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thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Steve T PhD
@thelasttheorist.bsky.social
2.5K followers 810 following 25K posts
Social scientist, project manager, engineer
Kansas, New School, and Tufts alum
Still running
https://storrente.com
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thelasttheorist.bsky.social
This is probably a bit niche but I find it funny that the brand of this sous-vide cooker is "Anova."
Photo of the top of a sous-vide cooker sticking up out of the immersion bath. It's a black tube that flares out a bit at the top. The top has an angled face that displays the temperature (140.0). The bath is clear plastic with white plastic insulation balls floating on top in the background there's some off white wallpaper and bags of coffee beans on the counter.
November 26, 2025 at 11:18 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
They sent a special truck to enhance my calm.
Photo of the ramp at Minneapolis airport, taken through the window of the plane. It's a miserable gray rainy day, and besides the normal airport equipment like the baggage tug, there's a lime green fire truck on the tarmac. Lights-a-flashin.
November 25, 2025 at 2:54 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
As an aside, I noticed that Firefox must have added Perplexity to their list of installed search engines. (I un-checked it when I noticed.)
One more shot of the Firefox > Settings > Search page, scrolled down to the box with the list of search engines. Perplexity appears just above halfway down the list, and I've circled it in pink.
November 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
And now I don't have to turn off the AI search results when I restart Firefox anymore. I think there's a no-ai Google too somewhere? You can add that as your default search the same way if you'd prefer.
Now this is a screen shot of a search in Firefox. White text on black and gray background. You can see at the very top my search address bar, which shows the url "noai.duckduckgo.com/?q= [blah blah blah]" I've underlined that in green with some arrows pointing at it. Below that is a shopping notification that says "are you sure you want to block ads?" which I unfortunately don't know how to get rid of, and then my search result which shows that kansas lost to Iowa State yesterday 38-14. I've annotated that with "oof!" in green.
November 23, 2025 at 8:11 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Now go back up to the top and select that as your default.
Another picture of the Firefox Settings > Search page. After the last step, I've scrolled back to the top, where the first item says "Default Search Engine" and there's a drop-down menu. I have a green arrow pointing at it. You can see I've selected "No-AI Duck Duck Go" from my list.
November 23, 2025 at 8:11 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
So I added it as a search engine on Firefox (note the slightly odd bit you have to add to the url, which you can kind of figure out from the default example that shows up in the add engine form boxes).
Screen shot from the Firefox settings page. Major tabs at left (General, Home, Search, Privacy & Security, etc.). Note that I've already clicked on "Search" and scrolled down to the box that lists available search engines. Then I clicked "add engine" below that, and the gray Add Search Engine box is what appears in the middle of the screen. There are three fields in the form, stacked vertically, and three buttons at lower right. The key thing is to add this in the middle box: "https://noai.duckduckgo.com/search?q=%s" The top and bottom boxes in the form are just for how you want to name the search engine. Then click the Add Engine button.
November 23, 2025 at 8:11 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
I've been frustrated with having to either not flush my cookies or turn off the AI search results every time I restart, but I just learned Duck Duck Go has a whole separate engine with no AI.
Screen shot from a page on the Duck Duck Go website. Black text on white background. The first two paragraphs describe their AI outlook, but I've highlighted this from the third para: "If you'd prefer an AI-free DuckDuckGo Search experience, start your searches on noai.duckduckgo.com instead of on duckduckgo.com. Searching on noai.duckduckgo.com works the same as search on duckduckgo.com, except all AI eatures are turned off and AI-generated images are filtered out of results by default."
November 23, 2025 at 8:11 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Free your mind
And your ass will follow

The Kingdom of Heaven
Is within
Pope Leo, a seventy-ish white guy in all white robes, stands at a microphone with his eyes closed & appears as if he might be singing. Behind him is a scrum of mostly journalists, one holding a camera, and a cardinal in a black cassock and little red cap.
November 23, 2025 at 3:36 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Maybe the band should face off against Arizona State tomorrow instead of the team.
November 22, 2025 at 2:57 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Rich is a life coach who loves graphic design. No time for all that book learnin'.
Screen shot from the website of the creep whose tweet was pictured in the OP. It says "Rich Cooper" in red script againsta black banner band at the top. Below that is a white field with black text (the Coaching) page. The text itself is unimportant - it just says he coaches high net worth men. The notable element is that it's all center-aligned, with about six different sentences. It looks like ass; like he's not high net worth enough to hire a graphic designer for his high net worth life coaching website.
November 21, 2025 at 1:20 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Who does this?
Close up screen shot of the background from the creator's video. It's a sort of soft blue wall with a bookcase visible on the left. On one shelf there's a cup with pens & markers next to a small lamp. Above that is a row of books; they have various heights but they're all turned backwards, spines to the wall. There's a novelty word sculpture saying "hello" in gold in front of the books. At right I've written "Oh no!" on the image in red with an arrow pointing at the backward books.
November 20, 2025 at 6:21 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
It's weird to feel embarrassed on behalf of someone who almost certainly doesn't feel it herself.
Screen shot of Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and the Wizard (Mako) in Conan the Barbarian. They're outside, it's night. Subotai is wearing a dark frock, and the Wizard is wearing a reddish ornamented cloak but that's hard to see in the low light. This is the scene where Conan is about to light the Valeria's funeral pyre, and the Wizard asks Subotai why he's crying. Subotai says that Conan won't cry because he's Cimmerian, so he (Subotai) cries on his behalf.
November 18, 2025 at 5:02 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Mr. President, a third thing has hit the timeline.
