Silas Johnson
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profsilas.bsky.social
Silas Johnson
@profsilas.bsky.social
100 followers 270 following 250 posts
I do math and play Pokemon, and apparently make art sometimes. He/him.
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Reposted by Silas Johnson
scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz
Things are grim right now but as a reminder of who we are and why we fight, this is the US Women’s figuring skating champion.
Amber Glenn wearing her gold medal after winning the US National Championship Women’s Singles Competition. She is dressed in a black short sequined gown and proudly holding a progress pride flag behind her. There is a gaggle of photographers in front of her.
January 10, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
matthematics.com
Abolish ICE.
For Good.
January 7, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
atrupar.com
Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
January 7, 2026 at 6:40 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
Para-biddybud, inspired by @helix.midwestspeedfest.com's Mario Kart World run at #AGDQ2026!
Digital drawing of para-biddybud riding a bike in Mario Kart World. It has angry eyebrows. There are yellow question mark blocks on the ground behind it.
January 6, 2026 at 5:07 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
theplanetaryguy.bsky.social
Open up this picture fully.

Then look at the surface of Mars.

Then look up to the top right.

Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.

Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.

That's Earth.
A forlorn landscape of layered rocks in the foreground, with hills fading into the background haze. At upper top right, a small crescent moon, and a bright star.
December 30, 2025 at 9:30 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
California has no chance to survive make your time.
Screenshot of the villain from Zero Wing (where "all your base are belong to us" comes from) saying "You are on the way to destruction."
December 28, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
charliejane.bsky.social
When the polite, cultured Dr. Pepper consumes a special draught, he turns into the brutish, monstrous Mr. Pibb.
December 26, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
kevintmorris.bsky.social
I've always loved this illustration depicting Joseph and Mary looking for a room. I am finding it especially powerful this year
Everett Patterson's "José y Maria."
December 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
tape.bsky.social
please imagine its christmas so this meme pops off PLEASE
the simpsons meme where ralph is saying "(chuckles) im in danger" but baby jesus is overlayed over ralph and danger has been changed to manger.
July 15, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
popsci.com
The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality.

And trans lives are grounded in reality.

We see y'all. No matter what.

www.popsci.com/science/tran...
First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition
Ninety-four percent of participants in a new study stood firm in their trans identity after five years, and "detransitioning" is rare.
www.popsci.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
toinelay.bsky.social
Meowth ex!
Ability: Trump Card Catch
Once during your turn, when you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench, you may search your deck for a Supporter card and put it into your hand.
You can't use this Ability if you've already used another Ability with "Trump Card" it its name this turn.
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
krisdobbinsart.bsky.social
"Men can never become women" well I'm right here and so are a whole lot of other people so there goes that ya fuckos
December 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
adamchicago.bsky.social
Not sure when the “You are entering Free Rogers Park” sign went up on the Touhy Ave metra overpass but it’s pretty recent.
The words “YOU ARE ENTERING FREE ROGERS PARK” painted on an overpass; a reference to the “free Derry” sign from the 60s that was based on a “free Berkeley” sign in the 50s.
December 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
andrew.heiss.phd
Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...
Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future? No. Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course? These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this). However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code. In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner: …to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability. There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability. The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma. This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle. This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too): Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.) It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything. You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy. As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible: To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use. Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled. So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting. You’ve got to learn first.
December 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
xkcd.com
Inverted Catenaries

xkcd.com/3176/
Comic. [Two people walking together as inverted catenary curves fall around them.] PERSON: Oh wow, the first inverted catenary fall of the year! Time to swap out my all-season tires for square ones.
December 8, 2025 at 6:41 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
Counterpoint: the tambourine is the reason I can draw nice dotted lines on chalkboards.

(Yes, this is 100% true.)
docseuss.bsky.social doc @docseuss.bsky.social · Dec 9
i'm gonna be real, the tambourine is a stupid instrument. for nerds
December 9, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
bodegacats.bsky.social
December 2, 2025 at 1:03 AM
profsilas.bsky.social
@play.pokemon.com has Regional Championships at this venue in January. I hope they'll be ensuring that organizers and venue staff uphold their Inclusion Policy.

masto.hackers.town/@kestral/115...
Kestral (@[email protected])
Planning on attending an event at the NEC in Birmingham (UK) or its associated venues any time soon? They now put security guards at the entrance to all their toilets to ensure only people who appear ...
masto.hackers.town
November 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
levesque-chris.bsky.social
Since the Pope has come out against generative AI, does this mean Catholic academics can refuse to use it on religious grounds?
November 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
And throwing their trans students directly under the bus.
mattheweadie.bsky.social Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · Nov 29
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
courtneymilan.com
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
And if, as I've heard rumored, they don't do this because of concerns about publicizing that information about minors, then I wonder if it's worth considering raising the age cutoff for the Masters division to 18.
lubyllule.bsky.social Stéphane Ivanoff @lubyllule.bsky.social · Nov 23
I really wish Pokémon would give explanations for their DQs. The rampant speculation about Gabriel's DQ hurts much more than just saying "here's what happened".
November 24, 2025 at 1:39 AM
profsilas.bsky.social
Headed home from DC after a wonderfully creative weekend writing math contest problems. Can't wait for students to see these in the spring!
November 16, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Silas Johnson
stephencollins.bsky.social
Every ad now
[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.] JANET: Ugh... LIZ: What's up? JANET: I am so bored of cooking peas! LIZ: Have you tried... AI peas? JANET: AI peas? LIZ: They're peas with AI! [Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI]. LIZ: Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas JANET: What LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines] Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas? [Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it] LIZ: Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine [Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas] LIZ: With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas! JANET: What LIZ: Shut up LIZ: Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow From opening the bag of peas to boiling the peas to eating the peas To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means. JANET: Is it really necessary to- LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]: THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET [Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan: AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas. [Ends]
November 13, 2025 at 5:38 PM
profsilas.bsky.social
Joining the #aurora party from Forest Park in St. Louis.
Bright pink patchy aurora with a green horizontal arc at the bottom. The green arc appears to zigzag a little. Glowing pink aurora with multiple horizontal green bands Pink aurora arcing across a huge chunk of the sky, with some faint green visible at the bottom. The pink part has a bit of a curtain texture to it. There are city lights beneath, and an artificial pond or reflecting pool in the foreground. Vibrant patch of pink aurora, with a vertical pillar that's almost orange. Some more scattered, fainter pink and green around it.
November 12, 2025 at 4:09 AM