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Owen Biesel

@owenbiesel.bsky.social

Math prof, dad, gardener, knitter, cyclist, community member, friendly introvert. he/him 🏳️‍🌈 Also on mastodon as @owenbiesel@mathstodon.xyz

created April 24, 2024

585 followers 529 following 302 posts

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Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

I move factors over from the 24 to the 15: 15 x 24 = 15 x 6 x 4 = 90 x 4 = 360. Seeing a nice result I double-check with an angle I know: 15 x 24 = 15 x 3 x 8 = 45 x 8 and 45 degrees is indeed an eighth of a whole circle!

1/9/2025, 3:02:11 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ruthanna Emrys (@r-emrys.bsky.social) reposted

Flag-raising for Leiden Pride! About the right level of Pride intensity for our household of queer introverts.

Pride flag hanging from the top of an ornate steeple.
1/9/2025, 12:49:51 PM | 6 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture bettybarcode (@bettybarcode.bsky.social) reposted

Gentrification is what we call it when demand exceeds supply. It is not caused by bike lanes. The answer is not to suppress demand by enshittifying cities, or to justify endangering & killing people outside of cars as a rent control mechanism, but to increase supply.

Screengrab reads:
30/8/2025, 12:07:22 PM | 1732 335 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture AM (@skchicago.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

A few months ago someone on social media offered the best question to ask yourself when doing a purge: if it had poop on it, would you clean it or get rid of it? 🤣 It made my spring cleaning purge so easy 🤓

31/8/2025, 7:54:40 PM | 50 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture derek van vliet (@derek.bike) reposted

here’s a version where the POV is blacked out whenever the driver takes their eyes off the road

31/8/2025, 12:07:06 AM | 2613 1015 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 (@chanda.bsky.social) reposted

The thing is, every time you defend Newsom as a great candidate and what “we” need, you’re telling trans people that you’re willing to throw them under the bus You can sit in my mentions and whine about how I’m criticizing Newsom too much and I will continue to highlight how your transphobia sucks

31/8/2025, 9:55:08 PM | 1188 243 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Happy Birthday! Congratulations on making the cupcake happen and I'm sorry the taste test will have to be another time.

31/8/2025, 10:14:45 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 (@susankayequinn.bsky.social) reposted

time to email your governor and tell them to step TF up regarding vaccines

29/8/2025, 5:35:12 PM | 14 6 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

I think the biggest hint may have been the personality... I didn't see it coming though.

30/8/2025, 4:44:25 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks for the recommendation!

30/8/2025, 4:42:02 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social)

Hive mind: Where do you go to get photos printed (or where do you order prints from online)? I used to use Target, Walgreens, or CVS, but the quality got so bad it wasn't even worth the few cents per print. (Plus I haven't shopped at Target since the boycott started.)

30/8/2025, 3:22:39 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Brent Toderian (@brenttoderian.bsky.social) reposted

One of the most successful pedestrian streets in the world, the Strøget in Copenhagen, was filled with cars until a 2 year pedestrianization pilot project in 1962. The opposition argued “no cars means no business,” but the street has been a massive retail success, the city’s busiest shopping street.

View of the central Copenhagen pedestrian street where it widens into a gorgeous square with fountain
30/8/2025, 7:02:00 AM | 1156 273 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Brent Toderian (@brenttoderian.bsky.social) reposted

“Over the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces. Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.” Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris

29/8/2025, 4:57:05 PM | 4035 1446 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

YES

30/8/2025, 12:15:56 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Janne K. Flisrand (@jannefrommpls.bsky.social) reposted

I mail hand-knit baby booties to new-parent friends. I'm outside of the US, and postal services here won't deliver even these packages to the US because of tariff policies

Photo of a banana-yellow knit baby bootie with teal trim and a white ribbon.
29/8/2025, 8:28:31 PM | 5 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Lizzie Kodpuak née Acid Lich (Gröbnerpilled era) (@acidlich.bsky.social) reposted

Homotopy tycoon

29/8/2025, 8:48:54 PM | 3 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture The War on Cars (@thewaroncars.bsky.social) reposted

For no particular reason, we're thinking of cafe locks... those simple locks one finds on most Dutch bicycles where the keys stay in when its unlocked so you don't lose them.

