Joan Combs Durso
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Joan Combs Durso
@econoprof.bsky.social
310 followers 460 following 110 posts
Navy vet. Economist. SFF. 
RESULTS.org
#AmStat #GoNAVY #GoDukeWBB
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Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
minakimes.bsky.social
One of my favorite presents ever—my dad found and framed this pic of my mother @sunminkimes.bsky.social at a Seattle courthouse after she passed her US citizenship test in 1981. Like so many of the people who come here to start a new life, she is the best of us—the bravest, strongest person I know.
December 26, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
mollytaft.com
merry christmas, my gf got us a print sub to @theonion.com and gave it to me like this
An onion in a Christmas box
December 25, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
johannawinant.bsky.social
I'm not good at Christmas but I'm pretty good at making chocolate babka once a year
December 25, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
wordinblacknews.bsky.social
Why should we teach environmental justice in schools? Author Kimi Waite says students need to know how pollution and racism collide in their communities — and what they can do about it.
wordinblack.com/2025/12/case...
The Case for Teaching Environmental Justice in Schools
Students need the truth about how pollution and racism collide in America.
wordinblack.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
delightw2023.bsky.social
People going through chemo or organ transplant wore masks in public before Covid and no one gave damn.

Ppl are not refusing to enter society we are in society but responsibly it's society that wants us to disappear. Sorry, not sorry if you feel guilty.
December 19, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
amybrown.xyz
the baby (18 months) has received a baby-sized backpack and is running around the house yelling PACKPACK
December 25, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
mc2x.bsky.social
Looks like this got me added, unironically, to a Christmas-themed starter pack. Such is my punishment.
mc2x.bsky.social Monica Christmas Camacho 🎄❄️ @mc2x.bsky.social · 16d
Update to the update: wife just accused me of violating the Skellington Accords, aka the Treaty of Halloweentown, the shaky truce that ended the war on Christmas and made Armistice Day the official start of Xmas season

I am obliged to pay the penalty: until Dec 25, the C. stands for Christmas
mc2x.bsky.social Monica Christmas Camacho 🎄❄️ @mc2x.bsky.social · 17d
Morning dove update:
It’s officially winter now!* Three mourning doves and one chickadee sunning themselves on the balcony. Cat has no idea because she’s too busy napping on top of the radiator.

*fiiiine, i’ll get rid of my Halloween display name i guess
December 25, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
townseagull.bsky.social
Your annual reminder that if you want someone to chat or have a laugh with over the Christmas period there will be lots of folk on the #JoinIn and #DuvetKnowItsChristmas threads. 🎄
December 22, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
naturalcritic.bsky.social
I won’t be participating much this year in #JoinIn but I wanted to stop by and send hugs to all of you who are spending the holidays alone/lonely.

P. S:
This is the least Christmassy festive season I’ve ever experienced!
Stay safe! ❤️
December 24, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
writeforwellbeing.bsky.social
The inimitable Sarah Millican @sarahmillican.bsky.social started #JoinIn long ago (on that other social media platform we don't mention anymore) and it has spread to Bluesky. After years of dedication, Sarah passed the baton to the rest of us to keep this mutual Xmas support going. Thank you, Sarah!
December 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
townseagull.bsky.social
How is everyone this Christmas Eve? I've left the stressful shops behind and am happy to now be at home hanging out with the weird folk of the christmas tree. The garden birds are fed and happy, and I'll be eating too many pickles shortly. #JoinIn
Photos show a variety of ornaments on a christmas tree, including a Seagull with a scarf and christmas hat, bears, mice, fairies and a brussel sprout with a bow on its head.
December 24, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
townseagull.bsky.social
Every year on Christmas Eve I drive my elderly mum around town looking at the Christmas lights everyone has up on their houses. It's become a lovely tradition...costs nothing, except a little petrol, but makes us very happy and festive. #JoinIn
a house with the word noel written on it
ALT: a house with the word noel written on it
media.tenor.com
December 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
mcollinsmorton.bsky.social
Mr. & Mrs. M out for an evening walk in the neighborhood, looking at Christmas lights and avoiding the rampant contagion of Covid-19 with our respirator masks.

#Christmas #COVID19 #respirator
Michael Collins Morton and Angela Marie Morton, wearing warm clothes and respirator masks, standing in a suburban neighborhood with Christmas lights in the background.
December 24, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
paulscheer.com
In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.
December 23, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
courtneymilan.com
It is about this: because so many people do not give a shit about romance, shit gets tried in romance first.

