Silas Johnson
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profsilas.bsky.social
Silas Johnson
@profsilas.bsky.social
100 followers 270 following 260 posts
I do math and play Pokemon, and apparently make art sometimes. He/him.
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Reposted by Silas Johnson
colinmbrown.bsky.social
Me and me cousin, one Arthur McBride,
One morning went walking along Lake Street's side
Now mark well what followed in that wintertide
As the cold Friday morning was dawning
January 23, 2026 at 5:06 AM
profsilas.bsky.social
Sure, 0-5 day 2 🙂

Good luck in top 8, @katyptcg.bsky.social!
katyptcg.bsky.social Katy 🐉👻 @katyptcg.bsky.social · 5d
Somehow I went 8-1 yesterday, only losing to Justin Newdorf (who is so nice). Insane run.

Locked in and ready to go 0-5 in day 2 😎
January 18, 2026 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
taterdash.bsky.social
I made these this summer and was kind of shy about it, but here: Pokemon anti-ICE signs. Feel free to use them for whatever you want.

Slogan courtesy of @miawong.bsky.social

#art #pokemon
Acrylic painting of charizard breathing flames, on which is painted in black text "ICE MUST BE DESTROYED" Digital painting of Latios holding a big energy blast with "ICE MUST BE DESTROYED!!" written on top
January 9, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
biddco.bsky.social
Adding some joy to the timelime. From last night's NU @ UNH game
January 17, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
jonathanstegall.bsky.social
On my morning walk today I saw this one, which is one of my favs, on a power box. See many poster designs here: defend612.com/art/
An illustrated poster that says "Welcome to Minnesota" over some trees. Then there's a loon with laser eyes melting some ice that's sitting in a lake, and there's a banner that says "Our lakes may freeze in winter but our hearts are warm & we love our neighbors! Abolish ICE" There's also a cool fish sticking out of the o in abolish.
January 15, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
roricomics.bsky.social
Hope everyone is getting by 💜
drawing with a larg boot and many small people running to and under it to plant spears tied with red and black flags. the text says: though small we are many and very sharp.
January 15, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
helix.midwestspeedfest.com
Announcing ICE Breaker: A charity speedrun event by myself & @rrlat.bsky.social on Jan 30 - Feb 1 to support Minnesotans in defending from ICE.

Submit runs: oengus.io/marathon/ice...

Volunteer: forms.gle/51HEcBmhUC8X...

Run submissions close Sunday. Volunteer apps have a soft deadline of Saturday
January 16, 2026 at 2:23 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz
Things are grim right now but as a reminder of who we are and why we fight, this is the US Women’s figuring skating champion.
Amber Glenn wearing her gold medal after winning the US National Championship Women’s Singles Competition. She is dressed in a black short sequined gown and proudly holding a progress pride flag behind her. There is a gaggle of photographers in front of her.
January 10, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
matthematics.com
Abolish ICE.
For Good.
January 7, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
atrupar.com
Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
January 7, 2026 at 6:40 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
Para-biddybud, inspired by @helix.midwestspeedfest.com's Mario Kart World run at #AGDQ2026!
Digital drawing of para-biddybud riding a bike in Mario Kart World. It has angry eyebrows. There are yellow question mark blocks on the ground behind it.
January 6, 2026 at 5:07 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
theplanetaryguy.bsky.social
Open up this picture fully.

Then look at the surface of Mars.

Then look up to the top right.

Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.

Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.

That's Earth.
A forlorn landscape of layered rocks in the foreground, with hills fading into the background haze. At upper top right, a small crescent moon, and a bright star.
December 30, 2025 at 9:30 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
California has no chance to survive make your time.
Screenshot of the villain from Zero Wing (where "all your base are belong to us" comes from) saying "You are on the way to destruction."
December 28, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
charliejane.bsky.social
When the polite, cultured Dr. Pepper consumes a special draught, he turns into the brutish, monstrous Mr. Pibb.
December 26, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
kevintmorris.bsky.social
I've always loved this illustration depicting Joseph and Mary looking for a room. I am finding it especially powerful this year
Everett Patterson's "José y Maria."
December 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
tape.bsky.social
please imagine its christmas so this meme pops off PLEASE
the simpsons meme where ralph is saying "(chuckles) im in danger" but baby jesus is overlayed over ralph and danger has been changed to manger.
July 15, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
popsci.com
The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality.

And trans lives are grounded in reality.

We see y'all. No matter what.

www.popsci.com/science/tran...
First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition
Ninety-four percent of participants in a new study stood firm in their trans identity after five years, and "detransitioning" is rare.
www.popsci.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
toinelay.bsky.social
Meowth ex!
Ability: Trump Card Catch
Once during your turn, when you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench, you may search your deck for a Supporter card and put it into your hand.
You can't use this Ability if you've already used another Ability with "Trump Card" it its name this turn.
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
krisdobbinsart.bsky.social
"Men can never become women" well I'm right here and so are a whole lot of other people so there goes that ya fuckos
December 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
adamchicago.bsky.social
Not sure when the “You are entering Free Rogers Park” sign went up on the Touhy Ave metra overpass but it’s pretty recent.
The words “YOU ARE ENTERING FREE ROGERS PARK” painted on an overpass; a reference to the “free Derry” sign from the 60s that was based on a “free Berkeley” sign in the 50s.
December 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
andrew.heiss.phd
Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...
Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future? No. Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course? These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this). However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code. In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner: …to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability. There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability. The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma. This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle. This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too): Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.) It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything. You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy. As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible: To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use. Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled. So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting. You’ve got to learn first.
December 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
xkcd.com
Inverted Catenaries

xkcd.com/3176/
Comic. [Two people walking together as inverted catenary curves fall around them.] PERSON: Oh wow, the first inverted catenary fall of the year! Time to swap out my all-season tires for square ones.
December 8, 2025 at 6:41 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
Counterpoint: the tambourine is the reason I can draw nice dotted lines on chalkboards.

(Yes, this is 100% true.)
docseuss.bsky.social doc @docseuss.bsky.social · Dec 9
i'm gonna be real, the tambourine is a stupid instrument. for nerds
December 9, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
bodegacats.bsky.social
December 2, 2025 at 1:03 AM
profsilas.bsky.social
@play.pokemon.com has Regional Championships at this venue in January. I hope they'll be ensuring that organizers and venue staff uphold their Inclusion Policy.

masto.hackers.town/@kestral/115...
Kestral (@kestral@masto.hackers.town)
Planning on attending an event at the NEC in Birmingham (UK) or its associated venues any time soon? They now put security guards at the entrance to all their toilets to ensure only people who appear ...
masto.hackers.town
November 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM