Ben Hanowell

Ben Hanowell

@hanowell.me

Writing a hybrid memoir + narrative science nonfiction book about the statistical paradox of competing risks and how it applies to my near-death. Posts are my own thoughts. This is a personal account. MEDIO·TUTISSIMUS·IBIS CUSTOS·VIAE·MEDIAE

504 followers563 following3.3K posts

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

HOW ARE NEARLY ALL LEADERS AT THIS POINT NOT OPENLY CONDEMNING THIS ADMINISTRATION?! THEY ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY POPULAR AND THEY ARE A LAME DUCK ANYWAY. WHAT ARE YOU SISSIES AFRAID OF?

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Want an economic indicator for "city to live in if you don't want to be part of the rat race, but also want to live in a good city."

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

My kid is weird, devious, and will cut you if you mess with her. God I love her.

Matt Darling@besttrousers.bsky.social

Half the responses to this are people saying "my kid is smart, funny and kind" as if most parents would not say the exact same thing about their kid.

Ben Hanowell reposted

Greg Sargent
@gregsargent.bsky.social

NEWS --> Dems are planning novel ways to wield power of the purse against Trump's corrupt prosecutions of critics like Ilhan Omar if they win House. Reps Pramila Jayapal and Jamie Raskin tell me a range of aggressive tactics will be deployed. Details in my new piece: newrepublic.com/article/2171...

newrepublic.comTrump’s Vile Prosecution of Ilhan Omar Is About to Run Into a WallIf they retake the House, Democrats will have plenty of ways to act against Trump’s corrupt prosecutions. Pramila Jayapal and Jamie Raskin say they’re going to use them.

Ben Hanowell reposted

Matt Wallaert
@mattwallaert.com

There are a staggering number of issues on which the majority of Americans agree. Democrats should just start going down the list.

David Brauer@dbrauer.net

Lula won in part by banning online gambling

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

In the progressive backlash against the fascist backlash against the previous progressive backlash, let’s try to do one thing differently:

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Let’s focus on getting stuff done instead of performatively competing for who has the most progressive worldview.

Ben Hanowell reposted

John Woodrow Cox
@johnwoodrowcox.bsky.social

EXCLUSIVE: Trump DOJ’s has repeatedly insisted it will not tell immigration judges how to rule, as required by law. But after a demand from unidentified “higher-ups,” a veteran judge was ordered to reverse four rulings—then yanked from court mid-hearing. wapo.st/4BuABEM

wapo.stTrump’s DOJ told a judge how to rule. Then it pulled her from court.Karen Donoso Stevens offers a rare firsthand look at the administration’s campaign to rewrite the rules of the immigration court system.
Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

This police officer has done his town a whole lot of wrong and should face consequences for it.

Taniel@taniel.bsky.social

Startling stat — a police officer in a small Texas town handed arrested and handed over immigrants to ICE at such volume that the total number is the equivalent of 10% of his town's population. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/m...

nytimes.comHe Helped Deport 200 People. Now He Has Misgivings.A deputy in small-town Texas became the local face of ICE’s national crackdown.
Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

This has got to be a deepfake, how can a mother &&$@er be this stupid while smiling as he agrees with ludicrous lampooning of his own tired and uninspired beliefs?

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

A helpfully clear exchange here Hasan: "So your argument is that [Minnesota ICE protesters] should stay at home because immigration is a salient issue for Donald Trump. Opposing ICE is only going to help Trump. Wait until we win the election in 2028." Yglesias: "Yes that is what I would have said"

Ben Hanowell reposted

Eric Lipton NYT
@ericlipton.nytimes.com

JUST POSTED: Today at The NYT we are publishing a major investigation into how President Trump used his executive powers to expose millions of Americans to greater cancer risks. A six month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records. Read it www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

nytimes.comHow Trump Gave the Worst Polluters a Free Pass (Gift Article)The president temporarily waived clean-air rules for industrial facilities that spew cancer-causing gases. Then his appointees worked to gut the regulations altogether.

Ben Hanowell reposted

Joan Meiners, PhD
@joanmeiners.bsky.social

This is taxpayer-funded research data and info that belongs to the public and is not this administration’s to erase.

Mother Jones@motherjones.com

In a little-noticed webpage update, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan to decommission its online web archive at the end of the year, a move that would wipe tens of thousands of publicly available environmental resources from the web.

motherjones.comThe EPA is quietly killing its web archiveTens of thousands of documents on contamination, clean power, and Trump's climate deletions are now scheduled to disappear.
Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

What pisses me off is the view that the only thing that can be produced in collaboration with tools like Claude is “slop.” I’ve put hundreds of hours or mire into a project I’ve been working on, and no it’s not because AI is ironically inefficient, it’s cuz I’ve worked my ass off on it.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

lol wtf

VoteHub@votehub.com

NEWS — The Trump administration sued Alaska over Dan J. Sullivan’s Senate candidacy, arguing voter confusion could affect the race between Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, per Courthouse News.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Would be super cool to see sane views about AI, rather than the extreme views on both extreme poles, to gain ascendance. In the end, they will, but for now, it's super annoying to deal with this every day. I am exhausted by extreme views. Feel like the SW: A New Hope part in the trash compactor.

