Ammonium Azide
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nh4n3.bsky.social
Ammonium Azide
@nh4n3.bsky.social
720 followers 930 following 8.3K posts
Bluesky account for the toxic and explosive (but insensitive and amphoteric) salt formed by combining Ammonia and Hydrazoic Acid.

Posts by Josh, he/him, aerospace engineer, from NY, based in LA via DC (and also Eastern Washington State and Baltimore) 🏳️‍🌈
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nh4n3.bsky.social
A DAY IN THE LIFE: CHUCK SCHUMER

Fold
Cave
Roll Over
Throw in the Towel

Repeat daily
Chuck Schumer's smiling face pasted on a picture of someone doing origami Schumer's face on a picture of someone spelunking On a picture of a dog rolling over On an athlete throwing a towel
November 10, 2025 at 10:42 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
From Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, @schumer.senate.gov
it allows the collision to sink to a point where the only issue between itself and the Minister of the Interior is. Who has jurisdiction over the ap-pointment and dismissal of a Police Commis-sioner? Thus we see the party of Order, during this whole period, compelled by its ambiguous position to wear out and fritter away its conflict with the Executive power in small quarrels about jurisdiction, in chicaneries, in pettifog-ging, in boundary disputes, and to turn the stal-est questions of form into the very substance of its activity. It dares not accept the collision at the moment when it involves a principle, when the Executive power has really given itself a blank, and when the cause of the National As-sembly would be the cause of the nation. It would thereby have issued to the nation an order of march; and it feared nothing so much as that the nation should move. Hence, on these occasions, it rejects the motions of the Moun-tain, and proceeds to the order of the day. After the issue has in this way lost all magnitude, the Executive power quietly awaits the moment when it can take it up again upon small and in-significant occasions; when, so to say, the issue offers only a parliamentary local interest. Then does the repressed valor of the party of Order break forth, then it tears away the curtain from the scene, then it denounces the President, then it declares the republic to be in danger,-but then all its pathos appears stale, and the oсса-sion for the quarrel a hypocritical pretext, or not at all worth the effort. The parliamentary tem-
October 15, 2025 at 9:02 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Pretty interesting to reflect on these conclusions in light of the 57 years of history between publication and today
What I am saying now is that the best solution to the problem of homosexuality is one which is mod-eled on the solution to the problem of religious differ-ence, namely, a radical tolerance for homosexual ob-ject-choice, whether as a segment of an individual's sexual existence or as a full commitment to homosexu-ality as a way of life. I suggest that we view homosexuals as a minority group, and begin to seriously consider giving them the full legal rights and social privileges that we have finally given to some minority groups (e.g., Roman Catholics) and that we talk about giving to others. This means, among other things, we will have to: (1) abolish the penalties that now exist for certain kinds of sexual relations between consenting adults in pri-vate; (2) end police activity against homosexuals, in all its forms, including use of decoys and harassment of gay bars and other homosexual meeting places; (3) cease firing government employees (including members of the armed forces) because they are thought to be homosexual; (4) encourage private in-dustry to cease similar treatment of homosexual em-ployees. To carry this analysis to its utopian conclusion, we would see the end of the gay world as a hidden, de- viant subculture, lurking in the unhappy interstices of the larger society. Instead, we would simply see ho- mosexuals and heterosexuals and bisexuals within our social world, all living their lives without having to endure persecution. Is this all a utopian dream? Is it really possible? Frankly, I don't know. Our society, like most others, is very slow in changing social attitudes, especially ones which go as deep into the hearts of the populace as do feelings about sexuality. Still changes are occur-ring. During the past decade both England and Illi-nois have abolished age-old statutes prohibiting ho-mosexual men from having sexual relations in private. While such legal changes are only a beginning, they are a necessary beginning, and they do indicate a greater degree of tolerance in the society as a whole. There are other encouraging signs. Homosexuality is now being discussed in popular magazines, on tele-vision, in the sex education courses that are develop-ing in our schools. Many are discovering that homo-sexuals are real people, not rare oddities of fun, and that perhaps they should be treated with human dig-nity. I cannot say where this will lead or how soon (if ever) the changes I advocate will occur. Most of what I can do to help I have already done, here in this volume.
October 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Pretty cool to be saying this in 1968!
their sexual activities. As anyone who saw the play Tea and Sympathy will remember, this price is also paid by very many heterosexual males who go through terrible agonies concerning their own mascu- linity, simply because they are in some ways unable to live up to a stereotype of what a "he-man" ought to be like. (One of the real benefits that will hopefully be derived from the "hippie" movement is that the stereotype of masculinity which has dominated Amer- ican culture for so long and which has been the source of great unhappiness for so many of those who are unable to live up to it-even though they be basi- cally heterosexual-will be considerably diminished, and a male's sexual and personal identity will no longer be threatened if he likes flowers or cares about the texture of his clothes or likes to wear his hair long, etc.)
October 14, 2025 at 7:05 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Ask not whose book combines astute clinical observations with pseudoscience (the Freudian psychoanalysis in this book is a little silly and not scientific but I guess it's not malicious or slanderous so it's not the worst kind of pseudoscience)
9 The Disease Concept of Homosexuality At the present time, the most fashionable view of a homosexually oriented object-choice is that it is a mental illness or a symptom of mental illness. Perhaps the most influential exponent of this view today is the New York psychoanalyst Irving Bieber. Bieber's book (1962) is a strange mixture of astute clinical observa-tion and the worst kind of pseudo-science. He inter-
October 14, 2025 at 5:44 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
This feels like something that could more or less be written today
A number of observers, such as Kenneth Keniston (1965), have pointed out the damaging effects of modern urbanized, technological society in producing a serious alienation between persons, especially in the larger cities. This decline in a sense of community be-tween urban Americans has created a powerful impe-tus toward deviant behavior, for one of the positive virtues to be gained from being deviant is that one gains both a sense of identity and a community of fel-lows. Being heterosexual does not provide an identity for an alienated, confused modern individual, since everybody is expected to be heterosexual, and this provides about as much of a clue to who one is as lik-ing ice cream. To be a homosexual, however, is quite a different matter, for the individual can define him-self as a homosexual and can make this identity the center of his own self-concept and of his behavior. At the same time, it makes him a member of a deviant community, and wherever he goes he can find a small group of individuals who will have something in com-mon with him which is very real and very intrinsic to their own being. This is true, of course, for a number of other forms of deviant behavior as well, such as "bohemian" or "hippie" life-styles. Especially if one is young and attractive, being homosexual means belonging to an underground com-munity of fellows which provides one with not only a sense of one's identity, but also with places to go and things to do, even in an otherwise foreign location. In
October 14, 2025 at 5:04 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
While the idea that gender identity and sexual orientation are purely learned is no longer widely believed, I was surprised to see sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation described exactly how we describe them today in this passage of a book (The Gay World by Martin Hoffman) written in 1968.
In a fascinating series of studies of individuals with biological sexual abnormalities (pseudo-hermaphro- dites), John Money, Joan G. Hampson, and John L. Hampson (1955) have accumulated a good deal of evidence that both gender identity (one's feelings of masculinity or femininity) and sexual object-choice (one's preference for a type of sexual partner) are due to social learning. Their evidence indicates that, at least insofar as these two factors are concerned, hu- mans are psychosexually neutral at birth. The devel- opment of both gender identity and sexual object- choice is due to the extremely subtle interaction which goes on between the child and the significant persons in his environment. It is based on cues and signals which the parents transmit to the child as to his proper gender role and as to the kinds of sexual feelings which are permitted. As we saw in the pre- vious pages, an individual's self-concept (and thus his conception of himself as masculine or feminine and his conception of what is sexually possible or impos- sible) is due to the messages he gets from his parents regarding what is permissible and impermissible be- havior. The individual's sexual self-concept as well as the range of permissible sexual feelings are assimi- lated unconsciously.
October 14, 2025 at 5:05 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Happy Halloween!
A small outdoor entryway decorated for Halloween. A bright pink plastic skeleton is mounted on the metal security gate, posed as if holding onto the bars. To the left, an orange skeleton decoration is climbing the wall, reaching upward. Above it, a jack-o’-lantern with a jagged mouth and triangular eyes is set inside a black cloth box, giving the effect of a floating pumpkin head. Plants and trees are faintly visible in the background. A close-up of a jack-o’-lantern resting on a crate covered with a black towel. The pumpkin’s face is painted on rather than carved: triangular eyes and nose, and a wide, toothy grin with red paint dripping below like blood. The crate is placed on the ground in front of a metal security gate, with part of a small plant visible to the side.
September 29, 2025 at 4:01 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
One option: with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shutting down they could present it as a spin/acquisition (a spaquisition? A Sperger?) of CPB. Call it MSCPB, keep the branding and use whatever infrastructure or relationships are useful to you, make your lib audience happy.
CPB logo
August 19, 2025 at 1:34 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
FOUR???
Screenshot of a BBC News article titled “30 Rock: Tina Fey apologises as blackface episodes are withdrawn,” dated 23 June 2020. Below the headline is a photo of actors Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Tina Fey, and Tracy Morgan holding Golden Globe awards. The caption identifies them left to right. The subheading states that four episodes of 30 Rock featuring characters in blackface will be removed at the request of creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock.
