Kallastra
@kallastra.bsky.social
Former Sexy Murder Poet, Current Basically Pleasant Bureaucrat. (H/T Liam Bright).
Here to play academic and learn. Interests: philosophy, poetry, knitting, spinning, law, community, running when health permits
Here to play academic and learn. Interests: philosophy, poetry, knitting, spinning, law, community, running when health permits
Reposted by Kallastra
“No you see, this is different cause it’s Internet brainrot and not like when I was kid quoting American Pie sex jokes that I was too young to understand at every opportunity”
December 12, 2025 at 9:15 PM
“No you see, this is different cause it’s Internet brainrot and not like when I was kid quoting American Pie sex jokes that I was too young to understand at every opportunity”
Reposted by Kallastra
In March 2020, I predicted that mail-in voting would be the defining issue.
I spent 2022 warning about rightwing voter challenges.
In 2024, the GOP was preparing to block certification if Trump lost.
In 2026, it will be DOJ use of voter data to undermine state election administration.
I spent 2022 warning about rightwing voter challenges.
In 2024, the GOP was preparing to block certification if Trump lost.
In 2026, it will be DOJ use of voter data to undermine state election administration.
December 12, 2025 at 5:35 PM
In March 2020, I predicted that mail-in voting would be the defining issue.
I spent 2022 warning about rightwing voter challenges.
In 2024, the GOP was preparing to block certification if Trump lost.
In 2026, it will be DOJ use of voter data to undermine state election administration.
I spent 2022 warning about rightwing voter challenges.
In 2024, the GOP was preparing to block certification if Trump lost.
In 2026, it will be DOJ use of voter data to undermine state election administration.
Reposted by Kallastra
MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported?
NOEM: We haven't deported veterans
MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea
NOEM: We haven't deported veterans
MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea
December 11, 2025 at 4:22 PM
MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported?
NOEM: We haven't deported veterans
MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea
NOEM: We haven't deported veterans
MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea
Nobody needs to hear this but I bought a giant bag of navel oranges a couple weeks ago and just remembered all I need to do to make orange juice is squeeze dem oranges and anyways, very excited and grateful to have fresh squeezed oj today
December 11, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Nobody needs to hear this but I bought a giant bag of navel oranges a couple weeks ago and just remembered all I need to do to make orange juice is squeeze dem oranges and anyways, very excited and grateful to have fresh squeezed oj today
Reposted by Kallastra
“If it were really that bad you would be in hospital!”
People say this to disabled folks all the time
They don’t realize that if we went to the hospital for every flare, we would live there
They don’t realize how dangerous hospital settings can be
They don’t realize how little help is available
People say this to disabled folks all the time
They don’t realize that if we went to the hospital for every flare, we would live there
They don’t realize how dangerous hospital settings can be
They don’t realize how little help is available
December 10, 2025 at 5:15 AM
“If it were really that bad you would be in hospital!”
People say this to disabled folks all the time
They don’t realize that if we went to the hospital for every flare, we would live there
They don’t realize how dangerous hospital settings can be
They don’t realize how little help is available
People say this to disabled folks all the time
They don’t realize that if we went to the hospital for every flare, we would live there
They don’t realize how dangerous hospital settings can be
They don’t realize how little help is available
Reposted by Kallastra
So what we know is that giving people the space and freedom and time and resources to explore multiple areas of interest at the same time is linked to what we consider one of the major periods of advancement and development in European human history.
Folks are now arguing to reject that as a goal.
Folks are now arguing to reject that as a goal.
December 9, 2025 at 7:54 PM
So what we know is that giving people the space and freedom and time and resources to explore multiple areas of interest at the same time is linked to what we consider one of the major periods of advancement and development in European human history.
Folks are now arguing to reject that as a goal.
Folks are now arguing to reject that as a goal.
#langsky #linguistics #lexicographers
any y’all got help on this front? I also would love to read about this!
any y’all got help on this front? I also would love to read about this!
