Tom Radcliffe
@tjradcliffe.bsky.social
1.2K followers 260 following 4.9K posts
Physicist, Breakthrough Prize Laureate (SNO), poet, engineer, writer, actor, sailor, canoeist, kayaker, boat-builder, businessman, philosopher (Bayesian), executive, entrepreneur (unsuccessful), consulting scientist, inventor, husband, father, grandfather.
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tjradcliffe.bsky.social
My latest book, a sword-cell-phone novel-in-verse that riffs on "Romeo and Juliet", but Romeo's friends aren't all idiots. Nobody dies, lots of people end up in bed. "A fabulous modern take on Romeo and Juliet set in a gritty urban backdrop"-Emily Thompson, ReedsyDiscovery siduri.net/books/capule...
Capuleft and Montaright
A sword-and-cell-phone nove-in-verse!
siduri.net
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
moriartylab.bsky.social
Infections in Canada this week are expected to result in 4,500 hospitalizations, 780 deaths (people who die at least 1 year earlier than they would without COVID) and 25,000 new long COVID cases serious enough to limit daily life activities.
3 tables showing total expected hospitalizations since Dec 2/21 by province (error range -/+ 10%), total expected ICU admissions since Dec 2/21 by province (error range -/+ 10%), and total expected deaths since Dec 2/21 by province (error range -/+ 10%)

Tables available at: https://covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard-index
Page 19 (Reported deaths, ICU, hospitalizations by age)
Graph showing Estimated new daily infections resulting in daily life activity-limiting symptoms lasting >3 months, by province, since Dec 2021. (5 week rolling averages)

Graph available at: https://covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard-index
Page 13 (Long COVID)
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
originalsp.in
Korol is a US citizen. Her family hasn’t heard from her since she was taken, public charges haven’t been released—what crime did she even commit? 2nd-Degree Woodwinding?—and there has been no explanation for her “renditioning” across state lines.

We’ve moved into a new phase of Trump lawlessness.
originalsp.in
A musician, Oriana Korol, was peacefully playing clarinet with her protest band outside ICE facilities in Portland, OR.

When the band started playing “Ghostbusters,” ICE thugs suddenly poured outside, slammed her into the mud, arrested her and took her to a jail 9 miles away in Vancouver, WA.
Musician playing ‘Ghostbusters’ outside ICE facility is arrested by agents
‘Taking us citizens out of state to detain them without charge is a new action from the Feds and should be opposed,’ her band said
www.independent.co.uk
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
Leftism in a nutshell. Parties and ideologies are *nothing but* what they do. This is what the left does, so this is what the left is. Anything else is a claim that the law of causality doesn't operate in the magic leftist zone.
amorvincitomnia.bsky.social
Leftists not masking aren’t serious. It betrays there is no strategy towards liberation. It’s short sighted. Can’t do the hard work to resist. Can’t do mutual aid. It’s just vibes, aesthetics, and social capital positioning. Just a quest for power without a plan.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
"When you are sick"... tell me you are studiously ignoring asymptomatic but infectious cases (50%) without saying the words.

And the demand that *you do something trivially easy to protect others from a deadly, disabling pathogen* isn't unreasonable. It's the same as demanding you don't drive drunk
jamellebouie.net
yeah, i think a commitment to public health obligates you to get vaccinated and, when you are sick, do what you can to avoid spreading that to other people. the demand that one mask at all times in public spaces is, i think, unreasonable.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
You are wrong. The demand that you mask is the same as the demand that you not drive drunk. You are a coward and a conformist. When you say, "This is irrational" you mean "I am afraid of looking different even if it saves people's lives."
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
itsbabs.bsky.social
even the smartest folks whose takes i otherwise appreciate, who otherwise want to resist fascism themselves & encourage others to, find wearing a mask in, at least, public indoor spaces—to prevent the harms of this administration from impacting others—to be a bridge too far; it’s shameful, frankly.
jamellebouie.net
yeah, i think a commitment to public health obligates you to get vaccinated and, when you are sick, do what you can to avoid spreading that to other people. the demand that one mask at all times in public spaces is, i think, unreasonable.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
This is the shit that my parents--conservative Christians--fought their whole lives to prevent. Every child should be a wanted child. Every woman should be the final arbiter of her own health and well-being. That is what they believed & put into practice. They won, in Canada. We'll never accept this
broadwaybabyto.bsky.social
“Please someone listen to me, I don’t want to die”

These are the words of a woman named Harmonie who had an ectopic pregnancy

Her obgyn refused to help, citing a
1% chance the fetus could survive

She lives in a blue state & still couldn’t access the life saving care she needed
Illinois Woman Denied Treatment for Ectopic Pregnancy
10.14.25
open.substack.com
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
bookshopghost.bsky.social
No.

Our mask requirement is not "virtue signalling".

It's protecting a) the cancer patient and b) the child who is still too small to wear a mask.

