Charles Louis Richter
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richterscale.bsky.social
Charles Louis Richter
@richterscale.bsky.social
11K followers 1.1K following 13K posts
Historian: of American religion/irreligion by training; of science & conspiracy by trade

dumb jokes about smart things and smart jokes about dumb things

Podcast research/factcheck: SNAFU with Ed Helms; The Reason We're All Still Here; My Fugitive, more
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richterscale.bsky.social
screenshot from Return of the Kings. The armies of the west are at the Black Gate of Mordor, which are collapsing around them, consuming the armies of orcs as sauron's power is destroyed along with the one ring.
November 10, 2025 at 5:06 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
Today's project: get the first of our set of Yaggy's Anatomical Study (chromolithograph, 1885) up on the wall across from the bar.
A view of a wall on a room with two large wooden frames filled with antique anatomical illustrations, plus a maple topped cabinet, another mysterious litho in the background, and some old plaster teeth molds, plus a carnivalesque light fixture Closer view of the illustrations. Top is two human figures: one skeleton and one muscles, nerves, and blood vessels. Bottom is six life size illustrations of a human stomach, each one depicting a worsened stage of health due to alcohol. They get pretty gross. close up of the first three stomach illos. Top is totally pink and happy, bottom is veiny and inflamed from 15 days of drinkingm Last three stomach illos. It is getting bad. Ulcerations and lesions appear.
November 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
the "I am going to create" meme. She's saying "I am going to create a Roko's Basilisk that is so dedicated to torturing Musk"
November 7, 2025 at 6:23 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
training the AI phrenologist on this image and this image alone
illustrations of two white male heads in profile. the first has a rather bulbous cranium, gently sloping nose, wide open eyes, and strong but refined chin. text overlaid on this head reads "this outline of head and face shows all the good qualities in the lead" The second head has a prominent, sloping brow, pointed cranium, hooked nose, squinted eyes, an underbite over a jowly chin, and the text on it reads "fix this outline of head and face in your mind because it shows a weak degree of all good qualities"
November 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
"Look at this man: should we hire him?"

--"Well, let's check his résumé and see what—"

"NO RÉSUMÉ, ONLY LOOK FACE"
a 1902 illustration of a white man's face in profile, with various parts labelled things like tact, observation, force, firmness, center of vitality, PRACTICALITY, persistence, etc
November 6, 2025 at 7:52 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
it's the same picture
trump looks dully down at one of his minions who has just had what appears to be a terrifying health event and is collapsed on the oval office floor surrounded by staffers the poking with a stick meme, a crudely drawn figure looking dully down and poking at an unseen object with a stick
November 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
the catch
jeff goldblum in jurassic park about to point out that your scientists were so preoccupied about whether they could that they didn't stop to think if they should
November 6, 2025 at 12:05 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
the far side "cat fud" comic, in which a dog has marked several surfaces with "cat fud" and arrows leading to an open washing machine. but now "cat fud" has been replaced with the "The Oval Office" paper signs and trump is approaching the open washing machine.
November 5, 2025 at 10:00 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
alternately:
a picture of a stark jail cell with the three sheets of paper with the gold text "The Oval Office" posted on the bars.
November 5, 2025 at 9:39 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
this should help ease the transition
"Cell Block D" in gold script matching that on trump's assistive signage posted outside the oval office
November 5, 2025 at 9:27 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
yup, this is my everyday from my home office window
a slightly fisheye lens shot of a two-steeples brick church with dilapidated rose window, before a dramatic dawn sky streaked with pink and white clouds above a golden horizon
November 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
that amontillado i told you about is just down this hallway
floorplan of the castle's basement, which includes a long hallway leading out of the main basement room taking a right turn after a whikle, and then proceeding the entire length of the castle without any doors, and then there's ANOTHER right turn and ANOTHER long doorless hallway culminating finally in a door that leads to a chamber with no other exits
November 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
on the case
A black cat slunk under a wooden cabinet, looking intently at a bright green mousie toy that out in the open Extreme closeup on the cat's intently focused eyes
November 4, 2025 at 6:27 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
pinhead from hellraiser, with subtitle reading "we have such scents to show you"
November 4, 2025 at 4:50 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
the babdook "why can't you just be normal" meme, but the mother is asking "why can't you just be ordinary" and the boy, who is labeled "ADVENT," is subtitled "*sings christmastide carols*"
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
i'm sorry what kind of tour
Screenshot of the web page for a Titanic exhibit, with the word "immersive" highlighted. Text: .STEP ABOARD THE TITANIC Embark on an immersive, interactive tour of the Titanic with vast, jaw-dropping recreations of the ship’s interior and exterior. Visit the dock from where the Titanic first sailed, explore the galleries and boiler room, take a look inside a millionaire’s suite, stroll the exterior promenade deck under a starry night sky, and see the Grand Staircase with your own eyes.
October 30, 2025 at 11:48 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
Penguin Classics–style cover of "All systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells, except the cover image is a driverless Tesla speeding along a freeway
October 30, 2025 at 3:36 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
Burt Reynolds, Cosmopolitan, 1972
A large tabby cat lying on a Persian carpet, stretched out languidly
October 30, 2025 at 3:44 AM
richterscale.bsky.social
1: briefly suspended for describing a contestant as "caked up"
2: favorite office supply: laminator
3: changed her name; was born Merry Bary
4: every night, blind-bakes a hot-water crust to nest in
5: can recite pie to 100 digits
BBC News article click baity headline Five Surprising Mary Berry facts
October 29, 2025 at 5:20 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
Post a perfect album from 1989, a perfect music year
album cover for Peter Murphy's "Deep" - he is in profile, wearing tight black clothes, bent deeply at the waist so his head is upside down, and his hands are clasped behind his back pointed straight up
October 29, 2025 at 2:35 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
"The Soiling of Old Glory," a Pulitzer-winning photograph by Stanley Forman in which a white man assaults a Black man with a flagpole bearing a US flag.
October 28, 2025 at 2:10 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
this chonky bee stopped by every flower on the vine and repeated this sequence
October 25, 2025 at 5:03 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
I think you'd love it. One man's bonkers passion project. He lived nearby in a Gaudi-esque poured concrete castle which he decorated with tiles from his also-nearby tile works. An absolute classic weirdo for the ages.
A tall arched concrete ceiling, with old chairs, trunks and other furniture lashed to any available surface, as if it all floated to the top in defiance of gravity.
October 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
richterscale.bsky.social
your getup reminds me of this guy whose portrait is in the Mercer Museum outside of Philadelphia, a poured concrete folly packed with tools and curiosities of all sorts:
an old framed portrait of a boy or young man, in a coat and collared shirt, wearing a sort of domino mask with asymmetrically curved and ribbed horns sprouting from it
October 25, 2025 at 5:23 AM
richterscale.bsky.social
tried to get closer for a better pic, but i was taking too many rads
screenshot from Fallout 3, showing the irradiated crater where the white house once was, surrounded by rubble and other ruined buildings
October 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM