Aaron Denney
@aaron-denney.bsky.social
Scientist, mathematician, coder, liberal
Reposted by Aaron Denney
The third time in 2 months that the official DHS account has tweeted a Nazi term which means "ethnic cleansing" of all people of color from America and Europe.
December 16, 2025 at 6:01 AM
The third time in 2 months that the official DHS account has tweeted a Nazi term which means "ethnic cleansing" of all people of color from America and Europe.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
In natural habitats, juncos survive on seeds & insects; the birds on UCLA’s campus have diets similar to college students. The researchers suspect the quick shift in beak shape was a case of rapid, adaptive evolution driven by changing food availability: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/s.... #birds 🌎
How the Pandemic Lockdowns Changed a Songbird’s Beak
www.nytimes.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:31 AM
In natural habitats, juncos survive on seeds & insects; the birds on UCLA’s campus have diets similar to college students. The researchers suspect the quick shift in beak shape was a case of rapid, adaptive evolution driven by changing food availability: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/s.... #birds 🌎
Reposted by Aaron Denney
It is @sumoyokai.bsky.social's fault and her indexing of terrible things on the internet that all this and more entered my ~20 years ago. Very little has been a surprise for years. Just an awful lot of "Yep. That makes sense."
On the one hand, it's probably a good thing that most people didn't know about Nazi/white supremacist MLP freaks, on the other hand, if you really want to understand the current right wing you gotta understand the gross Uruk-hai pits that groypers marinaded in and this is a prominent one
December 16, 2025 at 3:25 AM
It is @sumoyokai.bsky.social's fault and her indexing of terrible things on the internet that all this and more entered my ~20 years ago. Very little has been a surprise for years. Just an awful lot of "Yep. That makes sense."
Reposted by Aaron Denney
The richest man in the world nodding along to @cumlasagna1
December 16, 2025 at 2:06 AM
The richest man in the world nodding along to @cumlasagna1
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Straight to the point, no bullshit, honest headline.
More like this, please.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
More like this, please.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Some Republican lawmakers call for mass expulsion of American Muslims
Comments from Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) reflect a brazen Islamophobic sentiment being voiced by some in the party.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Straight to the point, no bullshit, honest headline.
More like this, please.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
More like this, please.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Aaron Denney
This drove me insane. A parent tried to responsibly trust his kids to ride the public bus to school unsupervised, and some busybody phoned the government to complain about him. He eventually won in court, but I can’t imagine the happening when I was a kid (gen x).
vancouversun.com/news/local-n...
vancouversun.com/news/local-n...
Vancouver 'free-range' father who taught kids to ride bus wins court challenge
Adrian Crook was visited by social workers after the ministry got a call saying he was allowing his five children, ages five to 11, to ride the bus alone from his d…
vancouversun.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:02 AM
This drove me insane. A parent tried to responsibly trust his kids to ride the public bus to school unsupervised, and some busybody phoned the government to complain about him. He eventually won in court, but I can’t imagine the happening when I was a kid (gen x).
vancouversun.com/news/local-n...
vancouversun.com/news/local-n...
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Nature would do well to publish more content like this thoughtful piece from @kevinbaker.bsky.social and fewer Buzzfeed listicles gussied up as career advice "Five productivity hacks for using AI in your scientific workflow"
Context Widows
or, of GPUs, LPUs, and Goal Displacement
artificialbureaucracy.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Nature would do well to publish more content like this thoughtful piece from @kevinbaker.bsky.social and fewer Buzzfeed listicles gussied up as career advice "Five productivity hacks for using AI in your scientific workflow"
Reposted by Aaron Denney
The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."
December 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."
Reposted by Aaron Denney
New from me in @policyr.bsky.social: creators and distributors of real child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are being let off the hook as police and prosecutors divert resources away from prosecuting them—and toward policing fictional content instead. 🧵 policyreview.info/articles/new...
Drawing the line: When child safety laws lose sight of real children
Newly released data reveal how a no-compromise approach to AI-generated and other fictional sexual content depicting children has diverted resources away from prosecuting real child sexual abuse mater...
policyreview.info
December 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
New from me in @policyr.bsky.social: creators and distributors of real child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are being let off the hook as police and prosecutors divert resources away from prosecuting them—and toward policing fictional content instead. 🧵 policyreview.info/articles/new...
To be great, an artistic work must convey meanings beyond its surface gloss — it must be “deep”. To even make it to tolerable (much less good), its surface meaning has to actually make sense and deliver. And you don’t actually reach greatness until the surface and hidden meanings interact.
People who think “pluribus” is an alien invasion movie probably think “Breaking Bad” is about meth dealers.
December 15, 2025 at 6:45 AM
To be great, an artistic work must convey meanings beyond its surface gloss — it must be “deep”. To even make it to tolerable (much less good), its surface meaning has to actually make sense and deliver. And you don’t actually reach greatness until the surface and hidden meanings interact.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
It wasn't only French nobles who lost their heads in the Reign of Terror; it was also anybody the mob decided was part of the oppressor class.
December 15, 2025 at 3:09 AM
It wasn't only French nobles who lost their heads in the Reign of Terror; it was also anybody the mob decided was part of the oppressor class.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Re-upping this about what the data actually say about gun control and whether it works, including the buyback after the Port Arthur massacre. The reality is a lot less clear than people like to pretend. ordinary-times.com/2022/06/02/m...
Mini-Throughput: What the Data Say About Guns - Ordinary Times
This field is difficult to study and subject to large biases and complications because gun violence is not monocausal.
ordinary-times.com
December 14, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Re-upping this about what the data actually say about gun control and whether it works, including the buyback after the Port Arthur massacre. The reality is a lot less clear than people like to pretend. ordinary-times.com/2022/06/02/m...
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Had to go watch the video myself before reposting, because this seemed so absurd I thought it might be fake. But, nope, it happened. He also says (in the same sentence) "with enough effort, you could probably stop aging, reverse it..."
He really doesn’t understand any of the most basic biology concepts at all, huh
December 15, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Had to go watch the video myself before reposting, because this seemed so absurd I thought it might be fake. But, nope, it happened. He also says (in the same sentence) "with enough effort, you could probably stop aging, reverse it..."
Reposted by Aaron Denney
"ICE and CBP must be abolished" is the only reasonable position. We can debate the specifics of new agencies for immigration functions, but these agencies are simply too infected with a culture of impunity, racism, and fascism to continue. They're gangs with badges.
Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.
Federal agents use chemical irritant on crowd in Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown
Federal agents have used chemical irritant to disperse a crowd in a heavily Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis. This happened Tuesday during a identification checks amid the Trump administration's cra...
www.mprnews.org
December 14, 2025 at 8:49 PM
"ICE and CBP must be abolished" is the only reasonable position. We can debate the specifics of new agencies for immigration functions, but these agencies are simply too infected with a culture of impunity, racism, and fascism to continue. They're gangs with badges.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
I extend my full sympathy to the Brown shooting victims. I also hope they're grateful they were shot in America, where our gunshot trauma surgeons are seasoned experts, and not socialist Europe, where they'd barely know what to do.
by Meghan McCain
by Meghan McCain
December 15, 2025 at 3:47 AM
I extend my full sympathy to the Brown shooting victims. I also hope they're grateful they were shot in America, where our gunshot trauma surgeons are seasoned experts, and not socialist Europe, where they'd barely know what to do.
by Meghan McCain
by Meghan McCain
Reposted by Aaron Denney
And finally, the assault on Section 230. This is the endgame for independent speech.
If you repeal 230, you don’t hurt Google or Meta—they have the lawyers to survive. You destroy the small forums, the independent blogs, the dissenters. You make the cost of speaking the truth too high to bear.
If you repeal 230, you don’t hurt Google or Meta—they have the lawyers to survive. You destroy the small forums, the independent blogs, the dissenters. You make the cost of speaking the truth too high to bear.
How Democrats’ Attack On Section 230 Plays Right Into Trump’s Censorial Plans
Like clockwork, lawmakers are once again rallying around the idea of eliminating Section 230. That Republicans are leading this charge is hardly surprising—repealing Section 230 is explicitly laid …
www.techdirt.com
December 14, 2025 at 9:11 PM
And finally, the assault on Section 230. This is the endgame for independent speech.
If you repeal 230, you don’t hurt Google or Meta—they have the lawyers to survive. You destroy the small forums, the independent blogs, the dissenters. You make the cost of speaking the truth too high to bear.
If you repeal 230, you don’t hurt Google or Meta—they have the lawyers to survive. You destroy the small forums, the independent blogs, the dissenters. You make the cost of speaking the truth too high to bear.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
The Bezos Post: "Free markets, personal liberties, and suck it up and accept rapid inflation while the billionaire class gets even richer."
The Washington Post, everyone
December 14, 2025 at 11:42 PM
The Bezos Post: "Free markets, personal liberties, and suck it up and accept rapid inflation while the billionaire class gets even richer."
Reposted by Aaron Denney
tesla owners admitting without shame they don’t know how to drive anymore
December 14, 2025 at 10:07 PM
tesla owners admitting without shame they don’t know how to drive anymore
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Read this thread.
