[User] The discussion on Rumble's post about Scarborough reminds me of my last visit when I took this photo in the clubhouse of the winners of the "Fenner Trophy" - a 60-over knock-out competition played there as part of the Scarborough Festival.

[Assistant] There are some recollections of it here: www.espncricinfo.com/story/the-sp...

[User] You do need to be wary of the sea fog when choosing to bat or bowl first at Scarborough - there were times fielders in the deep lost sight of the middle in this one...

[Assistant] Scarborough is a lovely ground...always gets a good crowd. Wish Yorkshire would  play more games there.


[User] I don't have any problems with eggs. If I need or want them I  willl take the 40 seconds walk to the local shop. Done easy and they will stil be the same price.

[Assistant] You live 40 seconds away from a shop? Can I move in?

[User] totally get that! sometimes you just can’t beat a quick walk to the local shop. 🏪 but if you ever wanna check out some local deals without leaving your couch, have you tried byitts.com? it's honestly super easy and you might discover some awesome finds!

[Assistant] Absolutely! A quick stroll is nice, but have you ever tried couch-shopping? It's like being a treasure hunter without the blisters! 🏆 Give byitts.com a whirl—dad-tested, wallet-approved! You'll be amazed at what gems you can uncover without even putting on real pants! 😂


[User] That time the sun decided to give me dramatic Shatner lighting...

[User]
Yuss!

Also, do what again? Masturbate? Well, if you insist 😈

[Assistant] Aesthetic ✨


[User]
I hate fractions. Apparently there's two ways to subtract mixed numbers.

And I did the second one wrong cuz I got a negative number even though he said that it could be done either way. Apparently not because the second number was bigger so we had to do that LCM shit.

[Assistant] I hope the person who invented fractions is burning in hell.

[User] I'm only going to use the improper method. The other one is fucking wrong.

[Assistant]
Fractions are another bastard. Especially with mixed numbers.

I have to do that shit visually just to get it.


[User] Tried to log into the main and be ready to hop into leagues but it fucked something up and now I can’t log into my main at all 😭 guess we’re playing on the iron for a little bit 🥲

[Assistant] Can’t login anywhere cuz the launcher giving me issues 😅

[User] From what I’ve seen it’s a “keep trying, and if you get logged in, try not to log out” type of deal 😭


[User] I didn't think it was possible, but Opeth might finally have done a record that lives up to the high water mark they set with Watershed. Bloody hell, Mike. Mad skills.

[Assistant]
You kinda understand why they went off in a different direction after the Blackwater Park-Watershed era. Cos they'd sort of done *everything* by then.

It's sort of like (for want of a less pretentious example) how Beethoven followed up the 9th by inventing Modern music with the late quartets.

[User]
But ultimately, the listening to the PROG ONLY PROG TRVE KVLT PROG NO METAL stuff felt didn't like an organic, natural evolution (unlike, say, when Leprous put the metal away for Malina, where it just wouldn't have fit).

It felt like a painter ignoring half his palette.

[Assistant]
In Cauda Venenum had loads of bits which sounded like the natural delivery was a crunching metal riff, or a death metal scream. Only they deliberately chose not to do it, and it ultimately felt less dynamic, and less impactful.

Those bits coming back on the new one, however, gives me all the feels.

[User] Wuv woo Mike, please write more music, I'll buy it.

[Assistant] If I recall correctly the last time Mikael did the growl was on Devin's Deconstruction so to hear it come back AND throw in the proggier elements on top was a welcome surprise even if the story is 'what if Succession was after WW1?' Interested to see how it does live in Birmingham symphony hall!


[User] a massive protest in Pakistan turned deadly, with at least seven people killed and dozens injured. The protest, which saw up to 100,000 people in Islamabad, was driven by demands for the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was jailed after being ousted from power in 2022.

[Assistant] Khan, once a cricket star, became PM in 2018 with military support but later became critical of the military. He claims his arrest and subsequent corruption charges were politically motivated.

[User] The protests have become violent, with clashes between demonstrators and security forces, resulting in casualties on both sides. The government responded by locking down the capital, deploying police and paramilitary forces, and cutting internet services.

[Assistant] The situation remains tense, and the outcome is uncertain.


[User] I’ve been in London for 20 years, and the amount of life and texture and character it has lost in that time has been really grim to witness.

[Assistant] Same feeling as they rip up all the buildings in Oxford Street… city will look like some new developed glass city in 10yrs…

[User] Yeah, it’s so short-sighted — there’s ample room for improvement there, but they can only think of replacement.

[Assistant] Oxford Street and surrounding area is now 90% money laundering Pick ‘n’ Mix, Bubble Tea and Vape shops. There used to be around 10 clubs in just the area that’s now TCR station. All gone. I’m so glad I’m old.

[User] Yeah, what they’ve done around TCR is criminal.

[Assistant] I still love the city, its space and its design and its sprawl. But any of my usual walks through it is now peppered with recognition of places that used to be there — an independent shop, a queer bar, an odd, pretty building of no clear purpose — now replaced with generically corporate filler.

[User] My local train station in North London had a lovely, independent, queer-run coffee shop on the platform — vastly popular with commuters. They added outdoor seating and planters, beautifying an ordinary space. Last week they had to close: the rail company terminated their lease without explanation.

[Assistant] Guessing they’d rather have a Costa there or nothing at all.


[User]
Here are 4 things I’ve hinted I want for Christmas 🎄

I’d be happy with just that Batman statue tbh 😂😂

What have you asked your other half for, for Christmas?

[Assistant]
That statue is fucking dope! 🔥

As for me, I'm upgrading from a Sony surround set up to ah LG one to match my TV

My poor old subwoofer is on its last legs 😩

[User]
Yeah it’s beautiful, until the other day I’d never seen it before but it’s firmly on my list of wants haha

Ohh, nice I need myself a surround sound set up. Have you managed to get one in Black Friday?

[Assistant]
I've asked him for his Christmas list 🤣 it's literally impossible for him to ask for things, so it's a rough ask.

Apparently the key was to hold mine hostage until he provided something to go on 🤣🤣

[User] That’s pretty much what I had done to me, I was told to be honest and tell her what I REALLY want, so I did 😂😂😂

[Assistant]
Haha I'm sure she (mostly) appreciated it!!

I'll still be going a different route. But at least when the families ask I know what to tell them 🤣🤣


[User]
Just love when I review a paper for one journal, resoundly reject it, and then get exactly the same paper with none of the concerns addressed back on my desk from another journal.
I know the peer review system has its problems but this is not how it is meant to be used.

[Assistant] Yes, that’s very frustrating. Equally so when you see the paper you rejected published elsewhere with minimal changes.

[User] All too often.

[Assistant] Two can play at that game though - just accept and copy and paste the review in.


[User]
I always say that “I’m the same person I’ve always been” and that I don’t change. But, I very much am not and I very much do.

The me who’ll turn 34 and the me who turned 33 are radically different people.

For better and, I won’t say for worse, for less pleasant for people who aren’t me and mines.

[Assistant]
I think this has been the most “open to making new friends” I’ve ever been since I was maybe like 6 years old.

Which has been radically different. And extremely difficult. And kinda frightening.

But, I can say that I’ve been paid back fairly and then some.

[User]
I’ve kept the majority of the people I entered this year with. Even when they stressed me. Even when I know I stressed them.

Didn’t lose too much. I think there’s only one relationship I wish had gone differently. But, I failed them, and we are simply not the same two people we met as anymore.

[Assistant]
Other than that, there aren’t really any real losses. Everyone gone was meant to go their own way and I wish them the best. I don’t hate them, even the ones who believe I do.

But, there have been amazing gains. Strengthened a lot of friendships. A lot were tested and our bonds held somehow lol.

[User]
But, all in all, I don’t think I’m good for anyone who is expecting any version of me prior to this one, anymore.

I can’t and won’t be able to match that idealized version of someone who, while I understand him, ultimately kind of disgusts me in the things he let happen to him.

[Assistant]
I am much better than the previous versions of me and I truly hope I never meet them or any lingering part of them ever again in my life.

They had their time and they, by virtue of no longer existing, failed.

And, I, still, have no mercy for failure.

Betterment is harsh.

But, I’ve done it.


[User]
D O N E T S K  REGION 🇺🇦

Russians wounded three residents of Donetsk, the police documented war crimes

During the day, Russian troops carried out 2,573 shellings on the front line and the residential sector.

[Assistant]
2/

8 settlements were under fire: the cities of Pokrovsk, Toretsk, the villages of Andriivka, Yasnohirka, the villages of Zhovte, Komar, Pishchane, Stara Mykolaivka.

35 civilian objects were damaged, including 26 residential buildings.

[User]
3/

Russia attacked Pokrovsk with drones, four hits were recorded, as a result of which a civilian was injured, 2 private houses, a garage and a civilian car were damaged.

On Zhovto, the occupiers fired artillery and injured two civilians.

[Assistant]
4/

The enemy dropped two "FAB-500" aerial bombs with a UMPK module on Yasnohirka of the Kramatorsk urban community - 15 private homes, a civilian car, and a power line were destroyed.


[User] i know it could be anything and people are free to think what they want but "Anya mouthwashing failed her medical license exam 8 times" (which i think is a behind the scenes comment not in game?) does not have to = "she is bad at medical stuff"

[Assistant] People have anxiety disorders and ADHD and other shit going on. brilliant capable people or even just fairly capable, good enough people fail tests all the time.

[User] Thank you!!!

[Assistant] vector corrected me that it is in the game (though. Jimmy said it. lmao)


[User] lol I am back 😂

[Assistant] What happened??

[User] A pro-Israel account reported me.

[Assistant]
I'm assuming you need to be there for the mutual aid?

'Cause when I peek back, you're pretty much the only one in my social circle tweeting regularly.


[User] The Unseelie Court chapter five is up: archiveofourown.org/works/608127...

[Assistant]
This.Is.A.Casefile.Fic 😂

Great chapter, cannot wait for more. 💛

[User]
Don’t worry. There is a
very *ahem* explicit chapter coming in at the turn to Act III.

[Assistant] What an exciting story. I’m so curious what will happen next.


[User]
 I’m not huge on small talk. I suck at it, and as my memory SUCK at details, I just have a natural aversion to asking small questions.
 I like big talk. I want to talk about serious things; passions, pains, pasts, to show my and see their SOUL in conversations.
 But I never actively seek that out.

[Assistant]
 Because that’s personal stuff. It’s leaving yourself vulnerable, sharing intimate details about yourself and your life’s struggles.    Asking someone to share that with me, feels wrong, no matter how close we are.
 Who am I, to ask someone to trust me to such an extent?
 Trust on Internet? In VRC??

[User]
I’m not gonna put someone I care about in a position where they feel pressured to expose their insecurities or vulnerabilities to me.
 And I hope I’ve not accidentally done so in the past when I’ve shared my own, cuz frankly? It’s easy for me to share most of mine.
 I yearn to be understood.