And also--and I can't emphasize this strongly enough--you.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
This also works for Canadians.
discworldbot.bsky.social
"Today is a good day for someone else to die!" (Dwarfish battle-cry)

𝐹𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒞𝓁𝒶𝓎
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
Precisely. Living in fear is exactly what mask-refusers are doing: worldofwonders.substack.com/p/on-the-nat...
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
itsbabs.bsky.social
i love to imagine this logic applied to other mitigation tools—trembling at a seatbelt, cowering from a helmet, freezing at the sight of a condom—easy to reveal how laughable a take the idea of masking as an act of fear is.
baddestmamajama.bsky.social
I’m very very tired of “living in fear” being lobbed at maskwearers by people who frequently say they can’t wear one because no one else around them is.

Living in fear is ignoring science and endangering lives and your own health because you’re terrified of not fitting in.
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
amandawtwong.bsky.social
FYI for BC residents, if you want a COVID booster/flu shot, I was able to search in my emails for a previous "Book your next vaccine appointment" from a previous year and click on the link and it just let me schedule my covid vaccine.
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
beansproutsmom.bsky.social
Great tip! And do get your booster. COVID test positivity is high in BC... and trending up again.

#MaskUp indoors to reduce odds of getting infected, #GetBoosted to reduce acute severity and reduce odds of the myriad potential organ damage & #LongCOVID!
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
pennydaflos.bsky.social
This is a great tip! I found mine through my text messages and was able to book in moments
amandawtwong.bsky.social
FYI for BC residents, if you want a COVID booster/flu shot, I was able to search in my emails for a previous "Book your next vaccine appointment" from a previous year and click on the link and it just let me schedule my covid vaccine.
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
garethwatkins.bsky.social
Probably because their finance guys have explained that either AI succeeds or we're spending 2027 fighting other wasteland scavengers over the last can of beans in a burnt out mall.
dansheehan.bsky.social
For like 20 years, you weren't able to make a YouTube video featuring a popular song without getting hit with an orbital laser. I don't understand how every single one of these deeply litigious companies is okay with turning their copyrighted IP into sludge people can pay another company to make
sciam.bsky.social
Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
mrbartokomous.bsky.social
One of the best to ever do it. RIP.
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
jvipondmd.bsky.social
Need a good news story this Thanksgiving?

“In true Hollywood fashion,” says McKibben, “our liberation and our destruction are arriving at precisely the same time, offering us a remarkable choice. Our species, at what feels like a very dark moment, can take a giant leap into the light. Of the sun.”
Our friendly neighbourhood fireball
Solar and wind are growing so quickly that they outpaced all the growth in electricity demand this year. Which means they started eating into fossil fuelled power, leading to a modest but significant ...
www.nationalobserver.com
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
dcrinyyc.bsky.social
I have an idea!!! Maybe promote clean air & masking! Whatever, enjoy your sickness folks.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
I expect she'll blow around like a leaf. I had a 16' low-profile canoe that I used to take out on Lake Ontario & around the Thousand Islands that was just a dream in the wind, no problem at all. This boat is opposite. The Gulf Islands are *very* sheltered, though, so for local cruising she'll be OK.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
...which produced a much fatter, rounder boat. I did a couple of builds with an (now retired) expert about ten years ago and highly recommend that as a way of getting a good boat on your first try in a timely way (took a few days). This was my first solo build and took me a year in interstitial time
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
That's awesome! Anything that exists is better than anything that doesn't. I was actually inspired partly by coracles for this boat: when the ribs started to take on a life of their own and want the whole thing to be much wider and more open than the plan called for, I decided to let them take over,
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
"I respect your decision to drive sober. But by the same token you have to respect others who drive drunk."

Yeah, about that...
drinfosec.bsky.social
🎯 PSA clip by @laura_healing_arts on TikTok "I respect your decision to mask. You need to respect my decision not to mask..."
www.tiktok.com/@laura_heali...

H/t @fulllanefemme.bsky.social on Twitter

[45 second video]
Screenshot of one of the frames from the video. 
Text on screen (caption) reads: "comparison between wearing"
Top right corner of image has a screenshot of the post that this TikTok is responding to.
Reposted by Tom Radcliffe
thepinkhydra.com
#pretendpanel Time to talk about my long-standing obsession with a man who died in the 7th century BCE.

Archilochus was a Greek poet and (possibly) mercenary soldier whose work survives mostly in fragments.

You get such a glimpse of the world through these and how people have always been people.
Archilochus fragment 3, Davenport collection:

Let him go ahead.
Ares is a democrat.
There are no privileged people
On a battlefield. Archilochus fragment 15, Davenport collection:

Everything
People have
Comes from
Painstaking
Work. From Archilochus fragment 20, Davenport collection:

and on their breasts
Even old men
Desired them.
And, Glaukos my boy,
Their cunts
((but here the papyrus is torn)) Archilochus fragment 21, Davenport collection:

Kindly pass the cup down the deck
And keep it coming from the barrel,
Good red wine, and don't stir up the dregs,
And don't think why we shouldn't be,
More than any other, drunk on guard duty.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
And to be clear: I am assuming you WILL check the output... that's WHY I'm predicting you're going to spend more time than it saves. If you just took the results at face value you'd save tonnes of time, and the summaries would be full of subtle errors.
tjradcliffe.bsky.social
Thanks! I can (just) pick her up with one hand (albeit a hand I've been lifting weights with for a long time!) I'm using a canoe paddle. She's 47 inches wide, which is too much for a kayak paddle (at least any of mine). Gonna put in a (removable) seat and oarlocks next!