You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.
December 24, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
bookfrolic.bsky.social
Feeling alone at Christmas? Why not join an annual virtual party started by Sarah Millican on X but now here?! I’m doing my best to keep this tradition going. Use #JoinIn on Dec 25 if you need company or just want a chat. Like/Save this feed to see all the #JoinIn posts bsky.app/profile/did:...
a kid in a knight costume is asking who will join us
Alt: a kid in a knight costume is asking who will join us
media.tenor.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
blessedscavengers.bsky.social
happy winter solstice everyone!
#snowyowl #owlart #birdart #watercolorpainting #natureart #wildlifeart #artist
a watercolor painting of a snowy owl facing right at the viewer with a kind of tired, grumpy expression that owls often have
December 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
jessholz.bsky.social
I'm super excited to announce a solo exhibition at Harvard Ed Portal featuring my timelapse Plankton Paintings: hrvd.me/gallery-holz. Opening reception Jan 15, 5-7pm, at 6pm I'll be doing an artist talk in conversation with @pgirguis.bsky.social Would love if you could join! #sciart #microscopy
December 20, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
veganjackson.bsky.social
Each design combines randomly selected equations and their parameters. No cherry-picking, no editing, no human aesthetic choices - the algorithm decides what gets made and posted. Harmony, chaos, or beauty! Pure mathematical expression flowing directly to your timeline. #notai
Some equation types the code might use to create designs - Circles, Cosine Waves, Radial Lines, Hyperbolas, Astroids, Ellipses, Triangle Waves, Grid Lines, Double Cosine Waves, Secant Waves, Square Root Waves, Logistic Waves
August 12, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
veganjackson.bsky.social
Double cosine waves and logistic waves
#computerart #mathart #geometricart #technicalart #sciart #creativecoding
Double cosine waves and logistic waves
December 20, 2025 at 5:06 AM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
littleredyarn.bsky.social
Done! The fall semester is now officially done and dusted. All of my writing-editing-Zotero-ing-rewriting-readingreadingreading-submitting-analyzing-and-all-that-geographic-info-system-stuff? Done for a few weeks. Time to enter my Sloth Era. 😄
a sloth is laying on the ground on a sidewalk and says `` i 'm coming '' .
ALT: a sloth is laying on the ground on a sidewalk and says `` i 'm coming '' .
media.tenor.com
December 19, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
megelison.bsky.social
And just like that, SFWA capitulates. Keep fighting. It works.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association AMENDED RULES for the Nebula Awards Dear Meghan, Earlier today, you received an email titled, “Note from the Board on This Year’s Nebula Rules.” To be clear, SFWA does not support the use of LLM generative models in the production of creative work. The Nebula Award Rules did not reflect our current policy and deeply held beliefs and values, and they were amended to reflect that. With further input, today, we made an important change to the Nebula Awards Rules in two board votes that we would like to share with you: Previous Text: "Works that are wholly written using generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible." New Text: "Works that are written, either wholly or partially, by generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible." -and- Previous Text: "Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and the nature of the technology’s use will be made clear to voters on the final ballot" New Text: "Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and those works will be disqualified." We will update our posted rules in the coming days to reflect this change.
December 19, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
marthawells.com
Linking to this Scientific American interview again: www.scientificamerican.com/article/were...
We’re Light-Years Away from True Artificial Intelligence, Says Murderbot Author Martha Wells
Today’s large language models are hardly related to the kinds of machine intelligence we see in science fiction, according to Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries series
www.scientificamerican.com
July 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
clancyny.bsky.social
Unhappy about the decision by @acm.org to add AI-generated summaries to papers? I just noticed that they are on Bluesky. Please share your views.
cfiesler.bsky.social Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 10d
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
Screenshot of a paper entry: Fictional Failures and Real-World Lessons: Ethical Speculation Through Design Fiction on Emotional Support Conversational AI Authors: Faye Kollig, Jessica Pater, Fayika Farhat Nova, Casey Fiesler (There are tabs with "abstract" and "summary" and "summary" is selected.)
December 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Joan Combs Durso
noorlovelace.bsky.social
I just want @marthawells.com to know that my little dog always does a walkthrough of the house before she settles for the night and every single time we say “she needs to check the perimeter.”
My little Portuguese podengo, a small brown dog with triangular ears, snuggling a purple squishmallow bird.
December 17, 2025 at 2:35 AM