29/8/2025, 6:48:35 PM | 86 7 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Or the derivative of your executive function! (I'll see myself out.)

29/8/2025, 6:49:20 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture clarabiesel.bsky.social (@clarabiesel.bsky.social) reposted

Over half of this year's global health funding has been approved but not spent. Contact your reps here to urge them to keep our Global Health Funding from Expiring: nwmd.social/s/copylink/4...

29/8/2025, 6:27:44 PM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Leah Berman Williams (@leahwrenn.bsky.social) reposted

This sounds right up my alley, but I tried The Poppy War and had to bounce because I just couldn’t with the unrelenting horrors of war. Does anyone know, is this lighter/less grim?

29/8/2025, 4:27:10 PM | 4 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Alison Stenning (@alisonstenning.bsky.social) reposted

The last of the completed North Shields 800 murals, “Spirit of Shields” at North Shields FC’s stadium, by Mark One87, who worked with local Phoenix Detached Youth Project to workshop and prepare the mural wall. More here: ilovenorthshields.com/elevation-mu... Two more murals to come, I think.

29/8/2025, 4:05:22 PM | 12 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Josh McLaurin (@joshforgeorgia.bsky.social) reposted

I took this picture myself at the CDC protest today. These are among the hundreds of bullet holes in CDC headquarters windows, visible from the street. I heard today that the admin has no urgent plan to fix these windows. Imagine being a CDC employee going to work under these conditions

CDC headquarters windows with visible bullet holes
28/8/2025, 11:43:30 PM | 1478 574 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture America Walks (@americawalks.bsky.social) reposted

👟✨💵 Your community needs a new crosswalk or a street safety redesign... How do you define the project — and where do you find funding to bring it to life? From governmental to non-governmental funding sources, we've got you covered! ➡️ buff.ly/K4j9q8k

image
29/8/2025, 3:05:47 PM | 5 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Lowe (she/hers) (@kateontransport.bsky.social) reposted

I would love for us to collectively push back at routine competition and rankings in academia including this that becomes another lever for extractive labor practices amid constant neoliberal projects in universities...

29/8/2025, 3:22:20 PM | 6 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Alex von Tunzelmann (@alexvont.bsky.social) reposted

If you have published anything, please consider doing this. The window is closing and you should get your details registered now for a chance at a settlement. The form works wherever in the world you are based.

28/8/2025, 11:22:09 AM | 226 234 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture clarabiesel.bsky.social (@clarabiesel.bsky.social) reposted

You guys. Have you seen that many countries are no longer delivering mail to the US? www.msn.com/en-us/money/... Including NL. 😭

26/8/2025, 11:37:10 PM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

This is also my stance.

26/8/2025, 11:33:37 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

"For any" is another one that people have strong conflicting opinions about!

26/8/2025, 10:43:22 PM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks so much!

24/8/2025, 11:35:48 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Thank you!

24/8/2025, 11:19:37 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social)

Hey #BikeSky, does anyone have a short op-ed on a biking-related topic that you think first-year college students should read? @clarabiesel.bsky.social

24/8/2025, 1:56:51 AM | 3 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Soapy (@soapy2019.bsky.social) reposted

Thomas Deininger uses plastic waste to create sculptures,or should I say,works of Genius!!!!!!

23/8/2025, 4:41:12 AM | 6976 1886 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations (@fivebooks.com) reposted

NEW: "Solarpunk...focuses on how we can make the world better: how we can thrive and adapt in the world that we are headed into" Sarena Ulibarri recommends the best solarpunk books: fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

23/8/2025, 12:13:07 PM | 11 12 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tom Flood (@tomflood.bsky.social) reposted

preparation

large parking lot IF ONLY WE WERE PREPARED TO TACKLE CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE THE WAY WE ARE IN THE OFF CHANCE EVERYONE ON THE PLANET DRIVES TO THE MALL ON THE SAME DAY.
23/8/2025, 2:45:06 PM | 116 28 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Prisonculture (@prisonculture.bsky.social) reposted

The first thing everyone in this country who is anti-fascist can do now is to join something where people are already gathering to address any issue. Can't find anything you want to join, then make your own thing and invite people to join you. This is not a time for Lone Rangers.

