Scott Polhemus
@polhem.us
Civic tech guy and Spider-Man nerd living in Massachusetts.
Blog: https://polhem.us
Pics: @img.polhem.us
Blog: https://polhem.us
Pics: @img.polhem.us
Pinned
Scott Polhemus
@polhem.us
· Feb 15
I Believe There’s a Hero in All of Us
There’s a scene in Spider-Man 2 (2004) where Peter Parker has, for the time being, given up the superhero gig. He’s been walking on air from that weight being lifted off his shoulders, but he soon lea...
polhem.us
In my latest blog post, I unpack the Jewish value at the heart of Spider-Man and what it can teach us about activism and justice in the present moment: “Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world.”
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
Open call to sign, and link to donate.
Please spread the word.
Please spread the word.
Jews for Food Aid for Gaza
Jewish people support food aid for families in Gaza and an immediate end to the Israeli government’s food aid blockade. #JewsForFoodAidForPeopleInGaza
www.foodaidforgaza.org
May 16, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Open call to sign, and link to donate.
Please spread the word.
Please spread the word.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
He’s so good at this.
I want politics to be about a better everyday life.
Here's what that can look like:
Here's what that can look like:
April 24, 2025 at 7:36 PM
He’s so good at this.
Just finished reading Timothy Zahn's novel "Thrawn". My first Star Wars book ever, and I really enjoyed it! Felt like a nice companion to some of the better Star Wars shows of late, particularly Andor (with lots of thematic parallels) and Ahsoka (given the title character is actually in that one).
March 4, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Just finished reading Timothy Zahn's novel "Thrawn". My first Star Wars book ever, and I really enjoyed it! Felt like a nice companion to some of the better Star Wars shows of late, particularly Andor (with lots of thematic parallels) and Ahsoka (given the title character is actually in that one).
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
Imagine DOGE opens your mail and finds your household electric bill. To eliminate this cost, they burn your house down without warning. Then they total up the bills that, as a homeless person, you will never again pay. On its website, DOGE boasts about the money it has saved you.
March 4, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Imagine DOGE opens your mail and finds your household electric bill. To eliminate this cost, they burn your house down without warning. Then they total up the bills that, as a homeless person, you will never again pay. On its website, DOGE boasts about the money it has saved you.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
18F did things like making online government forms (like filing your taxes or submitting VA claims) easier to fill out, create text message notification systems for govt agencies, and streamlining internal data sharing. They were literally making govt more efficient & user-friendly. This sucks.
18F, a digital services unit inside the General Services Administration, has been completely laid off, according to an email I’ve seen. The email says that 18F was deemed “non-critical” and the decision was made with the “explicit” direction of the administration and GSA leadership.
March 1, 2025 at 12:21 PM
18F did things like making online government forms (like filing your taxes or submitting VA claims) easier to fill out, create text message notification systems for govt agencies, and streamlining internal data sharing. They were literally making govt more efficient & user-friendly. This sucks.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
Your regular reminder that the more often you own your mistakes, the easier it gets.
It is like any muscle-- work it more and it gets stronger.
All people mess up, and sometimes we do so publicly.
It's not the end of the world to acknowledge that we missed the mark; it's how we clean up.
It is like any muscle-- work it more and it gets stronger.
All people mess up, and sometimes we do so publicly.
It's not the end of the world to acknowledge that we missed the mark; it's how we clean up.
February 21, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Your regular reminder that the more often you own your mistakes, the easier it gets.
It is like any muscle-- work it more and it gets stronger.
All people mess up, and sometimes we do so publicly.
It's not the end of the world to acknowledge that we missed the mark; it's how we clean up.
It is like any muscle-- work it more and it gets stronger.
All people mess up, and sometimes we do so publicly.
It's not the end of the world to acknowledge that we missed the mark; it's how we clean up.
If you see this, post a Spider-Man.
February 20, 2025 at 3:18 AM
If you see this, post a Spider-Man.
In my latest blog post, I unpack the Jewish value at the heart of Spider-Man and what it can teach us about activism and justice in the present moment: “Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world.”
I Believe There’s a Hero in All of Us
There’s a scene in Spider-Man 2 (2004) where Peter Parker has, for the time being, given up the superhero gig. He’s been walking on air from that weight being lifted off his shoulders, but he soon lea...
polhem.us
February 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
In my latest blog post, I unpack the Jewish value at the heart of Spider-Man and what it can teach us about activism and justice in the present moment: “Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world.”
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
"I called it ethnic cleansing. But when I saw the images of starving babies in Gaza I had to upgrade my language."
By Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Joe Sacco
www.theguardian.com/world/pictur...
By Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Joe Sacco
www.theguardian.com/world/pictur...
February 15, 2025 at 9:54 AM
"I called it ethnic cleansing. But when I saw the images of starving babies in Gaza I had to upgrade my language."
By Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Joe Sacco
www.theguardian.com/world/pictur...
By Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Joe Sacco
www.theguardian.com/world/pictur...
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
TRUMP AND MUSK TO AMERICA: DROP DEAD.
Trump and Musk to America: Drop Dead.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford rejected New York City’s request for a bailout, prompting the New York Daily News to publish its now-famous “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” headline.
www.lawdork.com
February 15, 2025 at 5:19 AM
TRUMP AND MUSK TO AMERICA: DROP DEAD.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
33% of registered voters in the country voted for this clown.
The rest of us need to do something.
It's all hands on deck.
The rest of us need to do something.
It's all hands on deck.
February 5, 2025 at 1:09 AM
33% of registered voters in the country voted for this clown.
The rest of us need to do something.
It's all hands on deck.
The rest of us need to do something.
It's all hands on deck.
🚀 Want to try building on AT Protocol but not sure where to start? I've got you covered with this lil' @glitch.com app.
✅ Log in using OAuth
✅ Read & write data using official API client
✅ Custom lexicons
Check out the source code, play around with the live demo, or remix it to make it your own! 🙂
✅ Log in using OAuth
✅ Read & write data using official API client
✅ Custom lexicons
Check out the source code, play around with the live demo, or remix it to make it your own! 🙂
Atproto Starter
Get started with AT Protocol on Glitch! This app demonstrates logging in using OAuth, accessing AT Protocol APIs, and defining custom lexicons for reading and writing custom data types to your Persona...
glitch.com
February 4, 2025 at 11:15 AM
🚀 Want to try building on AT Protocol but not sure where to start? I've got you covered with this lil' @glitch.com app.
✅ Log in using OAuth
✅ Read & write data using official API client
✅ Custom lexicons
Check out the source code, play around with the live demo, or remix it to make it your own! 🙂
✅ Log in using OAuth
✅ Read & write data using official API client
✅ Custom lexicons
Check out the source code, play around with the live demo, or remix it to make it your own! 🙂
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
No one voted for Elon Musk.
An unelected billionaire is trying to raid the Treasury Department and take money from the American people.
This is a constitutional crisis and we choose to fight. We’re taking action to stop the Trump-Musk power grab this week. Join us: www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...
An unelected billionaire is trying to raid the Treasury Department and take money from the American people.
This is a constitutional crisis and we choose to fight. We’re taking action to stop the Trump-Musk power grab this week. Join us: www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...
Elon Musk's DOGE commission gains access to sensitive Treasury payment systems: AP sources
The move by DOGE means it could have wide leeway to access important taxpayer data, among other things.
apnews.com
February 3, 2025 at 1:24 PM
No one voted for Elon Musk.
An unelected billionaire is trying to raid the Treasury Department and take money from the American people.
This is a constitutional crisis and we choose to fight. We’re taking action to stop the Trump-Musk power grab this week. Join us: www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...
An unelected billionaire is trying to raid the Treasury Department and take money from the American people.
This is a constitutional crisis and we choose to fight. We’re taking action to stop the Trump-Musk power grab this week. Join us: www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...
Just posted a new article to my blog, basically gushing over Bluesky's AT Protocol as an antidote to the social media walled gardens we've all been stuck in for the past decade-plus and how exciting the project is as both a software engineer and a proponent of the open web.
Bluesky’s AT Protocol is the real “everything app”
The blatantly fascist owners of certain established-but-declining social networks like to wax poetic about a world where everything you do online might take place within their own restrictive ecosyste...
polhem.us
January 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Just posted a new article to my blog, basically gushing over Bluesky's AT Protocol as an antidote to the social media walled gardens we've all been stuck in for the past decade-plus and how exciting the project is as both a software engineer and a proponent of the open web.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
Spider-Man is really important to me. For all intents and purposes, Spider-Man is my religion. I am super non-religious--really more anti-religious. But in discussion with people who like religion, all the things they say they got from it that were good things? I got those things from Spider-Man.
January 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Spider-Man is really important to me. For all intents and purposes, Spider-Man is my religion. I am super non-religious--really more anti-religious. But in discussion with people who like religion, all the things they say they got from it that were good things? I got those things from Spider-Man.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
"if you could have dinner with any scientist, alive or dead, which one would it be?"
"Schrödinger"
"Schrödinger"
December 31, 2024 at 2:51 AM
"if you could have dinner with any scientist, alive or dead, which one would it be?"
"Schrödinger"
"Schrödinger"
I won’t spoil the guest appearance but if you’ve listened to basically any comedy podcast in the past decade you will HEAR his lines out loud in your head.
OUT NOW! Astonishing Spider-Man issue 9: Spidey continues his battle with Flame War! Jonah is starting a podcast! And a character from the @cbbworld.bsky.social universe joins the cast!
Available on the Marvel Unlimited app - written by me, art by Salva Wspin & edited by @cracksh0t.bsky.social!
Available on the Marvel Unlimited app - written by me, art by Salva Wspin & edited by @cracksh0t.bsky.social!
December 17, 2024 at 6:07 PM
I won’t spoil the guest appearance but if you’ve listened to basically any comedy podcast in the past decade you will HEAR his lines out loud in your head.
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
A heads up that some states & cities with 2025 local elections - especially those who vote in the spring - have filing deadlines as soon as THIS MONTH. It’s not too late to get started - @runforsomething.bsky.social will help. runforwhat.net
Where Can I Run — Run for Something Action Fund
Use this tool to find out when, where and how you can run for office.
runforwhat.net
December 3, 2024 at 1:34 AM
A heads up that some states & cities with 2025 local elections - especially those who vote in the spring - have filing deadlines as soon as THIS MONTH. It’s not too late to get started - @runforsomething.bsky.social will help. runforwhat.net
Reposted by Scott Polhemus
Realising more and more that my role as a principal engineer is to set a vibe
Architecture? Vibe
Tech direction? Vibe
How I respond to incidents? Vibe
Attitude in meetings, especially when the whole team is there? The most direct form of vibe setting one can do
Architecture? Vibe
Tech direction? Vibe
How I respond to incidents? Vibe
Attitude in meetings, especially when the whole team is there? The most direct form of vibe setting one can do
October 11, 2024 at 10:37 AM
Realising more and more that my role as a principal engineer is to set a vibe
Architecture? Vibe
Tech direction? Vibe
How I respond to incidents? Vibe
Attitude in meetings, especially when the whole team is there? The most direct form of vibe setting one can do
Architecture? Vibe
Tech direction? Vibe
How I respond to incidents? Vibe
Attitude in meetings, especially when the whole team is there? The most direct form of vibe setting one can do
Doesn’t become president *again*. It pains me to make that distinction but I can’t stress enough that we know exactly how this plays out when decent folks remain complacent. He told us who he was the first time around and far too many people simply refused to believe it, willfully or otherwise.
if you’re not doing something to make sure a fascist doesn’t become president, today’s the day to start.
September 9, 2024 at 11:32 AM
Doesn’t become president *again*. It pains me to make that distinction but I can’t stress enough that we know exactly how this plays out when decent folks remain complacent. He told us who he was the first time around and far too many people simply refused to believe it, willfully or otherwise.
Sometimes Spider-Man comics make you cry. I wrote about how a speech from Aunt May helped me process the grief from losing my Mom: polhem.us/posts/grievi...
Grieving with Peter Parker
Have you ever shed tears over a comic book? I’m not ashamed to admit that I have. For me it was Zeb Wells’ beautifully written issue 11 of Avenging Spider-Man with art by Steve Dillon and Frank Martin...
polhem.us
September 7, 2024 at 4:20 PM
Sometimes Spider-Man comics make you cry. I wrote about how a speech from Aunt May helped me process the grief from losing my Mom: polhem.us/posts/grievi...
Make a band milder:
They Could Be Above Average In Height
(alternatively: Probably Windmills But Who Knows)
They Could Be Above Average In Height
(alternatively: Probably Windmills But Who Knows)
Make a band milder:
Vaguely Amused Division
Vaguely Amused Division
Make a band milder:
3 Non Blondes
3 Non Blondes
August 21, 2024 at 4:53 AM
Make a band milder:
They Could Be Above Average In Height
(alternatively: Probably Windmills But Who Knows)
They Could Be Above Average In Height
(alternatively: Probably Windmills But Who Knows)
Wrote a little thing about the push and pull of ambitious software engineering teams vs. their inevitably mounting technical debt (and what to do about it!) polhem.us/posts/managi...
Managing technical debt in product-led engineering teams
Tech debt is the boogeyman of every fast-paced software team. It’s the malicious and secretive force lurking in the corners of your legacy codebase waiting to spring bugs and performance issues onto p...
polhem.us
May 20, 2024 at 4:44 PM
Wrote a little thing about the push and pull of ambitious software engineering teams vs. their inevitably mounting technical debt (and what to do about it!) polhem.us/posts/managi...
I’m giving blogging a try, my first post is a tutorial on how I built my new site as a headless WordPress thing (because I’m still better at coding than I am at writing): polhem.us/posts/buildi...
Building a custom blog website for free using Next.js, WordPress.com, and GitHub Pages
I recently decided to start writing more, so naturally one of my first steps in procrastinating from actually doing so was to figure out how to set up a custom website for my blog in 2024. While I cou...
polhem.us
May 1, 2024 at 8:32 PM
I’m giving blogging a try, my first post is a tutorial on how I built my new site as a headless WordPress thing (because I’m still better at coding than I am at writing): polhem.us/posts/buildi...