Derek Fox
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partialobserver.bsky.social
Derek Fox
@partialobserver.bsky.social
6.5K followers 8.2K following 5.3K posts
Penn State Astronomer (he/him), personal account. “We went and made everything a computer without ever bothering to fix computers.”
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partialobserver.bsky.social
Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · Jan 2
Now that computer programs readily pass the Turing Test, we see that both Turing and Searle were correct: Searle in that programs can mimic human communication very well without anything like understanding, and Turing in that having programs do this is really f#*king disorienting.
Reposted by Derek Fox
audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app
* chanting * contempt, contempt

* banging on table now * Contempt, Contempt

* whole room joins * CONTEMPT, CONTEMPT

ballsandstrikes.org/ethics-accou...
The Trump Justice Department Is Way Too Comfortable Violating Court Orders
Judges have tools for responding to noncompliance. They just have to use them.
ballsandstrikes.org
September 16, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
ringwiss.bsky.social
If Jeffries did think that the House should vote on impeaching Hegseth, he could have offered Massie’s resolution for him – it would then have to be considered immediately.
September 16, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
marisakabas.bsky.social
New — I wrote about this weird thing where people within the Republican party keep being exposed as Nazis and the party then tries to claim each one is an aberration. The facts, as I lay out here, indicate otherwise:
Republicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problem
A spate of recent revelations have shown the ideologies and their adherents are one and the same.
www.thehandbasket.co
September 16, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
carlbergstrom.com
Today, with backing from the ACLU, Kelton and twelve other named researchers filed a class action suit against the NIH under director Jay Bhattacharya for censoring their research and violating their First Amendment rights.
Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union
Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research
www.aclu.org
September 16, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
peark.es
Diesel new highs, China crude making new record premiums vs Brent, backwardation accelerating, tanker rates exploding. All of this suggests the crude market is tightening rapidly because China has stopped relying on strategic draws. Much more impt than the US SPR if it sustains.
Chart of diesel prices for past year Chart of spread ($/bbl) between Chinese crude futures (medium-sour grade, delivered to China's coast) vs Brent Chart of spread between front-month Brent and fourth-month Brent, with higher readings indicating a greater premium for barrels near-terms vs deferred barrels. Spot freight rate for a Persian Gulf tanker to the US Gulf Coast since 1991
September 15, 2026 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
gregsargent.bsky.social
Trump is a world-historical villain who's putting us all in extreme danger, so put him at the center of this story. Dems can highlight how Trump is actively using DOJ and EPA to help AI data centers steamroll communities, and vow that a Dem majority will stop it. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/2154...
September 15, 2026 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
normative.bsky.social
Something weirdly not noted in a lot of the coverage of the extortionate threats to murder the Kennedy Center unless it’s reimagined as a shrine to Trump: There was no dire fiscal crisis until Trump’s goombahs started mucking with it. Its finances were fine. projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/o...
John F Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica
Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as...
projects.propublica.org
September 15, 2026 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
robertscotthorton.bsky.social
As a "businessman," Umar Kremlëv's major business lines including abducting children in Ukraine and bringing them to Russia, which the ICC declared a war crime.
September 15, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
jaywillis.net
Genuinely an insane paragraph from Sam Alito. “Voter fraud is real and scary and we have to stop it, so the fact that implementing Trump’s mail ballot rule will disenfranchise millions is legally irrelevant.” Brain melted. A right-wing podcaster in a robe. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
___, (slip op., at 9) (internal quotation marks omitted). As for the equities, the Government has a strong interest in enforcing the rule, and implementing it will also “en- hance the visibility of Federal Ballot Mail” in order to better detect election fraud. 91 Fed. Reg. 54972. On the other side of the balance, the plaintiff States invoke the practical ef- fects of implementing the rule close to the midterm elec- tions. I take that problem very seriously, but it is not enough to convince me to deny the application. First, as the District Court acknowledged, the States dis-
September 15, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
billmccarthy.bsky.social
NEW:

A Russian disinformation operation has turned its attention to the US midterm elections, unleashing a series of deepfake videos that depict celebrities attacking Democrats, researchers said.

www.france24.com/en/live-news...
Russian disinformation campaign sets sights on US midterms
A Russian disinformation operation has turned its attention to the US midterm elections, unleashing a series of deepfake videos that depict celebrities attacking Democrats, researchers said, with more...
www.france24.com
September 14, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
161bklyn.myatproto.social
Oh yes, absolutely.
September 14, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
wagatwe.bsky.social
see, this is why I say "cancel culture" isn't real. it was framed as a new, dangerous phenomenon when people with power have been making moves like this forever.
premthakker.bsky.social Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 2d
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran.

Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.
I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour. But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that. Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened. Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. Ed was in … What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me. And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability. I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation. When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic: لا شكر على واجب "La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty. That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human. Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
September 14, 2026 at 7:34 PM
partialobserver.bsky.social
“Cancel Culture” really getting out of hand
premthakker.bsky.social Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 2d
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran.

Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.
I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour. But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that. Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened. Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. Ed was in … What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me. And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability. I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation. When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic: لا شكر على واجب "La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty. That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human. Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
September 14, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
premthakker.bsky.social
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran.

Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.
I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour. But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that. Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened. Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. Ed was in … What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me. And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability. I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation. When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic: لا شكر على واجب "La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty. That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human. Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
September 14, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
gillianbrockell.com
Glad folks are appalled by photos of the "phone booth" cage under an awning, but pls understand: This IG report is likely part of a cover-up.

Amnesty Int'l interviewed detainees EIGHT MONTHS AGO who said the cage was half this size (couldn't stand up), had no awning, w feet chained to the bottom.
September 14, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
kyledcheney.bsky.social
NEW: Once exceptionally rare, illegal deportations — in defiance of court orders or due to ICE screw-ups — are now a routine part of President Trump's mass deportation push.

It happened 3 times this past week and more at least 30 times in recent months. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
September 14, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
ciara2001.eurosky.social
It's a day ending in a 'y' and we're back to gender cranks rewriting history again. I came out first in 1989, I've been using appropriate spaces since the 1990s, I had friends who transitioned in the 1970s, April Ashley transitioned in the 50s, there is a very long list
@free-orthodontics.bsky.social That wasn't the status quo, "transwomen have always used women's spaces" is just another leftist shibboleth & gaslighting to boot. Even now, even in leftist hotspots like unis, it still doesn't really fly. To suppose men were identifying into women's changing rooms in e.g. the 80s is madness. 8:29 AM Sep 14, 2026
September 14, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
ryanmarino.bsky.social
The rule they are overturning was predicted to give $120 billion in public health benefits by 2047, with projections that by 2035, it would would prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital and emergency room visits, 360K asthma attacks, 48K school absence days and 57K lost workdays each year
September 14, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
I'm serious when I say I've lost track of all the recent revelations of literal Nazis working in high-level positions in Republican congressional campaigns and I would very much appreciate a journalist who took the time to detail as many of them as can fit into an article.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d
Ossoff: "Then there's the ex-staffer posting swastikas and Klan regalia. And the neo-Nazi with a million followers who produces neo-Nazi propaganda at Collins's house ... a man who won't take responsibility for what happens under his own roof can't be trusted with our national affairs."
September 13, 2026 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
volts.wtf
If the strait of hormuz is closed, at least we have a backup pipeline to keep prices ... [finger to ear] ... I'm being told we're fucked ...
Saudi Shuts Oil Pipeline That Bypasses Hormuz After Attacks
Saudi Arabia closed its East-West pipeline, a key alternative to the Strait of Hormuz for its oil exports, following multiple attacks on Thursday.
www.bloomberg.com
September 13, 2026 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by Derek Fox
timnitgebru.blacksky.app
All of a sudden we're not talking about the widely popular bipartisan opposition to massive data center buildouts. I wonder why 🤔
emilymbender.bsky.social Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 3d
p.s. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that all of this acceleration in the hype is a reaction to the succesful and broadening opposition to their wasteful, polluting, noisy data centers.
September 13, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
gottalaff.bsky.social
1. He's promised the same "dividend" multiple times before, so no, not new, not creative

2. He never produced the $$

3. Trump isn't capable of "thinking," and he is definitely boxed in.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d
Mike Johnson on Republican opposition to Trump's $5k bribe to voters: "It's a new creative idea ... we applaud the president for thinking outside the box"
September 13, 2026 at 1:59 PM
partialobserver.bsky.social
Every Ponzi scheme:

1. “It’s a new paradigm!”
2. Spectacular returns for a very limited number
3. Burn the rest on marketing + sales
4. Super-powered growth phase
5. Push off investor payday ( <—— AI bubble is here now )
6. Run out of cash, beg for more, feed into furnace
7. Crash + hangover
flyingrodent.bsky.social flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3d
They’re suddenly all saying “safety concerns” in unison but I’m hearing “the arse is going to fall out of this business when investors realise it doesn’t make money”.
Dario, Elon, and Sam all agree about pacing the frontier Dario Amodei A @DarioAmodei We Must Pace the Frontier: I've written a new essay on why the Al industry should slow down, with a three-part plan for doing so. Anthropic is unilaterally committing to the first of these steps. We'll provide third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents, and assess models' alignment during training. You can read the full post here: JUST IN: Sam Altman reveals OpenAl will not go public in 2026, calling an IPO now an "ill-advised moment" given mounting Al safety concerns. 21:03 • 12/09/2026 • 351K
September 13, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
esghound.com
Talarico has hours of footage defending trans kids in the state legislature. I have no idea why he's giving weird answers on the topic now. His record is anything *but* throwing em under the bus
September 12, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Derek Fox
jacobtlevy.bsky.social
W/o getting drawn into the "seriously or literally" / "it'll never happen" trap, we need to stomp *hard* on the continuing effort to undermine Article 1 power of the purse by saying that this or that revenue stream makes something outside the normal budget process.
1/
www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...
Lutnick says Trump’s $5,000 checks for Americans wouldn’t rely on taxpayer funds
A top White House official suggested Congress would use a budget process to fund them. Vice President JD Vance had said tariff revenues.
www.nbcnews.com
September 12, 2026 at 2:09 PM