22/8/2025, 7:34:53 PM | 1353 469 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tom Broderick (@trumbullbrod.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

And if you’re in Connecticut and interested in parking reform, check out @ctparkingreform.bsky.social and our website! ctparkingreform.org

22/8/2025, 11:08:46 PM | 4 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Noooo! I'm so sorry.

22/8/2025, 4:57:26 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture emly in minneaparis (@eeewade.bsky.social) reposted

I love the state fair & I love this @streets.mn article by @blindeke.bsky.social from 2018 streets.mn/2018/08/27/s...

22/8/2025, 10:51:48 AM | 50 17 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

The timing logic seems to be "It's too unsafe to let bikes go whenever anyone else has a green, so the bikes have to get their own phase. But that would slow everyone else down so the bike phase only lasts two seconds." Somehow that doesn't apply to simultaneous car greens and ped walk signs.

22/8/2025, 2:04:53 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

We have signals like these on the main bike route downtown. It's frustrating because the bike signals don't even activate every cycle, so you have to hope the sensor can see you (it usually doesn't).

22/8/2025, 2:04:53 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Noah Giansiracusa (@profnoahgian.bsky.social) reposted

I now have a speaking agent! If you think your organization (company, non-profit, university, library, school, etc.) might benefit from hearing about one of the topics below, click this link to learn more and book me! Or pass the link on to a friend: www.pandelectures.com/noah-giansir...

image
22/8/2025, 11:18:25 AM | 3 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

One of my biggest takeaways from the past year is a trio of observations that together make a coping mechanism I feel good about: 1. Taking action feels so much better than looking away. 2. Even small acts of resistance stave off helplessness. 3. Small actions make bigger actions easier.

21/8/2025, 9:21:10 PM | 4 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Is it this one? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oth...

21/8/2025, 6:36:31 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social)

It's not too late to make a difference! This school year I'm starting a bike bus with a few other families who live nearby, hoping to coordinate more soon.

21/8/2025, 6:34:14 PM | 148 27 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social)

My university just announced a campus event called "Overview of GenAI and Its Current Climate." The schedule includes some useful-sounding local info, but the keynote speaker is the author of this scholarly work of unmitigated #AIHype : papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Should I go? Advice welcome.

21/8/2025, 4:49:12 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

THE main reason it took me so long to get mental health help was that on days I had the wherewithal to take steps toward said help, I was like "Look, I can do stuff, so it can't be that bad." Not that that's where you are, just that I've experienced one piece of me accusing another of exaggerating.

21/8/2025, 1:39:28 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute (@dairinstitute.bsky.social) reposted

"Plastic...is very difficult to avoid. But we are at a moment with "AI" where things aren't so deeply integrated, though corporate interests are pushing for them to be...every act of refusal is especially powerful & meaningful now..." @emilymbender.bsky.social buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...

20/8/2025, 6:46:27 PM | 74 36 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kelli Refer (@kellireef.bsky.social) reposted

My bicycle was just stolen in Capitol Hill Seattle. Please keep an eye out for a small sized Salsa Vaya, green bicycle with a rear rack, steel fenders, dynamo hubs, 26” wheels. Parked at a bike rack at 15th and Pike. Saw my lock cut and thrown on the ground.

Image of now stolen salsa vaya
21/8/2025, 5:40:25 AM | 82 43 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Paris Marx (@parismarx.com) reposted

i want to believe… …that the ai bubble is finally bursting

21/8/2025, 1:41:40 AM | 324 20 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

To me one of the missing pieces is still how much energy/water a query uses if you add in the model training, averaged out over the lifetime of the model (maybe the number of queries in a year, given how frequently these companies are coming out with newer models).

21/8/2025, 1:06:59 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Elijah the TechnoShaman (@eruditelijah.bsky.social) reposted

I'd like to take this time to spotlight some critiques I have of solarpunk that aren't just misunderstanding what it is. I think a big problem we have beyond the lack of popular media (which may be a blessing) is the lack of certain voices. There is quite a bit of diversity but we need more.

15/8/2025, 1:33:59 PM | 28 11 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Brooklyn Institute (@brooklyninstitute.bsky.social) reposted

Solarpunk: Theory, Fiction, and Radical Futures | Fall Courses | BISR Online | buff.ly/wnHOV3e

image
20/8/2025, 10:35:02 PM | 2 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kea Wilson (@keawilson.bsky.social) reposted

Last day to do this, transportation advocates!

