Alec Perkins
@alecperkins.me
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
December 29, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
EXCLUSIVE: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social will be sworn in as mayor on midnight on January 1 inside the old abandoned City Hall subway station, saying that he sees the venue as a symbol for the aims of his upcoming administration.
EXCLUSIVE: Mamdani Will Be Sworn In At Abandoned Original City Hall Subway Station
The mayor-elect will kick off a new era by throwing things back to an older one.
buff.ly
December 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
EXCLUSIVE: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social will be sworn in as mayor on midnight on January 1 inside the old abandoned City Hall subway station, saying that he sees the venue as a symbol for the aims of his upcoming administration.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
The latest version of the NJ Senate low-speed e-bike registration, license and insurance bill proposes a 1 year ban on selling of e-bikes over the internet.
The legislature has 3 more work days to ram this bill through.
www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/...
The legislature has 3 more work days to ram this bill through.
www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/...
December 28, 2025 at 11:13 PM
The latest version of the NJ Senate low-speed e-bike registration, license and insurance bill proposes a 1 year ban on selling of e-bikes over the internet.
The legislature has 3 more work days to ram this bill through.
www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/...
The legislature has 3 more work days to ram this bill through.
www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/...
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Agrivoltaics boost crop yields even when the solar panels aren’t generating power. New research from Canada shows that shading crops with elevated solar panels creates a cooler, wetter microclimate that can lift yields and improve performance across dozens of crops. buff.ly/6eqClf1
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
The gift that keeps on giving: How solar panels on farms can help increase crop yields
A new study finds farmers can enjoy increased crop yeilds under partial shade of solar panels long after they stop working decades from now.
buff.ly
December 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Agrivoltaics boost crop yields even when the solar panels aren’t generating power. New research from Canada shows that shading crops with elevated solar panels creates a cooler, wetter microclimate that can lift yields and improve performance across dozens of crops. buff.ly/6eqClf1
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.
November 21, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
We are thrilled to partner with
@jctheatercenter.bsky.social
to host an evening with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, the co-hosts of
@thewaroncars.bsky.social
podcast and authors of Life After Cars at White Eagle Hall on Wednesday, January 21. Tickets: www.eventim.us/wafform.aspx...
@jctheatercenter.bsky.social
to host an evening with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, the co-hosts of
@thewaroncars.bsky.social
podcast and authors of Life After Cars at White Eagle Hall on Wednesday, January 21. Tickets: www.eventim.us/wafform.aspx...
December 17, 2025 at 10:00 PM
We are thrilled to partner with
@jctheatercenter.bsky.social
to host an evening with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, the co-hosts of
@thewaroncars.bsky.social
podcast and authors of Life After Cars at White Eagle Hall on Wednesday, January 21. Tickets: www.eventim.us/wafform.aspx...
@jctheatercenter.bsky.social
to host an evening with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, the co-hosts of
@thewaroncars.bsky.social
podcast and authors of Life After Cars at White Eagle Hall on Wednesday, January 21. Tickets: www.eventim.us/wafform.aspx...
Reposted by Alec Perkins
🧵 Our mutual aid hub has been a HUGE draw for our immense volunteer base, many of whom have never wanted to be involved politics before now.
This model isn’t just about the immediate impacts: It’s about showing our values, building a community, and reaching voters — without selling our soul!
This model isn’t just about the immediate impacts: It’s about showing our values, building a community, and reaching voters — without selling our soul!
Turning campaigns into mutual aid hubs isn’t good for campaigns or mutual aid! Your campaign manager should be entirely too busy to schlep around 5600 tampons!
December 27, 2025 at 1:31 AM
🧵 Our mutual aid hub has been a HUGE draw for our immense volunteer base, many of whom have never wanted to be involved politics before now.
This model isn’t just about the immediate impacts: It’s about showing our values, building a community, and reaching voters — without selling our soul!
This model isn’t just about the immediate impacts: It’s about showing our values, building a community, and reaching voters — without selling our soul!
