Richard Barnes

Elon Musk has spent more money on American elections in the last two years than George Soros has in his entire life.

If you don't want to "debate trans issues," then don't. Say "girls deserve to play sports with their friends without creeps trying to look in their pants. We protect women and girls by making sure they have equal pay, equal rights, and health care." This isn't hard unless you're a coward.

I live in a rural town and, like, I don't know how to tell you this, but the girls play on the boys team and vice versa all the time because otherwise we don't have enough players for a game and it's literally always fine so stop being weirdos about kids sports and just let trans kids play.

Brazil’s results tonight are a big endorsement for the idea that every country should have a second “are you you sure about that” election a couple weeks after the first one for the important stuff

a green new deal president and they redecorate the white house like rainforest cafe

Kansas Dem Sen. nominee Adam Hamilton on trans rights: “I don’t think we should take a small group of people and bully them, pick on them, and hurt them. I understand one thing really clearly when it comes to transgender people, and that is Jesus told me I was to love my neighbor as I love myself”

Why does this matter? It's informative about what our strategy should be. Democrats only started going hard in on gay rights and trans rights when it became apparent to them they'd lose votes for NOT doing so more than they'd gain votes for being bigoted. This suggests we should bully them more.

let’s make GORP happen

I cannot stress enough that we’re going to need to shut down Meta www.commondreams.org/news/meta-al...

Bumper sticker reading “MY OTHER MAP IS THE TERRITORY”

Just hear me out

By every measure, Opus 4.8 beats human experts as peer reviewers in a study of 124 Harvard social science papers covering a range from statistical analyses to formal models to qualitative work. As academics, we need to figure out how to adapt the practice of science to AI, and we need to do it fast

Man, Hegseth's Department of War is even more buffoonish than everything else. Kinda amazed how the US military didn't just have some basic war plans they could activate. Their lack of preparedness is astonishing. meidasnews.com/news/so-much...

while you port and emulate games, I ported Jira to my PSP

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

Many called Jared Kushner corrupt Many noted he took bribes from Middle Eastern autocrats, especially Saudi Arabia, skewing US foreign policy And they were right But as this reveals, he's even more corrupt and took even more money from Middle Eastern autocrats that many, even strong critics, knew

The IDF detained numerous American citizens, including @bradlander.bsky.social, in the West Bank, simply for participating in the olive harvest. All while turning a blind eye to settler violence against Palestinians there. Pass the Stop The Settlements Act now.

Huge follow-up reporting to my scoop: The Guardian confirmed America Next—the conservative nonprofit founded by Bobby Jindal that was offering students $ to disrupt El-Sayed events—paid a firm registered to Tommy Teepell’s dad Timmy $250k for “canvassing and influencer marketing” against El-Sayed.

truly a wild time to be alive when the cryptography world is split between those worried about quantum computers and those whose private key is “4”

eMudhra showing up in a weird way for Global Encryption Day (tomorrow). Happy 6th Global Encryption Day!!! I'm speaking: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... and ISOC/CDT/GPD/i2C have a superb lineup: events.zoom.us/ev/AjOBsny-3...

UNITED CEO Scott Kirby: “.. Wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, .. We should have a national wealth tax ..” @nytimes.com $UAL www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/b...

Whether or not ppl cutting off their parents is an actual phenomenon (is it, really?) or just clicky outrage bait, anti-estrangement is a paternalistic, socially regressive position — it’s so similar to being anti-divorce that the two are virtually indistinguishable.

The leader of the Republican Party supports murderous anti-American war criminal Vladimir Putin. Will Republican candidates be repeatedly asked if they denounce Putin? The Republican Party's biggest donor also boosts a German Neo-Nazi party. Will Republican candidates be asked if they denounce AfD?

Again, the scandalous thing about Elon Musk spending $276 million on the 2026 midterms is NOT how *much* money it is. The scandal is how *little* money this is *to him.* Compared to his net worth, this is roughly equal to the median American my age spending $40.

SCOOP: 'Tommy' from the now-viral exchange with Abdul El-Sayed is Thomas Teepell, a former staffer for Republican Senator Josh Hawley with close ties to Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht. He's the son of a former Bobby Jindal staffer whose consultant work was instrumental in getting Hawley elected.

❗❗❗Mark Zuckerberg's meta just suspended the No Kings Instagram account. I just rushed back from my local No Kings to jump on this. Bottom line, would be helpful for all pro-No Kings folks to elevate the issue and help us get the word out about No Kings today. The Nerd Reich strikes again.

it is time

Anthropic found the origin of the NIST elliptic curve seeds: they were generated with drand48()! No one was seriously worried, but this should put some FUD to rest, completing the NIST ECC rehabilitation arc… just in time to be retired in favor of PQ. Also, we raised $36 Ki for ISRG. Yay!

There's new hope for reversing widespread coral decline go.nature.com/4zwy3nF

No more leap seconds, ever! There isn’t one in December and they will be abolished in May. The last one will forever be the 2016(?!) one. Didn’t realize having experienced leap seconds in prod dates me. I’m not going to miss time going backwards, I’ll be honest. www.bipm.org/en/cgpm-2026...

the big chatbots hide all of this from you INTENTIONALLY to create an illusion to fool you and that’s why i think consumer-facing chatbots should be illegal it is a DELIBERATE trick. they carefully crafted it to trick people. it’s not “how llms work.“ the secret nature of it is a choice

llms only “exist” to give one reply at a turn you: x llm: y then the whole process starts over. there is no continuity. each reply is 100% fresh. the context of your previous “conversation” is included, hidden from you, in every request you make. continuity is an illusion

One must ask which is more likely: that we have developed genuine, self-aware machine intelligence, or that a piece of text generation software that's been hand-tuned for thousands of hours to portray an intelligent conversationalist is affectively effective on a large number of people?

Crazy idea: Democrats should defend immigration and immigrants, run on the idea that immigrants make America great, and stop Homer Simpsoning themselves into the shrubbery every time Republicans try to demagogue it.

Air to Ground Message: HI THERE. PAX DRANK BAR DRY. CC ASK IF NEXT CREW COULD HAVE NEW CATERING PLEASE. BRGRDS... Area: Falaise, France Type: Airbus A321neo A: #a9bcf2f3f05 F: #fa4498041ad

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The next Democratic administration must nationalize SpaceX and Starlink since Musk poses a national security risk to the U.S.

Remember this when pundits and politicians tell us it would be a "weaponization of law enforcement" to hold Trump officials accountable for their crimes. *This* is what actual weaponization looks like.

"the Trump administration proposed additional 25 percent tariffs on trumpets, tubas and other brass instruments, citing 'national security threats'” 🎁link www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/b...