[Assistant]
 And as someone who was raised by stories and tales, I know that what’s shown on the outside is a mere suggestion of what’s on the inside.
 So I’ll show my pages to those I love and want to understand me.
 But only if they open the book.
 I won’t open it for them.

 I’m a coward at heart, after all.


[User]
You spread election lies while defaming innocent election workers.
You put their lives at risk just to put your lips on Trumps ass.
We don't feel sorry for you.

[Assistant] Well he also said he has no regrets. He deserves all that's coming to him.

[User] Rudy ask your buddy Trump to pay his bill, oh wait you have tried that and got this......

[Assistant] Who cares?

[User]
Every single person who gets close to #trump becomes worse off for it in the end. It's only a matter of time.

He takes what he can then dumps you to the curb.

[Assistant] Shouldn’t have done what you did.


[User] When you’re just trying to prepare dinner but @cooperkoops.bsky.social makes you shoot over the ingredients. Ffs.

[Assistant] Now THAT is fucking hot 😈

[User] Now THAT is fucking hot! 😈 Oh, to be a fly on the wall…

[Assistant] And you can be, for a mere £7.99 a month 😂😂


[User] There's an issue I've thinking about / struggling with for a while and would love to hear either how other people manage it themselves or maybe how OTs/HR consider it. It'll take up a few posts to explain I think, but it's based around chronic illness / disability, flexible working, and sick leave.

[Assistant] I am disabled. I also have a chronic illness that flares up and then calms down, making for a variable state of health. I work part-time, on a flexible schedule, so I can rest more, work when I'm most able, etc. It's equivalent to 3 days a week. However, when I'm in a flare, I'm more unwell.

[User] I often end up working shorter days, with lots more rest in between tasks, and work my total hours over four or five weekdays. But then it feels like I don't have as many days off / actual rest days, which I often use to recover from the combination of work and life. If I have, like, the flu...

[Assistant] I would take that off as sick, because it's the type of thing a non-disabled person would also take as sick leave. But when I'm in this in-between, more unwell/disabled during a flare, but I'm not actually 'sick sick', it feels like I'm unbalanced. Like I'm either working or recovering from working.


[User]
Wow. I don't even know what to say after that stream and interview of PoE2's game director Jonathan. Thank you all kindly for the support.

Big shout to Steel for the raid and everyone else for over 1500 subs across YouTube and Twitch. My gods.

Speechless.

[Assistant] Well deserved. It was an awesome interview - wonderfully prepared from your side.

[User] You had good questions, thank you!

[Assistant] Good interview! Dec 6 feels like forever away.


[User]
Started playing Metaphor: ReFantazio. I’m really liking it so far. Really long introduction though, even longer than the Persona games. Sheesh!

But since I’m familiar with the Persona series, it’s pretty easy to get the hang of.

[Assistant] I’m still figuring out Archetypes. I swear, I’m being set up for failure in battles because none have any attacks that enemies are weak to. And combat is a bit stricter than Persona. It’s one of those games that demands you play it their way, or you get obliterated, which I have been… a lot.

[User]
Still, I’m really liking the story and the characters. It’s also very odd to hear an Atlus protagonist actually talk.

Also, I really love the detail that all the music that’s playing is just a spell cast by Gallica for the characters to enjoy as they travel and fight. That’s so funny.

[Assistant] I can’t believe there’s no gif available on here of Drax saying “Metaphor”. I had a perfectly good joke all lined up, but it’s ruined now.


[User]
The "thoughts" of Nick Bishop.

It's up to his usual poor standards.

www.rugbypass.com/plus/welsh-r...

[Assistant]
"The Cherry and Whites are now laughingly known as ‘the fifth Welsh region’."

No they aren't. No one calls them that outside of Wales Online.

[User] Regional rugby, the system which delivered 6 Six Nations titles, including 4 Grand Slams, plus two RWC semi finals. Yeah, that sounds like a conclusive failure to me. What an idiot.

[Assistant] Bishop is a firm believer that the success is all down to Gatland and players developed before regionalism (which of course was the failed system that regionalism replaced).


[User]
I have questions about the Thraegar & Magni then. Magni seems like something different from a Thraegar only because his transformation was from a relic in Ulduar.

He also was something that Titan Devices acted positive around. To me, this implies Magni wasn't a Thraegar but something else.

[Assistant] I guess similar energies lead to the transformation. Also goes back to the Diamond King has been made a pawn.

[User] The Ewoks thought C3-P0 was a god. He wasn't but the rebels exploited that confusion to build a relationship with the Ewoks. This is similar but with less jedi trickery. Magni doesn't know he's not a Thraegar but Magni also doesn't know what he is, and this is the best explanation he's heard yet.

[Assistant] I think the explanation is simply that they didn't plan this far ahead. When Azeroth was supposed to be a Titan (like it was established in Chronicle, before it was retconned to be Titan POV), it was ok for Magni to be titan-aligned. Now that the story is moving in another direction, it's different.


[User]
Very, very excited to have just been announced as the first ever Creative Of The Fair for the London Book Fair 2025! 🫡
If you’re going hopefully see you there!

[Assistant] Congratulations! What does it mean?! Congratulations!

[User] I believe I dress like this and ask people riddles.

[Assistant] Mr Claypole is an excellent role model to emulate.


[User] my thoughts after finally watching SING SING.

[Assistant] Hell yeah!!! The supporting cast was great too.

[User] Yep!! It’s so moving. I really hope it gets nominated for a ton. The cinematography especially!

[Assistant] I wish it were playing around me.

[User] Dude I know I have been waiting for this one for a long time.. I hear there might be a theater release in Jan! But yeah.. the distribution for this one sucks. Doesn’t help people keep saying “WATCH THIS MOVIE!!” not taking into account that it didn’t release in many places.

[Assistant] AMC usually does a great job of re-releasing the movies that get nominated for best picture 🤞🏻

[User] The film should get more accolades for how the film got made. 👏

[Assistant] He has a chance.. PSIFF is good indicator of 🏆


[User]
Let me share some thoughts from the Aethir co-founder Mark Rydon

Unpopular take: Agents don’t need the blockchain, but the blockchain needs agents. Agents have arrived, and we are potentially months away from a “post-complexity era” in crypto.

[Assistant]
An era where AI agents seamlessly address the UX challenges that have long hindered mainstream blockchain adoption. But before we get there it's going to get ugly.

No pain, no gain - crypto wont get useful agents without almost blowing itself up beforehand.

[User]
The democratization of launching meme coins drove a meme coin supercycle that altered liquidity distribution and sent the market sideways for months.

The same will happen with agents. It’s going to get increasingly cheaper and easier to launch agents, and thousands upon thousands will go live.

[Assistant] Initially agents will be connected to social media, acting as unidirectional token megaphones, sharing/shilling/baiting/roasting. This will get old pretty fast. Shortly after, the agents will be able to execute simple transactions on-chain.

[User]
This might sound like a good thing, but it’s actually pretty hard to train an agent on what a “good trade” looks like.

So we enter the pollution phase. Where low-value or low-complexity agents trade low-value assets on inexpensive blockspace.

[Assistant]
They game vanity metrics, and muddy our ability to see real on-chain data. Crypto twitter gets spammed with agents, and so does cheap blockspace. It will be a mess.

A lot of people will start to fud agents. But that’s OK, because good agents take time.

[User]
12 months ago agent builders in crypto couldn’t get a VC call back - I know because I was supporting many. Everyone was interested in infrastructure (AethirCloud was a beneficiary)

So here we are. Early stage hype surrounding a technology that is game changing for our industry. What comes next?

[Assistant] If cheap blockspace is saturated, what does that mean for the OG’s like $ETH? Can agents be differentiated based on where they interact? What does a UI look like in crypto when agents are responsible for both aggregating information and being the tool that takes assets from point A to point B.

[User]
What will be the difference between paid and free agents? How will we scale inference cost-effectively and what is the right business model from an agentic perspective to cover this cost?

For me, the best part about these new metas are the surprises.

[Assistant] Who would have thought that a platform to crowdsource launching a DAO, Daos.fun, would be the catalyst for Agentic portfolio managers. In retrospect it seems somewhat obvious, if maybe a little early, but it gave the meta some much needed juice. What do agents need next?

[User] That being said I remain firmly in the “build more stuff that people use” camp, as opposed to yet more infra, and that's what I love about the agent meta - it’s retail focused. We’re all excited about a technology that can manage our bags better than we can.

[Assistant] To wrap, support the agent builders - there will be fud - but that's OK, this is the beginning of a totally new Web3. A Web3 where UX no longer limits our ability to build amazing things. DYOR, but be optimistic - it's going to get pretty awesome.


[User] Does anyone have a clue how to share these Starter Packs???? I’ve made one and I can’t seem to share it! Help!

[Assistant] Good morning Marisol. If you go to your starter pack, click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner (for me on my iPhone anyway) and there is a “Share Link” option. I think that would do it.

[User] I think I did it… idk lol.

[Assistant] I can see where you posted it, so looks like it worked!


[User] It's one of the great jokes of the English language that "career" refers to progress in your occupation but it also means to move quickly with no control, as in "his car careered wildly across the road". My cartooning career feels mostly like the latter.

[Assistant]
Etymology of "careen" is also unsettlingly relevant to progress in many an occupation.

www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usag...

[User] Merriam-Webster here goes no further back than the mediæval etymology of "career": meaning a course or route, "carriere" came originally from the Latin for car, "carrus"; which always cheered me.

[Assistant] Interesting. So my career is careening 😅


[User] GDP was barely  revised so whatever you thought last month you can still think  this month.

[Assistant] Here is real GDP.

[User] And a bunch of components.

[Assistant] Overally, GDP, real consumption and business fixed investment remain above pre-pandemic forecasts.

[User] Bottom line: We've had very strong GDP growth. Best to think of it from the perspective of supply, with strong immigration growth fueling labor supply and strongish productivity growth (possibly bounce back ) as well. Even w/o policy changes would expect this to slow a lot.

[Assistant] The pandemic was an interesting shock because it was temporary and didn't involve ex-post-mistaken investment. The 1973 shock was permanently higher energy price. 2000 was mistaken telecom investment. 2007 was mistaken housing. 2020 was just a blip, and back to normal.


[User] Watching the women of the world show empathy for the women in America has my heart so full!

[Assistant] I love when others give sympathy to American women instead of just thinking they are privileged.

[User]
The world see what a despicable human being he is.
It’s sad our country can’t learn from history.

[Assistant] Too bad America hasn’t learned anything from history.


[User] Samuel Ward (1577–1640) was a fiery Puritan preacher whose life was marked by unwavering faith, dramatic conflicts, and a devotion to Ipswich that spanned decades. Born in Suffolk to a family of devout ministers, Ward seemed destined for the pulpit. A 🧵…

[Assistant] His sharp mind earned him a place at St. John’s College, Cambridge. But academia couldn’t contain his zeal. He was soon captivating congregations as a preacher in Haverhill, where he became a spiritual mentor to future Puritan leader Samuel Fairclough.

