlar.bsky.social · 5d ago

“Deep red Texas” is filled with proud conservatives who aren’t afraid to speak their mind, and it’s also a place where Trump supporters are terrified to say so in public because the state is overrun with scary leftists who will ostracize them.

- Fox News Opinion • • Follow • •• X /NEWS opinion 18h • SILENT MAJORITY: Texas conservatives say they hide their Trump support while 300 Democrats rally at Dallas City Hall calling the GOP fascist. Protesters held signs equating MAGA with fascism and speakers ripped everything from Epstein to data centers from the stage. Meanwhile, Trump supporters in deep-red Texas say they stay quiet at work, at school, and even among friends — with one man admitting he tells coworkers he's a "Bill Maher-style centrist" just to avoid conflict. → Full story here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ david-marcus-democrats-protest-dallas-conservatives-quiet-cautious DEMOCRACY NEEDS YOUR® COURAGE ND UP. VERse
Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 5d ago

Yes, yes, the state of California is definitely taking children away from their parents if they don't agree with "the pronouns the schools chooses for your kids," yes, that is an entire string of events that definitely happened. It's cool how a US Senator can just spread insane lies on TV.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Tim Scott: "Think about how dangerous states like California [are] that want to take away your kids if you don't agree w/pronouns the schools chooses for your kids. They're coming for our culture. If you don't want to stand up & fight for the soul of this country, your wood is wet. It's that simple"

Sarah J. Jackson@sjjphd.bsky.social · 5d ago

This is my cue to remind everyone (I know you know) that MacKenzie Scott studied creative writing with Toni Morrison and was mentored by her for some time. I always think these type of relationships matter a lot. (See, alternatively, Amy Chua mentoring Vance.)