Gene Tracy

A man should add beauty and strength to his city. He is no citizen whatsoever If he is tied to the ugly by fear or by pride. — Antigone, by Sophocles, translated by Robert Bringhurst

“The public has moved on” the hell they have. In March 86% of Americans said they wanted additional investigations into those named.

What Marissa Odysseus, back in Mayer wants Ithaca after me to ask AI 20 years 🤝 what is my child like www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Kyiv. Evening. Power outage. Missile threat. I’m choosing a small induction hob that can work with my new EcoFlow. Hot food in winter can help. Gas cookers? I told them no. A few minutes ago I registered for a tour of artists’ studios. Survival and Art. My immediate plans.

#BookSky

The "dead voters" rumor reminds me to let you all know that: (1) we've seen A LOT of these same rumors before; and (2) you can play our interactive Bingo game to learn more about how these common tropes feed into "rigged election" rumors: bingo.cip.uw.edu

Meet our Solar System's newest dwarf planet candidate: 2026 ED138! Orbiting past Pluto, scientists found it in NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory data from earlier this year. Early analysis suggests it's ~600–1500 km across, one of the largest found past Neptune!🔭🧪 🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-f...

“The catalyst for ‘Don’t Give Up’ was a photograph I saw by Dorothea Lange (Migrant Mother), in the book ‘In This Proud Land’, which showed the dust-bowl conditions during the Great Depression in America. Without a climate of self-esteem it’s impossible to function” - pg

Important message for anyone who doesn't want to spend all their time online being annoyed. That's not a life. No one wants that.

Farm workers in Sunnyside WA are getting pumpkins ready for Halloween. They carry the pumpkins to the side of the field so when the tractor comes by them is easier to load it. An average pumpkin weighs 12–15 lbs, but some weigh 50lbs or more. #WeFeedYou

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.

It's only socialism when you tax the wealthy & use it to fund services for the poor & middle class. Otherwise, it's just sparkling kleptocracy! Related: Family farmers have made more take-home income than non-farmers every single year since 1997. Yes, that's AFTER farm debts & expenses.

Oh crikey we've annoyed the Roman statues. Mea maxima culpa. Me paenitet

Here’s the Wikipedia article about the uncle. Actually an impressive fellow. But not the *inventor* of radar. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G....

Free weekend update is out. Its mostly a deep dive into the Starlink/Starshield move by Trump and Musk (yes both of them) which did real damage to Ukraine and proved a point. Trump reacts to pressure, not flattery. Standing up to him is the only way. phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...

#MusickSky open.spotify.com/track/0u5MLi...

#MusickSky open.spotify.com/track/28pCUu...

#MusicSky open.spotify.com/track/28QiH5...

#MusickSky open.spotify.com/track/3vEmpJ...

We acknowledge that no one has the bandwidth for this, but if it helps: -It’s ‘sleight of hand’ -It’s ‘bated breath’ -It’s ‘lo and behold’ -It's 'buck naked' -It’s ‘brass tacks’ -It’s ‘free rein’ -It’s ‘toe the line'

Happy birthday to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723), the Dutch scientist & progenitor of #microbiology known for his improvements to microscope tech. 🧪🐡🔬 #histsci He was a draper in Delft, then a politician with an interest in lensmaking. Using his handmade microscopes, he was 1st to observe

Third, automating science is not really possible in the way described. In the same way a machine cannot eat food for us because we'd starve: scientific understanding is for us to experience and share with others as a psychological state. It's a process and a cognitive state not an output.

Good thread.

Incredible

instead of hearing about ai more can you just punch me in the head until I pass out

somehow, when I find security bugs in software I use, even when the company involved has kinda torqued me off for other reasons, I report them, because I would want somebody to report them to me if it were mine this is what we call "normal behavior" and "being normal"

From William & Mary to the World Series! ⚾️ Discover how Ben Williamson '23 is reaching the pinnacle of his profession.

there's been a worldwide campaign against trans people—nowhere has it been stronger (& less opposed) than the uk latest podcast with @aendra.com www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/uk-media-trans

The #Ukraine war is fast moving and older technologies are newly weaponized all the time. Here’s an important article by @kyivindependent.com about a deadly adaptation of WiFi network hardware to drone navigation and control. kyivindependent.com/very-difficu...

Trump and Musk are just stringing Ukraine along and letting Russia attack it with impunity. And the American press is foolishly falling for blue smoke and mirrors, arguing whether Musk or Trump are responsible. Hint, they both are!

walking around dramatically muttering "I've lost the mandate of heaven" because I just can't come up with a column idea this week

So, the real question: will HBO (part of Skydance) still stream Alex Gibney's "Musk" documentary, now that Musk is an investor in Skydance...

Zelenskyy: “Just imagine, there are Ukrainian children who have never known peace. That’s absolutely horrifying. Many children in Ukraine, including among the fallen, have never lived in peace. We lived in a different time. We understand what it’s like to live without sirens, shelling, and

Interesting interview with MIT professor Priya Donti about ways that AI can be used to address climate change and to smooth the transition to a renewable economy. Forget the hype, she's clear-eyed about #AI and #Climate. @latitudemedia.bsky.social www.latitudemedia.com/news/open-ci...

I adapted. I did. Air raid alert. Drone threat in Kyiv. I’m having a warcoffee and choosing a book of the week. It’s a beautiful bookstore that opened recently.

Chip in a few bucks toward our global media hegemony. Become a member, get the paper. https://membership.theonion.com/?campaign=701a500001bfeenAAA

Read it and really found it quite beautifully written. Helped me understand all your earlier work as well, of which I am a huge fan. I admire your courage in telling the story. @straczynski.bsky.social

Thread 🧵

I wrote angry today. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-op-eds...

Well said @judah-grunstein.bsky.social

Top of the US charts today in 1979: Herb Alpert’s “Rise” — famously recorded in one take. Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental. As Miles Davis said: “You hear three notes and you know it’s Herb Alpert.”

Before everyone gets too excited by AI becoming self-aware let's just bear in mind that my Google spellcheck still has no idea which word I am trying to type here

This is Inna Maryukhna and her 1-year-old daughter, Anhelina. ​Russia killed them on October 19 when a drone struck a local park in Nova Vodolaha where families were resting. Inna was a primary school teacher at Nova Vodolaha Lyceum No. 1. The lyceum shared the news on their FB

Teaching my toddler before bedtime where her home, Ukraine, is on the map minutes after packing a fresh emergency bag because we will get bombed tonight. Our lives are absurd.

the washington post editorial board concedes that tesla's "flying" roadster is "a vanity project with little practical value," but then goes on to say it could be the next laser or mri no, seriously, this is the dumbest fucking editorial I have ever read archive.ph/Exllz

Here's a link to Carol's bio on her website. She writes her novel from a position of expert knowledge as a physician; it's a compelling depiction of the struggles families go through dealing with Huntington's Disease, even when genetic testing is available. #BookSky carolefron.com/author/