20/8/2025, 12:03:20 PM | 6 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Seriously! Just imagine how much more cuteness would be in all our lives if public spaces were child-friendly!

19/8/2025, 11:39:09 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Not to mention it sets up oppressed groups to be targeted. I've heard many stories of Black drivers being ticketed for going 1mph over the speed limit — how does that make sense in context of the 85% rule?

19/8/2025, 8:28:12 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Michael Druker 🇨🇦 (@mdruker.app) reposted reply parent

My hot take is it is corrosive to the fabric of society for it to be normal and even expected to regularly and blatantly break the law

19/8/2025, 8:19:37 PM | 23 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) reposted

NEWS: 40-year-old veteran & oysterman Graham Platner demands corporations pay for climate change. He believes the US should fund universal healthcare instead of endless war. And he says the genocide in Gaza is the “ultimate moral test of our time.” And he's running to beat Susan Collins in Maine.

19/8/2025, 12:56:30 PM | 843 191 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com) reposted

All this talk about how infodumping is a neurodivergent trait—listen, we grew up reading SFF in the Nineties, OF COURSE we infodump. Y’all are lucky we’re not a full on italicized prologue.

19/8/2025, 6:08:58 PM | 1339 193 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Hogan (@markasaurus.bsky.social) reposted

Take a minute to respond to the DOT about funding priorities. The Secretary of Transportation said: “I do think it’s a problem when we’re making massive investments in bike lanes at the expense of vehicles,” ttps://bikeleague.org/the-u-s-department-of-transportation-wants-to-hear-from-you/

19/8/2025, 5:55:25 PM | 6 7 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Bill Wilkinson (@drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social) reposted

Also remember that the best indicator of how you’ll commute tomorrow is how you commute today. Start the term with new habits. Fresh starts are the best time to form new habits. Especially if starting at a new school. @ianwalker.bsky.social taught me that.

19/8/2025, 4:31:21 PM | 58 15 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

FWIW, I am neither a kpop person (yet?) nor a demon hunter person (probably ever) and I loved it.

19/8/2025, 5:50:38 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Emma Cameron (@ecameron.bsky.social) reposted

Interesting article by Sarah Hall. Agree we need stories about the #climateandnatureemergency with hopeful outcomes (without denying the seriousness of the situation) I’m enjoying addressing this challenge in the novel I’m writing #booksky #writingcommunity www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

19/8/2025, 5:03:18 PM | 2 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

You don't think he'll (try to) take it with him?

19/8/2025, 4:17:17 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Oh The Urbanity! (@ohtheurbanity.bsky.social) reposted

A friend’s 3-year old on a pedestrian street: “There’s no cars here so we don’t have to hold hands. I can run!”

19/8/2025, 3:19:51 PM | 498 49 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

I need to know more about this campaign

19/8/2025, 3:54:49 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Alignment chart for different ways to write nonabelian. Lawful good: non-commutative Neutral good: noncommutative Chaotic good: non commutative Lawful neutral: non-Abelian True neutral: nonabelian Chaotic neutral: non Abelian Lawful evil: non-abelian Neutral evil: non abelian Chaotic evil: nonAbelian
18/8/2025, 11:54:54 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

The matrix product (3 4 \\ 8 7) (7 2 \\ 4 9) = (37 42 \\ 84 79), with the entries from the first matrix colored red (along with the matching tens digits in the product) and the entries from the second matrix colored blue (along with the ones digits in the product). Shown with the
18/8/2025, 11:52:38 PM | 34 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Spiderman pointing at Spiderman, but with seven Spidermans (Spidermen?) labeled
18/8/2025, 11:49:29 PM | 10 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

The aurora borealis part of the
18/8/2025, 11:46:06 PM | 11 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Three cats snuggling. The cat on the left looks happy and is labeled
18/8/2025, 11:39:08 PM | 11 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Photo with the heading
18/8/2025, 11:37:44 PM | 7 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Meme format
18/8/2025, 11:35:58 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

One of the things I find super interesting is the decision to move the characters at half the framerate of the animation, giving them that slightly choppy, comic book feel. But not everything (or everyone?!) gets this treatment, and it's so subtle I haven't yet figured out where all it's applied.

