Tom

@alttag

Not that kind of doctor. (PhD, Computer Information Systems) Reformed software developer. Job: Data policy, AI, research. Interests: Org behavior, education, law, economics. Opinions are my own.

130 Siguiendo1891 Seguidores12.750 Publicaciones

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Tom@alttag· 22d

It’s time to pull out the image I saved just the other day.

Social media screenshot with usernames crossed out.

ellie:
I like when men explain basic things to me because in my mind it's not mansplaining, it's more like when a toddler is really excited to tell you about dinosaurs and you're like that's right cutie! you're so smart!! only one of us is being condescending and it's me

Shawn:
If you have to announce it when you're condescending, you're doing it wrong.

Ellie:
That's a great observation, Shawn! Great job!

Tom@alttag· 25d

Possibly even

Clint Eastwood in poster for Escape From Alcatraz

Tom@alttag· 25d

No camera filters. The sun was remarkable.

Water and sky. Both are gray. Late morning picture; the sun is above the horizon. The sun is a red dot on a matte gray sky.

Tom@alttag· 26d

Large bird leaning head in to woman, staring in to her eyes. Caption “what you did there, I see it.”

Tom@alttag· Jul 2

My favorite part of this article is the ticker showing TSLA down more than 8% on the day.

Screen shot of article hed. Ticker below shows TESLA at -8.13%. Hand-drawn red arrow points to it.

Tom@alttag· Jul 2

Rhode Island (the island, not the state) is indeed an island. Now often called Aquidneck Island to avoid confusion. You get “technically correct” points for using the state abbreviation for disambiguation though.

Screenshot from Apple Maps with a red loop around Aquidneck Island (aka Rhode Island). The city of Newport is prominently labeled.

Tom@alttag· Jul 2

Apologies @cathexiszero.bsky.social, for not pre-paying the dog pic tax.

Thor, an overgrown Shitzu–poodle mix with dark gray ears and too, black nose, black eyes and a ridiculous underbite sits like a very good boy next to a tennis ball. His maw and tummy are cream colored, and he’s softer than a very soft thing. If you were to throw the ball, he’d chase it, but still, at four years old, doesn’t have the sense to bring it back.

Tom@alttag· Jun 27

Especially when hanging a triptych, where all three have to level and evenly spaced. Enough to drive one to drink.

Japanese wood block style triptych of scenes from Star Wars (A New Hope), reimagined with Darth Vader and Obi-Wan as samurai.

Tom@alttag· Jun 24

It’s not just you.

He’s fluffy and adorable. Hairy Shitzu–poodle mix sits expectantly.

Same Shitzu–poodle. Shaved short. Not quite a naked mole rat.

Tom@alttag· Jun 22

There was this. I infer that BlueSky did its BlueSky thing and had a lefty meltdown about racism.

Three posts from Popehat. In short: he posted approvingly of a Juneteenth sermon featuring John Brown’s rejection of the status quo. People got mad at him.

Third post: “Yeah, actually, if I get invited to a Juneteenth celebration at a church, and a Black pastor gives a historical talk and sermon, and I mention a major topic of his talk that I liked, and you yell at me for ‘centering white people on Juneteenth’, Ima block your judgy ass.”

Tom@alttag· Jun 18

Screen shot of National weather service “Critical” “lmminent threat alert” for a tornado warning.
Screams TAKE COVER NOW with a red polygon over Bloomington, IN

Tom@alttag· Jun 3

It’s easy for the average person to remember only basic things like formulas for one or two feldspars. imgs.xkcd.com/comics/avera...

Tom@alttag· Jun 3

Today’s moment of zen, as I was leaving an evening meeting.

Scrawny red-tail fox trots along the parking lot edge near the grass line. Tall pines behind, and an orange sunset visible through the trees.

Tom@alttag· May 28

That’s exactly what you did. Blatantly. It’s okay to say “Oops, I’ll do better”, but denying something that’s *right there* is gaslighting.

Screen shot of two posts in the above thread, where Alyssa replies to “not-so-code for faggot” by saying “you mean, like the pedophile Paxton freed.”

Tom@alttag· May 18

Some things are worth doing anyway.

A black, coarse-haired wild hog. First image in search results for “hog” on Google.

Tom@alttag· May 16

Maybe we’re not looking at the same thing.

Screen shot from Response linked in the thread quoted above. Page two, section 4, in relevant (highlighted) part, “…I used an enterprise level, data-isolated AI platform, Claude Console…”

Tom@alttag· May 6

Indiana is already solidly gerrymandered, as evidenced by non-Trumpers getting ousted in the state senate primary. Table from the NYT page quoted below

Five Trump-endorsed Rs beat incumbent Rs in Indiana state senate primary. Only one incumbent beat the Trump challenger, with one race not called (50-50).

Tom@alttag· Apr 20

Looking rather like a children’s book in the style of Doctor Seuss, on a saturated Columbia blue background we see a green cuddly (?) monster. H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu (for beginning readers) by R.J. Ivankovic

Tom@alttag· Apr 18

A cream-colored and very fluffy mini-golden-doodle, who was the bestest boy ever, shows off his dark tinted doggles.

Tom@alttag· Apr 13

Also a fan of the Stiletto.

Multi-hulled ship known as “Stiletto”. There is only one of its kind. Primarily used by the U.S. Navy for research. It’s flat and gray and funny looking.

Side view of the Stiletto. It’s still flat and gray. People are walking atop it.

Tom@alttag· Apr 9

In this specific case: don’t put message content in your notifications! Signal > Settings -> Notifications

Screenshot of Signal’s notification settings pane. A red X has been drawn over “name, content, actions” and a red arrow drawn pointing to “No name or Content.”

Tom@alttag· Apr 6

Found this at my Friendly Neighborhood Game Store, and it’s as amazing as it looks.

In the style of Doctor Seuss, “H.P. Lovecraft’s the Call of Cthulhu”. Medium blue hardback “children’s” book with an adorable green tentacle-faced monster on the cover. By R.J. Ivankovic.

Tom@alttag· Apr 5

11th Annual Easter Egg Rolls Because it’s Easter. And we like homemade egg rolls. Add some food-safe markers, and voilà.

Egg rolls, just out of the fryer, resting on some paper towels. The wrappers have been decorated with flowers, bunnies, hearts, and other designs. (One says “which came first, the chicken or the egg roll?”)

Tom@alttag· Apr 5

Anyone who adopts this attitude of learned helplessness does not belong in leadership or near levers of power. (This was not from an elected official, but from someone defending a senator’s inability to anything except post on BlueSky.)

Post screenshot. Name clipped out.
“Well voters chose this outcome in Nov 2024 so the plan is to endure their choices for, at minimum, 9 more months” Posted April 5, 2026

Tom@alttag· Apr 2

Thanks, Jerry. Needed something for the @jerrified.bsky.social labeler.

Cropped screen shot of Blue Sky notifications. Jerry Chen and 1 other liked your post.

Tom@alttag· Mar 29

The last time I tried this, the garlic and oregano did not “melt or rub off”, and I was left with deep pockets of powdered garlic in my slices of lamb. Fortunately, they were little flavor explosions rather than problems.

A fuzzy-looking roast lamb, covered in garlic and oregano.

Tom@alttag· Mar 27

For very liberal definitions of “worked just fine and “everybody”.

Picture of one of those “hole in floor, hood in front” Japanese toilets. In a stall with avocado green walls and some handle bars.

Tom@alttag· Mar 27

I’ve seen a handful of line charts where the story is the gap. A memorable one was the NYT data team’s work on racism. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... The most effective graphs with the story in the gap had a callout to the gap.

One of the graphs from the linked article (“the punishing reach of racism”, NYT). This graph is the income gap of married/single households between white & black families.

The fallout shows Black men with married parents of 90th (ish) percentile income make about the same individual income as white men from single-parent households at 55th percentile level parents.

Tom@alttag· Mar 27

The internet is so incredibly useful.

Screenshot of “translation”. “Chinga la migra” is detected as “Spanish (Spain)”, and translated to English as “Chinga the migra.”

Tom@alttag· Mar 27

I bought a dog bed for my office. He refuses to use it, preferring to nap *on my desk*. The cat started using the dog bed. Then last week they had a snoring competition.