August 15, 2025 at 12:47 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
free space
A solitary bird soars high in a warm near-grayscale sky above rugged, sunlit mountains. The hazy light from the sun, positioned near the upper right corner, casts a soft glow over the jagged ridgelines and shadowed slopes below.
August 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
few understand the homosexual feature control frame
A wide rectangle split with a vertical line into two rectangles. The one on the left contains a — and the one on the right contains a 6. This is a reference to GD&T (geometric design and tolerancing, used for engineering drawings) and the Kinsey scale. The "—" is used for straightness, the amount by which a feature can deviate from a geometrically straight line (in this case, 6 inches, mm, etc as relevant). The "Straightness of 6" is an oblique reference to the Kinsey scale, on which 6 means purely homosexual.
July 24, 2025 at 1:40 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
This is what everyone misses about American politics
Hand-drawn two-part political diagram on lined paper. Top panel, titled “How Political Consultants think:” shows a horizontal spectrum from “Democrats” (blue, on the left) to “Republicans” (red, on the right), with a narrow band in the center labeled “Swing Voters,” positioned around the 50% mark. It implies that consultants believe voters exist mostly along a single linear axis. Bottom panel, titled “How Politics Actually Works:” shows a two-axis graph. The horizontal axis represents feelings toward Republicans (from negative on the left to positive on the right). The vertical axis represents feelings toward Democrats (from negative at the bottom to positive at the top). Four quadrants are labeled: Top left (likes Dems only): Hardcore Dem Partisans Top right (likes both): Nobody is left here Bottom right (likes GOP only): Hardcore GOP Partisans Bottom left (likes neither): Most Americans in this Quadrant A diagonal line runs down the middle from top right down, with "votes Dems" on one side and "votes GOP" on the other. In the bottom left the line splits and creates a third region, "Doesn't vote or votes third party". The drawing uses red and blue shading to indicate sentiment, suggesting that most people dislike both parties and that “swing voters” are more often disaffected than centrist.
July 16, 2025 at 11:20 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Three-panel meme using a scene from King of the Hill. In the first panel, Dale asks, “ARE YOU IN THE EPSTEIN FILES?” In the second panel, a character with Donald Trump’s face photoshopped on is standing outside a school bus wearing a lab coat, next to a lengthy, rambling Trump Truth Social post that touches on Jeffrey Epstein and other conspiracy themes. In the third panel, Dale responds, “YEAH HE’S IN THERE.” The meme implies Trump is indirectly revealing himself to be connected to Epstein.
July 14, 2025 at 6:21 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
guy who thinks messaging someone to tell them you're not interested is a compliment
1 Between the choice of being honest and getting a chance to compliment you and just saying no and dropping you into the void without a word, I chose the former. Because you do seem really cool. Maybe the compliment didn't come through but what I meant was that you seem *really* cool. Parts of me would love to be someone who matches with someone like you. I wanted to send you positivity and hope because you seem like a great guy.
July 13, 2025 at 11:47 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
idk if this is negging or more general psycho behavior but I will not stand for it
Screenshot of a dating app conversation. The first message, in a gray bubble, says: “I just wanna say you seem really cool. Don’t think we are romantic matches (I’m not gonna road-trip and hike that much lol) but just wanted to send good vibes your way.” The response, in a purple bubble, says: “‘I don't think we're a match’ is an absolutely wild thing to say in your first message after you decide to match with someone but ok good luck or whatever.”
July 13, 2025 at 10:18 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
The theoretical intent of this policy restricting who can attend might be inclusion of people with weak immune systems but if you're functionally banning anyone with an in-person job the people excluded are much larger in number than the people welcomed.
c. You have had any close contact with someone who is Covid positive in the last 7 days (defined as sharing any amount of air). [2] d. You have tested positive for Covid in the last thirty days, unless your fever is gone AND you have tested negative on two consecutive rapid tests over 48 hours. [3] e. You have done long-distance travel (on an airplane, train, long-distance bus, etc), or attended a mass gathering (defined as 200+ people) such as large concerts, large sporting events or large religious services in the last 7 days. (This includes indoor and outdoor events. When there is not actively a surge, outdoor events will be extended to 500+.) We strongly encourage practicing safe masking in high risk locations such as bars, indoor restaurant dining, movie theatres, weddings/big parties, or indoor high-intensity sports/exercise within 7 days of an in-person bookclub event as well. f. You did not mask in your workplace in the 7 days preceding the bookclub event if you work a high-risk, high-exposure job (such as bartending/restaurant work, dentistry/hospital work, flight attending or retail). If you are in a situation where you are barred from wearing a mask at work, reach out to the mods and we'll see what we can figure out.
