Adina M. Yoffie
@adinayoffie.bsky.social
Academic editor, History PhD, Jewish Studies expert; adinayoffie.com.
Pinned
Adina M. Yoffie
@adinayoffie.bsky.social
· Oct 23
BlueSky, especially mutuals: it's been fun to be back the last few days, but I'm going to try to take another approximately month-long break. I really was less anxious & slept better during the last one. Have fun, be careful, & link to my editing services is in bio. 😍
Yes. And similarly, as I’ve said here before, to “when people say AI is thinking, that gives me a pretty good idea of what they think ‘thinking’ is.”
this is similar to what I've come to think of as the "reverse turing test"
when people find synthetic text is "good enough" to complete a task (homework, business report, email) it doesn't mean the machine is smart. it means they were asked to produce something that didn't matter
it's diagnostic
when people find synthetic text is "good enough" to complete a task (homework, business report, email) it doesn't mean the machine is smart. it means they were asked to produce something that didn't matter
it's diagnostic
So similarly, when we see people who prefer ChatGPT or a similar synthetic text extruding machine as a source of medical information, that means those are people who are under-served in the current system.
December 9, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Yes. And similarly, as I’ve said here before, to “when people say AI is thinking, that gives me a pretty good idea of what they think ‘thinking’ is.”
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
MIAMI: Today is Election Day! Get out and vote Eileen Higgins for mayor before polls close at 7pm.
You have the chance to elect a Democrat who will restore trust in City Hall and get things done for you. Find your polling place at IWillVote.com.
You have the chance to elect a Democrat who will restore trust in City Hall and get things done for you. Find your polling place at IWillVote.com.
December 9, 2025 at 3:10 PM
MIAMI: Today is Election Day! Get out and vote Eileen Higgins for mayor before polls close at 7pm.
You have the chance to elect a Democrat who will restore trust in City Hall and get things done for you. Find your polling place at IWillVote.com.
You have the chance to elect a Democrat who will restore trust in City Hall and get things done for you. Find your polling place at IWillVote.com.
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
The Imaginary Library full of Imaginary Journals of Imaginary Knowledge is a fantastic premise for a short story (or even just an imaginary short story).
Folks might not know a lot of people are getting *very* upset that the materials they request are not available in the libraries/archives they're requesting from.
We're getting lots here at the Library of Virginia: requests of documents likely surfaced by large language models that *do not exist*.
We're getting lots here at the Library of Virginia: requests of documents likely surfaced by large language models that *do not exist*.
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
December 9, 2025 at 2:32 AM
The Imaginary Library full of Imaginary Journals of Imaginary Knowledge is a fantastic premise for a short story (or even just an imaginary short story).
Yep, and if you think only conservatives think this, I have bad news for you.
some significant part of this is just catch-all fear for “this is not the child I ordered” I think
Oh, here's a big surprise. The transphobes don't believe in ADHD either.
December 9, 2025 at 5:12 AM
Yep, and if you think only conservatives think this, I have bad news for you.
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
It’s very funny to me that countries are trying to pass laws banning teens from social media until they’re older and can “handle it” as if the last decade hasn’t been about watching rich middle aged men nuke their brains on Twitter and then run the USA via shitpost.
Dude. Yes. Alito and Thomas are of course the standout examples, but all of the Republican justices have tells in their writing and their questioning indicating that they are, to varying degrees, marinating their brains in dumb bitch juice
My theory, fwiw, is that Supreme Court Justices are not immune to Twitter brain poisoning. I suspect all six have horrific information environments and have therefore lost the ability to understand the people who don't agree with them.
December 8, 2025 at 6:13 PM
It’s very funny to me that countries are trying to pass laws banning teens from social media until they’re older and can “handle it” as if the last decade hasn’t been about watching rich middle aged men nuke their brains on Twitter and then run the USA via shitpost.
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
It makes me really sad that we have to just like, talk about our bodies all the time in the open like this — shout out to Danielle who is brave — because men won't read a book.
Let me just say: I have run more than a dozen marathons and an ultramarathon and I have worked 13-hour days in a cornfield in the scorching-ass sun, and none of those things broke me like breastfeeding.
It’s not a question of will. I am a determined person. Sometimes your body just WONT DO IT.
It’s not a question of will. I am a determined person. Sometimes your body just WONT DO IT.
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 8, 2025 at 11:53 PM
It makes me really sad that we have to just like, talk about our bodies all the time in the open like this — shout out to Danielle who is brave — because men won't read a book.
I had a joke about Ezekiel, but he ate the paper it was written on.
I had a joke about Jacob, but he stole it.
I had a joke about Leah, but then I knew you’d rather just hear one about Rachel.
December 9, 2025 at 12:05 AM
I had a joke about Ezekiel, but he ate the paper it was written on.
I had a joke about Jacob, but he stole it.
I had a joke about Leah, but then I knew you’d rather just hear one about Rachel.
I had a joke about Jonah, but I can't be bothered right now
December 9, 2025 at 12:04 AM
I had a joke about Jacob, but he stole it.
I had a joke about Leah, but then I knew you’d rather just hear one about Rachel.
I had a joke about Jonah, but I can't be bothered right now
I had a joke about Kohelet but eh, what's the point?
December 9, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I had a joke about Leah, but then I knew you’d rather just hear one about Rachel.
I had a joke about Abraham, but I gave it away to my guests.
I had a joke about Jonah, but I can't be bothered right now
I had a joke about Kohelet but eh, what's the point?
December 9, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I had a joke about Abraham, but I gave it away to my guests.
I really liked this ep of Normal Men @proptermalone.bsky.social @rickywlmsbong.bsky.social etc.
normalmen.podbean.com/e/episode-25...
normalmen.podbean.com/e/episode-25...
December 8, 2025 at 11:46 PM
I really liked this ep of Normal Men @proptermalone.bsky.social @rickywlmsbong.bsky.social etc.
normalmen.podbean.com/e/episode-25...
normalmen.podbean.com/e/episode-25...
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
if you try to serve me a ‘woman-sized dinner’ i’m going to bury one of my ‘woman-sized fists’ in your eye socket
December 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
if you try to serve me a ‘woman-sized dinner’ i’m going to bury one of my ‘woman-sized fists’ in your eye socket
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Ok this rules
Quite an announcement video from @crockett.house.gov www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...
Jasmine for Texas
YouTube video by Jasmine Crockett
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Ok this rules
Hard agree
Get your shingles vaccine! I had a very sore arm for the first shot; the second, I had an even sorer arm and general malaise.
It beat the heck out of what I've heard about shingles from everyone I know who has had shingles.
It beat the heck out of what I've heard about shingles from everyone I know who has had shingles.
I have literally already scheduled the shingles vaccine on my 50th birthday.
Yes, I know it will suck. I don't care. Let's go shingles vaccine.
Yes, I know it will suck. I don't care. Let's go shingles vaccine.
December 8, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Hard agree
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Turns out deploying raw power to achieve policy goals you could barely imagine while preaching judicial modesty to Earl Warren’s ghost is a lot more fun than exercising the judicial restraint that, turns out, was just defense and not a meaningful intellectual commitment.
This is the heart of the matter.
Even after years of this behavior, part of me still finds it bewildering, and deeply distressing. It was this generation of conservatives who taught me to take judicial restraint seriously.
Just, how could you?
Even after years of this behavior, part of me still finds it bewildering, and deeply distressing. It was this generation of conservatives who taught me to take judicial restraint seriously.
Just, how could you?
It is really, really hard to get your head around the raw hubris of the majority. They really will be destabilizing the operating structure of the entire U.S. government. Why? Because they believe they have a better idea about how the past century should've been done.
December 8, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Turns out deploying raw power to achieve policy goals you could barely imagine while preaching judicial modesty to Earl Warren’s ghost is a lot more fun than exercising the judicial restraint that, turns out, was just defense and not a meaningful intellectual commitment.
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, yes leadership is apparently planning to cut 50% of the faculty at the New School for Social Research in order to eliminate social research and replace scholarship with a trendy MA degree mill For the 21st Century 1/
December 6, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, yes leadership is apparently planning to cut 50% of the faculty at the New School for Social Research in order to eliminate social research and replace scholarship with a trendy MA degree mill For the 21st Century 1/
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Hello, Bluesky!
We want to fund your research!