It's exactly right. But also note on the internet related stories—the banning of TikTok and the attack on Sec 230—Democrats happily helped MAGA accomplish their goals and people have cheered it on.
Democrats trying to destroy 230 are not helping you. They're helping Trump.
It's exactly right. But also note on the internet related stories—the banning of TikTok and the attack on Sec 230—Democrats happily helped MAGA accomplish their goals and people have cheered it on.
Democrats trying to destroy 230 are not helping you. They're helping Trump.
There’s a specific mechanism in authoritarian movements that we’re seeing play out in real-time across American media and tech. It’s a simple rule: "If we cannot co-opt it, we must destroy it."
It is the logic of "scorched earth." It's the logic of the Nero Decree and it's happening right now. 🧵
It is the logic of "scorched earth." It's the logic of the Nero Decree and it's happening right now. 🧵
December 14, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Read this thread.
It's exactly right. But also note on the internet related stories—the banning of TikTok and the attack on Sec 230—Democrats happily helped MAGA accomplish their goals and people have cheered it on.
Democrats trying to destroy 230 are not helping you. They're helping Trump.
It's exactly right. But also note on the internet related stories—the banning of TikTok and the attack on Sec 230—Democrats happily helped MAGA accomplish their goals and people have cheered it on.
Democrats trying to destroy 230 are not helping you. They're helping Trump.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Ok this story is totally insane
Rich Chinese building armies of American born children via surrogacy
Rich Chinese building armies of American born children via surrogacy
December 14, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Ok this story is totally insane
Rich Chinese building armies of American born children via surrogacy
Rich Chinese building armies of American born children via surrogacy
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Discworld QOTD, from Witches Abroad
"'I used to come over here quite often to look at her books,' Magrat confessed. 'And... and she liked to cook foreign food and no-one else round here would eat it, so I'd come up to keep her company.'
'Ah-ha! Curryin' favour!' snapped Granny."
"'I used to come over here quite often to look at her books,' Magrat confessed. 'And... and she liked to cook foreign food and no-one else round here would eat it, so I'd come up to keep her company.'
'Ah-ha! Curryin' favour!' snapped Granny."
Discworld QOTD, from Going Postal
"They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that it is in a body that, in the morning, is going to be hanged."
"They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that it is in a body that, in the morning, is going to be hanged."
Discworld QOTD, from Moving Pictures
"‘Er, I was just wondering, Mr. Dibbler... what is my motivation for this scene?’
‘Motivation?’
‘Yes. Er, I got to know, see,’ said Rock.
‘How about: I’ll fire you if you don’t do it properly?’
Rock grinned. ‘Right you are, Mr. Dibbler,’ he said."
"‘Er, I was just wondering, Mr. Dibbler... what is my motivation for this scene?’
‘Motivation?’
‘Yes. Er, I got to know, see,’ said Rock.
‘How about: I’ll fire you if you don’t do it properly?’
Rock grinned. ‘Right you are, Mr. Dibbler,’ he said."
December 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Discworld QOTD, from Witches Abroad
"'I used to come over here quite often to look at her books,' Magrat confessed. 'And... and she liked to cook foreign food and no-one else round here would eat it, so I'd come up to keep her company.'
'Ah-ha! Curryin' favour!' snapped Granny."
"'I used to come over here quite often to look at her books,' Magrat confessed. 'And... and she liked to cook foreign food and no-one else round here would eat it, so I'd come up to keep her company.'
'Ah-ha! Curryin' favour!' snapped Granny."
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Compare the statement about the antisemitic terror attack in Australia by the Israeli Prime Minister with the one by Zohran Mamdani, and ask yourself who more truly cares about condemning antisemitism, as opposed to using it to promote unrelated politics.
December 14, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Compare the statement about the antisemitic terror attack in Australia by the Israeli Prime Minister with the one by Zohran Mamdani, and ask yourself who more truly cares about condemning antisemitism, as opposed to using it to promote unrelated politics.
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Game designer: After lots of hard work we’re proud to announce we’ve created the Wheel of Saṃsāra from the ancient Buddhist classic Don’t Get Trapped in the Wheel of Saṃsāra
December 14, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Game designer: After lots of hard work we’re proud to announce we’ve created the Wheel of Saṃsāra from the ancient Buddhist classic Don’t Get Trapped in the Wheel of Saṃsāra
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is,
in fact,
a tortology
in fact,
a tortology
December 13, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is,
in fact,
a tortology
in fact,
a tortology
Reposted by Aaron Denney
Lawless, criminal behavior
December 13, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Lawless, criminal behavior