Galactic Mashed Potato Association
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baryonicbeing.bsky.social
Galactic Mashed Potato Association
@baryonicbeing.bsky.social
Space whale, big engines, friendly. Touring the galaxy.
mastodon.social/@BaryonicBeing
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I had a popular account with a valuable audience and my Twitter payout was $80 a month-ish, to the point where I disabled monetization instead of uploading my ID. Payouts are only material if you live in a developing country, so “guy in Nigeria posting right-wing Amerislop” has taken over the site.
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.

My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
November 23, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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He’s compelling to some people because he notices genuine failures. But in my framework these failures come from the collapse of the verification–deliberation–accountability cycle. Fix that and the system can work, ignore it and nothing will.
November 20, 2025 at 11:21 AM
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Gentlemen, no fighting in the
November 19, 2025 at 11:33 AM
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LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
November 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
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5/Its easy (or difficult to swallow) this as corruption/crony capitalism. But in a new paper w/ @segoddard.bsky.social in IO, we argue these interactions suggest something much more fundamental -- a shift in the international order which we call neo-royalism.
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mxthh...
www.dropbox.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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Just got back from the doctor's. The bad news is that tests have revealed I have Onomatopoeia.
Naturally concerned, I asked, 'What's that?'
'I'm afraid,' he replied, looking up from his notes with a serious expression. 'It's exactly what it sounds like.'
November 19, 2025 at 9:45 AM
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We report: we felt cold, so we walked fast, and now we feel too warm. This is the way it goes. In the clouds, corroding steel wool is unraveling, scratching up the whole sky across. Whatever bird we see is flying near the ground. We hear hail coming in the distance.
November 19, 2025 at 12:26 AM
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#PPOD: NASA’s JWST observed Herbig-Haro 49/50, an outflow from a nearby still-forming star, in high-resolution near- and mid-infrared light. The young star is off to the lower right corner of the Webb image. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI 🧪 🔭
November 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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The scientific understanding is that we should see a decrease in Absorbed Solar Radiation from a negative PDO and a decreasing Net Flux Anomaly as the North Pacific rapidly warms.

The opposite is happening and that's a Big F*cking Deal (BFD) to use @drjamesehansen.bsky.social his phrasing.
1/
November 17, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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Small boy in totally A+ green outfit, at the Spanish court in the 1560s. By Sofonisba Anguissola, whose day is today.
November 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
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Goddamn so much of the system relied on high integrity and professional shame and once that was stripped away by lack of consequence it was just a ticking bomb right.

We thought the system was protecting us and we could fuck around electing anyone.

But we were supposed to be the system.
November 16, 2025 at 10:39 PM
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but it’d also be a mistake to credit that vanguardist as having done most of the work. all the geese do the work. in intellectual life, successful reinvention, resurrection, reintegration require a great deal of creativity. /fin
November 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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it’s great that the growing frontier of firsts paves the way for somewhat — only somewhat — easier reinvention and transformation down the line. it’s like how the goose at the apex of the migration wedge does experience a bit more air resistance. 2/
November 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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cumulation is a bad model of intellectual life. every idea has to be constantly reinvented, remade as something fresh and real and relevant, live in contemporary minds. that is most of the work. 1/
November 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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Refining details on the Light Hugger "Void Transcendent" based off the lighthugger concept from Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" book series.

#conceptart #scifiart #illustration #spaceart #vehicledesign
November 15, 2025 at 7:07 AM
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the official release has apparently had some image files pulled out. i grabbed this and made the torrent first couple of hours and it is complete.
attempt at full epstein dump to torrent:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:8c6aa712c99d1240bc116447d6ec67d08cb16913&xt=urn:btmh:1220b5e28de225fe8035e9ec46fb41adb3a4898680c6b0085e5895e911f8ef4000ab&dn=Epstein%20Estate%20Documents%20-%20Seventh%20Production
November 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Thread
One of my proudest moments was many years ago, when I got cold-called by a scammer. I have an unwholesome interest in the art of the con, so I let her stumble through her script for a bit.

When she started the Yes Ladder bit, I said, “I have to ask: is today your first day?”

1/7
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
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It’s soup weather! Do you want an easy tasty soup recipe? Of course you do. Here’s one.

1 lb Italian sausage
1 can pumpkin puree
1 tbsp curry powder
1 or 2 cans coconut milk
Chicken stock, amount depends on the coconut milk
1 head cauliflower or a bag of florets
Maybe chickpeas? Up to you
November 14, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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You absolutely have to bribe your top quintile with goodies, because 1) it limits zero-sum brain disease spread 2) it creates a powerful constituency for a public services floor, & 3) the admin/cognitive load of means testing means they'll get theirs anyway, so you end up subsidising them regardless
November 13, 2025 at 10:35 AM
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This is basically the biggest thing I have changed my mind on in adult life. Having been raised in a Land Of Plenty soc dem, I was convinced of the 'insane subsidy to the rich' case for means testing until I came over here, saw the alternative, and I am now an Universal Coverage absolutist
The UK just has incredible attention to detail when it comes to making sure the people who pay all the taxes can’t have nice things. Child benefit? No. Free Child car? No. Cut price bike to cycle to work? No.

Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
Rachel Reeves is setting the Cycle to Work scheme on fire as part of the war on salary sacrifice policies! on.ft.com/4oKXNrC
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 AM
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Today is #RLSDay which marks the birthday of the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson who would have been 175 today.
It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵
November 13, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Interesting thread
i fully agree with this theory and in my actual field, british architectural history, The Problem is that Salisbury Cathedral is built on top of a lake and no i am not exaggerating
between this and the FSO Safer (another ship at serious risk of exploding) I’m convinced every field has its “yeah, this is the problem that keeps me up at night” and I’m on a quest to learn about all of them
November 12, 2025 at 2:44 PM
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Social media has helped make visible the degree to which pre-industrial/pre-scientific modes of thinking have survived, while providing a perfectly adapted tool to give them a competitive advantage over the scientific paradigm, which is harder both to master and to apply.
Under-the-weather TikTokers are slicing raw potatoes and placing them in their — and their children’s — socks before bed. The theory is that the potato draws out toxins.

However, experts warn against relying on folk remedies over medical care.
No, putting a potato in your sock will not cure a cold
TikTokers are placing slices of raw potatoes in their — and their children’s socks — overnight to cure illnesses.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:40 PM
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The right has become essentially a big propaganda apparatus; that's scary but also a weakness.
www.unpopularfront.news/p/operation-...
Operation Drumbeat
The Right is Loud but Hollow
www.unpopularfront.news
November 12, 2025 at 12:22 PM
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The one thing I do appreciate about the US is that no other culture I have ever encountered would produce a folksong where the devil challenges a kid to a duel in an obvious morality play about hubris and then the kid just absolutely kicks his ass and wins the fiddle

Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 AM