Ken Hoffman
@zen-hoffman.bsky.social
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Bill McClintock just knocked it out of the park again.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfJk...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfJk...
Peter Gabriel and Sly & the Family Stone - "Thank You (Falettinme Be Your Sledgehammer)"
YouTube video by Bill McClintock
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Bill McClintock just knocked it out of the park again.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfJk...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfJk...
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Does the news reflect what we die from?
October 7, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Does the news reflect what we die from?
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
September 28, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Technology can change the world in ways that are unimaginable until they happen.
Switching on an electric light would have been unimaginable for our medieval ancestors. In their childhood, our grandparents would have struggled to imagine a world connected by smartphones and the Internet.
Switching on an electric light would have been unimaginable for our medieval ancestors. In their childhood, our grandparents would have struggled to imagine a world connected by smartphones and the Internet.
September 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Technology can change the world in ways that are unimaginable until they happen.
Switching on an electric light would have been unimaginable for our medieval ancestors. In their childhood, our grandparents would have struggled to imagine a world connected by smartphones and the Internet.
Switching on an electric light would have been unimaginable for our medieval ancestors. In their childhood, our grandparents would have struggled to imagine a world connected by smartphones and the Internet.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
To track progress towards ending extreme poverty by 2030, the United Nations relies on the World Bank to estimate the share of people living below a certain threshold, called the International Poverty Line (IPL).
August 28, 2025 at 1:56 PM
To track progress towards ending extreme poverty by 2030, the United Nations relies on the World Bank to estimate the share of people living below a certain threshold, called the International Poverty Line (IPL).
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Counting lives saved is difficult, but it can show us the great difference some people have made—
Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world.
Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world.
August 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Counting lives saved is difficult, but it can show us the great difference some people have made—
Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world.
Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
When the writer @alistairkitchen.bsky.social was stopped by Customs and Border Protection last week, after flying to Los Angeles from Melbourne, a border agent told him, “explicitly and proudly,” why he’d been pulled out of the customs line. nyer.cm/wVpy0on
June 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
When the writer @alistairkitchen.bsky.social was stopped by Customs and Border Protection last week, after flying to Los Angeles from Melbourne, a border agent told him, “explicitly and proudly,” why he’d been pulled out of the customs line. nyer.cm/wVpy0on
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Talking Heads Release the First Official Video for “Psycho Killer”: Watch It Online
Talking Heads Release the First Official Video for “Psycho Killer”: Watch It Online
On social media, the Talking Heads teased a major announcement on June 5th, leading fans to wonder if a reunion—41 years after their last tour—might finally be in the offing. As one fan put it, 'If th...
www.openculture.com
June 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Talking Heads Release the First Official Video for “Psycho Killer”: Watch It Online
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
The neo-reactionary blogger Curtis Yarvin’s call for a monarch to rule America once seemed like a joke. Not anymore.
Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America
The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.
www.newyorker.com
June 4, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The neo-reactionary blogger Curtis Yarvin’s call for a monarch to rule America once seemed like a joke. Not anymore.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Paul Reubens made a decision to disappear himself from public life and present Pee-wee Herman as a real person. But there was a price to splitting himself in two, Michael Schulman writes.
Pee-wee Herman and the Cost of Dividing Yourself in Two
A new HBO documentary shows how the performer Paul Reubens came to resent his iconic alter ego.
nyer.cm
May 29, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Paul Reubens made a decision to disappear himself from public life and present Pee-wee Herman as a real person. But there was a price to splitting himself in two, Michael Schulman writes.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
The length of software tasks AI systems can do on their own has been increasing quickly
May 14, 2025 at 4:05 PM
The length of software tasks AI systems can do on their own has been increasing quickly
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
May 17, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Smoking seemed inevitable — until it didn’t.
We've made substantial progress against smoking, but there is still more work to be done — every year, millions of people worldwide die prematurely as a result of smoking.
We've made substantial progress against smoking, but there is still more work to be done — every year, millions of people worldwide die prematurely as a result of smoking.
May 7, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Smoking seemed inevitable — until it didn’t.
We've made substantial progress against smoking, but there is still more work to be done — every year, millions of people worldwide die prematurely as a result of smoking.
We've made substantial progress against smoking, but there is still more work to be done — every year, millions of people worldwide die prematurely as a result of smoking.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
“People, especially new parents looking for awesome bedtime stories, need to be reading everything they can possibly find about these ancient and powerful beings instead of blindly accepting the narrow range of depictions put forth by the mainstream media,” Kennedy wrote theonion.com/rfk-jr-...