I would love to read a study of how our use of language has changed when we talk to customer service now because we know we are talking to a machine
December 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
#langsky #linguistics #lexicographers
any y’all got help on this front? I also would love to read about this!
any y’all got help on this front? I also would love to read about this!
Reposted by Kallastra
Yeah, it's good if you can produce your own appropriate levels of thyroid hormone, too, but if you can't, store-bought is fine.
Store-bought is fine, motherfucker.
Store-bought is fine, motherfucker.
RFK Jr: "All of the ingenuity of corporate America has not produced an infant formula that is superior in nutrition and all the qualities that we want to the infant formula that God made, which is the infant formula in a mother's breast."
December 9, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Yeah, it's good if you can produce your own appropriate levels of thyroid hormone, too, but if you can't, store-bought is fine.
Store-bought is fine, motherfucker.
Store-bought is fine, motherfucker.
and still: “Ridiculous the waste sad time /stretching before and after”
“Ridiculous the waste sad time stretching before and after” (TS Eliot, especially prominent when scrolling social media or playing stardew too long…)
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
and still: “Ridiculous the waste sad time /stretching before and after”
Handel’s Messiah: Name your favorite recording thereof, stat! (Hoping to hear from ppl like @musicologyduck.bsky.social, but I don’t wanna presume and I’ll take all
opinions!)
opinions!)
December 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Handel’s Messiah: Name your favorite recording thereof, stat! (Hoping to hear from ppl like @musicologyduck.bsky.social, but I don’t wanna presume and I’ll take all
opinions!)
opinions!)
Reposted by Kallastra
Hey folks 👋 I'm the reporter who revealed immigration agents detained 170+ citizens this year
My fellowship w/ProPublica has been incredible, but it wraps January. I'm looking for my next gig. Please reach out to share leads & opportunities! [email protected]
www.propublica.org/people/nicol...
My fellowship w/ProPublica has been incredible, but it wraps January. I'm looking for my next gig. Please reach out to share leads & opportunities! [email protected]
www.propublica.org/people/nicol...
Nicole Foy
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
www.propublica.org
December 8, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Hey folks 👋 I'm the reporter who revealed immigration agents detained 170+ citizens this year
My fellowship w/ProPublica has been incredible, but it wraps January. I'm looking for my next gig. Please reach out to share leads & opportunities! [email protected]
www.propublica.org/people/nicol...
My fellowship w/ProPublica has been incredible, but it wraps January. I'm looking for my next gig. Please reach out to share leads & opportunities! [email protected]
www.propublica.org/people/nicol...
“Ridiculous the waste sad time stretching before and after” (TS Eliot, especially prominent when scrolling social media or playing stardew too long…)
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 9, 2025 at 5:20 AM
“Ridiculous the waste sad time stretching before and after” (TS Eliot, especially prominent when scrolling social media or playing stardew too long…)
You will be visited by 3 spirits
December 9, 2025 at 5:05 AM
You will be visited by 3 spirits
The times I heard “those who can’t, teach” as an aspiring English teacher when in high school… innumerable.
sure, but the thing is that kids who are very good at the humanities get a ton of immediate feedback about how their skills will earn them nothing but starvation in a ditch
Source: I was once a very precocious humanities kid
Source: I was once a very precocious humanities kid
December 8, 2025 at 11:45 PM
The times I heard “those who can’t, teach” as an aspiring English teacher when in high school… innumerable.
“It’s a decidedly nonhuman, anti-human hue.”
Yes.
Yes.
sorry I'm late! I have at last broken my silence on Pantone's Color of the Year johnpaulbrammer.substack.com/p/cloud-danc...
'Cloud Dancer': A Measured Response
Regarding Pantone's decision, and so on, and so forth
johnpaulbrammer.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
“It’s a decidedly nonhuman, anti-human hue.”
Yes.
Yes.
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I’m quote replying with an attempt to build a new take on a phrase in the hopes of finding some dopamine likes
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm also doom replying to every post about US politics even though my bio says I live in a completely different country
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm hijacking someone’s post about their happy day to scream at them for not doom posting about US politics
December 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I’m quote replying with an attempt to build a new take on a phrase in the hopes of finding some dopamine likes
A question I have about alt text is for chart images.
