Charlie Loyd
@vruba.bsky.social
A pixel/geography/other person in Oakland. With @rahawahaile.bsky.social. Marginally more active at @vruba@everything.happens.horse on mastodon. He/him.
Pinned
Charlie Loyd
@vruba.bsky.social
· Jul 11
Okay, folks. I’ve been asked by a lot of friends who aren’t following the AI discourse to sort of clarify what the main camps are arguing, how they approach the issues, etc. As a thoughtful observer, I’m happy to provide this orienting service. No questions or comments, please. Hope it helps!
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
Miss you all but am still sort of temperamentally misaligned with broadcast social media for the moment. I remain reachable, even borderline friendly, in other media.
October 31, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Miss you all but am still sort of temperamentally misaligned with broadcast social media for the moment. I remain reachable, even borderline friendly, in other media.
Alison Gopnik’s AI interpretations continue to interest me in way that almost no one else’s do: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBmz...
Alison Gopnik, The Evolution of Human Intelligences | Natural Philosophy Forum Lecture 2025
YouTube video by Hopkins Natural Philosophy Forum
www.youtube.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Alison Gopnik’s AI interpretations continue to interest me in way that almost no one else’s do: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBmz...
Miss you all but am still sort of temperamentally misaligned with broadcast social media for the moment. I remain reachable, even borderline friendly, in other media.
October 31, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Miss you all but am still sort of temperamentally misaligned with broadcast social media for the moment. I remain reachable, even borderline friendly, in other media.
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
🟡 M4.8 #earthquake detected 3 km ESE of Berkeley, California at 9/22/2025 2:56:12 AM PDT
This reflects data from the U.S. Geological Survey that is subject to change. Visit the USGS page linked below for the latest #quake information
This reflects data from the U.S. Geological Survey that is subject to change. Visit the USGS page linked below for the latest #quake information
M4.8 - 3 km ESE of Berkeley, California
A magnitude 4.8 earthquake located 3 km ESE of Berkeley, California was detected at 9/22/2025 2:56:12 AM PDT. This information is subject to change. Please visit the USGS event page for up-to-date details.
earthquake.usgs.gov
September 22, 2025 at 9:56 AM
🟡 M4.8 #earthquake detected 3 km ESE of Berkeley, California at 9/22/2025 2:56:12 AM PDT
This reflects data from the U.S. Geological Survey that is subject to change. Visit the USGS page linked below for the latest #quake information
This reflects data from the U.S. Geological Survey that is subject to change. Visit the USGS page linked below for the latest #quake information
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
Introducing COYOTE: A worker-owned Bay Area media collective. Our stories will be public for the first two weeks. Read ‘em and subscribe! www.coyotemedia.org
September 15, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Introducing COYOTE: A worker-owned Bay Area media collective. Our stories will be public for the first two weeks. Read ‘em and subscribe! www.coyotemedia.org
Every time I notice how this dashboard software labels its axes I emit a pulse of psychic distress strong enough to rustle papers, nudge the empty seltzer can on my desk, make the more nervous of the crows on the power line out the window take off, etc.
September 9, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Every time I notice how this dashboard software labels its axes I emit a pulse of psychic distress strong enough to rustle papers, nudge the empty seltzer can on my desk, make the more nervous of the crows on the power line out the window take off, etc.
Best thing I saw last week was someone posting a video of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” with the caption that it was too bad they wasted a nice guitar riff on a song about furniture. The tsunami of poorly typed replies from old men, properly harnessed, could have sent a tractor to Aldebaran.
September 7, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Best thing I saw last week was someone posting a video of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” with the caption that it was too bad they wasted a nice guitar riff on a song about furniture. The tsunami of poorly typed replies from old men, properly harnessed, could have sent a tractor to Aldebaran.
I’m sick of all the damn helium littering. These days every back alley and vacant lot is strewn with the refuse of irresponsible balloon animal artists and feckless blimpeurs.
August 24, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I’m sick of all the damn helium littering. These days every back alley and vacant lot is strewn with the refuse of irresponsible balloon animal artists and feckless blimpeurs.
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
while you're all paying attention to this let me remind you that USGS, which produces this invaluable information as a public good, is currently facing a 39% budget cut
July 30, 2025 at 12:46 AM
while you're all paying attention to this let me remind you that USGS, which produces this invaluable information as a public good, is currently facing a 39% budget cut
If you look at the buoys near the Kamchatka earthquake (www.ndbc.noaa.gov) you can see it nudged enough water to make easily measurable waves even in deep ocean. Heaps of energy.
National Data Buoy Center
The National Data Buoy Center's home page. The premier source of meteorological and oceanographic measurements for the marine environment.
www.ndbc.noaa.gov
July 30, 2025 at 12:41 AM
If you look at the buoys near the Kamchatka earthquake (www.ndbc.noaa.gov) you can see it nudged enough water to make easily measurable waves even in deep ocean. Heaps of energy.
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
Lately I keep having to choose between open access and paying my staff's salaries. It would be nice... not to have to do that.
In a few weeks, we'll be publishing the finding that [redacted] people die every year because of climate change, equivalent to a loss of $[redacted]T USD, every year.
Here's what it costs us to open that publication to you. We have no federal grants for that work, and can't apply for them.
Here's what it costs us to open that publication to you. We have no federal grants for that work, and can't apply for them.
July 21, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Lately I keep having to choose between open access and paying my staff's salaries. It would be nice... not to have to do that.
It’s amazing how little you have to capitalize in written English to be (1) clear and (2) formally correct! RAW photos? Those are just raw photos! RE the last e-mail? That’s the Latin word “re” and not an abbreviation! Are you learning Martial Arts? That’s not a trademark! Let that shift key relax!
July 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
It’s amazing how little you have to capitalize in written English to be (1) clear and (2) formally correct! RAW photos? Those are just raw photos! RE the last e-mail? That’s the Latin word “re” and not an abbreviation! Are you learning Martial Arts? That’s not a trademark! Let that shift key relax!
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
We talk about the northern and southern hemispheres, centered on the poles, and the eastern and western hemispheres, centered on 90° E and W, but we don’t hear enough about the implied third pair of hemispheres, those centered on Null Island and the equator/antimeridian point. In this essay,
January 5, 2025 at 7:05 PM
We talk about the northern and southern hemispheres, centered on the poles, and the eastern and western hemispheres, centered on 90° E and W, but we don’t hear enough about the implied third pair of hemispheres, those centered on Null Island and the equator/antimeridian point. In this essay,
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
It’s the final week of Coyote’s fundraiser! Support us in creating an independent Bay Area journalism powerhouse if you can!
🚨 COYOTE pack! Your dollars just DOUBLED in power!! 🚨 A generous donor just dropped a $10K MATCH. Starting right now until the end of the week $25 becomes $50. $100 becomes $200. You get the idea. We’re talking more stories and more community power. 🐺📰💥 Give now! givebutter.com/coyotemedia
July 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
It’s the final week of Coyote’s fundraiser! Support us in creating an independent Bay Area journalism powerhouse if you can!
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin...
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cro...
What these very early-’90s things share – the low-fat esotericism with artificial history flavor – was mostly bad, I fear (without revisiting). But it feels due to come back around in some form.
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin...
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cro...
What these very early-’90s things share – the low-fat esotericism with artificial history flavor – was mostly bad, I fear (without revisiting). But it feels due to come back around in some form.
June 23, 2025 at 9:34 PM
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin...
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cro...
What these very early-’90s things share – the low-fat esotericism with artificial history flavor – was mostly bad, I fear (without revisiting). But it feels due to come back around in some form.
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin...
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cro...
What these very early-’90s things share – the low-fat esotericism with artificial history flavor – was mostly bad, I fear (without revisiting). But it feels due to come back around in some form.
I gather there is a feud going between (what remains of) media Twitter and (what remains of) sports Twitter, and I would just like to say: Healthy, respectful debate about discourse norms in shared spaces is incredibly important, and I hope that somehow both sides lose the feud very badly.