July 10, 2025 at 12:18 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Baltimore's progressive mayor Brandon Scott took a public health approach to violence prevention, and the city is on track to have its smallest number of murders and shootings in 60 years. This is huge for Baltimore.
Bar chart titled “Homicides in First Six Months of the Year” showing annual homicide counts from 2016 to 2025. Bars from 2016 to 2024 are in gray; 2025 is in blue. Numbers by year: 2016 (137), 2017 (170), 2018 (133), 2019 (158), 2020 (162), 2021 (166), 2022 (179), 2023 (142), 2024 (89), 2025 (68). Chart shows a sharp decline from 2022 onward.
July 2, 2025 at 9:51 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Holy shit

100 years and 8 days ago
"People on Long Island [are] afraid to go to bed for fear that when they wake up in the morning they would find their property seized by Robert Moses," another Republican senator shouted. Jumping out of his seat, a Democrat replied: "Is it not true that if they don't go to bed on Long Island it is because the bedsheets may be in use elsewhere?"-a reference to the Ku Klux Klan. And Jimmy Walker, his suavity gone for a moment, his cravat for once askew, shook his fist at the Republican senators and shouted, "These millionaires made their millions out of the poor despised kikes and wops of the tenements whom, through you, they are now seeking to shut out... from a day in the country."
July 1, 2025 at 1:32 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Moses in 1919, in a report on government reform in the State of New York
"The only serious argument advanced against [the] proposed reorganization and budget system is that it makes the Governor a czar," he wrote. The Governor does not hold office by hereditary right. He is elected for a fixed term by universal suffrage. He is controlled in all minor appointments by the civil service law. He cannot spend a dollar of the public money which is not authorized by the Legislature of the State. He is subject to removal by impeachment. If he were given the powers here proposed he would stand out in the limelight of public opinion and scrutiny. Economy in administration, if accomplished, would redound to his credit. Waste and extravagance could be laid at his door. Those who cannot endure the medicine because it is too strong must be content with waste, ineffi-ciency and bungling-and steadily rising cost of government. The system here proposed is more democratic, not more "royal," than that now in existence. Democracy does not merely mean periodic elections. It means a government held accountable to the people between elections. In order that the people may hold their government to account they must have a government that they can under-stand. No citizen can hope to understand the present collection of departments, offices, boards and commissions, or the present methods of appropriating money. A Governor with a cabinet of reasonable size, responsible for proposing a program in the annual budget and for administering the program as modified by the Legislature, may be brought daily under public scrutiny, be held accountable to the Legislature and public opinion, and be turned out of office if he fails to measure up to public requirements. If this is not democracy then it is difficult to imagine what is.
June 30, 2025 at 2:54 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
I'd drop this probably
Jenna on 30 rock saying "I'm going to be constructive here. You should kys"
June 29, 2025 at 4:16 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Screenshot of two posts by JD Vance on Bluesky. In the first post, he writes: “The peace treaty signing yesterday between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Rwanda was truly historic. That war has killed more than any since World War 2, almost all of them black.” In the second post, he continues: “I'm sure the leaders and supporters of the black lives matter movement will join me in celebrating President Trump today, who has done more to save black lives than any leader in our country.” The post ends with a link: "@jamellebouie.net".
June 29, 2025 at 4:05 AM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Mars Life by Ben Bova: ⭐⭐

A disappointment unfortunately.
Ben Bova came into this story with some good ideas, and though the pieces are there it doesn't quite fit together into a good story. You can feel in this story that Ben Bova spent time in Mesa Verde in Colorado or Bandolier National Monument in New Mexico or some of the other cliff dwellings across the Southwest, and felt the parallels to Mars. He added in the flavor of religious fundamentalism from the mid-2000s when he was writing, and the ethical question of "selling out" Mars (something the Navajo people do argue over to the extent they maintain control of their ancestral lands). The writing is competent and flows well enough, but overall leaves a great deal to be desired. Many of the side characters bring nothing to the story and don't amount to fully fleshed-out people. What does mission director Chang bring to this story, for example, besides a bit of extraneous complaining about the chain of command? What does DiNardo add? The book gestures at an idea of reconciling religion and science, but never gets there. Billy has the makings of an arc, but it never lands. Shouldn't he be Jamie's spiritual successor, learning to love Mars and dedicating himself to studying it? Veejay seems to exist only as a counterpart to Jamie and to a lesser degree Carleton. Carleton is probably the best-written characters in his insecurity and aggressiveness. He reads as a kind of bad guy who actually exists in the world. Bova decided for plot reasons that he would have a fake rape allegation against him, I guess to give him an air of darkness without committing to the reality. But he is written as someone who would actually do something like that, going as far as to threaten to rape Veejay in the text. Both are largely brushed off by his fellow Martians and the Mars Foundation appears to have saved him from prison by taking him to Mars. And even there, what do his unpleasant personality and violent tendencies really add up to in the story? It's nothing more than a gross distraction from the beating heart of the novel. The emotional core of this novel is the dilemma Jamie faces: On the one hand, he loves the planet Mars and loves the research that's being done there. He feels an emotional connection to it as a place where the history of the Navajo people can be made right (this is perhaps slightly racist?), and especially to the Martians living in their valleys and cliff dwellings on Mars just like the ancestral pueblo people did in the American southwest. On the other hand, that effort is facing a lack of funding by people cast as evil and ignorant, and the only available option is to accept tourists which he thinks will despoil the operation. On the one hand, when you really consider it, the basic position of people on Earth is not so unreasonable. The climate disaster is written to be incredibly bad. How /could/ you justify spending billions on Mars when so many people exist in a state of crisis. Jamie and Veejay have the luxury of living in a place that has benefitted from the climactic changes and the benefits of billionaire friends who will jet them off to Mars if they ask. Most don't. And on the other hand, it becomes hard to sympathize with Jamie because his opposition to all tourism really is wildly unreasonable. A better-written book would (for example) be asking them to host thousands or million s of Terran refugees, or to serve as a refuge for the rich like New Zealand estates do in our world (though I would likely also criticize this as an unrealistic response to climate change, at least you could more plausibly understand why he would be so strongly opposed.) The conclusion reached by the end, that they would accept tourists and use the money to do research without creating an earthlike environment around the ruins, feels incredibly obvious and something that Jamie should have come up with and accepted immediately. While there are interesting aspects, this book is largely irrelevant digressions and vignettes. As an early draft I would say this was good work with a lot of potential. As a published work, that potential has been left largely unrealized.
June 27, 2025 at 11:21 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
That was fast
My post from two days ago where I said Liberals are on a path to Goodhart the 3.5% rule
June 17, 2025 at 5:34 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
I think people are familiar with the 10/31/1936 MSG Speech but it's an all-time banger

www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/ad...
Rarely in Roosevelt's political career was there such a night as October 31, 1936. The Garden, packed to the rafters, erupted into thirteen minutes of cheering and shrieking when Roosevelt appeared, with the band blaring "Happy Days Are Here Again," and cowbells, horns, and clackers adding to the uproar. To the President, unwontedly nervous before a major speech, it seemed as if the applause would never stop. But there stuck in his mind a picture of Landon trying ineffectually to halt applause by call-ing "Mr. Chairman," "Mr. Chairman," so he did nothing but raise his hands. At last the great hall was quiet. "In 1932," Roosevelt began, "the issue was the restoration of American democracy; and the American people were in a mood to win. They did win. In 1936 the issue is the preservation of their victory." He enumer-ated the gains of the years since 1933 - peace of mind for the individual, peace for the community, peace for the nation, peace with the world. But "we have not come this far without a struggle and I assure you we cannot go further without a struggle." The "old enemies" - "business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism" - were seeking to regain their power. But "we know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." The audience was constantly on its feet. The applause, reported the New York Times, came in "roars which rose and fell like the sound of waves pounding in the surf." Roosevelt continued, his voice growing hard, almost vengeful: "Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me -and I welcome their hatred." Again a scream from the crowd. The President spoke for a moment with deceptive mildness. "I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match." Over the cheers, he went on: "I should like to have it said "; but the mounting roar of anticipation threatened to drown out his words; he paused and cried, "Wait a moment!"; then "I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master." The crowd's roar was like thunder. He passed swiftly on to the social-security campaign; "only desperate men with their backs to the wall would descend so far below the level of decent citizenship." When they suggested that some future Congress would divert the reserve funds to some other purpose, they were "already aliens to the spirit of American democracy. Let them emigrate and try their lot under some for-eign flag in which they have more confidence." Then, having expressed his "indignation," he moved to the affirmations - to the "vision for the future." Of course, we would continue to improve conditions for the workers and farmers of America, to fight against monopoly, to regulate financial practices, to wipe out slums, to enlarge opportunities for our young men and women, to strive for peace in the world. "For all these we have only just begun to fight." And economic objectives were only the begin-ning. "The recovery we are winning is more than economic. In it are included justice and love and humility, not for ourselves as individuals alone, but for our nation. That is the road to peace For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent. For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.
June 12, 2025 at 10:42 PM