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Every Democrat running for office needs to promise investigations and full prosecutions from top to bottom, remove its funding bloat then break up the agency and distribute its core remaining useful functions across other agencies.
ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries.
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
December 26, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Every Democrat running for office needs to promise investigations and full prosecutions from top to bottom, remove its funding bloat then break up the agency and distribute its core remaining useful functions across other agencies.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
here's a list of readings on the myth of job replacement by AI. i might turn this into a blog post as a sort of lesson plan for anyone who wants to use it, but it's just a reminder that every time we see "self-driving" cars or delivery robots, invisibilized workers are always behind the scenes.
December 26, 2025 at 8:28 AM
here's a list of readings on the myth of job replacement by AI. i might turn this into a blog post as a sort of lesson plan for anyone who wants to use it, but it's just a reminder that every time we see "self-driving" cars or delivery robots, invisibilized workers are always behind the scenes.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Robot door closing as a service, LA area.
Waymo can only automate some human driver tasks, needing many & various ppl to mitigate the residual robot defects.
Without them, nearly every Waymo robot would get stuck before needing a charge.
Human dependent robots.
OP: tiktok.cesarroadsideassistance
Waymo can only automate some human driver tasks, needing many & various ppl to mitigate the residual robot defects.
Without them, nearly every Waymo robot would get stuck before needing a charge.
Human dependent robots.
OP: tiktok.cesarroadsideassistance
November 28, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Robot door closing as a service, LA area.
Waymo can only automate some human driver tasks, needing many & various ppl to mitigate the residual robot defects.
Without them, nearly every Waymo robot would get stuck before needing a charge.
Human dependent robots.
OP: tiktok.cesarroadsideassistance
Waymo can only automate some human driver tasks, needing many & various ppl to mitigate the residual robot defects.
Without them, nearly every Waymo robot would get stuck before needing a charge.
Human dependent robots.
OP: tiktok.cesarroadsideassistance
Reposted by Alec Perkins
The science breakthrough of 2025 is Solar Energy, not because it is new but because of how successful its deployment has been. This year renewable energy surpassed coal as a source of electricity worldwide. Hopeful sign for what’s to come.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
December 21, 2025 at 6:59 PM
The science breakthrough of 2025 is Solar Energy, not because it is new but because of how successful its deployment has been. This year renewable energy surpassed coal as a source of electricity worldwide. Hopeful sign for what’s to come.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
I can’t decide if the “Dream Big” tagline of MARTY SUPREME is intentionally ironic or not.
December 25, 2025 at 5:13 AM
I can’t decide if the “Dream Big” tagline of MARTY SUPREME is intentionally ironic or not.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
“Enough, Baris Weiss, your opinions suck!” youtu.be/GsWj7Q5iPus
The Break with Michelle Wolf | Op-Ed | Netflix
YouTube video by Netflix
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 12:43 PM
“Enough, Baris Weiss, your opinions suck!” youtu.be/GsWj7Q5iPus
Reposted by Alec Perkins
2025 Headline of the Year nominee (April)
December 23, 2025 at 12:03 AM
2025 Headline of the Year nominee (April)
“Enough, Baris Weiss, your opinions suck!” youtu.be/GsWj7Q5iPus
The Break with Michelle Wolf | Op-Ed | Netflix
YouTube video by Netflix
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 12:43 PM
“Enough, Baris Weiss, your opinions suck!” youtu.be/GsWj7Q5iPus
Reposted by Alec Perkins
This slots into a wide discussion (beyond AVs) about “can AI do XYZ”, primarily in the sense that humans have expert bias about billions of processes we perform without conscious awareness of the complexity of our day-to-day manoeuvres and accounting for infinite variables/adapting to novelty
They have made enormous headway. The central issue is that driving isn't _really_ a rule-based process; the rules are codifications of social mores but fundamentally driving around other people is about theory of mind and social negotiation, which ML is largely hopeless at; here's a thing I wrote.
