Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Derek Fox

@partialobserver.bsky.social

5.4K followers 7.6K following 3.8K posts

Penn State Astronomer (he/him), personal account. “We went and made everything a computer without ever bothering to fix computers.”

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · Jan 28

Thinking about how we are living the devolution of John Adams’ pronouncement: Where we had thought ourselves at liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, we find ourselves instead obliged to study politics and war.

5 18 68

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 3h

There’s a certain sort of would-be intellectual who gets very confused with works with an overt meaning that is contradicted by a deeper meaning. “What do you mean Rorschach isn’t the hero?” Hmm… maybe read it again?

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 3h

EXACTLY! Total double face-palm territory.

1 2

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 4h

Because, for utilitarianism to function as a moral philosophy, you must be able to tot up the sums of utility for all beings, for all time, to determine the best choice. And if nothing ever ends, this is not possible.

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 4h

Dr Manhattan’s last line to Veidt in the comics is “Nothing ever ends.”

Which works on at least 3 levels. First, as reply to Veidt’s question of whether his master plot will work out “in the end.” Second, as a reflection of Dr Manhattan’s ennui. Third, as the negation of Veidt’s utilitarianism…

2 2 14

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 4h

Embarrassing to be this obsessed with Watchmen and misremember the all-important Dr Manhattan quote.

His response to Ozymandias / Veidt is not “nothing lasts forever” which, banal! and also - would you really say that to the guy who named himself Ozymandias???

No…

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 10h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

2 5 15

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 19h

This has been a big local story for us. Years of effort on the case (prosecutors withheld evidence), winning a retrial, which was then abandoned by the state. And ICE waiting to imprison him immediately on his release.

Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 20h

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

40 130

Reposted by Derek Fox

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Republicans feel empowered by their leader's autocratic coup against the Constitution to pursue their most cartoonishly evil agenda items, like literally making it easier to kill seals and whales

abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

Republicans try to weaken 50-year-old law protecting whales, seals and polar bears

One of the U.S.’s longest standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction, is the subject of an effort for cutbacks from Republican lawmakers who now feel they have the political will to do so

49 450 1.5K

Reposted by Derek Fox

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

Note: it's not even curfew yet.

State police just started pushing people off the business park corner. Here in the road, a brave group of demonstrators are attempting to hold their line.

4 130 570

Reposted by Derek Fox

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 23h

A 15 year old boy with autism went missing earlier this week

He was selling fruit with his family in Springbranch when he disappeared

They filed a missing person’s report & begged the public to help find him

Turns out he was in a Houston ICE detention facility

They kidnapped a disabled child!

230 2.9K 5.1K

Reposted by Derek Fox

digby @digby56.bsky.social · 1d

We are seeing dozens of these videos every day. It's happening all over the ocuntry. I know many people are outraged but it's just continuing unabated.

This feeling of impotence is devastating. How does it end? With the country emptied of brown people and dissidents in jail?

Laguna Beach Democratic Club @lagunabeachdems.bsky.social · 1d

Northwest Chicago Suburb: ICE Agents Rip 15-Year-Old Girl from Car, Slam Her to Ground She Screams “I’m 15!” as Man Kneels on Her Neck

35 290 510

Reposted by Derek Fox

Emily J. Edwards (but witchy) @msemilyedwards.bsky.social · 1d

three predominantly black towns’ homecoming festivities were shot up, on the same night, in the era of trump and the authorities are going to hold to the idea that the shootings weren’t related

Mississippi Free Press @mississippifreepress.org · 1d

Six people are confirmed dead and at least 12 others injured in three separate shootings in Mississippi on the night of Friday, Oct. 10.

Six Dead, At Least 12 Injured in Three Mississippi Shootings

Six people are confirmed dead and at least 12 others injured in three separate shootings in Mississippi on the night of Friday, Oct. 10.

buff.ly

9 27

Reposted by Derek Fox

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

This week, MAGA figures claimed Kristi Noem "stared down" violent antifa protesters in Portland. Turns out they were talking mostly about a guy in a chicken suit.

This episode opens a window into how MAGA propaganda works and MSM failure to handle it. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit

A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

newrepublic.com

270 1.4K 4.4K

Reposted by Derek Fox

Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 1d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

260 2.6K 5.4K

Reposted by Derek Fox

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

"How does one boycott and strike in a country where the government *wants* the economy to collapse? That is the question folks need to answer."

Yup, this. More required reading from @sarahkendzior.bsky.social:

PanoptiCon Artists: Your Questions Answered

On digital surveillance, ICE city raids, the need for new parties, and more.

sarahkendzior.substack.com

1 19 61

Reposted by Derek Fox

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 1d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

120 1.9K 5.1K

Reposted by Derek Fox

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

860 8.5K 15K

Reposted by Derek Fox

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 2d

Democrats has a trifecta in 2021 and did not do any of these things. Maybe Dems should be taking notes on power politics here.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... "

31 150 730

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

-1% today? Oh I think there’s still room to drop

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

What if you were the CEO of the car company and you directed all the shitty things, would the Board fire you or grant you $1 trillion in stock options?

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

I just love the image of Bari collecting all the memos in a big stack, taking them home to read, and not returning for a month.

Reposted by Derek Fox

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2d

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

53 860 2.6K

Reposted by Derek Fox

David Fenton @dfenton.bsky.social · 2d

Charlie Kirk’s climate denial was bought and paid for.

Charlie Kirk was a fossil fuel industry plant

Big Oil's money gave Kirk a larger platform to spread baseless climate conspiracy theories—as well as other extremist views.

heated.world

6 10

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

For those who haven’t heard the news about Lowell Observatory, a storied institution in financial straits, restructuring and eliminating tenure - 🔭 🧪

Dr. Gerard van Belle @fringedoctor.bsky.social · 2d

Brief life update: On Monday I resigned from my appointment at Lowell Observatory. I wish my remaining friends and colleagues the best of luckin their endeavors in increasing new visitor center visitation, and continuing to pursue world-class research in the face of having ended tenure today.

10 23

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

Oh that’s good

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

You’re a freaking prophet Stephen