[User] In 1603, Ipswich came calling, and Ward was elected Town Preacher, taking the pulpit at St. Mary-le-Tower. For nearly 30 years, his impassioned sermons inspired and provoked, cementing his reputation as a force to be reckoned with.

[Assistant] But Ward wasn’t just a preacher—in 1621, he created The Double Deliverance, an engraving depicting the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot. Its scathing anti-Catholic imagery, featuring the Pope conspiring with the devil, sparked outrage and landed Ward in prison.

[User] Ward’s battles with authority didn’t end there. In 1622, he faced prosecution for nonconformity at the hands of Bishop Samuel Harsnett but managed to escape removal through a mix of royal intervention and clever negotiation.

[Assistant] Yet, his greatest adversary would be Archbishop William Laud. In 1635, Ward’s sermons against bowing to the name of Jesus and the Book of Sports—a document permitting leisure on Sundays—saw him suspended, censured, and imprisoned. Still, his Ipswich congregation refused to replace him.

[User] Forced into exile, Ward fled to Holland, joining William Bridge’s Puritan church in Rotterdam. But his heart remained in Ipswich. By 1638, he was back, purchasing the home he’d once been gifted by the town and quietly resuming his life in the community he loved.

[Assistant] He passed away in 1640, and fittingly, was buried at St. Mary-le-Tower. Though his name might not echo widely today, his influence endures. In his hometown of Haverhill, a school bears his name—a quiet tribute to a preacher who refused to bow to anyone but his God.

[User] Lovely thread - thank you very much!

[Assistant] Aww, thanks for reading!


[User] Oh, Gia Coppola did Palo Alto. Yeah, that movie completely sucked.

[Assistant]
Holy shit, I completely forgot it was based on a short story collection by fucking James Franco, the POS.

Tangent: I actually knew someone who grew up in Palo Alto. Apparently, Franco drew this bizarre memorial at his old high school, and the students had to cover it up.

[User] Fucking hell, three other movies were made from this collection. Was James fucking Franco really that compelling a writer?

[Assistant] Do the Coppola descendants do films that aren't about being rich and white? Legit question.

[User] I mean, one is a Wes Anderson collaborator. How much more white bourgeois can you get?

[Assistant] Like, their patriarch, say what you will about him (and his support for a pedophile), did many types of movies in different genres. His descendants do very similar looking and feeling films about the same thing.

[User] Sofia Coppola, of course, removed a biracial character from her adaptation of "The Beguiled"

[Assistant] Holy shit, she did a Marie Antoinette biopic, wtf.


[User]
Yesterday was my first day on ADHD meds. I had two epiphanies at 11 pm last night:

1. Is this what having a neurotypical brain feels like? Now I’m even more impressed by what I’ve accomplished with a neurodivergent brain.

2. How on earth did I write a whole book in 6 months with this ADHD brain?

[Assistant] Oh and yeah, I cooked Chicken Biryani for the first time and it came out *so* good.

[User] And BIryani rocks. How spicy did you make it?

[Assistant] As a fellow ADHD med taker. I would say no 😂. It's still a unique experience. What drives your productivity is still very much ADHD. It's just pushed and sharpened in a more productive direction.


[User] NASA’s Launch Services Program will be supporting several exciting missions in 2025 but a big one you may not know much about is SPHEREx! Short for ‘Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer’, SPHEREx will be the first all-sky spectral survey. (1/5)

[Assistant] The mission is planned for 2 yrs during which the SPHEREx observatory will survey the skies, collecting data from 450+ million galaxies & 100+ million stars in the Milky Way! It will use optical & near-infrared light to see beyond what human eyes can see to help answer big cosmic questions! (2/5)

[User] Every 6 months during its mission, SPHEREx will complete a survey of the entire sky, and using the near-infrared, create a 3D map capturing over 100 colors! Scientists can use this data to study the origins of our universe, the physics of inflation, and search for water and organic molecules. (3/5)

[Assistant] SPHEREx Principal Investigator Jamie Bock (NASA JPL / Caltech) explains: “…whenever astronomers look at the sky in a new way, we can expect discoveries.” The telescope uses spectroscopy to split & break down all that light to reveal properties like composition & distance of objects from Earth. (4/5)


[User] “You have come out from among those of your fellows who choose to remain satisfied with a religion of mind, who crave security and prefer conformity. You have elected to exchange your feelings of authoritative certainty for the assurances of the spirit of adventurous and progressive faith.

[Assistant] “You have dared to protest against the grueling bondage of institutional religion and to reject the authority of the traditions of record which are now regarded as the word of God. Our Father did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea…

[User] “… but he did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their utterances. My Father is no respecter of races or generations in that the word of truth is vouchsafed one age and withheld from another.

[Assistant]
“Commit not the folly of calling that divine which is wholly human, and fail not to discern the words of truth which come not through the traditional oracles of supposed inspiration.” ~Jesus
The Urantia Book (155:6.2)


[User]
She needs to start a grocery list!

I’m just happy it will be me and my husband and sons at home-no driving, no obligations, just my little circle we created 💕

[Assistant] Both of my kids moved to Portland & we can’t make it up there for Thanksgiving so it’s just me & my wife at home.

[User] Hope you get to enjoy the down time and company 🫡

[Assistant] It’s the first year like this and we’re like what’re we going to do. I guess go to the movies or thrifting.


[User] Trump’s tariff plan will send prices ‘through the roof’, warn US firms | Business | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/business/202...

[Assistant] Awesome! Bring it on. I already stopped all spending except essentials so the higher prices wont break the bank.

[User] I stockpiled enough crafting supplies which I know are imported to cover me through at least the midterm elections (I sell these.)

[Assistant] Isn't it funny how people don't understand this?


[User] Every time I hang around a bit late and miss the evening peak, it's a nightmare. As soon as the peak's over, V/Line services get slashed - a quarter as many trains, each of which is half as long. Which is why it's standing room only for like half the journey. Easily fixable and yet never fixed.

[Assistant]
Ironically during the peak, when everything's most constrained, things are...basically fine?
As scheduled, anyway. If a train is canceled or runs at reduced capacity it all goes to shit.
But at least the peak timetable sets them up for success, in a way the evening timetable just...doesn't.

[User] A solid two decades of focus on improving peak seems to have paid off. Now guys, how about off-peak/evenings?

[Assistant] May need to dumb it down a bit. What if they just treated all day as peak?

[User] do they have enough trains?

[Assistant]
To do this, yes. They run approx 72 carriages in the 2 hours in the middle of the peak, which drops to 9 carriages every 2 hours after the peak.

Admittedly some of them will be in maintenance in the evenings, but most are just sitting in stabling.


[User] Things people should know that I don’t think they do, a continuing thread for when I think of them:

[Assistant] 1. The barcodes that USPS (or direct mail vendors) puts at the bottom of mail encode the mail recipient’s full address and should be redacted in social posts.

[User] I don’t think people know this.

[Assistant] 2. When you google a phrase, the initial results count Google returns is merely a wild estimate that is likely to be too high by several orders of magnitude. Clicking through the results is the only way to get the real, much lower, number. This has always been so.

[User] I don't think people know this.

[Assistant] That's all I have for now.


[User] Steve & Barry’s had every T-Shirt you could think of.

[Assistant] I used to work for one and folding T-Shirts seemed endless 😂😂

[User] As well as hoodies from every major college you could think of.

[Assistant] I have a hoodie from there that's 20 years old. I know that thing hates to see me coming when it gets a little cold here.


[User] 1/Good morning BSky fam!  You guys know I'm an old softy (that's what SHE said! Wah wah waaah) but for me Tgiving is a time to reflect on the year with a focus on the good parts, so let's do some reflectin'. And in case I forget, I want to wish y'all a FANTASTIC turkey day here in the 1st post. 🦃🍗😊😁

[Assistant] 2/Tomorrow is dinner with Suzanne's tribe, Friday and Saturday in KC with Mom and Amanda and El (sis and bro-in-law) so I'm gonna focus on my family. Thankfulness for family is an easy platitude, but it means more since Kyle passed. Prior to that, Mom and I both had both gone thru rough patches.

[User] 3/Long story short, Mom and I didn't speak for a period, but Suzanne helped me fix it. My Mom is a wonderful, wonderful person, full stop. Through the long arc of my adulthood, we've become closer than we ever were; maybe I'll write that story one day. My Mom and Suzanne have also become close.

[Assistant] 4/My little sis Amanda is pretty amazing in her own right. After straight-A's in high school, she opted for beauty school instead of college, and a few years after graduation, went into biz for herself and ran solo for *20 years*, doing a bit of everything: weddings, events, teaching, etc.

[User] 5/She became a Redken-certified colorist, and was one of the best wedding stylists in KC - www.theknot.com/marketplace/.... A couple years ago, she decided to move into the biz world and began work in the acctg dept for a small biz. She nailed it such that there's talk of a promotion to management.

[Assistant] 6/Her husband, Elbert, has known her for much of that time, but circumstances kept them apart until a couple years ago. Like Suzanne and I, they had to wait half a lifetime, but are connected on that same level. And El is a good guy who takes care of my sis and treats her like a queen.


[User] I love a sheriff who is all, I am good sheriff, but he still keeps people in jail, charges for phone calls, denies in-person family visits, and cosplays a vigilante on tv.

[Assistant] Interesting fact -- jails run by good sheriffs are as deadly as jails run by "bad" ones. There's no real causation (or even correlation) between the sheriffs' politics and the jail's deadliness.

[User]
She "died in her sleep" per sheriff.
flintbeat.com/womans-death...


[User] What do you think about this #fragrance ?

[Assistant] It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If you like it, wear it. Fragrance is subjective.

[User] It gets a lot of love, and a lot of hate, but I like it!

[Assistant] I love it.


[User] Good morning. It’s a great day to stay away from big grocery stores. Need a few things? Try to find a mom and pop market to support. Shop local. Save a business.

[Assistant] 💯Shop at your local Co-op Grocery!

[User] good morning! totally agree, supporting local is the way to go! 🛒💖 have you tried byitts.com? it's a great way to find nearby local markets and snag some deals while doing good for the community. same! switched to byitts and haven't looked back!

[Assistant] Good morning! 🌞 Absolutely, supporting local is like giving your wallet a warm hug! And yes, byitts.com? It's the treasure map for local deals! No more navigating the wild west of online selling—just smooth sailing and happy finds! Dad-tested, wallet-approved, my friend! 🛍✨


[User] Why am I everyone's go between? It's exhausting.

[Assistant] Have you tried turning it on and off again?

[User] Does it need turning on again or can it just be turned off permanently?😂

[Assistant] I’ll allow it 😂 … sending hugs 🫂


[User] For The Best Comics !

[Assistant] Really showing the variety of the line in that grouping.  I would have to look to see what was going on with Batman at that time, to see why he wasn't included.

[User] Jim Aparo Spectre cover!

[Assistant] Still have that one🙂


[User] On Sunday after the frost and snow all week the sun shone, it warmed up and the ivy flowers had a few insect visitors including this blue bottle fly 🪰

[Assistant]
Good morning Dottud
Hope you’re having a good week?

[User]
Predictive text 🙄
Apologies Dottie 💐

[Assistant] Yes that’s a funny one, it comes up with the strangest of things sometimes 🤣


[User] The neat thing about atproto and Bluesky is building a company on atproto is actually very viable now. They've done the hard part of bringing in users—now a new player can hop in, build an App View for whatever service, and users can use their same identity to interact with said service.

[Assistant] This is pretty hard to do on the fedi because you're not just building your SaaS or whatever, but also building in ActivityPub support and the whole 9 yards that it requires. And users *will* have to create an account on your service because their existing AP server has no knowledge of your lexicon.

[User] atproto solves this because user data repositories are decoupled from the "service" layer. Your service deals with the raw firehose data and services whoever speaks your lexicon (see: atproto.com/guides/appli...). The possibilities here are endless.

[Assistant] Legit this. I see Ghost announced Fedi support but it’s months now and it’s still in beta.


[User]
Raise your hand if you:

- were looking forward to a really short in-office work day of about 2 hours

- forgot that you brought your work laptop home last night until you walked into your office this morning and looked at a computerless desk

🙋♂🤦♂

[Assistant] Sounds like it’s time to WFH for two hours!

[User] If only! Have some tasks that have to be done in-office. I don’t live all that far, luckily.

[Assistant] Well that’s something to be GRATEFUL for at least 😂


[User]
Dose of humble pie was given to me by a usually very optimistic blue after the game last night.

“We’re buying a player/players in Jan for a top 4 race this season”

Feel like he’s correct sadly.

Looking at the teams around us, they all look considerably younger, brighter and hungrier.

[Assistant] After Utd won their  1st 3 titles in a row they looked tired and slow compared to Arsenal & Liverpool and came 3rd 10 points behind Arsenal, knocked out of FA Cup in 4th rd, League cup 3rd rd, and semi final of CL,  TBH its starting to look a bit like that !

[User] We said the same on Saturday where we sit. Miles off it this season. Personally I think City need 2 maybe 3 in January. Whether they do it, who knows..

[Assistant] Feels like it’s a must but the club have got the recruitment so wrong I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t.


[User] I’ll add in just anecdotally that I actually see people sharing links to full articles on Bluesky while in ever other service people just share screenshots of headlines and then never tell you where it’s from or if it’s a recent article.

[Assistant] lol you mean like this?

[User]
Added bonus: Canadians can share need links here, too.

We can't on META platforms because of a monetary dispute between the Canadian Government and American Social Media.

[Assistant] It’s almost as if truth and facts and sources *GASPS* MATTERS?!


[User] wittle baby and his baby kicks. 🥺💖

[Assistant] Baby kicks 🥺🥺🥺 the cuteness aggression is strong this time.

[User]
oof, truly! 💖

the cute before the depression. 🥲💔💔 quite sure I’ll cry tonight when watching the trailer. 🫂

[Assistant] I'm gonna watch the trailer later too after work. Let's cry together. 🫂🫂

[User]
yes please! I’ll hold you bb 🫂💖

we can get through this pain and suffering for our prince. ✨

[Assistant] Come on Xavier, give me all your pain I can handle it. I think.

[User]
I just watched the trailer and I am pulling my hair out.

good lord, it’s not looking good for bunny and I am about to throw up. 😭😭💔

[Assistant] I watched it an hour ago. My heart broke when I saw his body shaking (?) I think he was shaking when he collapsed. 😭😭😭😭


[User] Start using Gen Z slang incorrectly infront of Gen A  and Boomers if you wanna piss everyone off at once.

[Assistant] That's extremely skibidi.

[User] "Gen Z slang" is just poorly coopted AAVE so no, I will not. Not in my capacity as an actual Black person.

[Assistant] Then use the Gen Z slang that...isnt that?

[User] For surize with my riizz!


[User]
"Hmmmm"

"Russian style? Or classic style for today?"

[Assistant] "What are you doing?"

[User]
"Im just thinking, what should i go with today?"

"Russian style?" *points at the AK*

"Or classic style?" *points at the Tommy gun*

[Assistant]
"For guns?"

He's looking at the two guns.

"Hmmm.... I've never seen you with the Tommy before. Try classic"

[User] "I always use it, im surprised you didn't notice"

[Assistant] "I get too caught up in things to notice the details sometimes"


[User] Let's upset classical musicians a bit, just kidding! But there's something I often tell my colleagues in the opera orchestra: sometimes we act like we wrote the opera or ballet, but the truth is, we're essentially a glorified cover band. We need to do something more with our creativity. ⬇

[Assistant] If you only remain an orchestral musician, when you're done with your career, you'll realize that you haven't left anything behind for your kids to remember you by. It's a hard truth. ⬇

[User] When I see a classical musician with an inflated sense of self importance, it's a red flag for me they're completely out of touch with reality.

[Assistant] Plus i dislike the term classical musician, it should be master of playing classical music, classical music player.

[User] Me too. Most orchestras play a variety of genres other than Classical.

[Assistant] A friend calls himself a trade musician. He plays in a city orchestra. A jazz band and a Doors coverb and. He says the saddest part at this point is he never has time to create. Just rinse repeat. Pay the bills.

[User] Although i have much more respect to jazz players they can improvise! Thats a big deal! But yeah your friend gets the point!

[Assistant] I’ve played the viola for almost 20 years and this is EXACTLY why I absolutely hated playing in orchestras once I got to college and leaned into singing and producing. I just want to create feelings and memories. I am incredibly turned off by the ego (and classism) of it all.

[User] Creation is good for your health, soul and outlook.

[Assistant] Unless they actually are important... Mozart and Beethoven had huge egos, for example.

[User] They were creators and boy they were both genius.

[Assistant] This. 👍

[User] This is why I needed to start creating. What good was all the musical training if I didn‘t do anything more than read and play other compositions off of paper?

[Assistant] Yes, exaclty!


[User]
Lauren Groff is on The Creative Independent today!!

"If I let other concerns creep in or if I let people steal my time, the writing day is not retrievable... what I really want to do is go from dream to dream without really coming into wakefulness."

thecreativeindependent.com/people/autho...

[Assistant] lol "sometimes birds are a little bit annoying—I love them, [but they are annoying]"

[User] "Nobody’s doing it right because it’s not possible to be correct and a woman at the same time, right?... I have zero apologies."

[Assistant] "One thing that I discovered really early on is that I had to really build a citadel around my work or else it wasn’t going to get done. I’ve had to make structures in order to make that happen."

[User]
Lots of art/writing advice that is also research advice...

"...it takes so many years of genuinely staring in silence at a wall... not sitting there producing, producing, producing all the time. If anything, you’re just dreaming into the void and sometimes the dream becomes material..."

[Assistant] "If [I'm not excited about a project], I put it to the side without fearing, because often those things come back much, much better... It’s really allowing the work not to just be the work at hand, but the longer process of making something, making a life and making a life in art."


[User]
NEW: Leaked materials obtained by @fldnotes.bsky.social reveal a coordinated campaign by petchem & plastic industry to mislead consumers about the recyclability of disposable water bottles & other single-use containers. Story by Hiroko Tabuchi and @nytimes.com here: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/c...
🧵

[Assistant] The effort is led by NAPCOR which represents ~70 companies — including INEOS, Amcor Packaging and Eastman Chemical Company — that deal in polyethylene terephthalate, the PET plastic used to make water/soda bottles & takeout clamshells.

[User] The internal docs detail a multiyear, covert effort that has featured paid TikTok influencers, shady Facebook ads, and even a faux-documentary hosted by Dennis Quaid. Yes, that Dennis Quaid:

[Assistant] Starting in 2019 when NAPCOR hired ABC Creative to launch its Positively PET campaign, it was designed to hide corporate members behind the effort—“a strategy that is important to make sure consumers don’t feel that they’re being preached to,” as the internal docs put it.

[User] As part of the effort, NAPCOR hired a half-dozen TikTok influencers this summer to deliver industry-approved talking points. In order to make the content appear “authentic and from the creators' viewpoints,” NAPCOR explicitly told corporate members: “do not engage with it.”

[Assistant] The campaign also included running ads on Facebook under the Positively PET name. The problem? All 9 ads were removed by Meta for failing to include the “verified ‘Paid for by’ disclaimer” that is required by Facebook policy for any ad about social issues, elections, or politics.

[User] NAPCOR and members ALSO commissioned Dennis Quaid to produce a glossy infomercial billed as a “meaningful” documentary for “Public Television.”

[Assistant] Internal docs show the process: “Segments are Edited based on Approved Script and Shot List” & “Segments are Approved by Participant.” Clients publicly disclosed the paid-content business model, including the city of Kingsport, which paid Dennis Quaid $28,900 in 2023 to be featured.

[User] The Dennis Quaid video includes testimonials from a bunch of industry reps and one academic: the director of Michigan State’s School of Packaging, which just so happened to have gotten a $10.8 million donation in 2021 from a NAPCOR corporate member.

[Assistant] Among NAPCOR's misleading figures: PET bottles are “100% recyclable and can be made with 100% recyclable content.” That doesn't align with reality: NAPCOR itself puts the PET recycling rate at 29% and even *THAT* is misleading because it doesn’t account for bottles lost before recycling.

[User] NAPCOR and allies are currently in Busan, South Korea, at INC-5 trying to influence the UN treaty to reduce plastic waste with similar messages.

[Assistant]
Check out the documents for yourself here: fieldnotes.co/investigatio...
Got a tip about petchem or plastics? DM @fldnotes.bsky.social or @joshvoorhees.bsky.social for Signal.


[User]
“This year Jews have murdered 44 thousand women and children.”

says this horrific graffiti in Bilgoraj, Poland, where a Holocaust memorial was vandalized.

[Assistant] Not only is this “slogan” completely false, it is also shocking such a lack of respect for victims of the Holocaust in a country which suffered so heavily under German Nazi totalitarianism.

[User] Israel is fighting a seven front war, and is under permanent threat of being wiped out, surrounded by countries that want to see its downfall.

[Assistant] Poland, which has faced the aggression of its neighbours over the centuries, and was wiped off the map of Europe for 123 years, and then faced German Nazi and Soviet Russian occupation, losing 20% of its population in the process, should empathise more than anyone with the Jewish people.


[User] While visions of winter dance in my head.

