Ada Palmer (@adapalmer) — Bluesky Profile

56 minutes ago

I think my seeing stone has a virus. Is the flaming eye screensaver supposed to be so hard to turn off?

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1 hour ago

ELVISSHE TECH SUPPORTE:

Has thou tryed turninge thy computir off and then restartinge it undir a brighte colde moon yn a sharp green glade yn spring to the sounde of harpes?

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5 hours ago

St. Paul: Make the Marshall Avenue bus lane permanent? Take the survey The three-block extension of a permanent bus lane was installed from Cretin Avenue to Wilder Street in 2023 as a temporary measure

Please take this survey and tell Metro Transit to keep the bus /bike lane (and not let a Highland realtor drive the narrative). This is the precise spot where I was nearly killed by a red pickup truck driver. www.twincities.com/2026/03/06/s...

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1 hour ago

The Hatzegopteryx from The Dinosaurs (2026). It is a short-necked azhdarchid with a robust beak, wrinkly skin on the head, and a gray-black color pattern. It is surrounded by fog and horsetails

The Arambourgiania from The Dinosaurs (2026). It is a long-necked, lanky azhdarchid, with an orange-brown neck and body and dark gray limbs and head. It stands in the middle of a nesting colony of the hadrosaur Edmontosaurus, who are on both sides of it and not happy that it's there.

The new Netflix series The Dinosaurs features two azhdarchids, Arambourgiania and Hatzegopteryx. Both are portrayed in their capacity as eaters of small dinosaurs and general menaces. And they look gorgeous

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1 hour ago

Large bird that looks prehistoric, flying

Great Blue Herons in the great blue sky ...

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8 hours ago

A woman in a mask
Headline:
Why Do Some People Still Wear Masks In 2026 And On A Completely Unrelated Note Why Is Everyone In The Office Sick Right Now Apart From The Guy In The Mask?
Story from Jerk Wingley and Terramin Defishunsee

Photo from Adobe

Why Do Some People Still Wear Masks In 2026 And On A Completely Unrelated Note Why Is Everyone In The Office Sick Right Now Apart From The Guy In The Mask?

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5 hours ago

I absolutely loved this conversation. Ada's effortless erudition, energy, and insight really bring the renaissance to life. It's long but worth it - I learned loads. Recommended.

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5 hours ago

Snakes on Two Planes

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5 hours ago

More than most novelists and journalists too.

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13 hours ago

'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out:

www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

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7 hours ago

I support that!

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7 hours ago

THE WEE BABY TOESIES!

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10 hours ago

An illustration of a large T.rex at sunset. Its jaws are opened wide, and a flock of tiny birds surrounds its head, with a few brave individuals landing in its mouth, to pick scraps from the huge teeth.

T. rex tooth cleaning time.
#SciArt

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10 hours ago

Text along bottom of first page (but there doesn’t have to be a specific space for it; this is just for when it’s a separate piece): ©2026 by Michael Goodwin. Art by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. No affiliation with any campaign.

Title: One Solution

Panel: Narrator looks at his laptop. We see his face and the laptop from behind. He’s shocked and upset. A whirlwind is going on outside; we can see it in the window (it takes up the whole window, it’s not in the distance).

Caption: Now it’s early February of 2026, and, well, things haven’t let up.
From laptop: “It’s okay, I’m not mad at you.”
SFX from laptop: BANGBANGBANG
From laptop, in another word balloon: “Fucking bitch!”
Arrow to the balloons coming from laptop: ICE killing Renee Good, January 7.

Source: A decent description of the exchange is here: https://www.wired.com/story/the-campaign-to-destroy-renee-good/

Panel: A caption box.

Caption: So let’s take a break and look at a real cause for hope: New York State has found a way to fight big money in elections.

Panel: The big donors from before, dropping money on all the institutions. We don’t see the Congress.

Caption: Big money in elections isn’t our only problem.
Caption by all the institutions that aren’t politicians: Heck, it’s not our only problem with big money. . . .

Panel: This chart, but the x-axis labels change; “1” is 2000, “2” is 2004, and so on up to 2024. The data labels shouldn’t cross the line either. My Excel skills are poop.

Caption: But it is a big problem.
Small text below chart: Data presentation courtesy of Nathan Kalmoe. Reproduced in modified form.

Source: from https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaires-buying-elections-theyve-come-to-collect/. This is actually just Federal election spending.

Panel: Some regular people speak. They look unimpressed.

Caption: New York’s solution: matching funds for donations up to $250* in state and local elections.
Person 1: Okay?
Person 2: That’s nice, I guess?
Footnote text: *Per cand…

Panel: A person, an outline of New York State, and a candidate (like, maybe she has a “Vote for me” sign?). One $10 bill is going from the person to the state, and then seven $10 bills (or a stack marked $70) to the candidate.

Caption: That sounds lame, but it’s not—the match is crazy generous.
In the NY state outline: 6 to 1 match

Source: https://pcfb.ny.gov/candidate-committee-services; https://pcfb.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2026/01/pcfb-handbook-revised-2025-final_5.pdf

Panel: A chart showing these data, except that the bars are labeled 2020, 2022, and 2024 (I think it would look better if the legend labels (“From PACs” and so on) are to the right of the last bar, next to the part they refer to, instead of in a legend, but I can’t make Excel do that).

Chart title: Sources of donations in New York State legislative races
Caption: The new funds were first available in the 2024 election cycle.
Caption by or arrow to first 2 bars (maybe the yellow and grey parts are circled somehow?): And while 2020 and 2022 were the usual story—big money buying our elections. . . .
Caption by or arrow to last bar: 2024 was different.
Source: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/new-york-states-public-campaign-financing-program-empowers-constituent

Panel: Mamdani looks happy. A crowd of billionaires are on the left, looking at him angrily. We don’t need to see each one, just a crowd. If we do see any, then Bill Ackman, Ronald and William Lauder, Barry Diller, Dan Loeb, and/or Alice Walton.

Caption: In 2025, the usual New York City power brokers poured crazy money on Andrew Cuomo, their toady mayoral candidate, and they lost anyway.
Arrow: Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor. Even with matching funds (in NYC the match is 8 to 1) he raised less than Cuomo, but the money he did raise was enough.

Source: Crazy money: more than $40 million according to this: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/30/mamdani-cuomo-nyc-mayor-bid-billionaire-spending.html. Toady: In the…

Panel: Jeffries and Schumer, looking like Droopy Dog again. Some protesters are yelling at them.

Caption: The same machine that gave us these saps, who (deliberately or not) block real opposition to Trump.
People: Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!
Jeffries: We hear you. You want us to give ICE more money.
Schumer: Don’t forget to donate.

Source: The more money would be for training, as if that would help; see, e.g., here: https://therealnews.com/renee-good-killing-dems-ice-reforms

Panel: Uncle Sam is sitting on a toilet, looking relieved. We don’t need to see his bare ass—maybe just the top of the tank behind him—but it should be clear what he’s doing (that is, he’s been constipated but he’s just taken a massive dump.)

Caption: If the state matching funds applied to federal races, we could be confident of clearing these blockages this year (Jeffries) and in 2028 (Schumer).
Sam: Aah.

Panel: Schumer and Jeffries again, in the same low-energy positions, but now they have grins on their faces. Money is raining down on them.

Caption: But they don’t, so we’ll have to fight the full power of big money in both cases.

https://pcfb.ny.gov/program-overview

Panel: Mamdani and Kathy Hochul looking all buddy buddy.

Caption: By contrast, the funds do apply to the governor’s race, which may be why Governor Kathy Hochul has suddenly been a lot more responsive (in some ways at least).
Mamdani: Child care for all!
Hochul: Yes!

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/mayor-mamdani---governor-hochul-to-launch-free-child-care-for-tw; includes the phrase “The Governor is committing to fully fund the first two years of the city’s implementation.”

Panel: Some rich people yell or wail; maybe one is clutching her pearls. The word balloon and text should be prominent in some way (like, drawn instead of lettered).

Caption: Now: you’ve already probably thought of the big objection to generous matching funds like these:
Rich people: How will you pay for it?

Panel: Narrator speaks. He looks a bit unnaturally happy.

Caption: The answer is simple:
Narrator: By making politicians more responsive to voters!

Panel: Silly beings like unicorns, puppies, teddy bears, and so on frolic in a land of rainbows and candy canes and so on. One of the teddy bears is starting to dig with one of those kiddy beach shovels.

Caption: And okay, that sounds silly.
Unicorn or whatever: With better politicians, money will appear out of nowhere!
Teddy bear that’s digging: And we’ll find pirate treasure!
Puppy or whatever: And everyone will get a pony!
A My Little Pony, responding to the puppy: Wait, what?

Panel: One of the silly beings from the previous panel speaks.

Caption: But it’s not.
Being: Read on!

A comic about New York's election matching funds, and the comptroller's race (they're connected, I swear):

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10 hours ago

Reminded by @adapalmer.bsky.social on the Dwarkesh podcast and of Bacon's classification of knowledge gatherers: ants, spiders, and bees.

I wonder how Bacon would have described the contemporary desire to *look like* one who has acquired the "how-to" knowledge of accessing all knowledge...

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12 hours ago

Apropos of nothing, it took humanity 2,700 years to finish digging the canal across the Isthmus of Corinth.

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12 hours ago

Harl. 2694 Lucretius, De rerum natura, with a lovely map illumination! I remember gasping when I opened the cover!

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12 hours ago

Please welcome our @britishlibrary.bsky.social BL Medieval friends to Bluesky! 🎉

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12 hours ago

Small actions like letters and phone calls do make a difference! 💪 🤝 🙌

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12 hours ago

Bookmarking

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12 hours ago

Biological life is a billion year effort to make water taste like things.

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13 hours ago

This is VERY cool.

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13 hours ago

Metal art depicting two strange creatures outside a parking garage in Squirrel Hill

Scary parking garage monsters
Pittsburgh, PA

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14 hours ago

Undergrad class: Historical Linguistics and Intro to the Gothic Language

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1 day ago

A 2000-year-old sculpture of a baby doing a hadouken from inside the mouth of an old man’s head

This 2000-year-old sculpture of a baby doing a hadouken from inside the mouth of an old man’s head is still one of the hardest things I’ve ever seen

www.artic.edu/artworks/221...

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15 hours ago

Getting featured in the Billy Penn newsletter - it's a dream come true! Still feeling all the good feels from our collab with @sarahmackattack.bsky.social

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1 day ago

Why Leonardo was a saboteur, Gutenberg went broke, and Florence was weird – Ada Palmer YouTube video by Dwarkesh Patel

This interview with @adapalmer.bsky.social was an incredible treat! Best podcast episode I've listened to in a while.

youtu.be/PAIhVfGbREA?...

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1 day ago

And the prequel, Nothing Nowhere Never.

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15 hours ago

👏

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22 hours ago

1985

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