18/8/2025, 11:23:16 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Dr. Courtney Gibbons (she/her) [current mood: kernel panic] (@courtneygibbons.phd) reposted

Want to test drive my Honor Code/Academic Integrity/Good Learning choose your own adventure? Here's the beta version! crgibbons.github.io/stash/CYOA-h... >> It's 5pm on Wednesday, and your professor has just posted the homework due next week. Do you *look at the homework now* or *put it off*?

18/8/2025, 8:27:10 PM | 28 9 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Sara R (@arsinoepi.bsky.social) reposted

ok #MathSky, Updating syllabi, and need your best math memes. the ones that make you chortle, guffaw, chuckle, lmao, etc. Please and thank you 🫰🏾

image
18/8/2025, 10:37:44 PM | 26 9 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Barbara Fantechi (@barbarafantechi.bsky.social) reposted

I understand duolngo is AI-bad. I am bad at making myself do things, and that green owl has kept me learning, slowly but regularly, for two and a half years now. Any suggestions that 1) don't need willpower 2) teach Catalan? I'm okay with paying versions.

18/8/2025, 8:38:24 PM | 7 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Just unsubscribed from a newsletter for that exact reason.

18/8/2025, 8:52:38 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture LauraGMitchell (@lauragmitchell.com) reposted

St. Paul folks (+ anyone who bikes in/through St. Paul): An Open House for the Earl Street Reconstruction is being held on August 21st between 4-6 at the East Side YMCA. Please spread the word and join if you can to tell the city that we need off street paths (not painted bike lanes)!

18/8/2025, 7:57:43 PM | 38 16 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Andrea Kaston Tange (@aktange.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Here you go! I'll write some new ones for this semester too. They loved them. The "read without your phone or screens in the room" was a revelation, and many of them decided to keep doing it. They had NO IDEA (& were horrified) how often they interrupt themselves to look at a phone for no reason.

Reading Scenario Experiments. This series of prompts is designed to get you thinking about how the setting for reading affects concentration, comprehension, and even the existential experience of reading. Every week, one of the following prompts will appear on the syllabus. I encourage you to try all of them that you are able. How does a different reading setting affect your mood? Your receptiveness to the prose? Your pleasure or difficulty reading? What are the particular impacts of changing your lighting or surroundings? What do you notice about yourself and about the work you are reading during this experiment? 1. read by candlelight (use a small lamp in dorms where no candles are allowed!) 2. read for one hour without checking any devices, answering texts, etc. 3. walk out into nature (climb a tree, sit on a rock, grab a spot in a hammock) and read 4. host a reading night with friends & food (sit in companionable silence, reading without chatting) 5. read aloud a chapter to someone else 6. climb into bed at night and read by flashlight under the covers for at least 30 minutes, as if you’ve already been told “lights out” as a kid 7. reread a chapter and see what new things you notice the second time through 8. change your ambient-noise level: add music if you normally read in the quiet; or read without music if you are normally a music-listener 9. read with a sketchpad at hand and sketch scenes, characters, or other elements from the story 10. practice focused listening: have someone read to you 11. make yourself a special, fancy snack on a real plate to nibble while eating: pay attention to the cooking or arranging or choosing of ingredients to make it especially appetizing first 12. make tea (even if you’re not usually a tea drinker), and read and sip 13. invent a new reading scenario for yourself, or repeat the one you liked the best from this term [writing assignment using these prompts follows; text character limit prevents inclusion of it in full]
16/7/2025, 2:30:54 PM | 627 179 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kea Wilson (@keawilson.bsky.social) reposted

Did you know that you can weigh in *right now* on what our next big federal transportation bill should look like? You've got until August 20 — and if you're struggling to figure out what to say, these orgs have some great ideas you're welcome to steal.

18/8/2025, 2:54:17 PM | 28 16 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) reposted reply parent

need people to understand that accepting or conceding that he has the authority to do these things is tantamount to giving him the authority, and so your preemptive dooming is actively counterproductive

18/8/2025, 12:55:56 PM | 6089 1176 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Chad Topaz Queer DEI Race Traitor (@chadtopaz.bsky.social) reposted

Announcing: My new book UNLOCKING JUSTICE arrives in the first half of 2026! It confronts America's unfair criminal legal system with data and humanity, showing how data science can drive racial justice. I wrote it to be optimistic + accessible to a broad public audience. Info + preorder updates ⬇️.