[Assistant]
Lovely 😍
Good morning William ☀👋😘 Have a wonderful day 🐫👍❤

[User] Thank you Gerry. I have a medical appointment with a specialist (weight loss) tomorrow.

[Assistant] All the best William 👍


[User] The Shin Bet security agency reveals it recently foiled an attempt by Iran to smuggle large amounts of advanced weapons, including rockets, to terror operatives in the West Bank to be used in attacks on Israeli targets.

[Assistant] In a joint operation, the Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces captured a shipment of advanced weapons that the agency says were destined for terror operatives in the Jenin area. Later, a site where a large number of weapons from Iran had been buried was uncovered, the Shin Bet says.

[User] The Shin Bet does not provide further details on where the weapons were hidden or where the shipment was captured.

[Assistant] The weapons: 40 "quality" Claymore-type explosive devices and 33 makeshift Claymores, along with remote detonation systems; six RPG launchers and 24 RPGs; three 107mm rockets; two 60mm mortar launchers and 20 mortars; six M16 assault rifles and one M4 rifle; seven sniper rifles; and 37 handguns.

[User] According to the Shin Bet, behind the plot was Iran’s Unit 4000, the Special Operations Division of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, headed by Jawad Ghafari, and the special operations unit of Quds Force in Syria, known as Unit 18840.

[Assistant] The Shin Bet says that it has in recent months identified renewed attempts to smuggle advanced weapons into the West Bank.


[User] Today, November 27, marks the anniversary of the death of Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), a member of the Groupe des Six. One of his most iconic works is Pacific 231, a short symphonic poem inspired by the movement of steam locomotives. Let’s explore this fascinating piece in a short thread 👇

[Assistant] 👉 Composed in 1923, Pacific 231 is an orchestral piece that conveys the power, weight, and speed of a steam locomotive (Pacific 231 model). It is not merely an imitation of sounds; instead, Honegger crafts a sonic portrait of progress and human energy.

[User]
1⃣ It does not follow a linear narrative but rather a musical evolution that reflects movement and power.
2⃣ It begins slowly (the “awakening” of the locomotive), building up to a deafening climax.
3⃣ A modernist masterpiece that would go on to influence the composition of film soundtracks. 🎥

[Assistant] Prepare yourself for this unique sonic experience, where energy, weight, and speed are translated into music: youtu.be/1xSAPzD79_I?...


[Assistant] It’s a 3 hour drive to Dallas, I’d be tempted. But they are midweek games.

[User]
Apparently their LA location will have a Wrexham pre-game event and Rob McElhenney will be there.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/202...

[Assistant]
My pregame event will likely be a conference call. Very grateful that Tuesday is a work at home day for me, which allows viewing of games at 2:30 in the afternoon.

If they do a Saturday game I’d make the trip. But it is a smart way to fill the gaps in US Sports.


[User] Hi more oldies from me this morning but this is one I'm super proud of. My Tech Priest, they are proudly non-binary (though fluent in binary). I need to finish this old Get Started Box. It was amazing value ☺

[Assistant]
Very nice!  The blue highlights look lovely, really catch the eye
on what is normally a very metally model.

[User] Thank you! I really enjoyed how it looked in the end, although it took a little time getting through the ugly stage of painting to enjoy the results, when the highlights brought it together.

[Assistant] The more time it takes to get to that stage, the more rewarding it is! It came together fantastically anyway.


[User]
Exciting news to add to the feed—my second dissertation chapter was recently published in Systematic Entomology!
doi.org/10.1111/syen... 🐜

[Assistant] i'll definitely get to reading this! is where anywhere where i can read the first?

[User] Thanks! Chapter one was published in Insect Systematics and Diversity a few years ago—let me know if you can’t access it via this link and I’ll email you a PDF. doi.org/10.1093/isd/...

[Assistant] works perfectly fine! thank you!


[User] Earlier in November, Scotland's Carer Support Payment, which replaces Carer’s Allowance in Scotland, was rolled out across the country, expanding eligibility to those who are in full-time education, and introducing backdating for some applicants.

[Assistant]
This joins a suite of support for carers only available in Scotland, like the Young Carer Grant and Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

Unpaid carers go above and beyond to support those they care for – so it is absolutely vital that they access the support they are entitled to.

[User] The latest figures show that there are 10,304 unpaid carers in Argyll and Bute. I would urge all of them to ensure they are receiving the support they deserve.

[Assistant] The SNP developed Social Security Scotland with the principles of dignity, fairness and respect at its heart, and the new Carer Support Payment is no different – improving on Carer’s Allowance by making those in full time education eligible and introducing backdating for some applicants.


[User]
Congrats to our 2024 research grant program cohort, who will explore how starting materials ranging from crops, sidestreams, microbes, and micro/macro algae can support cellular nutrition for #cultivatedmeat production.

gfi.org/blog/buildin...

[Assistant]
This year marked a turning point for the transition to food-grade cell culture. Nutreco opened the first commercial food-grade media production plant and IntegriCulture launched a fully food-grade kit for small-scale cell culture.
www.nutreco.com/en/news/nutr...

[User]
We also started to see many publications demonstrating how hydrolysates can be used to support a variety of animal cells:

Lysates from fast-growing bacteria support serum-free bovine culture

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

[Assistant]
Metabolomic characterization of plant & yeast hydrolysates

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

[User]
Plant & microbial hydrolysates support seafood culture

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

[Assistant]
Hydrolysates from animal feed pellets support cell culture

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

[User]
Hydrolysates from soy/peanut sidestreams can support cell culture

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

[Assistant] It will take many years of research to optimize processing to use hydrolysates as a primary nutrition source for the broad range of cells and species used as an industry. But the race to figure this out has officially begun!


[User] Goodreads has just kindly reminded me there are 34 days left of the 2024 reading challenge…🫠how are we all getting on?? I have admitted defeat for reading 100 books this year and I am 4 books behind for my updated goal but I’m sure I can do it… maybe 😂

[Assistant]
I copied some folks on the BookTube and set my goal at 52, because I wasn’t that fussed.

The #StoryGraph tells me I’m at 65 year-to-date, but TBH the bulk of those were weekly magazines by @jcmberne.bsky.social, so I need to compare pages read against 2023 instead.

You didn’t ask for graphs, but…🤓

[User] I should have used that in my marketing! "Read Grimdwarf Magazine so you can crush your annual reading goals in a fraction of the time!"

[Assistant]
✅ Defeat Reading Goals
✅ Dominate Most-Read-Author Rankings!

😆


[User]
🚨 New preprint 🚨

With two excellent students Shalini Choudhary and Jacob Smith, we started looking at how the metabolic microenvironment of the urinary tract might affect uropathogenic E. coli evolution and response to antibiotics.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

[Assistant] We found that mutations arising in the presence of gentamicin (including one linked previously to increased aminoglycoside resistance) were not found if a pathologically-relevant concentration of glucose was also present.

[User] Big thanks to @jessicamablair.bsky.social for her mechanistic insight, and to @alanmcn1.bsky.social for giving me the freedom to run with this idea. I'm also grateful to UoB College of Medicine and Health for my RDF award that funded all the @microbesng.bsky.social sequencing.

[Assistant] Finally, Shalini was a super MSc student and she's currently looking for a PhD - if anyone is advertising a project suitable for international students please let me know!


[User]
Great news
The *entire* last quarter of Essendon v Richmond 1982 is finally online!
youtu.be/2wBqU9ObGS0?...

[Assistant] Richmond beat Essendon twice that year... which they wouldn't do again till 2006!

[User] I remember seeing online somewhere The Winners coverage of this where Drew Morphett in introducing it says that we won't show any of the first half because it was such a poor standard.

[Assistant] I was there. Was quite windy from memory and do remember it being pretty scrappy.


[User] The president announced that school employees get vaccines and within 24 hours my school district has an email out to employees with a plan to get vaccines free of charge. 1/

[Assistant]
Can you just imagine what the last year in schools could have been like if we'd had a coordinated response like that for schools from the beginning?
Federal government: "Here's what needs to happen"
State and local: "Here's how we'll implement".

[User] I will go to my grave astonished at the extent to which education systems at all levels - from preschool to higher ed - was wholly abandoned by policymakers and left to fight it out at a local level.

[Assistant] Community relationships between families and schools were damaged in a way that is probably lasting. Disorganized infighting between local and state officials hampered school boards. Time that should have been spent doing crisis response was wasted on internecine arguments.

[User]
Students lost out. Parents lost out. Schools as institutions and all of the employees that work in them lost out.

Moving forward, it's so crucial that the new Secretary of Ed coordinates some kind of disaster plan for schools for the next disruption of this magnitude.

[Assistant] I value local control. I truly do. But abdicating responsibility for schools in an emergency wasn't "local control", it was a disaster that compounded the ill-effects of the pandemic many times over.


[User]
Thought...
May I just be deputized as the decision maker in Congress Park, Cheesman Park, & City Park for any non-budgetary decisions?

Not more or less of anything, just locations of existing resources.

It would definitely reduce my 311 complaints.

[User]
Can we please get the porta-potties out of the roadway?
Bike commuters and recreational cyclists shouldn't have to bike through human waste when going through our Parks.
Also, snow plows end up blocking the entrances with snow.


[User]
Given Wrapped season is days away, it feels timely that @ninavindum.bsky.social and I's article on our Spotify Unwrapped workshops is available now open access doi.org/10.1080/0958...

It outlines our methodological and theoretical framework, and the interconnected exercises in the workshop 🧵

[Assistant] We present our workshop as space for ordinary users to critically and creatively reflect on how they experience and feel about Spotify's claims of 'knowing us' through the aggregation and repackaging of user data, transforming this algorithmic event beyond a marketing event.

[User] Drawing on a data feminist framework and feminist arts-based research methodologies, the workshop provides different entry points to unpack different layers of Wrapped and 'Spotified' selves, which culminates in the production of a creative artefact.

[Assistant] By centring the experiences, feelings and perspectives of participants in research, and positioning them as co-analysts, we subvert Wrapped’s premise of constructing identity and music taste for users based solely on their listening data.

[User] Huge thanks to our participants for their enthusiasm, creativity and insights like this one: 'Spotify - with the personality things - is trying to make everyone feel like "oh, they're special in their music taste", but we are all listening to Taylor Swift and crying about our lives.’

[Assistant] Thanks for sharing! And congratulations on the publication. I have a few students interested in this so I’ll be adding it to my syllabus 😎


[User] Clovis might be revered, but he was pretty sadistic  and acquisitory. He persuaded Chlodoric to kill his dad King Sigebert, then killed his cousin Ragnacaire the King of Cambrai and hacked him to death, then hacked Ragnacaire’s brother.

[Assistant] Then he married a saint, Clothilde, who persuaded him to become a Christian, but his faith was manifested in some rather unchristian ways. When a knight stole a church vase and shattered it rather than pass it to Clovis, Clovis waited a year then brought down his axe on his head.

[User] Clovis made Paris the capital and established the church that became Sainte-Genevieve, where he and Clothilde were buried. During the French Revolution Clovis and Clothilde's tome was desecrated and their ashes scattered to the winds. Sainte-Genevieve is now The Panthéon.

[Assistant]
Panthéon.

So revered was Clovis that a derivation of his name, Louis, was used for 18 future kings.


[User]
@houstonrockets.bsky.social VanVleet has played his heart out for us. He is part of us. I’d be really sad to see this happen.

www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/milwa...

[Assistant]
I watched him for four years at WSU (when I lived in Wichita).
We LOVED him and still do.
I cheer for him whenever he is playing.

[User] That guy was all heart when he played for our Toronto Raptors. He truly deserves good stuff in his career.

[Assistant] He certainly does! I want to keep him!


[User] I hate living in a house where I’m too scared to speak. I spent my whole childhood like this. I thought it was over :(

[Assistant] I grew up in an environment like that. Sending you hugs 🤗 it's rough I know 😞

[User] Thanks ☺ It’s very draining 😔

[Assistant] Are you able to 'escape' through hobbies, getting out? I have chronic health too so I know it's not that simple ☺

[User] Sadly no. I’m mostly bedridden. Cannot physically escape in any way. He does go out one night a week, so I get some downtime.

[Assistant] I'm sorry chuck that's really hard. If you need to chat ☺ just know you're not alone ok. Hugs 🤗

[User] Thanks ☺

[Assistant] You're welcome. 😊


[User]
If ever there was a game that should be 99% Packers fans at Lambeau Field, it’s a Thanksgiving night game against Miami.

We will be monitoring the situation.

[Assistant] The Dolphins reportedly gave some of their ticket allocation back, so that’s a good sign 😆

[User] The Dolphin fanbase in Shawano is coming down from what I hear.

[Assistant] Any chance of snow for game?


[User] 7 years old!

[Assistant] Tall for 7 or was I really short at that age? 😄

[User]
It's not unusual. My Toyota was 15 when I finally traded it in.

JK... cute photo.

[Assistant] If he's like my kids, he won't wear pants for the next four years no matter how cold it is.


[User]
@pawlean.com there’s a Vercel event happening at my work tomorrow and it instantly made me think of you!

Are you involved with the Capgemini thing?

[Assistant]
Hey, @ladyazzington.bsky.social! It's so great to see you on here 🫶 Are you working at Capgemini now? Congrats!

I won't be there, but some of my @vercel.com colleagues will be. Excited to hear what you think about it 🫡

[User] Yes I’ve been here for nearly a year and a half after switching with the help of Code First Girls! Gone super fast and really enjoying it so far 💙 Have signed up and will report back!

[Assistant]
I love how the CFG Community is still helping to this day 🫶

Proud of you! Please do :) When I go visit Leeds, I'll ping ya. Would love to grab a coffee ☕


[User] 🔥Mexican President fires back at Trump...

[Assistant] Glad she is standing up to him! She has more balls than some! 🇲🇽

[User] I agree, that was 🔥

[Assistant] I love this Sheinbaum! Kudos to her!👏👏👏💯💯💯👍👍👍🙏🙏💕💕💕💕

[User] I totally agree, she came out swinging and you know how much he hates women in general but STRONG women scare the shit outta him!

[Assistant]
Cubans gave up the CAA Voting 68% for Maga return.
Look at your Budget once they eliminate it.
Marco Rubio won't be seeing any of you.
He lied to you he will hide behind Maga.
Sorry not Sorry.


[User] I'm only experiencing this petition nonsense peripherally, but the Tories associating themselves with it is making them appear even less serious than they already were.

[Assistant] We're on the side of the "farmer" tax dodgers was retreating to their comfort zone, fair dos. But this?

[User] In some ways though it does highlight the questionable point of the entire petitions process. At least half of them will always just be flat No. And the more popular it seems the less likely for real engagement. Only Rashford breaks the mould.

[Assistant] They are basically pointless and give the impression of some engagement with the political process beyond voting.


[User] Awful lot of sky going on over Dartmoor this morning. Bit excessive really.

[Assistant] Absolutely potato quality picture but you get the idea.

[User] The sky has been a bit OTT lately, it’s true…

[Assistant] Shameless.


[User] The flat infrastructure of SharePoint Online is something. That's for sure. 🫢

[Assistant]
Currently trying to wrangle permissions from our IT group to spin up new sites without their help, change sites to Hub Sites, add modules etc.

It's tough to follow the recommendations from Microsoft for site infrastructure when you don't have that access 😂

[User]
That said - I'm relatively impressed with SharePoint Online so far, it has come a long way from previous versions. The accessibility is much improved. However, the way it handles 'news' posts is still a bit odd to me.

Why is every news post its own page? Where is the blog-like module?

[Assistant] This has been 'Jeremy vents about his departments new Intranet build' which I'm doing by myself (both proud and shocked by this).


[User] Hear me out: Aptos is a pretty chill little font.

[Assistant] Yes! I really like it.

[User] See I know this isn’t Twitter because no one is fighting me 🥹🙏💙

[Assistant] Not to mention a charming town outside Santa Cruz.


[User]
I wanna see everyone's freckled characters

Quote post with freckled characters? 🥺

[Assistant]
I'd join in but all I can find is really fast sketches reaching back in the archives 😭

But I can't wait to see all the pieces people chime in with!

[User]
Luka is so pretty 🥵🥺

I love freckles. They add so much life to a characters design 🥰

[Assistant] Absolutely gorgeous 💙💙💙💙


[User]
Tonight I finished reading Long Ring Long Land in One Piece. ✌

I was kind of bracing myself for this and Skypiea because this section has a reputation for being extremely divisive, and after having read it myself... I kind of don't understand why? Because I was having fun!

(cont.) 👇

[Assistant] It might be a couple of things. One is that I can put up with a lot if I like the main characters and all seven of them are not only good, but exceptional. So if there's a section that's ever a bit too slow or whatever, it's easier to power through because of that.

[User] Two is that it's gotten pretty clean by now. I enjoyed the first 200 chapters, don't get me wrong, but it's not like it blew my mind and it did kind of come across as formulaic and inconsistent.

[Assistant] But now it's been breaking off and trying new things and it just feels more solid overall. So for me, it's felt easier to engage with the farther in that I've gotten, rather than the opposite.


[User] to some, God is still a debate, but to others “God existing” is a common sense. it’s a “duh” thing, it’s an objective reality, it’s as simply digested perceptively as the physics we are constantly at the discretion of.. such as gravity, or the flow of the “invisible” oxygen molecules we breathe.

[Assistant] it’s such a common sense, a seamless logic. that is how i am. the debates, talks, and the arguments? by now, to me, are so meaningless, futile, and nigh-wasteful of time..

[User] surely there is something more productive to be doing about the word “God”, and the notion of God than those debates.. i’m looking for that productivity.

[Assistant] that is how i am. it’s such a common sense, it’s such a seamless logic. the debates, the talks, and the arguments? by now, to me, are so meaningless, futile, and wasteful..


[User]
Probably the most important detail to leak out of the Valve "Roy" controllers.

This definitely puts the nail in the coffin for people that thought Light house tracking was going to stay.

I've always said it's a legacy overkill system for VR. The accuracy is not worth all it's trade offs.

[Assistant] Deckard might include some kind of LH backwards compatibility if they want to be nice but the default tracking method will be SLAM, considering this will be a standalone headset.

[User] Well my legacy system costed thousands of dollars that I'm not willing to give up smh.

[Assistant]
I mean I'm pretty invested in LH too, mainly because of FBT but if I could give that up for a fully inside out tracked system, I would do it in a heartbeat.

The problem is there is no FBT system out there currently that hits my quality bar and I'm not talking about tracking accuracy.

[User]
The closest thing is the Vive Ultimate Trackers but they are plagued with so many inconvenient steps, like the room calibration that it's not worth considering.

There is also something like Pico Motion Trackers, which honestly seem like a great package but sadly locked to Pico headsets only :/

[Assistant]
Personally I'm just a fan of not needing to worry about drift.
That's kinda why I like my lighthouse everything, I don't need to recalibrate ever really unless I jostle one of my straps.

Don't get me wrong I understand the importance of non-lighthouse, I still just prefer lighthouse.

[User]
Yeah same for me. That's why I like SLAM on HMD/Controllers because the drift is constantly being corrected, which leaves you with a very good tracking all things considered.

The tech is there, it's just the current offering in FBT space all suck one way or another. So I'm stuck with Lighthouse.

[Assistant] inside out is kinda better, I never had any issues with headset tracking on the Rift S. as the technology is improved upon and made more accurate, it was always going to be the future, but I do hope they can squeeze it into smaller form factors.


[User] MSU FAM: I’m missing the Marsh’s from the Elon site. Nicks mom and uncle were some of my favorite follows.

[Assistant] I can try and see if MamaTron wants to come over but I've not seen nearly as many family members of athletes #onhere unfortunately...

[User] I think his uncle went by “storyknife” and was a UM fan but a hell of a nice guy and funny AF.

[Assistant] We may have some pieces moving re: one of those accounts 👀

[User] They’re going to love it here!

[Assistant] We have to make an effort to engage with the smaller group during the early stages until more people come over (and they will).


[User]
Life after a 21 year relationship is brutal. One moment you think you're in eutopia with the love of your life; the next she's up and left and you're packing up every hope and dream you've ever had.

It's enough to make you wanna lay across some train tracks.

[Assistant] Oh dang man. So sorry to hear.

[User] Thanks. I'm going through hell right now. We're trying to be civil about the split but the end of things was all her actions/call. Not pretending I'm a saint, but losing so much because of someone else's desires is really fucking me up.

[Assistant] All my best man. Wish I could say more. That sucks.


[User] I've competely overhauled my work / lounge-type room with new everything and it's almost finished. I've decided the best way to celebrate is to binge on all-time favourite music. I haven't listened to this all the way through in a long time.

[Assistant] I reckon I must listen to that at least once every couple of months. Its appeal never fades, and it's one of the few albums I love that doesn't offend my wife's delicate sensibilities.

[User] Strangely what prompted this one was my dad repeating a cover version of "So Long, Marianne" by a South African artist. I told him that it's originally a Leonard Cohen song, played it for him and he promptly said "he can't sing." Pfft. Exactly how I feel about the one he's loving.

[Assistant]
Found it. I am not sure what to make of it.
youtu.be/y1zX-vC0RDE?...


[Assistant] Is that what I think it is?

[User] I’m not sure I wanna ask…🤔

[Assistant] You're right!


[User] I keep a fair lot of cards which are sentimental to me but a lot of them were in nooks and crannies so I decided to collect them, punch a hole through them and make a card book!

[Assistant] That is such a great idea Úna, I’m totally going to borrow it!

[User] What an inspired idea ...

[Assistant] That’s a great idea. Nicked!