Is it acceptable for alt texts to not just describe the charts but to include an interpretation of what I am supposed to understand from seeing the chart?
Is it acceptable for alt texts to not just describe the charts but to include an interpretation of what I am supposed to understand from seeing the chart?
December 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
A question I have about alt text is for chart images.
Is it acceptable for alt texts to not just describe the charts but to include an interpretation of what I am supposed to understand from seeing the chart?
Is it acceptable for alt texts to not just describe the charts but to include an interpretation of what I am supposed to understand from seeing the chart?
Reposted by Kallastra
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Reposted by Kallastra
I spend so much time verifying everything now from art to cited sources to photos to historical references to citations to quotes to legal and medical information that it's really hard to fathom how much work AI has collectively added to the world, not reduced
Here's the reality this example illustrates:
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
December 7, 2025 at 2:58 AM
I spend so much time verifying everything now from art to cited sources to photos to historical references to citations to quotes to legal and medical information that it's really hard to fathom how much work AI has collectively added to the world, not reduced
why is the song “unanswered prayers” stuck in my head upon waking? Feels ominous
December 7, 2025 at 11:45 AM
why is the song “unanswered prayers” stuck in my head upon waking? Feels ominous
Reposted by Kallastra
Is anyone aware of anyone appealing a plea deal or other guilty verdict entered under one of the improperly appointed US Attorneys? Literally asking for a friend. (Although not one directly affected.)
December 7, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Is anyone aware of anyone appealing a plea deal or other guilty verdict entered under one of the improperly appointed US Attorneys? Literally asking for a friend. (Although not one directly affected.)
Reposted by Kallastra
Hot take: metaphors are where the actual heavy conceptual lifting takes place in most theories, models, ideas, and arguments. Treating them as aesthetic literary devices makes people less capable as readers.
December 6, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Hot take: metaphors are where the actual heavy conceptual lifting takes place in most theories, models, ideas, and arguments. Treating them as aesthetic literary devices makes people less capable as readers.
Reposted by Kallastra
they should have a separate color of the year for people who haven’t lost the will to live
December 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
they should have a separate color of the year for people who haven’t lost the will to live
Reposted by Kallastra
So here's the Good news/Bad news depending on how racist you are:
White people are already extinct. It already happened, hundreds of years ago.🤷🏿♂️
bsky.app/profile/mekk...
Your great-great-great grand pappy was getting busy before racism was invented. Now none of y'all score 100% on your 23 and me.
White people are already extinct. It already happened, hundreds of years ago.🤷🏿♂️
bsky.app/profile/mekk...
Your great-great-great grand pappy was getting busy before racism was invented. Now none of y'all score 100% on your 23 and me.
Elon Musk has tweeted nonstop about white babies, white genocide, population decline, and fertility rates for the past week.
This is what it's all about, folks. The supervillain plot is tweeted in real time.
White supremacy. Fear. Anxiety. Hatred. A loathing of diversity.
This is what it's all about, folks. The supervillain plot is tweeted in real time.
White supremacy. Fear. Anxiety. Hatred. A loathing of diversity.
December 6, 2025 at 2:28 AM
So here's the Good news/Bad news depending on how racist you are:
White people are already extinct. It already happened, hundreds of years ago.🤷🏿♂️
bsky.app/profile/mekk...
Your great-great-great grand pappy was getting busy before racism was invented. Now none of y'all score 100% on your 23 and me.
White people are already extinct. It already happened, hundreds of years ago.🤷🏿♂️
bsky.app/profile/mekk...
Your great-great-great grand pappy was getting busy before racism was invented. Now none of y'all score 100% on your 23 and me.
Reposted by Kallastra
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing people that "politics" is somehow unrelated to the real world and people's real lives.
December 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing people that "politics" is somehow unrelated to the real world and people's real lives.