Ari Gesher
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arigesher.bsky.social
Ari Gesher
@arigesher.bsky.social
530 followers 700 following 640 posts
Software, platforms, and data guy.

Head of Technology for Parallel Bio - purveyor of fine immune organoids!

Previously: Kairos Aerospace, Palantir, SourceForge

Photography, meaning grounded in nihilistic certainty, Jew, raver, autodidact, proud weirdo.
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arigesher.bsky.social
A giraffe at the San Diego zoo looks for his next snack.

#photography
A giraffe at the San Diego zoo looks for his next snack.
October 18, 2025 at 7:18 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Caught a good sunset with the phone on a stroll the other night.

#photography
October 18, 2025 at 7:15 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
@craigmod.com fun binding bug on, well, page 1.

Rest of the book seems fine!

What a bizarre little error. (Looks like page was folded when the binding (sewing?) happened).
August 22, 2025 at 3:24 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
@craigmod.com I just came across your Leica Q review a few months after starting to shoot on the Leica Q3 43. I love this review and I think you really nailed the delight aspect of these cameras.

So much joy in the act of taking the photo!

craigmod.com/essays/leica...
A beautiful middle-aged woman smiles at the camera, sunglasses perched on her pinned back hair. A bearded man in wide-brimmed beach hat sits stoically, surveying a beach scene, visible in the reflection of his reflective, copper-colored sunglasses. A backyard gathering where everyone is wearing Hawaiian shirts and mustaches as the sun lowers in the sky. Waders fish in the ocean as clouds dapple the blue sky. The sky is reflecting in the sheen of a receding wave.
August 9, 2025 at 9:20 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
I’ve got that one too and a few others besides! From a few months ago.
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London St. Paul’s Cathedral, London St. Paul’s Cathedral, London peeks at you in a narrow strip between two tall buildings. St Paul’s Cathedral peeks out behind a statue of a giraffe and an elephant,
July 29, 2025 at 8:24 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Cardiff, California

#photography #q343
A self-car wash, three bays full, frames a lone palm tree towering in the foreground.
July 26, 2025 at 10:22 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
Enjoy a little London. You know, as a treat.

#photography #q343
A tree rises in a square inside the Tower of London, rising above Tudorish buildings while The Shard looms in the distance. Two men have an emphatic discussion outside a pub. A security grate and light make a pleasing geometric pattern. A doorway becomes art in the night. Some amorphous sculpture. SoHo.
June 23, 2025 at 4:38 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
The dark sacred night.

#photography #q343
A sleek recliner sits empty in the corner of a room. The night scene is lit by four hexagons of light, arranged in a triangle-filling pattern. The panels emit a soft, warm white glow, lighting the scene in a cozy fashion. The walls are festooned with art, diplomas, and framed news articles.
June 12, 2025 at 7:46 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Home.

#photography
A tight crop of the right side of a woman's face fills the right side of the frame, her eye staring directly into the camera.
June 12, 2025 at 6:21 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Found shots on an old memory while breaking in a new camera. Autumn in Oakland, 2018

#photography #fujixt3 #fuji
Some corner of the Oakland skyline, ca 2018. The side of a building reads PUBLIC PARKING and a construction crane peeks over the top of low commercial buildings. One is tagged with tasteful graffiti reading RAW. The building closest to the foreground is labeled BEST DETAIL INC. An American flag, frozen in a breezy contortion, adds a dash of color as it flutters above a four-story stone building with a nicely rounded corner. A gold skull replica on display in the window of a restaraunt. A man bites into his brunch. Oakland, 2018
June 12, 2025 at 5:53 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Card-dump grab-bag of some shots I like.

All shot on a Fuji X-T5, Fujinon 16-80 f/4, Velvia film sim

#fujifilm #xt5 #photography #sandiego
Long lens shot of a distance hillside, with stacked mountain ranges in the distance. A slow exposure of a beach camp fire. The flame appears as a smear of color in the fire. A young girl with a pensive look on her face, sits thoughtfully on a blue Adirondack chair. curving concrete walls carve lines through standing water in a fallow canal, near Mission Bay, San Diego, California
May 30, 2025 at 6:05 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Humble submission for today's not-Rothko:
A tight crop of a vendor cart reveals an almost abstract landscape of yellows, reds, blacks, and even some greens.
May 13, 2025 at 5:28 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
This reads like a “normal” aviation mishap for carrier operations. Shit breaks, sometimes unexpectedly.

It would be interesting to know how the gear on deck and aircraft were being maintained, but combat tours can be tough on preventative maintenance schedules.
It is not entirely clear what happened yet, as the investigation is ongoing, but two of the people said there was some kind of arrestment failure as the jet was trying to land on the carrier and the pilot and weapons systems officer had to eject. They were recovered by a rescue helicopter and are both alive, but they suffered minor injuries, one of the people said.
May 7, 2025 at 12:51 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Subsequently blocked me.
Screenshot of post by feral ‪@feraltempleguard.bsky.social‬: We can and do outlaw any kind of speech we would care to. Stop defending Nazis, Ari.
March 15, 2025 at 11:05 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
Interesting case and definitely adjacent to this situation.

Linking in the summary I read in case there’s a better one:

www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1...
Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Frank Murphy upheld Chaplinsky’s conviction. The Court identified certain categorical exceptions to First Amendment protections, including obscenities, certain profane and slanderous speech, and "fighting words." He found that Chaplinsky's insults were “fighting words” since they caused a direct harm to their target and could be construed to advocate an immediate breach of the peace. Thus, they lacked the social value of disseminating ideas to the public that lay behind the rights granted by the First Amendment. A state can use its police power, the Court reasoned, to curb their expression in the interests of maintaining order and morality.
March 6, 2025 at 12:16 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
The answer to that question is explicitly asserted in the Grok2 system prompt. I thought it was an interesting data point when looking at it the other day:

www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA...
February 17, 2025 at 9:33 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
Some favorites from a trip to Japan over the summer.

I picked up the Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 in Kyoto and took these shots on a long van ride from Nagoya to Hakone on the one day that Shinkansen was out of service.

#photography #fujifilm #xt5 #japan
Telephoto shot, looking up from street, of the Nagoya Spiral Towers. A mix of repeating triangular windows forming a curved surface, broken in intervals to reveal interior balconies. The build appears as a somewhat abstract, complex shape, framed against a strip blue sky. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_Gakuen_Spiral_Towers A ferris wheel is silhouetted against an evening blue sky with scattered clouds. The Kariya Highway Oasia near Nagoya, Japan. https://www.senyo.co.jp/kariya/index.html A late afternoon sun hitting dramatic dramatic clouds over a stacked set of mountain ranges. A line of clouds below the sunset line appear to make a false third ridgeline. Low in the foreground nestles a hamlet of Japanese homes. A yellow coupe with a lot of personality sits in the parking lot of Japanese rest stop.
February 15, 2025 at 11:55 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
I thought this graph might help explain this election cycle (from www.lisep.org/tlc):
Median Earnings for a Full-Time Worker, Adjusted by TLC. It shows a dramatic 5% drop in median earnings during the Biden administration https://www.lisep.org/tlc
February 12, 2025 at 10:52 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
It’s a lovely shot!

(Gear will be gear and do what it does but you get to choose what to capture… which is most of the game)
Wind blows the hair of a young girl, eyes closed, lips pursed in a kiss, and flashing a peace sign held in the foreground for the camera. In the background, the trees and grass of a beach side park.
January 29, 2025 at 10:38 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
January 22, 2025 at 1:03 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
Sunrise study. Raise the eyemask, grab phone, pop, pop, pop…
eyemask back down.

#photography #sunrise
Clouds glow orange pink in a mostly blue dawn sky. Clouds glow orange pink in a mostly blue dawn sky. Clouds glow orange pink in a mostly blue dawn sky. Gradient of dawn light stretches above the trees
January 15, 2025 at 10:21 AM
arigesher.bsky.social
The sculpture:

Kregar, Gregor. 2012. Reflective Simulations. Stainless Steel. On Loan. Collection of McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery.

The sculpture park is not to be missed - some beautiful, mind-bending stuff.
Reflective Simulations, 2012, embodies the contradictions of nature versus culture. It is a semi-immersive sculpture that expresses an intuitive artistic process and challenges the way people engage with the natural environment. Comprised of a number of geometrical units, the work appears self-determining, growing like crystalline formations or plant-like growth where the viewer and the environment are thrown into a kaleidoscopic matrix. https://mcclelland.org.au/artworks/reflective-simulations
January 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
Faceted self-portraits. #photography

Reflective Simulations - McClellan Sculpture Park (a magical wonderland!)

#australia #melbourne #sculpture #selfie
The photographer, wearing blue jacket, backpack, and CHROME hat at a jaunty angle, shows up reflected in various mirrored, triangular facets of a sculpture. https://mcclelland.org.au/artworks/reflective-simulations The photographer, wearing blue jacket, backpack, and CHROME hat at a jaunty angle, shows up reflected in various mirrored, triangular facets of a sculpture. https://mcclelland.org.au/artworks/reflective-simulations The photographer, wearing blue jacket, backpack, and CHROME hat at a jaunty angle, shows up reflected in various mirrored, triangular facets of a sculpture. https://mcclelland.org.au/artworks/reflective-simulations The photographer, wearing blue jacket, backpack, and CHROME hat at a jaunty angle, shows up reflected in various mirrored, triangular facets of a sculpture. https://mcclelland.org.au/artworks/reflective-simulations
January 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
Uluru

Australian winter, 2024 #photography

(Fuji X-T5, Fujinon XF 16-50mm for all my camera nerds)

#australia #uluru #fuji
Fading light creates shadows and textures on close-up view of Uluru. A tree, as if posing for a portrait, stands boldly in front Uluru, which glows orange in the setting sun. Uluru, glowing orange in the setting sun against a deep blue sky. A dark, vertical line shows where water flows from the heights to a pool below, rimmed with trees eager to drink the water. Uluru glow in the orange light of the setting sun. A green band of outback scrub fills the foreground and the sharp shadow of sunset can be seen creeping up the base of the bold sandstone formation.
January 11, 2025 at 5:17 PM
arigesher.bsky.social
Kevin Kelly has a great essay on this:

kk.org/thetechnium/...
Why don’t we see Moore’s Law type of growth in the performance of solar cells if this is simply a matter of believing in a self-fulfilling prophecy? Surely, such an acceleration would be ideal for investors and consumers. Why doesn’t everybody simply clap for Tinkerbelle to live, to *really* believe, and then the hoped for self-made fairy will kick in, and solar cells will double in efficiency and halve in cost every two years? That kind of consensual faith would generate billions of dollars. It would easy to find entrepreneurs eager to genuinely believe in the prophecy. The usual argument applied against this challenge is that solar chips and batteries are governed primarily by chemical processes, which chips are not. As one expert put the failure of exponential growth in batteries: “This is because battery technology is a prisoner of physics, the periodic table, manufacturing technology and economics.” That’s plain wrong. Manufacturing silicon integrated chips is an intensely chemical achievement, as much a prisoner of physics, the periodic table and manufacturing as batteries. Mead admits this: “It’s a chemical process that makes integrated circuits, through and through.” In fact the main technical innovation of Silicon Valley chip fabrication was to employ the chemical industry to make electronics instead of chemicals. Solar and batteries share the same chemical science as chips.
January 9, 2025 at 8:22 AM