Alan Shields
@shieldsinmd.bsky.social
4th-tier US soccer enthusiast, old-old-old-school anime fan (as in from the 70s and 80s), late-in-life ebike convert. You can find me building my Plex libraries on the weekend
Reposted by Alan Shields
America can't be fascist because I'm not doing anything about it
November 16, 2025 at 11:29 AM
America can't be fascist because I'm not doing anything about it
Reposted by Alan Shields
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
November 10, 2025 at 12:50 PM
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
Reposted by Alan Shields
Reposted by Alan Shields
Hey guys - does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Haha happy Edmund Fitzgerald Day, you maniacs!
Haha happy Edmund Fitzgerald Day, you maniacs!
November 10, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Hey guys - does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Haha happy Edmund Fitzgerald Day, you maniacs!
Haha happy Edmund Fitzgerald Day, you maniacs!
Reposted by Alan Shields
Both the 9 and the 12 year old somehow know the lyrics to "Milkshake" in spite of the song being a decade before their time and now I'm questioning all my parenting decisions.
November 9, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Both the 9 and the 12 year old somehow know the lyrics to "Milkshake" in spite of the song being a decade before their time and now I'm questioning all my parenting decisions.
Reposted by Alan Shields
Do you despise vehicular cycling, feel unseen by normalized hostile infrastructure, and feel like you're forced to exist in a world built for men who are comfortable being uncomfortable?
A new film-length explainer by NJB. 👇
A new film-length explainer by NJB. 👇
This is Why Cycling is Dangerous in America
YouTube video by Not Just Bikes
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Do you despise vehicular cycling, feel unseen by normalized hostile infrastructure, and feel like you're forced to exist in a world built for men who are comfortable being uncomfortable?
A new film-length explainer by NJB. 👇
A new film-length explainer by NJB. 👇
Reposted by Alan Shields
for some reason i find local LLMs kind of charming in a way the mass consumer stuff is not. you built a mini-cluster out of raspberry pis that takes 37 minutes to generate a 3 second clip of video that sucks? i don't see the point but that's classic computer dork shit, have fun pal
November 9, 2025 at 11:56 AM
for some reason i find local LLMs kind of charming in a way the mass consumer stuff is not. you built a mini-cluster out of raspberry pis that takes 37 minutes to generate a 3 second clip of video that sucks? i don't see the point but that's classic computer dork shit, have fun pal
Reposted by Alan Shields
I LEARNED THE ANSWER TO THIS
Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark
Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap
The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name
He did this six times
Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel
Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark
Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap
The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name
He did this six times
Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel
what did ruth mean when she said her steakhouse was "chris"
November 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I LEARNED THE ANSWER TO THIS
Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark
Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap
The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name
He did this six times
Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel
Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark
Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap
The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name
He did this six times
Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel
Reposted by Alan Shields
New Virginia meme dropped.
November 9, 2025 at 3:24 AM
New Virginia meme dropped.
Reposted by Alan Shields
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
Reposted by Alan Shields
MY FELLOW AMERICANS: Watch how modular in-street recycling/trash collection works. Common across Europe, it is a great solution for urban areas.
November 8, 2025 at 8:19 PM
MY FELLOW AMERICANS: Watch how modular in-street recycling/trash collection works. Common across Europe, it is a great solution for urban areas.
Reposted by Alan Shields
Live your life in such a way that when you die people don't literally rise from the dead to shit on your grave.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Live your life in such a way that when you die people don't literally rise from the dead to shit on your grave.
Reposted by Alan Shields
Never again is now! Jewish life is still not a matter of course in Germany, 87 years after the anti-Semitic pogroms of 9 November 1938. There is no place for anti-Semitism - then or now.
#fcsp #NeverAgain
#fcsp #NeverAgain
November 9, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Never again is now! Jewish life is still not a matter of course in Germany, 87 years after the anti-Semitic pogroms of 9 November 1938. There is no place for anti-Semitism - then or now.
#fcsp #NeverAgain
#fcsp #NeverAgain
Reposted by Alan Shields
Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo!
I know how hard you worked for this.
I know how hard you worked for this.
![Red Trump-style graphic with images of Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo.
At the top it says, "I'm going to pick [Cuomo]." - Donald Trump, 60 Minutes Interview, 11-2-25
Then beneath it
TRUMP ENDORSES CUOMO](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j5hrotody26iqi24hcusufxu/bafkreib7wnor7hl45ryvmifde4sov74rrnexa3iecbyu7zxjx6brrslsiy@jpeg)
November 3, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo!
I know how hard you worked for this.
I know how hard you worked for this.
Reposted by Alan Shields
In bits of good news, the legislature passed parking reform in Illinois! I think the governor still has to sign it but this is cool
chi.streetsblog.org/2025/10/31/i...
chi.streetsblog.org/2025/10/31/i...
Illinois legislature adopts People Over Parking Act to right-size parking requirements in transit-served areas - Streetsblog Chicago
At about 4:22 AM this morning the Illinois Senate concurred with the Illinois House on bill SB 2111, approving a revenues and reform package that will avert the Chicagoland transit fiscal cliff, struc...
chi.streetsblog.org
November 2, 2025 at 2:23 PM
In bits of good news, the legislature passed parking reform in Illinois! I think the governor still has to sign it but this is cool
chi.streetsblog.org/2025/10/31/i...
chi.streetsblog.org/2025/10/31/i...
Reposted by Alan Shields
🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.
Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.
Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.
October 28, 2025 at 12:27 AM
🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.
Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.
Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.
Reposted by Alan Shields
Illegally funneling. Only Congress can make that kind of appropriation. The absence of that single word in all these stories is in all seriousness playing a big role in this nation’s downfall!
The Department of Homeland Security is funneling $10 billion through the Navy to help facilitate the construction of a sprawling network of migrant detention centers across the US in an arrangement aimed at getting the centers built faster. https://cnn.it/4oDFP9W
October 24, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Illegally funneling. Only Congress can make that kind of appropriation. The absence of that single word in all these stories is in all seriousness playing a big role in this nation’s downfall!
Reposted by Alan Shields
"Magda Goebbels made a great strudel"
October 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM
"Magda Goebbels made a great strudel"
Reposted by Alan Shields
You simply cannot be a political journalist today if you don't know the deep ins-and-outs of the nonsense conspiracy theories. Because people will just constantly say stuff that is blatantly false and you NEED to be ready to call it out with receipts.
Lankford: "I think now history has proven that Russiagate was a hoax. It was actually formed by James Coney and Brennan and others that were behind the scenes to push a narrative they knew at the time was false." (This is a lie -- would've been nice for Kasie Hunt to point that out.)
October 21, 2025 at 9:41 PM
You simply cannot be a political journalist today if you don't know the deep ins-and-outs of the nonsense conspiracy theories. Because people will just constantly say stuff that is blatantly false and you NEED to be ready to call it out with receipts.
Reposted by Alan Shields
I bet a candidate could do well with “yeah, I said some awful things online when I was younger, but I see why it was wrong, and I’m familiar with extremist spaces online, how young men get radicalized by them, and what we can do about it.”
Less good is “it’s wrong of you to care about what I said.”
Less good is “it’s wrong of you to care about what I said.”
Graham Platner to @daveweigel.bsky.social:
"How do you expect to win back men when you go back through somebody’s Reddit history and just pull it all out and say: ‘Oh, my God, this person has no right to ever be in politics?’"
DSCC Chair Gillibrand: “It’s up to the voters of Maine to decide.”
"How do you expect to win back men when you go back through somebody’s Reddit history and just pull it all out and say: ‘Oh, my God, this person has no right to ever be in politics?’"
DSCC Chair Gillibrand: “It’s up to the voters of Maine to decide.”
October 21, 2025 at 9:18 PM
I bet a candidate could do well with “yeah, I said some awful things online when I was younger, but I see why it was wrong, and I’m familiar with extremist spaces online, how young men get radicalized by them, and what we can do about it.”
Less good is “it’s wrong of you to care about what I said.”
Less good is “it’s wrong of you to care about what I said.”
Reposted by Alan Shields
This, and it goes for every kind of journalist now. All of us. Science, cybersecurity, health, weather, crime, local, all the beats. What's more, we need a unified response to shut this nonsense down on the spot while we're doing our jobs.
You simply cannot be a political journalist today if you don't know the deep ins-and-outs of the nonsense conspiracy theories. Because people will just constantly say stuff that is blatantly false and you NEED to be ready to call it out with receipts.
Lankford: "I think now history has proven that Russiagate was a hoax. It was actually formed by James Coney and Brennan and others that were behind the scenes to push a narrative they knew at the time was false." (This is a lie -- would've been nice for Kasie Hunt to point that out.)
October 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
This, and it goes for every kind of journalist now. All of us. Science, cybersecurity, health, weather, crime, local, all the beats. What's more, we need a unified response to shut this nonsense down on the spot while we're doing our jobs.
Reposted by Alan Shields
The average age of U.S. homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 last year.
In 1981, the year trickledown economics began, it was 31.
In 1981, the year trickledown economics began, it was 31.
October 21, 2025 at 8:15 PM
The average age of U.S. homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 last year.
In 1981, the year trickledown economics began, it was 31.
In 1981, the year trickledown economics began, it was 31.
Reposted by Alan Shields
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
October 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
Reposted by Alan Shields
Your favorite thing is down because DynamoDB at Amazon's AWS US-EAST-1 Regionwoke up with Main Character Syndrome.
This is the default /legacy backbone for a ton of things.
Including Amazon's own stuff.
Massive outages.
Here's what's going on & what we know 1/
This is the default /legacy backbone for a ton of things.
Including Amazon's own stuff.
Massive outages.
Here's what's going on & what we know 1/
October 20, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Your favorite thing is down because DynamoDB at Amazon's AWS US-EAST-1 Regionwoke up with Main Character Syndrome.
This is the default /legacy backbone for a ton of things.
Including Amazon's own stuff.
Massive outages.
Here's what's going on & what we know 1/
This is the default /legacy backbone for a ton of things.
Including Amazon's own stuff.
Massive outages.
Here's what's going on & what we know 1/
Reposted by Alan Shields
Over and over again, establishment journalists just refuse to describe Republican policies and beliefs in plain language to mislead the public. The GOP says it is purging liberals from academia and journalists reframe it as “rebuilding trust.” That is not journalism, it is regime propaganda.
October 20, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Over and over again, establishment journalists just refuse to describe Republican policies and beliefs in plain language to mislead the public. The GOP says it is purging liberals from academia and journalists reframe it as “rebuilding trust.” That is not journalism, it is regime propaganda.