Check out our grants and fellowships!
Here: www.hagley.org/research/gra...
We want to fund your research!
Check out our grants and fellowships!
Here: www.hagley.org/research/gra...
Grants & Fellowships
Hagley invites serious researchers to apply for one of our grants to defray the costs of an extended stay intended to use our collections. Grants and fellowships are administered by the Center for the...
www.hagley.org
November 11, 2024 at 3:09 PM
Hello, Bluesky!
We want to fund your research!
Check out our grants and fellowships!
Here: www.hagley.org/research/gra...
We want to fund your research!
Check out our grants and fellowships!
Here: www.hagley.org/research/gra...
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
“You don't have to try every cookie on the holiday table,” wrote Mehmet Oz
December 8, 2025 at 9:36 PM
“You don't have to try every cookie on the holiday table,” wrote Mehmet Oz
This👇
i am never again going to let a conservative get away with complaining about the liberal nanny state because these assholes actually *are* the nagging, inappropriately intrusive boogeymen conservatives have been bleating about for my entire adult life, mind your fucking business
NEW: Dr. Oz is quite literally telling his federal employees to eat less.
“You don't have to try every cookie on the holiday table,” wrote Mehmet Oz in an email to all Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services employees.
“You don't have to try every cookie on the holiday table,” wrote Mehmet Oz in an email to all Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services employees.
December 8, 2025 at 9:58 PM
This👇
Historians before the 2024 election: these rich idiots don’t know about the pro-Nazi German industrialists in the 1920s and ‘30s, do they?
US industrialist in late 2025: It turns out these people may be crazy, and that’s potentially bad even if they give me a tax cut. Oops.
Historians: {Head desk}
US industrialist in late 2025: It turns out these people may be crazy, and that’s potentially bad even if they give me a tax cut. Oops.
Historians: {Head desk}
one thing I think we shouldn't lose sight of: these people are stupid, their ideas are bad, they are always wrong about everything. there is no mea culpa big enough to erase the fact that they have a child's understanding of the world and their vision for the future is not worth taking seriously
Since tariffs, I noticed a surprising trend: elite Trump supporters saying they might have made a mistake. So I asked them what they were thinking, both in November and today.
One big takeaway: they thought Elon was actually competent. That error proved catastrophic.
www.vox.com/on-the-right...
One big takeaway: they thought Elon was actually competent. That error proved catastrophic.
www.vox.com/on-the-right...
December 8, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Historians before the 2024 election: these rich idiots don’t know about the pro-Nazi German industrialists in the 1920s and ‘30s, do they?
US industrialist in late 2025: It turns out these people may be crazy, and that’s potentially bad even if they give me a tax cut. Oops.
Historians: {Head desk}
US industrialist in late 2025: It turns out these people may be crazy, and that’s potentially bad even if they give me a tax cut. Oops.
Historians: {Head desk}
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
“While coprolites shed light on lost landscapes, speculative stories — when read in historical context — reveal popular attitudes to fast-changing foodscapes.”
Devouring Dinosaurs
If dinosaurs were alive today, would you be fleeing? Or feasting?
contingentmagazine.org
December 8, 2025 at 2:38 PM
“While coprolites shed light on lost landscapes, speculative stories — when read in historical context — reveal popular attitudes to fast-changing foodscapes.”
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Thread
1/ ACIP’s meeting last week was disgraceful, unprepared, & chaotic. They voted to roll back the universal #HepB birth dose despite no evidence of harm, and pushed an antibody test that doesn’t reliably guide decisions. This shift will have real consequences—with babies and families paying the price.
December 8, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Thread
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, known for his roles as Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat (1995), Nobusuke Tagomi in The Man in the High Castle, and Chang in The Last Emperor (1987), has passed away at 75.
December 5, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, known for his roles as Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat (1995), Nobusuke Tagomi in The Man in the High Castle, and Chang in The Last Emperor (1987), has passed away at 75.
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Dudes would rather create a whole ass dystopia than fund education and read to their kids.
December 4, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Dudes would rather create a whole ass dystopia than fund education and read to their kids.
Reposted by Adina M. Yoffie
Never believe the fuckers who say "why bother, they already won"
NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
December 3, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Never believe the fuckers who say "why bother, they already won"