Thursday, October 2, 2025

Today's news and jokes

(I couldn't find the introduction, but here's a write-up)





French special forces have seized a Russian oil tanker off the coast of France, suspected of being used to launch drones over Europe. The vessel, part of Russia’s shadow fleet circumventing sanctions through illicit oil sales, is believed to have served as a drone launch platform between

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 10:34 AM
BBC's write-up



(Excerpts from a longer thread) (CNN)



("But both sides relied heavily on arms from the same place: China, which has cultivated close strategic and economic ties with the two Southeast Asian states...Beijing now far outranks the United States as the biggest source of arms for Thailand, which is a longstanding U.S. treaty ally.")



("The protests mark the most significant challenge the president has faced since his third re-election in 2023")



"I went into this with the intention of being a YouTuber. I don’t have a journalist visa. I don’t have a journalism degree.” New from me @wired.com www.wired.com/story/how-a-...

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— Nicholas Slayton (@nslayton.bsky.social) September 28, 2025 at 8:51 AM








Huh, I'm hearing that the Democrats shut down the government, why can't Donald Trump make it open up again, I thought he was in charge, is he not in charge? Is he too weak to make the government open up again?

— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 6:47 AM


It's becoming difficult to hide that a major purpose of the Trump administration is siphoning tax revenues from Blue states and redirecting them into subsidies for Red states. At what point does this become intolerable?

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— Yonah Freemark (@yonahfreemark.com) October 1, 2025 at 12:05 PM


what does an "unconstitutional DEI principle" mean in the context of a tunnel project? what, a black person is going to use it?

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) October 1, 2025 at 11:59 AM


Update on defund the police.

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— Jack Murphy (@jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 7:12 AM






A write-up. and another







("More than two years into a conservative takeover of New College of Florida, spending has soared and rankings have plummeted, raising questions about the efficacy of the overhaul...graduation and retention rates have fallen since the takeover in 2023. Those metrics are down even as New College spends more than 10 times per student what the other 11 members of the State University System spend, on average...critics say that’s because the college is essentially a personal project of the governor")















Microsoft launches ‘vibe working’ in Excel and Word

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— The Verge (@theverge.com) September 29, 2025 at 6:40 AM
("Microsoft says its Agent Mode in Excel has an accuracy rate of 57.2 percent in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for evaluating an AI model’s ability to edit real world spreadsheets. This result places Agent Mode above Shortcut.ai, ChatGPT agent with .xlsx support, and Claude Files Opus 4.1. It’s still behind the human accuracy of 71.3 percent, though.")







very striking when klein says "isn't that fatalistic" and coates just goes "yeah but it's true"

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— Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com) September 28, 2025 at 7:14 AM
("I leave the struggle where I leave it, and hopefully, it’s in a better place. Oftentimes it’s not. That’s the history in fact. And then my progeny, they pick it up, and they keep it going. I am descended from people who, in their lifetime, fought with all their might for the destruction of chattel slavery in this country. And they never saw it. They never saw it. In my personal belief system, they died in defeat, in darkness. So I guess the privilege that I draw out of this, the honor that I draw out of this, is not that things will necessarily be better in my lifetime, but that I will make the contribution that I am supposed to make."







Sum: science works. Pasteurization destroys H5N1 bird flu in milk www.sciencenews.org/article/past...

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— Timothy Caulfield (@caulfieldtim.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 9:38 AM








There is a much parroted line that the apocalypse is already happening. But we might also say the same of a solarpunk utopia. It's here, just not everywhere yet. Love this story by @chrisbaraniuk.com on the ways sheep farmig is mixing with solar energy installations. atmos.earth/climate-solu...

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— Lewis Gordon (@lewisgordon.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 1:51 PM








(I just like the mascot)







I mean what am I gonna do, NOT press the button?

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— chimera aunt (@strangelittlevine.bsky.social) August 4, 2025 at 11:58 AM








Last page of Justice League America 33. Er, whoops

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— Tristan Carlyon (@tristancarlyon.bsky.social) August 3, 2025 at 9:58 AM








@piaprezzemolina One of these days I’ll make it to 17000g for these tubes. @Eppendorf please sponsor us #lablife #gradstudent #biology #chemistry #biochemistry #science ♬ Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii - MarioKart Audios








@life_of_safie Towel Service? No thanks. #funnydogvideos #dogbath #dogbathtime #wetdog #dogmom #coonhound #houndlife #sofreshandsoclean ♬ So Fresh, So Clean - Outkast




*More funny posts.