Driving is a social process
Photo by Sangga Rima Roman Selia on Unsplash There is something very strange about automobiles. They are much faster and more dangerous than our brains are...
buttondown.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:48 AM
This slots into a wide discussion (beyond AVs) about “can AI do XYZ”, primarily in the sense that humans have expert bias about billions of processes we perform without conscious awareness of the complexity of our day-to-day manoeuvres and accounting for infinite variables/adapting to novelty
Reposted by Alec Perkins
This is the story Bari Weiss apparently doesn't want you to hear.
Trump has been sending people to the camps. talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...
Trump has been sending people to the camps. talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...
Trump Is Sending People To The Camps
“More than a prison, El Salvador’s CECOT has many if not all...
talkingpointsmemo.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:30 AM
This is the story Bari Weiss apparently doesn't want you to hear.
Trump has been sending people to the camps. talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...
Trump has been sending people to the camps. talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Americans & Europeans needlessly exposing African babies to preventable diseases just to see if they can find something that would justify their preexisting antivaccine beliefs is not only unscientific and actually anti-science, it is very much reminiscent of colonialist, racist human rights abuses
“It is not clear what the research question is. It seems to be about the safety of the vaccine rather than its effectiveness, but both are already well-established, and to undertake such a study in a population where almost 1/5 of the adult population has a marker of infection seems extremely risky”
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies
www.theguardian.com
December 21, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Americans & Europeans needlessly exposing African babies to preventable diseases just to see if they can find something that would justify their preexisting antivaccine beliefs is not only unscientific and actually anti-science, it is very much reminiscent of colonialist, racist human rights abuses
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Back when I was writing regularly about baseball, circa 2012, I crunched the numbers & the likelihood of becoming a tenure-track professor in one of the MLA disciplines was almost precisely the same as getting from a college baseball team to a MLB roster.
Nothing has gotten easier since then.
Nothing has gotten easier since then.
Becoming a tenured professor is a bit like becoming an NBA forward or a successful recording artist. (Or a novelist or a working fine artist or a pediatric cardiologist.) The supply is massively greater than the demand, and everyone is excellent. This is a hedge fund of yourself, not a career goal.
December 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Back when I was writing regularly about baseball, circa 2012, I crunched the numbers & the likelihood of becoming a tenure-track professor in one of the MLA disciplines was almost precisely the same as getting from a college baseball team to a MLB roster.
Nothing has gotten easier since then.
Nothing has gotten easier since then.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
There's one old-school "urbanist" idea that I think still holds weight - a neighborhood is safer, is better, will thrive with more "eyes on the street". Rounding up/pushing out street vendors makes everything less safe and it's not just for providing food to tired, hungry, and inebriated people.
Vendors live and work in our community, as much as any other business or resident. They are hard working, respectful and provide a valuable service which keeps us all safer — providing important resources to drunk people who need sobering up before they drive home. We need them.
3/?
3/?
December 21, 2025 at 5:06 AM
There's one old-school "urbanist" idea that I think still holds weight - a neighborhood is safer, is better, will thrive with more "eyes on the street". Rounding up/pushing out street vendors makes everything less safe and it's not just for providing food to tired, hungry, and inebriated people.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 21, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
Reposted by Alec Perkins
I don’t know how anyone can still talk about “the AI revolution” with a straight face. Reuters story about a railroad company that has sunk $300,000 into “developing AI products” and appears to have made…a chatbot that doesn’t work?
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
December 21, 2025 at 3:14 AM
I don’t know how anyone can still talk about “the AI revolution” with a straight face. Reuters story about a railroad company that has sunk $300,000 into “developing AI products” and appears to have made…a chatbot that doesn’t work?
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
Reposted by Alec Perkins
Due to a windstorm-related utility power outage at the NIST, time may soon be destroyed
December 20, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Due to a windstorm-related utility power outage at the NIST, time may soon be destroyed
Reposted by Alec Perkins
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
December 19, 2025 at 12:24 PM
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!