View full thread
Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Do you not know that Pangram scores are based on a completely bogus measurement target, and using the same methods that you excoriated just four short years ago...

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

I could gripe for fourteen years about this, which is telling me I desperately and immediately need to go touch grass. The problem is, increasingly, these stupid extreme views encroach into meatspace conversion, so I want to gouge out my god damned eyeballs.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Would be super cool to see sane views about AI, rather than the extreme views on both extreme poles, to gain ascendance. In the end, they will, but for now, it's super annoying to deal with this every day. I am exhausted by extreme views. Feel like the SW: A New Hope part in the trash compactor.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

And much of the scholarly research on this topic is CLEARLY feeding off of the polarized controversy. It's so utterly exhausting and dismaying.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

The irony is also no longer funny. For example, we've got people who four years ago were complaining about how ML algorithms that predict binary outcomes are total BS now posting screenshots of Pangram scores of content by people they don't like. IT IS STUPID. THIS IS ALL STUPID.

Ben Hanowell reposted

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com

🚨🚨🚨 Q: Is there any scenario in which DOJ would try to block states from certifying the election? AG TODD BLANCHE: Yes, of course. It is not DOJ's intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process, but ...

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

This but WA politics

Robert (Bob) Kubinec@rmkubinec.bsky.social

I have to say, the underwhelming thing about Texan politics is that everyone complains about how high their property taxes are while refusing to consider an income tax. Both Dems and Republicans have the same message. There are some basic math issues at stake here... 🤷

Ben Hanowell reposted

Alex Spahn 🌋🌪️☄️
@spahn711.bsky.social

While standing along the Rio Grande, I was able to record a liquefaction demo! By simply tapping the sand, it progressively became more liquid-like. Liquefaction occurs when loose, water-saturated sand/soil loses its strength/stiffness during vibrations, causing it to behave like a liquid.

Ben Hanowell reposted

mtsw
@mtsw.bsky.social

The Plot to Enslave America

Taniel@taniel.bsky.social

Crypto industry alone is now up to an insane $55 million spent trying to defeat Sherrod Brown. www.politico.com/live-updates...

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

It’s super cute how excited the Acquired podcast guys get about episode crossovers because duh the companies they tend to cover end up now being the companies that own everything.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

“I cannot believe you have to ask an LLM like every question.” Literally the same person getting directions to something located at one of the most obvious intersections in the entire city: “okay google get me directions to…” THIS IS THE DUMBEST &@$!

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Economists hate him!

Brendan Nyhan@brendannyhan.bsky.social

Friends: We have to stop running experiments where the outcome is a difference score. It is strictly worse in terms of statistical power. declaredesign.org/blog/posts/u... Control for the pre-treatment outcome instead! (example)

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

I wasn’t gonna run up the steps to the Philly Art Museum cuz I thought it was cheesy. Then this dude next to me is like “I’ll race you!” And something in me said, “run up the steps with this dude.”

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

Turns out he was doing dry run for a run up the steps for his first year anniversary after a double lung transplant. Glad I didn’t think it would be too cheesy. GO GET EM RICK!!!

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

The world we live in is so dumb

Robin Blythe@rbly.bsky.social

Smoking-gun evidence of socioeconomic factors affecting dental general anaesthesia rates at an industrial level, and am onto my 8th desk reject because the methods are 'too simple' (comparing two logistic models + g-computation). How do I sex this thing up? Do I call it AI? Causal?

Ben Hanowell reposted

Rachel Maddow
@maddow.bsky.social

"In Arizona, a Trump Administration immigration judge ordered a 1-year-old baby appearing without a lawyer to file an asylum application, according to court filings..." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/15/u...

nytimes.com7 Years Old, No Lawyer: Migrant Children Face Deportation Hearings AloneFor years, the government has helped secure lawyers for minors who arrive at the southern border. But a contract dispute has forced many children to face immigration judges on their own.
Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

I’m gonna go see this movie three times now if this is true.

Alex Steed@alexsteed.bsky.social

So many fewer people would have gone out of their way to see this movie had there not been a multi-pronged effort by oligarchs to shut it down.

Ben Hanowell
@hanowell.me

lol

The A.V. Club@avclub.com

Bleecker Street, the film distributor overseeing the theatrical release of Alex Gibney's documentary Musk, was informed on Friday that the film's TikTok account was subject to "permanent suspension." tinyurl.com/4yd9997x