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pikafarad.bsky.social
@pikafarad.bsky.social
430 followers 250 following 150 posts
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brianvan.bsky.social
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
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normcharlatan.bsky.social
Alright, sadly the Blue Jays season is over.
I gotta focus. I’m shifting into Grey Cup mode.
November 2, 2025 at 4:27 AM
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malaiseforever.bsky.social
reading slaughterhouse 5 for the first time and i was absolutely knocked senseless by this passage, which is so true and relevant that it feels like it was pulled from a history book
“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register. Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”
October 26, 2025 at 6:01 PM
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jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)
For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary. Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from). The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe. Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky. Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat? This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight: * Waste of public resources on military theatrics. * Fraud in the name of “public safety.” * Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect. Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation. Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here. When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness. Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy. A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control. Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard. Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.
October 12, 2025 at 1:02 AM
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jessespector.com
god i hope john smoltz is in the epstein files
October 13, 2025 at 2:36 AM
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dirtbagqueer.rocks
if we’re gonna live in this world where injuries are back up on kickoffs bc we want returns can we just. fuckin. go back to the pre-2011 kickoff rules already
October 3, 2025 at 2:16 AM
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alexkirshner.com
Hard to name an activity I respect less than walking in the aisles in the middle of play at a sporting event. There used to be some social sanction against doing this, but not anymore
October 1, 2025 at 8:24 PM
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dirtbagqueer.rocks
not to be a shieldy but i really do not agree. they suck equally and neither should exist in the regular season
chrisvannini.com Chris Vannini @chrisvannini.com · Sep 29
College football overtime has its faults, but it's better than NFL overtime.
September 29, 2025 at 4:23 AM
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dirtbagqueer.rocks
jawaan taylor should be straight up arrested
September 22, 2025 at 1:55 AM
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kenwhite.bsky.social
These are all people who wanted to kill their enemies before Charlie Kirk was shot, are more vocal about it now, and will keep lusting for it long after Charlie Kirk has been buried. Today’s biggest event could have been a dog farting and they would have reacted by wanting you dead.
mccallan.bsky.social Mccallan @mccallan.bsky.social · Sep 11
Not the radical left!
September 11, 2025 at 3:32 AM
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rincewind.run
rarely have I more acutely felt the dynamic by which Dems are held responsible for the rhetoric of every random left-leaning person on the internet and Republicans are not even asked to answer for their own personal words
September 11, 2025 at 1:25 AM
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willows-song.bsky.social
This explains it better than I can
Dave Portnoy tweet saying ‘absolutely disgusting and disturbing video from Charlie Kirk shooting today. Hoping for the best for him and his family. Anybody who is happy about this is a disgusting human.’ Pop Crave Tweet: ‘Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy says he hopes a missile hits Greta Thunberg’s boat as she sails away with aid: “I hope they hit a f*cking, like, a missile on her boat. Knock that boat down. Greta or whatever her name is”
September 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
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andylevy.net
the people who mocked and made up shit about the attack on paul pelosi have thoughts about decorum and we should definitely take them very very seriously
September 10, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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merovingians.bsky.social
DC statehood is non-negotiable
maustermuhle.bsky.social Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle.bsky.social · Jul 20
NEWS: A proposed Republican spending bill includes a number of provisions impacting D.C. laws and programs. The bill would:
- Repeal D.C.'s assisted suicide law.
- Prohibit D.C. from using traffic cameras, or to ban rights turns on red.
- Repeal non-citizen voting in D.C.
July 20, 2025 at 11:59 PM
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craigcalcaterra.bsky.social
This was Vin Scully's call of Henry Aaron's 715th home run. Tonight Major League Baseball cut off the first sentence, starting it with the "What a marvelous moment" part because they don't want to anger the white supremacists who run our country and of whom Rob Manfred is an ardent supporter.
"A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world.”
July 16, 2025 at 2:31 AM
pikafarad.bsky.social
@baumann.bsky.social it's about to be my first Tour off Twitter, which cycling folks should I be following (other than you)?
July 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM
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sabs.bsky.social
Colossal didn't make a dire wolf. This is not a dire wolf! Stop saying it is!! I feel like I'm going mad!!!
the cover of Time Magazine, with the headline "Extinct" crossed out in red above the text "This is Remus. He’s a dire wolf. The first to exist in over 10,000 years. Endangered species could be changed forever." by Jeffrey Kluger, and the photo of a white dog-like wolf-like animal
April 7, 2025 at 4:25 PM
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lukeknox.me
January 25, 2025 at 1:45 AM
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rodger.bsky.social
Every time a team “takes the points” and misses the field goal, a Math Angel gets its wings
January 21, 2025 at 3:29 AM
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actioncookbook.com
where is the “stick to sports” button on my remote
January 21, 2025 at 2:19 AM
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rodger.bsky.social
here’s one that’s been bothering me, I can’t believe it’s real

I Google a person
I see a blurb of their Wikipedia page
I click the word “Wikipedia” which appears to be a link
IT EXPANDS AN AI SUMMARY OF THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE
A new, separate link to the Wikipedia page pops up and I have to click that
January 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM
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bubbaprog.xyz
Michigan just finished their worst season in ten years and still returned home to a standing ovation because they beat Ohio State and these are the things we have to keep alive as every other shred of meaning is stripped away from the sport
December 1, 2024 at 1:24 AM