Don't get me wrong, I kid with love. If social media can't do silly things that are fun, we should shut it down. (Perhaps we should shut it down, but not because of this.)

I love these dumb memes. "Show a tall building that isn't the Chrysler building" "Show a famous actor who's not Sean Connery" "Name a theorem but not the law of large numbers" "Show a famous painting but not Guernica" "Say a common English word but not 'of'" "Name a movie that's not Titanic"

Which is not to say that the movies are bad! The LOTR movies are still among my favorite of all time. But film adaptations of dense novels, even faithful ones, are forced to simplify.

One interesting thing is that the movie has this exact scene, with much of the exact dialogue, but the meaning is flattened. In the movie, Saruman is simply evil, so he wants to join with a greater evil. It loses the applicability to the temptation to colaborate with real world evils.

My wife texted me a few days ago to say she was watching “relay sex on a sled.”

and also… Michael Keaton??

You may have thought they attempted time travel in Avengers: Endgame. No, they are truly attempting time travel with Avengers: Doomsday. Just go back and do exactly the thing that worked before, down to the last detail. Luckily for Marvel, this strategy has never failed in the history of Hollywood.

I saw a skeet the other day. Didn't like it. Wrote a skeet saying so. Didn't feel like I made my point adequately, so I didn't post it, went to bed. Woke up to find other people had articulated my point better than I ever could, and the original skeet had been deleted. I only make good choices

Black holes actually exist.

“No stretching, just bold determination” goes right up on the board next to “With great power comes great responsibility.”

I agree with Bouie about Rogue One (although I don’t even think the final sequence is that good), but I’m happy for the people who love it. The movie they describe sounds great. I wish I could see that one, rather than the one I see when I watch it.

I wonder a lot about what life is like in the parallel universe in which the 2024 presidential election result is unchanged, but 3,656 people changed their votes and the Democrats took back the house.

A picture of me wearing a transparent tie, as in the October 21, 2015 sequence in Back to the Future part II

This is me from ten years ago today. I’ve been wearing the tie every day since, but for some reason no one ever comments on it. I guess it really is the style of the future. Or perhaps the past.

Protest march turning left at a stoplight. The protest includes a person in an inflatable shark costume holding an American flag, and many other people holding signs and marching.

From today’s No Kings march in Phoenix. When the march reached 4th Ave, we turned left despite the posted No Left Turn signs. Hell yes we did, and soon the country will follow.

Christmas Evil. Yeah I just saw that, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson right? Really good.

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone if your profession would understand:

Published theorem actually incorrect

I’m glad that many people post here instead of Xitter because they get more engagement here. But, for me personally, a random guy with no public following, I post here rather than Facebook (the other major option for me) even though I know I’d get more engagement *there*, because I think it’s evil

I don’t have kids, and from the outside active shooter drills seem bananas to me. Many liberals say “well this is just the consequence of living with so many guns.” And like I agree let’s get rid of the guns but in the meantime can we stop traumatizing the kids.

Woah. Hold on, go back one.

Meme from "the Good Place" with Michael and Janet. Michael is labeled "me", and Janet is labeled "iPhone". Michael says "I want you to play audio out of my airpods, not the phone speakers". Janet says "Yes, I will play audio out of your airpods, not the phone speakers". Michael says "Excellent! Play the audio". Janet hands him an object labeled "BLAAAARE"

We're all the way up to iOS 26 now, and it still does this.

Poster for the 1992 movie Sneakers, featuring Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, David Strathairn

With each passing year, the cast of Sneakers becomes even more astonishing. David Strathairn is the least prominent actor on the poster! Ben Kingsley, Timothy Busfield, Stephen Tobolowsky, and James Earl Jones are in this movie and not even advertised. And they're all good in it. This movie rocks

What if the Moon were made entirely of electrons? YouTube video by xkcd's What If?

You should watch this video. Not just for personal reasons, but also for personal reasons.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiWF...

No no, Benoit Blanc is just pretending to be short, just like he’s pretending to have long hair.

The Two Duplexes

Wait, this year we're getting re-releases for the 50th anniversary of Jaws, the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future, and the 30th anniversary of Apollo 13? What about the 20th anniversary of the 40 Year-old Virgin? The 10th anniversary of Jupiter Ascending?

Bare minimum for a heist: a Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever.

Only when you’re a vision science academic. You know, 50% vision research, 40% vision teaching, 20% vision service.

I don’t know why, but this can be really hard. There’s someone I’ve been following on the internet for decades, who I really admire, but who has a take on a 35 year old movie that I strongly disagree with. I have imaginary arguments with them about this all the time. Why on earth do I care so much?

“speculation on how the technology might develop in the coming years can easily distract us from solving issues we are facing now” might be the best, most concise advice about AI in the present moment that I’ve ever read.

A screenshot from the game "Portal 2" with a poster titled "Know your paradoxes in the event of rogue AI". It lists the instructions: 1. Stand still, 2. Remain calm, 3. Scream: "This statement is false!" "New mission: refuse this mission!" "Does a set of all sets contain itself?"

In this age of AI, it's important to maintain discipline and readiness. That's why this poster is so useful. I suggest printing it out and displaying it prominently anywhere that anyone might interact with rogue AI.