Clayton Page Aldern

("Cooperation" in the paper is more like collusion that benefits the colluders at the expense of the broader system.)

In which the gut microbiome shows us once again why oligopolies are bad

omg I just remembered I can mute the word “nuzzi”

Finally some good news!!

Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.

NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones!

My guide:

Very well said

Interpretations of the video differed wildly: Cotton said he “saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, called it “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

there is no more shared reality. www.cnn.com/2025/12/04/p...

I think we have to stop referring to it as a book and remind ourselves it's a long Notes-app entry

Heyyyy!!

Louder for the people in the back!

if you are a news professional - msm, trade or indie- you have the power to fix this. and don’t let the fact that they paint all of us with a broad brushstroke stop you from rising above…

Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.

Thanks for reading! Send me the conference paper when it’s ready!

PERHAPS WHEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA WE SHOULD JUST ALWAYS USE CAPITAL LETTERS TO COMMUNICATE UNAMBIGUOUSLY. THE IMPLICIT CALMING TIMBRE OF LEXICAL CLARITY COULD HELP INCUBATE A GENTLE CIVILITY AMONGST USERS

Scare your family members! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717097...

10/10°

Though we can all agree Google Trends is next to useless 🫡

Angelus Novus by Paul Klee. Kind of a silly flat cartoon of an angel in a tutu upon which critical theory has apparently predicated an understanding of the sweep of history

“When we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed.”

—Walter Benjamin, somehow writing about this painting

I started rereading My Ántonia because of the Epstein Files AMA

I think he’s right! The compare function scales each term’s history relative to the global max of the comparison, no?

I thought the compare function was relative to the peak of all included terms? Obv would be a mistake to compare two separate single-term charts side-by-side (each would be scaled to its own individual peak), but iirc search interest is always relative to the highest absolute interest in the group

a Fuji man through and through!

Yayyy! What are you shooting the medium format with?

Amazing screenshot of a Google AI response reading: “Al Overview: No, a locomotive does not have a "pee-pee-maker" in the biological sense. The term comes from a philosophical concept by Gilles Deleuze…”

the AI tries its hand at French post-structuralism

At this point we have to imagine there is a New York Times style guide entry that says something like: “Any headline suggesting a violent perpetrator harmed a less powerful target violates editorial standards.”

This newspaper will do anything in its power to avoid the construction “[Asymmetrically powerful instigator] [inflicts unimaginable horrors upon] [victim].”

Any thoughts on the extent to which the particular Langrangian here is isomorphic to a variational free energy functional? flow configuration ↔ variational density parameters; dissipation term ↔ expected free energy, etc.?

bsky.app/profile/josh...

Okay I did NOT have Willa Cather on my Epstein files bingo card

All of North America looking skyward and losing their minds.

Seattle: