Samuel Thomson
@samuelthomson.bsky.social
Lecturer in Game Design | Technical Artist | Artist
Interests include history of creative disciplines and technology.
Artist: http://samuelthomson.org
Technical Artist: http://framelord.ltd
Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@samuelthomson
they/them
Interests include history of creative disciplines and technology.
Artist: http://samuelthomson.org
Technical Artist: http://framelord.ltd
Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@samuelthomson
they/them
Pinned
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
I say it over and over again: when you have that much money, you want to live where you want to live and you are simply not going to relocate because of marginal tax rates
Alan Dershowitz will never leave Martha’s Vineyard and they won’t even sell him a pierogi
Alan Dershowitz will never leave Martha’s Vineyard and they won’t even sell him a pierogi
NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected.
And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*
Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*
Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts
A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...
www.bloomberg.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:24 AM
I say it over and over again: when you have that much money, you want to live where you want to live and you are simply not going to relocate because of marginal tax rates
Alan Dershowitz will never leave Martha’s Vineyard and they won’t even sell him a pierogi
Alan Dershowitz will never leave Martha’s Vineyard and they won’t even sell him a pierogi
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
1/🧵 Day 2 of 2. Today at 10:30am, High Court in London, Court 1, before Mr Justice Swift, R (Good Law Project, on the application of) v Equality and Human Rights Commission, a rolled-up hearing for judicial review of EHRC’s “interim update”.
No live reporting, sorry.
No live reporting, sorry.
1/🧵 Today at 10:30am, High Court in London, Court 1, before Mr Justice Swift, R (Good Law Project, on the application of) v Equality and Human Rights Commission, a rolled-up hearing for judicial review of EHRC’s “interim update” (Day 1 of 2)
No live reporting, sorry.
No live reporting, sorry.
November 13, 2025 at 12:09 PM
1/🧵 Day 2 of 2. Today at 10:30am, High Court in London, Court 1, before Mr Justice Swift, R (Good Law Project, on the application of) v Equality and Human Rights Commission, a rolled-up hearing for judicial review of EHRC’s “interim update”.
No live reporting, sorry.
No live reporting, sorry.
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
I did that thing where I say, “I’m just going to explore this quickly,” and suddenly - as a complete non-expert - I’ve built a simple stock-trading algorithm.
I wrote up the whole experience and what I learned (and I promise the explanations are very lightweight):
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
I wrote up the whole experience and what I learned (and I promise the explanations are very lightweight):
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Hard Can Quant Trading Really Be? I Tried It to Find Out.
Hedge funds have armies of PhDs, Bloomberg terminals, and million-dollar data feeds. I have Python open in VS Code - and a PhD in political economy. How much can I reproduce on my laptop?
open.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:21 AM
I did that thing where I say, “I’m just going to explore this quickly,” and suddenly - as a complete non-expert - I’ve built a simple stock-trading algorithm.
I wrote up the whole experience and what I learned (and I promise the explanations are very lightweight):
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
I wrote up the whole experience and what I learned (and I promise the explanations are very lightweight):
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
Personally I don't think it's OK to say "I'm not interested in politics, I just want to live my life", because it means you're asking others to hold the line against people who would destroy you.
November 13, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Personally I don't think it's OK to say "I'm not interested in politics, I just want to live my life", because it means you're asking others to hold the line against people who would destroy you.
I was cycling home in the rain tonight, trying to turn right on a very busy road with traffic in both directions. A woman in a big expensive car pulled up on the left of me and overtook the turn. Absolutely reckless driving and she had to accelerate to avoid a bus. Could easily have killed someone.
November 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
I was cycling home in the rain tonight, trying to turn right on a very busy road with traffic in both directions. A woman in a big expensive car pulled up on the left of me and overtook the turn. Absolutely reckless driving and she had to accelerate to avoid a bus. Could easily have killed someone.
Paging Bruno Latour.
Hmmmm
This is a good point
Chat, can a booby mommy centaur android ontologically have Big Naturals?
This is a good point
Chat, can a booby mommy centaur android ontologically have Big Naturals?
How are they ontologically "naturals" at this point?
November 12, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Paging Bruno Latour.
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
Friendly tip for folks. My discord got hacked yesterday and my computer was acting funky ever since. Turns out it was malware installed through a blender file I bought as part of an asset pack on CG Trader. I didn’t know blender files were being used this way, but I figured I’d spread the word.
November 11, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Friendly tip for folks. My discord got hacked yesterday and my computer was acting funky ever since. Turns out it was malware installed through a blender file I bought as part of an asset pack on CG Trader. I didn’t know blender files were being used this way, but I figured I’d spread the word.
Badiou, Bourdieu, Baudrillard...
November 11, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Badiou, Bourdieu, Baudrillard...
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
How many trans people have the BBC had on this week discussing the BBC's pro-trans bias?
Zero.
Zero.
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
How many trans people have the BBC had on this week discussing the BBC's pro-trans bias?
Zero.
Zero.
Humanoid robots are completely incompatible with any idea of a "common good" amongst the 7 billion and counting real human beings on this planet, and governments should intervene through taxation so that capital can be allocated via a more democratic process, because this is madness.
Joke of the day from Moscow: Russia tried to unveil its first humanoid AI robot, Aidol. Key word: tried. The robot collapsed during its debut, forcing organizers to cut the presentation short. Their rushed attempt to lift the prop only made things worse.
November 11, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Humanoid robots are completely incompatible with any idea of a "common good" amongst the 7 billion and counting real human beings on this planet, and governments should intervene through taxation so that capital can be allocated via a more democratic process, because this is madness.
I can solve all their problems by casting Michaela Coel as the next bond.
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I can solve all their problems by casting Michaela Coel as the next bond.
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
The extent to which this stuff is driven by a yearning for sexual & racial "purity", & for a world of clear, sharp, enforced dividing-lines, is absolutely palpable, & connects it clearly to the wider descent into right-wing extremism so many seem to have embraced.
Today's Express published transphobic pieces littered with hate and misinformation, where they:
🟣 Conflate transgender people with intersex people.
🟣 Centre 2 female Olympic gold-medallist boxers, even though they're not trans.
Ads by #Tesco, #TNLUK, #SkyTV & #Morrisons.
🟣 Conflate transgender people with intersex people.
🟣 Centre 2 female Olympic gold-medallist boxers, even though they're not trans.
Ads by #Tesco, #TNLUK, #SkyTV & #Morrisons.
November 11, 2025 at 10:08 AM
The extent to which this stuff is driven by a yearning for sexual & racial "purity", & for a world of clear, sharp, enforced dividing-lines, is absolutely palpable, & connects it clearly to the wider descent into right-wing extremism so many seem to have embraced.
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
Emily Maitlis admitting she worked at the bbc to try and get healthcare for trans people shut down
November 10, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Emily Maitlis admitting she worked at the bbc to try and get healthcare for trans people shut down
Always feel bad for a small account telling a great joke and getting 10 likes, only for a big account to later tell the same joke and get 1000. Unsolved social media problem.
November 10, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Always feel bad for a small account telling a great joke and getting 10 likes, only for a big account to later tell the same joke and get 1000. Unsolved social media problem.
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
Low polyamorous?
September 29, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Low polyamorous?
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
Fuck global tedium. Rock your week. Spread love and frosting 🖤
It’s tough but we’ll push through, despite it all. We all love you, superstar, and that counts for a lot x
It’s tough but we’ll push through, despite it all. We all love you, superstar, and that counts for a lot x
November 10, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Fuck global tedium. Rock your week. Spread love and frosting 🖤
It’s tough but we’ll push through, despite it all. We all love you, superstar, and that counts for a lot x
It’s tough but we’ll push through, despite it all. We all love you, superstar, and that counts for a lot x
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
This may just be the best CS paper I’ve read this year. Just read the abstract and first para of the intro! The rest of the intro is really wild too, but very very good:
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
October 14, 2025 at 1:12 PM
This may just be the best CS paper I’ve read this year. Just read the abstract and first para of the intro! The rest of the intro is really wild too, but very very good:
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
1/5 Now in Artificial Life: our research on the creativity of unsupervised learning! Core finding: a simple model of attractor networks with Hebbian learning is sufficient to constitute a (minimal) creative process, yielding creative products as solutions of the optimization. doi.org/10.1162/ARTL...
October 29, 2025 at 12:48 PM
1/5 Now in Artificial Life: our research on the creativity of unsupervised learning! Core finding: a simple model of attractor networks with Hebbian learning is sufficient to constitute a (minimal) creative process, yielding creative products as solutions of the optimization. doi.org/10.1162/ARTL...
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
1/ Eleven Dutch parties across the political spectrum from socialist to conservative have issued a joint appeal to a provincial government to build a memorial to Black American soldiers who died in World War II, to replace one removed from the Netherlands American Cemetery. ⬇️
November 10, 2025 at 9:18 AM
1/ Eleven Dutch parties across the political spectrum from socialist to conservative have issued a joint appeal to a provincial government to build a memorial to Black American soldiers who died in World War II, to replace one removed from the Netherlands American Cemetery. ⬇️
Bear with me, but we have to think about Don Featherstone, inventor in 1957 of the plastic flamingo. He exemplifies the lag between libininous deveolopment in one era, and its fruition in another...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Fea...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Fea...
November 9, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Bear with me, but we have to think about Don Featherstone, inventor in 1957 of the plastic flamingo. He exemplifies the lag between libininous deveolopment in one era, and its fruition in another...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Fea...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Fea...
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
A man rushed to the Broadview ICE facility searching for his wife. They followed every legal step, but ICE took her into another room and she vanished. He tracked her phone there when the signal died. Police told him to “look up her name online.” He sat in the parking lot, weeping, with no answers.
November 9, 2025 at 1:34 PM
A man rushed to the Broadview ICE facility searching for his wife. They followed every legal step, but ICE took her into another room and she vanished. He tracked her phone there when the signal died. Police told him to “look up her name online.” He sat in the parking lot, weeping, with no answers.
This is a diabolical situation. Long-term renting is a tax on poverty. It's feudal, and no one should be forced to rent.
www.ft.com/content/3c59...
www.ft.com/content/3c59...
Lloyds quietly builds £2bn rental portfolio to become major UK landlord
UK bank has acquired 7,500 homes for rent since 2021 as it seeks to diversify income
www.ft.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:54 AM
This is a diabolical situation. Long-term renting is a tax on poverty. It's feudal, and no one should be forced to rent.
www.ft.com/content/3c59...
www.ft.com/content/3c59...
Reposted by Samuel Thomson
I know we've all got a lot on our minds and the gusher of news doesn't stop for anybody, but....
Did you see where the President of Iran announced that the drought there is so bad that if they don't get any rain in the next two months they'll run out of water and *evacuate Tehran*?
Did you see where the President of Iran announced that the drought there is so bad that if they don't get any rain in the next two months they'll run out of water and *evacuate Tehran*?
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
I know we've all got a lot on our minds and the gusher of news doesn't stop for anybody, but....
Did you see where the President of Iran announced that the drought there is so bad that if they don't get any rain in the next two months they'll run out of water and *evacuate Tehran*?
Did you see where the President of Iran announced that the drought there is so bad that if they don't get any rain in the next two months they'll run out of water and *evacuate Tehran*?
I implore everyone to complain to the manager about any Harry Potter tat you see on sale.
I wish cis people understood how it feels to see Harry Potter every-fucking-where constantly.
November 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM
I implore everyone to complain to the manager about any Harry Potter tat you see on sale.
Painting from Pompeii is so good, I find no reason to doubt that we'd see ancestors with a similar understanding of realism if any paintings from 20,000 years ago had survived. Home sapiens fossil record is what, 500k to 1 million years?
This little bird survived a volcanic eruption!
Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!
Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me
#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!
Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me
#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
November 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Painting from Pompeii is so good, I find no reason to doubt that we'd see ancestors with a similar understanding of realism if any paintings from 20,000 years ago had survived. Home sapiens fossil record is what, 500k to 1 million years?