Ben Klemens
b-k.bsky.social
Ben Klemens
@b-k.bsky.social
I've stopped using "Economist" and have switched to "Computational Social Scientist". @b@xoxo.zone on Mastodon. He/him or they/them
December 2023
October 24, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Got my first electric bill since installing the solar panels: negative seventy bucks. I've never felt so good receiving a utility bill
September 25, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I've got one left.
September 21, 2025 at 1:24 AM
This is the logo for the now-decommissioned DataFerrett tool from the U.S. Census Bureau. Every bureaucracy should have a mascot.
August 16, 2025 at 6:52 PM
It's the day to declare independence from the Imperial--switch to Metric today!
July 5, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Sometimes you get a really great essay in the form of a court ruling. If you've been following the Abrego Garcia case, I recommend taking a break from doomscrolling and giving it a read.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

h/t @jessicahuseman.bsky.social
April 17, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Nice CRS infographic on where international visitors to the USA come from--66.5 million people coming to spend their money. We'll see if they keep coming.
www.everycrsreport.com/files/2025-0...
March 20, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Whoa---I still have a copy of the original.
March 18, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Literally a museum piece.
February 17, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Going to self-RT this post from 2022 when I thought it was pretty cool that the people who run Google Maps use discretion in selecting location names, and picked something significant instead of the official street name.
February 16, 2025 at 3:31 AM
I know good pita can be hard to find, though. Here's a demo of what good pita does:
January 13, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Posting this mandelbrot set a friend gave me because it was so delicious. Check out the rich texture.
December 27, 2024 at 5:07 PM

It's always nice to see feedback that I've been blocking the right people.
October 27, 2024 at 8:59 PM
I attended the University of Chicago when it was self-selecting---only nerds applied. But people think I got past the rigorous admissions standards of today, where 95% are rejected. Thank you, U of C admissions, for making me look smarter than I am.

Via flowingdata.com/2024/07/16/m...
September 14, 2024 at 4:24 PM
No cats, but Mexico also has a great response.
August 20, 2024 at 5:27 AM
I wasn't sure if lyrics had gotten more bland or it was just me, so a few years ago I pulled all the lyrics to all the top 40 songs over the last century and read them all. My conclusion: yes, it really has been as downhill as you think.
May 22, 2024 at 2:38 AM
Just got off the plane and I am already loving Austin (yes, for #sxsw). Every bus stop should look like this.
March 9, 2024 at 2:45 AM
DC streets are very wide, maybe because it looks more like a "monumental city"? In older photos, all that empty space, the long walk from one side of the street to the other, becomes obvious.

This one is from 1908, via www.shorpy.com/Washington_D...
February 29, 2024 at 3:57 PM
While we're diagramming Manhattan, don't forget that the "Upper" in "Upper West Side" refers to less than halfway up the island.
February 1, 2024 at 11:57 PM
Hey meme designers, The Post is handing you new material today.
www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024...
January 22, 2024 at 2:12 AM
Tonight's activity is comparing Al Jazeera's English versus Arabic coverage. English coverage is exclusively about humanitarian/civilian issues; Arabic coverage is exclusively about military battles.

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
vs
www-aljazeera-net.translate.goog/news/liveblo...
December 24, 2023 at 6:15 AM
It worries me that these things always ask us to help computer vision systems find crosswalks but never to help them find pedestrians and cyclists.
December 15, 2023 at 5:11 PM
Next time somebody calls you out for using snarky typography like inline exclamation marks, tell them the NYT does it too.
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/n...
October 24, 2023 at 8:46 PM
Before Gap took creative control in 1988 and added their higher-tier "BR Monogram" line, Banana Republic was an African safari themed apparel retailer. Less weird than selling suits under that name, but still, is there anywhere in the world that has both lions and bananas?
July 23, 2023 at 5:44 AM
IXPE remains my favorite space telescope b/c it doesn't produce stellar images, just science. Here's new info about a galaxy-sized particle accelerator w/(we now know) a rotating magnetic field.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ixpe/feature/nasa-s-ixpe-fires-up-astronomers-with-new-blazar-findings
July 19, 2023 at 2:26 AM