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Sophia Florence

@sophiaflorence.bsky.social

3.2K followers 6.2K following 5.7K posts

ChemEng/data/applied math (pharma formulations + disinformation), writer/comedian (stand-up and horror films), health/science/tech policy consultant, copywriter, host of the Crumbling Podcast (about disinformation histories), Connecticut enthusiast.

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · Apr 25

The Crumbling updates:
1. New tiers on Patreon with shirts and stickers www.patreon.com/thecrumblingpodcast
2. We'll be revealing our new co-host soon
3. We've got two episodes on the NCAA coming out, two more interviews, then a long series on libertarianism, and then one on Ed and Lorraine Warren

Get more from The Crumbling on Patreon

Podcast

www.patreon.com

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 4h

Is there a way to see if I ended up on this stupid list without going on the bad site?

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10h

MacCALLUM: Margaret Thatcher said socialism is great until you run out of other people's money

MAMDANI: Well, what Andrew Cuomo said is that if you have $957m you give it to Elon Musk in tax credits

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☠️deadward niedermurder☠️ @niedermeyer.online · 2d

I grow nostalgic for a time when Elon Musk made some effort to make his fraud deniable

Montana Skeptic @montanaskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

It's all one enterprise. Musk, Inc. As Tesla shareholders will discover as soon as Elon can get his hands on Tesla's cash to shovel into the xAI cash incinerator.

electrek.co/2025/10/13/e...

Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are buying Tesla's unsold Cybertrucks

Hundreds of Tesla Cybertrucks have been spotted being delivered Elon Musk’s private companies, SpaceX and xAI, as Tesla is having...

electrek.co

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 5h

Feels quaint, almost cliché, to say this about a Trump action, but just for the record:

This is all illegal, the President can't simply disregard the laws passed and agencies created by Congress, and both Vought & Trump would be impeached if the Constitution or the rule of law mattered to the GOP.

Reuters @reuters.com · 11h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 8h

Doesn't generate a whole lot of value.

Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 8h

Basically every part of the infrastructure of the society that they were in, even if they had succeeded in what they were looking for. The energy consumption for large language models on the other hand, does threaten the power grid, access to clean water, and so much more. And for a product that

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 8h

Sure was, but I think in so far as the energy costs of large language models are high enough to cause legitimate problems in other sectors of life, they don't necessarily meet the same threshold as something as silly as a search for immortality, which did not run the risk of overturning

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 9h

My old employer had to deal with them and wanted me to go there to finish my graduate degree, and I'm sincerely glad I didn't. Did not expect coming out to a small Jesuit university to be the better choice in the long term, but here we are.

Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 9h

So far, large language models have not crossed the threshold of being anywhere near as useful as the cost of implementing them. I used to develop both supervised and unsupervised learning models, So I'm aware of the good use cases, but large language models are not there. Not even close.

Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 9h

Like I'm not sitting here longing for the good old days, because I don't think there are good old days, but I do think that a model or an automation system is only as good as the amount of money or resources you save through its implementation, or for safety improvements.

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 9h

I mean I think you can see a particular technology for one of its implementations as harmful without wanting to regress society as a whole.

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 9h

Curious if they'll still adhere to the previous agreement. It's been weird to think that I can't visit Brown this whole time, especially being in New England, but I wouldn't exactly be going to visit my friends that work there while the anti-trans policies are in place.

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 10h

Brown is out! They had to do more dancing in their letter because they previously capitulated and needed to reference their previous agreement but, at its core, this reiterates MIT's letter.

The clock is now on for all other institutions.

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

www.brown.edu

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 9h

I'm not sure what you're saying here. People who dislike the overuse of AI are becoming Republicans?

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GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 11h

they arrested her because some clumsy fucking ICE potato ran into her and they are holding her in clark county because the sheriff there is an ICE collaborator and i expect this goes very badly for them in court

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 1d

Oriana Korol, a 38-year-old child and family therapist, remains in Clark County Jail.

Federal agents barrel into band at Portland ICE protest, arrest clarinetist, accuse her of assault

Oriana Korol, a 38-year-old child and family therapist, remains in Clark County Jail.

www.oregonlive.com

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 9h

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams

The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

www.thewrap.com

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full slack @fullslack.bsky.social · 9h

Trump: all my advisors are nazis lol trust me, they’re sick in the fucking head

Schumer: i beg you Mr. President, come to your senses

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 9h

Trump: I want to thank Stephen Miller I would love to have him come up and explain his true feelings. Maybe not his truest feelings. That might be going a little too far

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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 13h

NEW: We obtained recordings from a crisis pregnancy center conference where anti-abortion law firms like Alliance Defending Freedom admit that CPCs are free to make referrals for abortion pill "reversal" at the same time they claim they’re being censored.
An @autonomynews.co @motherjones.com collab:

Abortion Pill “Reversal” Is a Hoax. It's Also a Powerful Right-Wing Legal Strategy.

Speakers at a crisis pregnancy center conference made rare admissions about the challenges of providing so-called abortion “reversal,” and indicate its importance as a litigation tool.

www.autonomynews.co

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 13h

Listen, I'm not saying that a simple gauge for sentiment like Google searches represents something happening entirely, but I'm saying that when you have a massive growth in people wondering if a bubble is going to burst, you might find that they start pulling out of that market shortly after.

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season of the apple cider witch 🍎🎃 @applecider.bsky.social · 13h

YES

Aftermath @aftermath.site · 13h

Battle.net workers unionize as Microsoft neutrality agreement expires
aftermath.site/battle-net-wor...

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

Fox is now openly celebrating Trump's unconstitutional seizure of power from Congress. There is literally nothing the guy could do that they wouldn't cheerlead. The network is completely captured by MAGA.

chyron: "FOX HOLDS FEDERAL PURSE STRINGS"

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 16h

I love you guys a lot, like you're one of my favorite new outlets, but I am begging you to let someone actually do voice recording for your audio versions of your articles. The AI transcription on this is so bad that it pronounced Gazans to rhyme with lozenge.

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Zeteo @zeteo.com · 16h

Here's the Truth About Trump's 'Peace Plan' for Gaza

The US allowed Netanyahu to create four key loopholes in the deal to ensure Israel can continue its Gaza genocide – regardless of the 'ceasefire' agreement, writes @muhammadshehada.bsky.social:

zeteo.com/p/truth-abou...

Here's the Truth About Trump's 'Peace Plan' for Gaza

The US allowed Netanyahu to create four key loopholes in the deal to ensure Israel can continue its Gaza genocide – regardless of the 'ceasefire' agreement.

zeteo.com

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 16h

IDF is still shooting people in Gaza

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 17h

I feel thrown by the widespread proclamations of a glorious, lasting peace in Gaza. A lot even treats “now that it’s all over” as the unquestioned premise.

It still looks like a disaster to me. Am I way off? Are my domestic politics distorting my view? Either the consensus is wrong or I am.

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Sophia Florence @sophiaflorence.bsky.social · 16h

I think it's very clear that you're right. Like the idea that Palestine is going to be governed by a bunch of technocrats that other countries pick seems like it's just morphing into a slightly different kind of colonialism. And that's at best.