RFK Jr. Encourages Americans To Do Their Own Research About Dragons
WASHINGTON—Claiming the fantastical creatures were “way too cool” to leave their investigation to a handful of so-called experts, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a statement Friday encouraging Americans to do their own research about dragons. “People, especially new parents looking for awesome bedtime stories, need to be reading everything they […]
theonion.com
May 3, 2025 at 12:00 AM
“People, especially new parents looking for awesome bedtime stories, need to be reading everything they can possibly find about these ancient and powerful beings instead of blindly accepting the narrow range of depictions put forth by the mainstream media,” Kennedy wrote theonion.com/rfk-jr-...
I gave Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 03-25 this input
Is the following sentence an idiom? You can't lick a badger twice.
and the response ended with
So, **technically no, it's not a standard idiom**, but it's certainly an evocative phrase that *works* like one.
Is the following sentence an idiom? You can't lick a badger twice.
and the response ended with
So, **technically no, it's not a standard idiom**, but it's certainly an evocative phrase that *works* like one.
April 24, 2025 at 11:56 PM
I gave Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 03-25 this input
Is the following sentence an idiom? You can't lick a badger twice.
and the response ended with
So, **technically no, it's not a standard idiom**, but it's certainly an evocative phrase that *works* like one.
Is the following sentence an idiom? You can't lick a badger twice.
and the response ended with
So, **technically no, it's not a standard idiom**, but it's certainly an evocative phrase that *works* like one.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine
April 23, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
![Apophasis is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer brings up a subject by denying it or denying that it should be brought up. A classic example of apophasis is "I'm not going to say that I told you so".[4]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cyyd366g3hrxp5rynixm2mm3/bafkreihduc4sibmpvsr3z26occequpwmcxbsrwxo62zynwbekq4tgztfvy@jpeg)
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
![United States president Donald Trump frequently employs apophasis.[1] In 2015, Trump said of fellow Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, "I promised I would not say that she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground, that she laid off tens of thousands of people and she got viciously fired. I said I will not say it, so I will not say it."[1]
In 2016, he tweeted of journalist Megyn Kelly, "I refuse to call [her] a bimbo because that would not be politically correct."[1] In 2017, as president, he tweeted of the leader of North Korea, "Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me 'old', when I would NEVER call him 'short and fat'?".[2] In light of a potential presidential bid by Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Trump claimed he would not use the name "Meatball Ron" in reference to him](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cyyd366g3hrxp5rynixm2mm3/bafkreidf53fxbfyuguwjcvbb5e62yam4kjjyzmvosavbxkenlodms6oloa@jpeg)
April 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
for this week's @newyorker.com magazine issue, I wrote a Profile of Bluesky, the site we are on right now! It's the deepest look yet at how Bluesky started as a Twitter side project and how CEO Jay Graber went from welding Bitcoin rigs to running a social network www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Bluesky’s Quest to Build Nontoxic Social Media
X and Facebook are governed by the policies of mercurial billionaires. Bluesky’s C.E.O., Jay Graber, says that she wants to give power back to the user.
www.newyorker.com
April 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
for this week's @newyorker.com magazine issue, I wrote a Profile of Bluesky, the site we are on right now! It's the deepest look yet at how Bluesky started as a Twitter side project and how CEO Jay Graber went from welding Bitcoin rigs to running a social network www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Well, that takes care of *that*, then.
April 4, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Well, that takes care of *that*, then.
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
Trump Calmly Reminds Nation That Desire The Root Of All Suffering
theonion.com/trump-c...
theonion.com/trump-c...
April 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Trump Calmly Reminds Nation That Desire The Root Of All Suffering
theonion.com/trump-c...
theonion.com/trump-c...
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
There’s at least a dozen dissertations to be written from this paper by Anthropic alone, which gives us some insight into how AIs “think” and reveal a lot of complexity and unexpected abilities, including generalization and planning. transformer-circuits.pub/2025/attribu...
March 28, 2025 at 1:36 PM
There’s at least a dozen dissertations to be written from this paper by Anthropic alone, which gives us some insight into how AIs “think” and reveal a lot of complexity and unexpected abilities, including generalization and planning. transformer-circuits.pub/2025/attribu...
Reposted by Ken Hoffman
The private theatricals of Wilde’s life reveal a man who was neither pure nor simple, but rather a complex figure whose sexuality defied Victorian constraints
Sex, life and Oscar Wilde: ‘rarely pure and never simple’ | Aeon Essays
Oscar Wilde is an icon of gay liberation from secrecy. But his life and his sexuality were not so simple – nor so binary
aeon.co
March 25, 2025 at 10:12 AM
The private theatricals of Wilde’s life reveal a man who was neither pure nor simple, but rather a complex figure whose sexuality defied Victorian constraints