Photo of Andrew Card and George W. Bush, two fifty-something white guys in dark suits. Bush is seated and turning his head awkwardly to his right. Card's face is obscured as he leans down to speak into Bush's right ear. It's the very meme-ified photo taken in an elementary school classroom where Bush was reading to students, and Card had to tell him that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center towers.
November 18, 2025 at 3:23 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
I rarely food post because y'all are a tough crowd to keep up with, but this turned out SO good.
Photo of a plate of food on a black granite counter. Its a burger with melted cheese on top, a pile of arugula with more cheese and some dressing on top, and sauteed potatoes. All on a light yellow plate with a fork on the edge.
November 16, 2025 at 2:26 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Not heroic but I'll call this a solid effort for a random Saturday in the winter buildup.
Graph from my Garmin of heart rate and elevation. Black background and white grid text. HR in red averaged 136 and is pretty steady. Elevation in green starts around 5400 ft and goes up to 5650, a bit jumpy and rolling through the middle third of the run.
November 16, 2025 at 12:58 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
As a good lib, I choose second best for sake of everyone's net gain.
A ho-hum picture of the Northern Lights taken from the top of a parking garage. Brightly lit street below with a bit of the foothills starting to slope upward at the left. Above the horizon the sky is a hazy, dusty green color that fades to red higher up. The whole effect is kind of soft compared to some of the other dramatic photos we're seeing tonight.
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
I'm out of jail and out on bail and that's the way it goes.
Screen grab of my post from yesterday that reads "In my defense, I also contacted my members of Congress" and below that the original post itself has a screen grab of my avatar and handle with the "Posts a lot: more than 100 times yesterday" label. I drew some red arrows under my handle in the upper post to show that today the label has disappeared.
November 11, 2025 at 2:59 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
In my defense, I also contacted my members of Congress.
Screen shot of my avatar and handle with the usage labeler tag underneath: "Posts a lot: more than 100 times yesterday" White text on dark background. I've highlighted the tag text in green.
November 10, 2025 at 3:13 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Looks like some of the staffers knew in the wee hours earlier this morning.
Screen shot of the Google Trends page for the word "primary" on today, Nov. 9, 2025. It shows low levels of searching for primary, below 25 per hour, for most of the day. there's a huge spike between 1 and 2 AM, up to 100 searches per hour. Blue data line on white background with gray horizontal lines for the qty (y axis) and time markers (x axis)
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
I was doing this earlier but somehow it's my head that hurts now.
Capture of a plot from my Garmin watch showing elevation during my run. Black background, white text, green plot for elevation. It shows a 2 hour and 3 minutes run, at altitude, with a lot of elevation gain.
November 10, 2025 at 2:07 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
One thing that sucks is I think we finally did drag some of these Senate cadavers out of the cave into the light, but it only takes a couple who can't quit the dancing shadows.
Screen shot from the film The Matrix, of Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) a bald white guy about 40 with a mustache and a soul patch. He's sitting in a steakhouse, holding up a fork with a prodigious piece of rare meat on it, as if deep in contemplation. It's the scene where he's meeting with Agent Smith (the bad guy, played by Hugo Weaving) and selling out his crew mates so he can go back into the Matrix and have all his memories wiped. Giving up the struggle to do the right thing, and instead choosing his own comfort and advantage. Dooming his friends to death.
November 10, 2025 at 12:38 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Dunno if it's on purpose but the cover is a brilliant call back to Leviathan, except here the many individuals are atomized into a uniform grid instead of composed into the "artificiall man."
Screen shot of part of the cover from Thomas Hobbes's book Leviathan. It's a woodcut print, black ink on white paper, of a king - a white man with a crown, sword in his right hand and scepter in his left, mustache and long curly hair. He's very large and appears over a piece of countryside that's much smaller, with little houses etc. The illustration of his body is actually composed of smaller illustrations of people. Image from the wikipedia page for Leviathan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(Hobbes_book) Closer shot of the body of the Sovereign in on the cover of Leviathan. They all have little hats on and are mainly posed facing toward and up to the sovereign's face, so you see a lot of round hats on their heads, tops pointing back to the viewer's POV. Again, image available on the Leviathan Wikipedia page. Throw Wikipedia a couple of bucks if you can, support credible independent knowledge preservation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(Hobbes_book)
November 9, 2025 at 4:35 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
I was just casually leaving the coffee shop when this book assaulted me and demanded to be taken home and put at the top of the Unread Pile.
Photo of the cover of Brian Massumi's book The Personality of Power (Duke U Press, 2025). Its black with a photo collage made up of many smaller full-body photos of people. The cover text is relatively small, with Massumi's name at the upper left and the title lower on the right.
November 9, 2025 at 4:09 PM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
Can't see beyond the horizon no matter how much you stare.
Photo of the Gulf of Mexico at sunset, taken from the beach in Florida. Brown sand with light ripples and a bit of foam. The water is a dusky green-gray with a darker bluer stripe at the horizon. The sky is overcast and darkening but with some white areas and orange where the lingering sunlight is leaking through. It's a square photo with the horizon dividing it in half.
November 9, 2025 at 3:43 AM
thelasttheorist.bsky.social
I don't think this guy will become governor, but it would be funny if the anti-vax crowd turned on AI.
Photo of an article in the Naples Daily News about Republican candidate for governor Paul Renner. There's the lower half of a photo of Renner visible at the top. I highlighted a sentence about "removing harmful ingredients from school lunches" and then lower down another sentence that says he will require parental opt-in consent for kids using AI. Below that it says he's going to emphasize functional and naturopathic medicine.
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM