Walter Hickey
@walthickey.bsky.social
2.3K followers 570 following 550 posts
Executive Editor @sherwood.news, book whatyou.watch, writer numlock.com. Previously FiveThirtyEight and Business Insider. Pulitzer Prize winner.
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walthickey.bsky.social
I mean, truthfully I think that mic discipline was a larger issue in this particular panel lol than the folks next door.
walthickey.bsky.social
frankly it's way funnier this way.
walthickey.bsky.social
NYCC is a miracle. Was just at a panel where martin scorsese was occasionally drowned out by the rapturous cheers from a packed panel on demon smut next door.
walthickey.bsky.social
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
The Thiel Foundation
$48,000-$56,000

The primary duties of this role will be to watch the entirety of One Piece, and write occasional memos on plot developments to head of comms. Position is in-office, duties INCLUDE filler arcs.

This is, to our surprise, a full-time position.
walthickey.bsky.social
the One Piece stuff is not like entirely wrong but no speech paragraph has ever been more obviously delegated to the intern than that one
walthickey.bsky.social
guys don't make me tap the "just because a villain is conventionally attractive doesn't make them an anti-hero" sign
sharonk.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Walter Hickey
samthielman.com
I like that Barnes & Noble is the last place you can just go buy a disc with a movie on it but I do think their strategy of pricing something at $50 and then pleasantly surprising you at the cash register with the information that they only want half that is probably not the best way to move product
Reposted by Walter Hickey
historyofwesteros.com
George is looking great in his vest and hat and clearly enjoying yapping about comics and other influences. #asoiaf #grrm #nycc
George RR Martin at New York Comic Con
walthickey.bsky.social
Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of
sharonk.bsky.social
here is the current tactical map of where feral swine populations have consolidated

the major worry is if the Canadian superhogs end up making their way down south and breeding with the American hogs
feral swing/hog map, USDA 2022
Reposted by Walter Hickey
donnermaps.bsky.social
Last night it said 100+ bought in the past month. Tonight, 200+. The legion grows.
screenshot of amazon page that says Inflatable Frog Costume for Adults - Blow up Halloween Costume. 200 plus bought in past month
walthickey.bsky.social
not loving the ratio of eagles fans to giants fans at metlife rn
Reposted by Walter Hickey
ljkawa.bsky.social
“I think fiber will be the next protein. Consumers are starting to understand that fiber is a benefit that they need.” -Pepsi CEO Ramon Laguarta
Reposted by Walter Hickey
katzish.bsky.social
I’m sorry, I love this
luxalptraum.com
TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it
One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.
walthickey.bsky.social
"what football team is desperate and poorly managed enough to hire him after his Carolina fiasc—" and then i looked in the mirror and i knew
walthickey.bsky.social
bill belichick is gonna coach the giants next year isn't he
Reposted by Walter Hickey
drewtoothpaste.bsky.social
"decentralized" means that you no longer have to rely on a large, complex system run by a few unreachable elites! instead, you get to rely on one guy who has to leave his computer on all day, and will never abuse his tiny amount of power
Reposted by Walter Hickey
thatoldbear.bsky.social
finally caught up with @thejenna.bsky.social 's video about the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto and it's kinda fascinating to see what gaps corporations create in their own history to create a vision of how they want to be seen www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0N6...
Nintendo's museum problem
YouTube video by Jenna Stoeber
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Walter Hickey
coreyspowell.bsky.social
Amazing: Comet ATLAS formed some 8 billion years ago. It made about 3 dozen circuits around our galaxy. It entered our our solar system & just passed 30 million kilometers from Mars...

...where ESA's ExoMars orbiter captured these images of the interstellar comet! 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
Reposted by Walter Hickey
craigtime.bsky.social
One that bothers me instinctively is that it would be entirely historically accurate if the characters in Dracula took a break to play Nintendo and drink Coca Cola. But they probably wouldn't do that
walthickey.bsky.social
this is only surprising if you cannot comprehend the difference between "pay Amazon $1.7 billion to open an office" and "build 15,000 housing units across 54 blocks of warehouses"
upshot.nytimes.com
Years ago, progressives defeated a plan to build headquarters for Amazon in Queens. Now a new kind of development is gaining their support. From NYT Metro:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/n...
In Ashes of Amazon Fight, Tensions Emerge in Huge Bet on N.Y.C. Housing
www.nytimes.com
walthickey.bsky.social
there was new information revealed in a news story that was not previously known by way of earnings, which motivated the move