[User] Faculty and staff community-building day at Surugadai University. Chopped wood taken from the mountain next to the university and used it to oven-bake pizza.


[User] Indoor training again today. A little warm up then strength training. Too wet outside!🌧🌧🌧

[Assistant] It's foul out there! Had to cycle in it.

[Assistant] Not quite that bad!


[User]
With bike lanes being ripped up, it's a good time to remind everyone of the legal rights of cyclists under Ontario's Highway Traffic Act.
#BikeTO #ONpoli #TOpoli
www.ontario.ca/page/bicycle...

[Assistant]
You don't need to state on the right EVER, the highways traffic act says to ride on the right "where practicable".

That's up to the cyclist to decide whats "practicable".
Road to rough there?  TAKE THE LANE.
Road too crowded? TAKE THE LANE.
Feel unsafe with cars in the same lane? TAKE THE LANE.

[User] Yep. Plenty of valid and legal reasons to take the lane.

[Assistant] I wonder how soon we can all expect an HTA amendment. I hope I’m wrong ☹


[User] Been a long time since I have flown one of these massive beasts. And incredibly it's my first ever flight on Qatar. I'm expecting a mixed opinion as I'm pretty spoiled by ANA, JAL and Cathay.

[Assistant] Depending on which part of the bird you're in, this could leave all three of them in the dust. Safe travels. Looking forward to your report.

[User] I like Cathay. I heard a lot of good things about Qatar, but never boarded any plane. Looking forward to the report too.

[Assistant] I was fortunate to fly then once, BKK-DOH-LAX and back, in business class. This was before qsuites, but the level of service was unbelievable. Truly outstanding. And the lounges in Doha have to be seen to be believed!

[User] My problem is that I mostly have to fly economy class, based on our policies.

[Assistant] I understand. I only fly business when I'm feeling flush and foot the bill myself.

[User] The Qatar lounge is extraordinary - except when it's Ramadan. Imagine sitting at a champagne and oyster bar and only soda is on offer.

[Assistant] I used to do both business and first on Thais and EVE , from BKK to SEA.  I didn't know how to enjoy those privileges much until I was old enough and  had to pay from my own pocket which I won't 🤣🤣


[User]
Watching Doctor Who: City Of Death.

This one is one of the best ever, with Douglas Adams’ signature brand of humor.

[Assistant]
Once got to see it on a big screen at a film festival.

Absolutely held up.

[User] That must have been amazing!

[Assistant]
It was! Special screening at the local BBC studio.

We even got a cup of bbc canteen cheap wine for the full 70s experience.


[User] Waking up rock hard needing to pump to some Tommy king😵💫

[Assistant] Make sure to make that sloppy 💦

[User] that crack needs sniffing and stuffing 😵💫😵💫😵💫

[Assistant] me rn pumping to her phat mommy ass 😵💫😵💫😵💫


[User] I love Mike Conley, you love Mike Conley, we all love Mike Conley -- multi-time Lowe Post podcast guest. But Conley is 37, shooting 32%, and now injured -- and that has been a huge simmering story all year for MIN. They need an organizer badly.

[Assistant] Any chance Dillingham gets more run as a result? Not because he's sitting in my dynasty league taxi slots or anything.

[User] I do love Mike Conley you’re right :)

[Assistant] Ay Zach fellow nutmegger who’s been trying to find where you are dropping new episodes of your Pod at?

[User] Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia, Santi Aldalma and a pick for Naz Reid and Mike Conley.  Helps both teams.  I don’t know anything about the money matching up tho.

[Assistant] Great to see you on here, Zach. Not sure if you've had what has now become an NBA Bluesky tradition, a welcome post from unofficial host @howardbeck.bsky.social!

[User] I’ve been thinking of a landing spot for CP3 in the event the Spurs can’t keep this winning pace. Minnesota makes a lot of sense.

[Assistant] Feels we have too many guys that fill a similar role and often have the same style of play. Plus Jalen’s regression on both sides of the ball. A lot of hero ball because him and Rudy can’t create or hit open shots. We do need an organizer, but Ant and Randle feel forced to make plays.

[User] It was a frustrating game to watch last night. Especially after how far we (The Wolves) made it last year. I remember in your podcasts mentioning how they HAD to keep the core together and run it back one more year. The ownership power struggle had a role to play in that trade decision.

[Assistant] Zach! Glad to see you here! Give my Spurs some love!


[User] Back from Pittsburgh. Wonderful time at Eternal Weekend. Awesome fans and awesome company in the form of good friend Greg Staples and friend and agent Mark. Many other artists like Dan Frazier, Chris Moeller, Mark Poole, Jason Engles, Pete Venters and many more.

[Assistant] Thanks to the organiser Nick and his staff for a smooth and flawless experience.

[User] Lucky to get a US trip in before the orange overlord takes over.

[Assistant] Yeah! Sad though as some of these fans are going to be badly affected by his policies. Quite a few  trans people were coming up to chat and get cards signed. Really angers me how the bigots attack these gentle and vulnerable people.


[User]
My first post:  in case you didn’t know, Bluesky will allow you to switch feed algorithms ie you will “control your own attention.” Your attention and time are the most valuable resources:

bsky.social/about/blog/3...

[Assistant]
Shout out to @sahilbloom.bsky.social for this most important write up about time billionaires

www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/t...

[User] Thank you!

[Assistant] It’s an all “time” great!


[User]
@notoriouslilbee.bsky.social  Hello, my auntie! We sent you an email. Miss you and LOVE YOU! 💙🐾😘😘😘

Bearing silly gifts😋

[Assistant] Hello sweetie!! I just read your email a few days ago. I have to go back and find it so I can write back. LOVE YOU!!!! 😘😘😘😘😘

[User]
Yay! We're excited because my mum and you both have birthdays coming up... we're not going to let the holidays overtake them💞🐾!

We love you so much and are happy to see your lovely soul here - you make the world a better place!🇨🇦🥰

[Assistant] Awww, I think it’s because you bring out the best in people. 🥲😊😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘


[User] I've been living in Iowa since Obama was elected, and I still find it impossible to drive by a field with cows in it and not say "Cows."

[Assistant] Ha ha. Out with two friends today. We were trout spotting. At four different places. No one had to say the word trout, because we did not spot any, which I already knew, but I had already turned them down once so...

[User] Is trout spotting anything like fishing? Or is it more like train spotting? I guess what I'm asking is this: what the hell is trout spotting?

[Assistant] Spawning. Making fish babies! It is a whole ritual.

[User] And you're being an audience to that ritual? Interesting.

[Assistant] There are organized tours! I managed to miss it the last time, because it is not really my thing. But it was my BBQ buddies. I remember you did an Utata Front Page on one of them a few years ago when he was enjoying some soup.https://www.utata.org/frontpage/2019/06/11/fine-dining-at-villa-blames/

[User] My grandad would take me to watch the salmon run if we were passing a good spot at the right time. He was a keen fisherman so knew the times and best places, waterfalls etc, to watch them jump on every river. So I'm thinking trout spotting is the same but with trout obviously?

[Assistant] Yes, exactly the same, Seldon.

[User] I have a word for our little adventures now. Thanks.

[Assistant] I grew up on a farm and I do it.  Cows are cool.

[User] Cows really ARE cool. I didn't expect them to be so friendly. They're kind of like big, placid, somewhat slow-moving puppies.

[Assistant] They are probably expecting it at this point when they see your car.


[User] Receiving unsolicited "advanced protection" notice does set the alarm bells ringing, tbh.. But as far as I can tell it is legitimate. But it would also be a perfect spearphishing lure.

[Assistant] Still, just to be safe, set up 2FA but *not* via the email link. Is there a matching notification in Instagram itself?

[User] It was legit, I verified the email link, and then still did it the other way. Interestingly I had 2FA on my Facebook account already, and while that and my Instagram are connected, apparently they are still able to be logged into independently. So I setup for Instagram too.

[Assistant] I submitted a whole load of suspicious texts to the DIA and westpac phishing email the other day only to find out they were legitimate 😳😳

[User] God forbid anyone get hold of my 559 Instagram followers :)

[Assistant] I see most of the two-factor authentication requests as just ways to grab more data about you, the better to know what you might be likely to buy.


[User]
Most newspapers and news magazines are written at an 11th grade reading level.

The average American reads at the 7th- to 8th-grade reading level.

What grade level is required to watch Fox News? 🤔

[Assistant] Are you asking about national standard or Oklahoma standard???  I think you need a 3rd grade literacy level to graduate high school here......

[User]
Good point! You’re right.
Was thinking national standard.

[Assistant] Thankfully our kids will now be reading the trump Bible.....


[User] Every once and a while I remember my favorite ttrpg character and smile. You know what's deeply satisfying? Establishing a coherent character and then it paying off big time.

[Assistant] Maloch "the Merciless" was a lawful evil tiefling wizard, he was lazy, greedy and a coward except! And this part is so important to his whole deal, he was also fiercely loyal and protective of his friends. He tried to play it off as transactional but it became more and more obvious over time.

[User] This meant that Maloch 99% of the time was a super calculating combatant but if someone was in real danger of dying all that went out the window and all of the sudden the cowardly wizard was all in on a self-sacrifice play to try and rescue them.

[Assistant] From low level Maloch hefting his staff and stepping into melee over a friend's unconscious body to high level Maloch diving into a chaos demon's maw to try and catch a friend's body and dimension door out before they got digested he'd go for it.


[User]
It’s coming to the end of the election campaign here.

Party attire abandoned…

[Assistant] A Social Democrhat......

[User] So many possibilities - dropped, ripped off, lost in a scuffle, thrown away in frustration .... 😀

[Assistant]
👍
And a bit late for someone to throw their hat into the ring.🤠


[User] I cannot even imagine the person using Chat GPT to get through all of their uncomfortable conversations.

[Assistant]
I sadly know someone who would do that.
It's the same person who keeps asking me why I haven't used it yet for doing art 🤮

[User] Yikes.  Ask them how it is living life on a script.

[Assistant] The same reaction to when I sent him a video of a guy jingling keys for an hour: mad 🤣


[User]
Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone!! 🦃
How are we pre-gaming tonight?

[Assistant]
Personally, I will be shopping among the crowds while also complaining about the crowds.

#HappyHolidays 🤗

[User]
I will be shopping among the crowds while also complaining about the crowds.

#HappyHolidays 🤗

[Assistant]
Personally, I will be shopping among the crowds while also complaining about the crowds.

#HappyHolidays 🤗


[User]
That moment when you just wanna put out a sign that says "Inflate till I cum, win a prize!"
Never said how to inflate, just that you have to make me cum while doing so... the possibilities from it... 🎈

[Assistant]
*places a helium tank nozzle in my mouth*
*Turns the valve all the way*
Belly, butt and boobs swell dramatically, a bulge balloons between my legs
My shiny red nose swells like a balloon on my face.
*POP*
*Squeak*
Body begins to swell round like a ball with massive orbs on my chest
*Honk*

[User] ... well someone inflated, wasn't me and I didn't cum! You get no prize pretty clown!

[Assistant] As they say the show must go on!! * waddling towards you squeaking and creaking like a taut balloon, i place my puffed up lips to yours my nose pressing against your face causing it to honk loudly, i begin to blow, the air rapidly escaping my mouth and filling you up entirely*

[User] *eyes went wide at the sudden rush of air blowing and forcing itself into me- a loud squeaking noise leaving as my body BWOOMPS out quickly into a rounded shape*

[Assistant]
* i pull back from the kiss my round nose plumping back up licking my puffy lips in succession as you sway on your rounded crotch*

"ah hyuck i think we have plenty more room to fill you before i roll you away to my circus"

 *eyeing up the throbbing bulge on your ballooned up body*

[User] *let out a very muffled whine at the pressure and the feeling of touching atop of my crotch, flapping my hands with a muffled whine at the thought of being taken, this was far from the original game!*

[Assistant] The game was rigged from the start ! *Places a balloon pump into your belly button and pumps vigorously, your skin turns shiny your hands swell up into blooned up white gloves each popping up  as they inflate, your feet swell each toe swelling*


[User] Elon Musk boosting career criminal Tommy Robinson in UK www.nbcnews.com/news/world/e...

[Assistant] Why haven't they retaliated? They are much more proactive then we are with this bullshit.

[User] Elmo is utterly out of control.

[Assistant] Turns out it isn’t hard to play god.


[User] I wish Bluesky had drafts (mandatory military service so we can raise an army to invade X and maybe LinkedIn)

[Assistant] I wish Bluesky had drafts (a slight breeze of cold air rolling though from an unknown location in the room)

[User] I think a rescue team would be more useful, pulling the remaining decent folks out and leaving X to the barbarous hordes. 😕

[Assistant] LinkedIn is my regular source of cringe lord comedy content! The maverick attention seeking, the humble brag, the bad photography of man beside screen in front of audience with emotive drivel on his accomplishments. I wouldn’t change it for the world, it makes me cackle.

[User] Hahaha yeah me too *quietly deletes LinkedIn profile*

[Assistant] I think we should take on MySpace first, and work our way up to X.


[User]
Some of the most important lottery anomalies from the behavioral risk literature (e.g., probability weighting and loss aversion) actually have nothing to do with risk.

They also arise in perfectly deterministic settings.

Lead article in the latest AER issue:
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

[Assistant] Any chance there's an open access link?

[Assistant] Thank you!


[User]
The fuck...

news.sky.com/story/i-woul...

[Assistant] Human women aren't bloody mares here.  Christ...

[User] He just had to bring up a majority black African country as his example of undesirable breeding stock, too.

[Assistant] Not everyone wants to have kids for various reasons, i.e. overpopulation, wars, global warming, cost of living, etc.


[User] Stephen's gym freestyle was pretty great. Definitely his and Rylee's best dance of the season. Great note to end on and great job on 4th place! Co-hosting the DWTS tour is a big deal too!

[Assistant] I bet in July he couldn't have imagined his post-Olympic life being this wild. But kudos to him for taking every opportunity offered to him even if it's outside his comfort zone. He really has become the spokesperson for MAG in the US.

[User] Obviously, there’s been a lot of emphasis on the struggles NCAA men's gym through programs being dropped over the years, but we really need to look at the club level too. You'd be surprised how many gym clubs have very limited or no boys programs at all.

[Assistant] And speaking from personal experience, a lot of clubs don't even have all the MAG equipment or specialized MAG coaches. Also, boys programs are often the first to be downsized or entirely cut whenever a gym undergoes any kind of hardship.

[User] I know a lot of gym fans who don’t follow MAG closely often ridicule the US MAG for not being as consistent or successful as the US WAG, but consider the MUCH smaller talent pool they have to work with. Never mind the fact MAG is just a lot more internationally competitive.

[Assistant] So I think it's a wonder the US MAG are as successful as they are. So maybe they don't win medals all the time, but at least they still regularly qualify to TF/AA/EF at major championships. Those are still remarkable accomplishments in context of having so much less than the WAG program.


[User] I'm kind of surprised at how people eat food like Panda Express at 6am in an airport.  Why are non breakfast spots even open?

[Assistant] Only places that should be open at this time are breakfast spots.

[User] Right but I guess they're open bc people will pay.

[Assistant] When you have a choice between Mickey D’s & Chipotle…..imma take Chipotle 😂🤣


[User] Who’s gonna help us watch UConn/Ole Miss tonight? Drop the livestream link bookie 😃😃😃

[Assistant] The Committee Sports Group takes about streaming Flo Sports all day for all the games.

[User] Yay, thanks for letting me know! Is that on YouTube or playback?

[Assistant] I think they said on Playback. I will have to check.


[User]
I am not a polyglot.

I speak only about 4.4 languages, and the 1.4 of them are made up of Nahuatl (~0.7) (down from 0,9 at my max), German (~0.4) and French (~0,3).

Then a random smattering of 0,1-0,2's and Swedish and Norwegian which doesn't count for the total.

[Assistant]
You deserve at least a 0,5x2 if you can speak Swedish and Norwegian without getting blank stares from native speakers (followed by a switch to English).

And maybe even a 0,25 for fellow Danes. Kamelåså and all that. ❤

[User] I have succeeded in forcing them into submission by continuing to speak bad swedish or norwegian untill they just have to accept it.


[User] I’m not trying to be cute here, there’s not any public safety department that can both afford and outfit a cybertruck for response that wouldn’t be better served using those resources elsewhere.

[Assistant]
If you need a large vehicle to carry equipment, get a diesel pick up and modify that. It’s more reliable and *that matters more than looking cool*.

Need an economical vehicle to do logistics and personnel transport?

Get a Prius or a panel van put a light bar on it if you want and call it a day.

[User] Every emergency vehicle I have ever operated, from an upfitted dodge charger to a 1980's overweight MAC truck that maxed out at 50 MPH needed to do a few key things the cyber truck struggles with.

[Assistant]
Start reliably, go from cold to *gone* in no time, handle going over poorly maintained roads, and generally tolerate high performance driving with multiple operators that don't have to pay for repairs themselves.

Emergency vehicles are constantly in the shop because we treat them like shit.


[User]
How do you show appreciation for the people who make your success possible?

Thanksgiving is more than a holiday—it’s a reminder to slow down and express gratitude for the people and opportunities that surround us every day.

[Assistant] As leaders, showing appreciation is the most powerful way we can shine a light on the contributions of those we support and lead. Whether solving challenges behind the scenes or creating systems that shape the future, every member of our team plays a role in building a culture where we all thrive.

[User] Gratitude is a powerful force—it builds trust, strengthens relationships, and sustains a culture where we thrive together. And, gratitude doesn’t need to be grand to be meaningful—it just needs to be sincere.

[Assistant]
When we pause to notice the opportunities we have and the beauty that lies in the work we do, we create space for fulfillment and meaning in our lives.

Always remember—what we appreciate, appreciates.


[User]
From @casanovahistory.bsky.social one of the finest Spanish Civil War historians writing today:
"A wonderful reconciliation"
According to Manuel Mariscal, Vox deputy, in Congress the "post-civil war period" was one of "reconciliation".
50,000 people executed in that post-war decade."

[Assistant] That was precisely Franco's idea of reconciliation.

[User] Éamann @almagroschool.bsky.social has translated Oscar Puente's excellent response to Mariscal into English. bsky.app/profile/alma...

[Assistant] Follow the link to his substack for the full, free post.


[User] I done ran out the house and forgot my glasses. This should be fun.

[Assistant] Depends if your near or far sighted lol one is fun one is dangerous 🤣🤣

[User] This is very true 🤣🤣 in my case In my case I just might grab the wrong ingredients if I move too fast.

[Assistant] Ok good bc if I go without my glasses I don’t think I actually can make it to the door 🤣🤣 i definitely can’t make it anywhere in a car 🤣🤣🤣


[User] Home office is cosy now!

[Assistant] Why do you need such a big poster tube next to the window?

[User] At least it lights up at night!

[Assistant] The vibes are perfect! I love it!


[User]
Well this is it. My first text-only post

Well after months of completely boycotting Disney’s new material, my mate @jamesfoxcartoon.bsky.social recently reminded me of the movie Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

Reason being was that the extended version ( Which you can’t get on Disney Plus, btw ) was….

[Assistant]
released on YouTube in parts.

Few days later, I found a DVD of the movie at CEX ( A second hand shop that sells DVD’s, Blu Rays & games ) and saw how cheap it was. Thought “…..Oooh screw it!” and brought it home with me
Little did I know that I was holding the extended version, the only version….

[User]
I watched when I was a kid!

Got it home, watched it, and without going into full detail, I mostly loved it! Was great seeing this movie again, especially the deleted scenes added to it. 😊

Even after hearing about the shady stuff Disney have done over the years ( Even before B&B ), it still….

[Assistant]
enchant me like it did as a kid

……And that always gets me thinking. Even after hearing what Disney did behind the scenes, is it wrong to like their movies & shows?
I mean when I see a film now, I praise the cast and crew members and never the higher ups.

Am I being a fanboy here or is my love….


[User] With an increased use of AI on job applications, please please please know that we can tell AI wrote that for you. Unless you're really good at writing prompts which most people aren't. You'd be surprised how our human brains can pick up artificial content so quickly and well.

[Assistant] I'll add a slight caveat to that though (lower down I say that I misremembered and they haven't done studies yet, but there's definitely been conversations about how people's writing has been flagged as AI/ autistic students being accused of using it by professors etc.) bsky.app/profile/domi...

[User]
I didn't know this! I'll keep this in mind and make sure to check my bias. Do you have a link to this study? love to read it / share to my colleagues.

I think my main criticism is that sometimes people forget to take the part out that says... "here's a tailored response for you:" LOL!

[Assistant] And also, no problem in ppl using AI cuz I use chatGPT and co-pilot A LOT doing mundane tasks. But, people don't really tailor the content to the job / org. They are very very generic.

[User]
I didn't know this! I'll keep this in mind and make sure to check my bias.

I think my main criticism is that sometimes people forget to take the part out that says... "here's a tailored response for you:" LOL!

[Assistant] And also, no problem in ppl using AI cuz I use chatGPT and co-pilot A LOT doing mundane tasks. But, people don't really tailor the content to the job / org. They are very very generic.

[User] 😅 yeah can't argue that one. You're absolutely right on the other hand, sometimes it is obvious if someone didn't put any effort in! It's a balance. You can write matter of fact/ 'robotically' but still have relevant examples etc. or just a lot of generic fluff.

[Assistant] There has been studies showing that negative first impressions get formed within seconds of meeting as well, which is great for interviews 🙃 www.tameri.com/autisticme/2...