June 23, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I gather there is a feud going between (what remains of) media Twitter and (what remains of) sports Twitter, and I would just like to say: Healthy, respectful debate about discourse norms in shared spaces is incredibly important, and I hope that somehow both sides lose the feud very badly.
“Oh, solid enough they seemed to touch,
Had anyone dared it. Marvellous creation,
All various shapes and sizes, and no sizes”
Had anyone dared it. Marvellous creation,
All various shapes and sizes, and no sizes”
June 23, 2025 at 5:40 PM
“Oh, solid enough they seemed to touch,
Had anyone dared it. Marvellous creation,
All various shapes and sizes, and no sizes”
Had anyone dared it. Marvellous creation,
All various shapes and sizes, and no sizes”
Bearded post-hipster, to rockabilly-adjacent partner, as they arrive at a block party I’m walking past, in a mildly happy tone, as if discovering something nice: “peanuts – they’re just beans!”
June 22, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Bearded post-hipster, to rockabilly-adjacent partner, as they arrive at a block party I’m walking past, in a mildly happy tone, as if discovering something nice: “peanuts – they’re just beans!”
You’d almost think the cool-kid “AI critics” getting piping mad about stochastic parrots/souls/press releases/fingers/hallucinations/… were missing the point, and in fact doing the equivalent of yelling “don’t buy Rolexes; they’re expensive” in that their critiques tended to subtly help its target.
If the kind of AI they're spending all these hundreds of billions to develop is *literally defined as* and aimed to replace human labor, then everything you've heard about AI causing mass unemployment is *literally just hype* downstream of how they're defining what it would mean for them to succeed.
June 20, 2025 at 1:51 AM
You’d almost think the cool-kid “AI critics” getting piping mad about stochastic parrots/souls/press releases/fingers/hallucinations/… were missing the point, and in fact doing the equivalent of yelling “don’t buy Rolexes; they’re expensive” in that their critiques tended to subtly help its target.
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
Okay so excited to finally share that I'm part of this really cool team of people trying to spin up a new worker owned publication in the Bay Area! We're fundraising now and it would be so rad if you supported us! Awoooo!!
June 16, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Okay so excited to finally share that I'm part of this really cool team of people trying to spin up a new worker owned publication in the Bay Area! We're fundraising now and it would be so rad if you supported us! Awoooo!!
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
This time-lapse video of protesters marching down Broadway in Oakland for No Kings Day gives an idea of how many people turned out today @sfchronicle.com
June 14, 2025 at 11:07 PM
This time-lapse video of protesters marching down Broadway in Oakland for No Kings Day gives an idea of how many people turned out today @sfchronicle.com
The best part of a protest, I always think, is its spatial and temporal edges: the families staging from SUV to stroller, the old folks greeting each other, the college kids teasing each other about their signs, the music in the distance.
June 14, 2025 at 8:26 PM
The best part of a protest, I always think, is its spatial and temporal edges: the families staging from SUV to stroller, the old folks greeting each other, the college kids teasing each other about their signs, the music in the distance.
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
I just like to post these data from time to time to puncture the mythological aura of mid 20th c protests. They were less popular than pretty much any 21st c mass action & people criticizing them used the same lines. Protest is about people coming together, shaping narratives, & building power.
June 14, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I just like to post these data from time to time to puncture the mythological aura of mid 20th c protests. They were less popular than pretty much any 21st c mass action & people criticizing them used the same lines. Protest is about people coming together, shaping narratives, & building power.
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of They Might Be Giants.
June 14, 2025 at 6:49 AM
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of They Might Be Giants.
Reposted by Charlie Loyd
I saw Elvis Costello at what was then called the Kodak Theatre and the opening band was great. They also never introduced themselves or even spoke. It started to drive people crazy and eventually after each song people were shouting WHO ARE YOU and WHAT’S YOUR NAME
Who was the best opening act you've seen live?
June 6, 2025 at 2:58 AM
I saw Elvis Costello at what was then called the Kodak Theatre and the opening band was great. They also never introduced themselves or even spoke. It started to drive people crazy and eventually after each song people were shouting WHO ARE YOU and WHAT’S YOUR NAME