18/8/2025, 11:58:56 AM | 80 25 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

I'm going to see it in the movie theater next weekend! It's a sing-along showing and I'm so stoked.

16/8/2025, 11:33:20 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rachel Storm (@rachelsstorm.bsky.social) reposted

Heads up library workers, Overdrive is shoving AI into Libby. It will be making book recommendations and they are rolling it out over the next few weeks. Smoke is pouring out of my ears. 📚

Inspire Me in Libby. Inspire Me is a major new feature that encourages Libby users to explore the farthest reaches of your digital collection for their next read. This engaging experience uses artificial intelligence to suggest creative book
14/8/2025, 7:33:57 PM | 387 216 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) reposted

I've seen people say things like "our troops weren't designed to be used on US!!!" and look, I totally understand, I agree in some ways, but I really, really hope that if you feel that way you spend time thinking about the fact that there's no such thing as a weapon that can't be pointed at you.

15/8/2025, 6:03:17 PM | 2320 488 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

... does The Art of Fugue count?

15/8/2025, 9:28:30 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Peter Norton (@norton.bsky.social) reposted

“We love our kids and want them to live.” Even small towns like Boonville, Indiana, need people-friendly streets. To my knowledge, The Ballad of Boonville’s Speedsters has not yet been set to music.

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15/8/2025, 1:51:35 PM | 9 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture 𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇 (@taras-grescoe.com) reposted

"Motorized vehicles create remoteness which they alone can shrink. They create distances for all, and shrink them for only a few." —Ivan Illich 📸 #Brasilia

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15/8/2025, 2:06:33 PM | 83 17 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social)

Why is it a "stethoscope" and not a "stethophone"?

15/8/2025, 12:04:24 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Gernot Wagner (@gwagner.com) reposted

Identical to the climate inaction playbook, too.

13/8/2025, 1:53:01 AM | 86 24 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Al Jazeera English (@aljazeera.com) reposted

Four Al Jazeera staff, including reporter Anas Al Sharif, were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists outside the main gate of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital aje.io/onll19

10/8/2025, 11:00:18 PM | 3802 2477 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture 🇵🇸Tim Henke (tɪm 'ɦɛŋ.kə) (@timhenke.bsky.social) reposted

What I desperately need is a phonological dictionary of English that tells me how various accents would roughly pronounce words Like I can easily find RP, SSB, GenAm, sometimes even Australian for most words. But what if I want to know Scottish, or New York, or South African?

10/8/2025, 5:07:21 PM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tim Chartier (@timchartier.bsky.social) reposted

As I head home from #MAAthFest, enjoy these wonderful pieces in the Math Art exhibit including pieces by @gwenbeads.bsky.social and @gelada.bsky.social

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10/8/2025, 4:47:07 PM | 12 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Here's a photo of me from when I visited Minneapolis earlier this summer. I happened to come across the same style bus shelter, and wearing the same shirt, as in my profile picture. Please pardon my facial expression; I seem to have gotten worse at selfies since 2022.

Photo of me using my finger to indicate the square spiral pattern of a glass bus shelter. My face is showing excitement, I guess?
10/8/2025, 7:07:42 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jeff Horwitz (@jeffhorwitz.bsky.social) reposted

Google just offered without prompting to do my math homework for me. (Just tested it out, and the "help" involves providing the answer).

Text reading
7/8/2025, 3:39:25 AM | 24 8 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

I'm back in NL now visiting friends, and it's astonishing how backwards the US system is in comparison. It's a huge hassle even to pay back our friends for shared expenses — a trivial task if you're used to just giving someone your bank account number to make a transfer!

7/8/2025, 2:08:58 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Only kid is still a bit young, so I'm singing it on the bike when I don't think I'd bother anyone :) Also @clarabiesel.bsky.social and @ktmulvaney.bsky.social and I are learning the three-part harmony for "What It Sounds Like" (because the melody alone is not that interesting!)

25/7/2025, 10:37:45 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

Does it count as owning it if I have it playing in my head constantly?

25/7/2025, 6:04:14 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Owen Biesel (@owenbiesel.bsky.social) reply parent

I'm so sorry

25/7/2025, 5:15:38 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view