Tom Swanson
@swansontea.bsky.social
Retired clockmaker of the atomic persuasion. Formerly at the US Naval Observatory. About half of what I post isn’t serious. It’s up to you to figure out which half.
How much has our economy been buoyed by political spending over the last decade or so? The extra billions a year has to have an impact. (the damage is easier to see)
Goofy ass question: how fast could, in a laboratory setting, moths eat a sweater, at max speed? And are there labs around that have a critical mass of sweater eating moths that could supply enough moths?
All the people who are anti-heroin: if heroin disappeared tomorrow, could you still get through an entire workday without it?
Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 13h agoMy answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.
Reboot of the Chris Reeve Superman, but the crystals are ChatGPT/GoogleAI assistant, so a bunch of the stuff he learns from his holographic parents is hallucinated.
Teach your children ‘democrats are not always good, but republicans ARE always bad’ and in 2026 you’ve covered like 90% of their practical civic education wrt voting.
Stan Oklobdzija@stano.bsky.social · 18h agoThe best thing about Vote Blue No Matter Who is that it unloads a lot of cognitive burden. I wanted Tom Steyer to be in the Governor's race, but he's not so I'm gonna vote for Becerra. I don't follow his campaign at all: I'm voting for him because he's not a Republican.
I long for the day we get reports on how many people have been moved off of corporate welfare
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayRollins: "For those who love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it's a pretty big win when we've moved 5 million people off food stamps, y'all."
The vandals were stealthier this time, and went unnoticed.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday"President Trump has directed contractors to redo weeks of work on his planned White House helipad, frustrated with its appearance and questioning whether the slope of the White House lawn needs to be changed"
This house is the perfect application for the counter-rotating spiral illusion: petapixel.com/2016/06/20/o...
This Optical Illusion Changes the Way You See Famous Photos
Want to see something mind-bending? Here's a simple optical illusion that will literally change the way you see famous photos. Stare at the center of the
petapixel.com
Tits McGee@scientits.bsky.social · yesterdayYou are not prepared for this
Has anyone proven that civilization's collapse didn't start when we stopped putting gargoyles on buildings?
Bought some zero-sugar-added ketchup and it is wretched. Bad taste and a lingering aftertaste that’s resistant to my palate-cleansing attempts
This sounds like a summary of the first ~30 min of a Murder, She Wrote episode.
Pixie Casey@pixiecasey.bsky.social · yesterdayin insane local news, the 26 year old director of a rocky horror production was arrested for sending threatening messages to himself in order to get the play shut down bc he didn’t want to deal with cast drama www.mynbc5.com/article/rock...
“What do you want ME to do? I’m only a senator with Constitutional authority! It’s not like I could vote ‘no‘ on anything!”
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayCornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"
One of them has eaten the plums. The other is selling baby shoes.
Daniel Solis@danielsolis.bsky.social · 6d agoThere are two wolves. One always lies. One controls the lever of trolley track. They're in a state of superposition inside a box. On the trolley are infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters going to an infinite hotel. The trolley must first travel halfway, but before that a quarterway, and so on...
A tidy appearance limits the diaper change rate. The pit crew is exhausted.
Mike Rothschild@rothschildmd.bsky.social · 2d agoIt's petty, but his staff is letting his appearance go. Crooked tie, wrinkled shirt with the collar way too tight, overly bulky suit, uneven makeup, unkempt hair. Not sure if it means anything, but it's there.
One of them has eaten the plums. The other is selling baby shoes.
Daniel Solis@danielsolis.bsky.social · 6d agoThere are two wolves. One always lies. One controls the lever of trolley track. They're in a state of superposition inside a box. On the trolley are infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters going to an infinite hotel. The trolley must first travel halfway, but before that a quarterway, and so on...
Small Town’s Make-Out Point Purchased By Multinational Make-Out Conglomerate https://theonion.com/small-towns-make-out-point-purchased-by-multinational-make-out-conglomerate/
We need a zero-tolerance policy for anyone, but especially the GOP, getting into kids‘ pants
Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d agoAn initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play
Yeah, but a few years ago you couldn’t even post stuff like this
Steffen Rayburn-Maarup@rayburnmaarup.bsky.social · 3d agoI don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.
“How about hiding inside a giant horse?”
Dean Obeidallah@deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 2d agoNEW/UNREAL!! US Military Asks Troops to Pitch ‘Creative and Unconventional’ Ideas on How to Punish Iran: “We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran.” So under Trump/Hegseth our military tactics are based on a suggestion box www.mediaite.com/media/news/c...
I once had a longtime criminal defense attorney tell me he felt guilty people often said “there’s no way this could have happened because of X, Y and Z,” instead of ”this did not happen because I did not do it.”
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 3d agoRep. Max Miller: "My former wife has claimed that during a custody exchange at my home that day, I assaulted her…If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?"
Interesting, but they should also have looked at evidence of depletion of resources. Deposits of depleted uranium or any disruptions to natural ratios of long-lived isotopes. Where did an old civilization get oil? Why are we finding it if there was a 100k-year civilization that preceded us?
CNN@cnn.com · 3d agoIf another advanced civilization lived on Earth before us, would we know? It is a mind-bending idea that not only looks deep into the Earth’s past but also far into its future, as humans change the climate swiftly and dramatically by burning fossil fuels: https://cnn.it/4hKTKdX
I was contemplating the issue of inflation recently. We have a lot of tech based on silicon chips and other semiconductors, which is deflationary. A home computer 30 years ago was more or less $1k-2k, same as it’s been ever since. But computers are faster and have more memory and processing power
It’s a problem that Google wasn’t able to determine this was a bad idea until they got external feedback
Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 4d agoGoogle Briefly Turned Google Earth Into an AI Slop Factory gizmodo.com/google-brief...