Toby Applegate

Toby Applegate

@tapplegate.bsky.social

Senior Lecturer of Human Geography UMASS-Amherst Teaching sufferers of Stockholm Syndrome where Stockholm is since 2005.

395 followers507 following2.8K posts

I had an argument with an AI addict student who claimed that Claude could do my work for me. "Can it go to a remote valley in the Dinaric Mountains and talk to farmers about how they are still using folk agricultural practices?" Doubled down: "Well, an AI enabled robot could."

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Toby Applegate reposted

(Casey hangs up and moves back toward the popcorn. The phone rings again. He sighs and picks up.) CASEY What? GHOSTFACE I told you not to hang up on me. CASEY What do you want? GHOSTFACE To talk about one of the most underappreciated comic filmmakers of the twentieth century. buff.ly/gbOcLIZ

buff.lyGhostface Asks: “What’s Your Favorite Albert Brooks Movie?”2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the original “Scream” movie. The blockbuster is a horror classic and has spawned a franchise that continues to produce new...

Toby Applegate reposted

PSA: If you’re more upset about Obama making a joke about Cheesecake Factory than you are about Trump making it impossible for you to afford to EAT at a Cheesecake Factory, then congratulations, because YOU are an idiot, and an asshole, and you’re in a fucking cult.

At a minimum, he should be dragged in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a chance to perjure himself on Ukraine.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social

Musk is already underwater in polls and if Democrats lean in they can make him even more toxic. He's declared open war on you all and is pushing a toxic, destructive, racist agenda. Maybe it's time to push back? I don't know, I'm just spitballing here.

During the Great Napster War, I was a foot soldier in a university IT department. Spent many an hour explaining why a student’s ethernet connection was shut down in their room because they had moved gigabytes an hour over their port. I didn’t give a damn about what the traffic WAS. AI inverts this.

Jen Taub@jentaub.bsky.social

Still trying to understand how Napster got shut down, but Anthropic is going public and still hasn’t paid us authors yet after stealing our work.

Toby Applegate reposted

This WH press briefing is... a bit odd. Kind of a tough watch so far. Also, new press sec Katie Zacharia announced the WH has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece

When my parents said, "Because I said so that's why" I took that as a personal challenge to either do it my way or not do it at all consequences be damned. I said it to my kids once and get that same look of defiance. It was then I knew I had raised them right.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Q: You said Russia and Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire, but both sides said they have not agreed to that TRUMP: Well they agreed, you know why? Because I said 'you agree.' That's why.

Toby Applegate reposted

There is no known portrait of Columbus that was composed during his lifetime; everything that has come down to us is posthumous. So there’s no way to know whether he looked like Nurse Ratched clutching a sil-pat baking sheet in a short sleeved housecoat or not.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

President Trump has a midterm message for Italian Americans: Remember what I did for Christopher Columbus. https://wapo.st/4yap3mX

Toby Applegate reposted

I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.

Toby Applegate reposted

A chancellor has ordered the state to preserve all evidence related to Christa Pike’s failed execution. Pike is conscious, with a blood clot, pneumonia and no ability to swallow. Her attorneys said the hearing was the “very, very first step” of a long legal fight. ✍️ @mikeiereiland.bsky.social

nashvillebanner.comJudge orders TDOC to preserve evidence in Christa Pike case - Nashville BannerChancellor I'Ashea Myles ordered Tennessee to preserve evidence related Christa Pike's botched execution. Lawyers say doctors presumed was brain dead.

There is nothing more irrational than a Red Sox fan. From 14 games under .500 to the playoffs, they are being lambasted by the meat heads who are calling for the heads of everyone from the manager to the hot dog vendors for losing in the first round. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 #RedSox

Exactly. AI music isn’t like my cool older brother Robert Smith who has shown me every possible emotion a man can have has the ability to be rendered as beautiful catharsis.

Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social

When I listen to Radiohead, I think, "Thom Yorke sad like me." AI can't be sad like Thom Yorke

We have two ways to access student records and progress.’One is a run-house suite that works great and looks like something from 1997. The other is a slick advising platform that is one of those things that administrators get tricked into buying by software sales engineers. It works sometimes.

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The man is a viper.

Robert Reich@rbreich.bsky.social

I know Rahm Emanuel. I worked with him for years in the Clinton administration, and then when he was Obama’s chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel represents everything that’s been wrong about the Democratic Party for the last 30+ years. Be warned. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-rahm-bomb

Er, Nietzsche was, um, not a, um, Christian and, um, his calling Christianity an, um, slave morality wasn’t about spirituality, because, um he was calling for a revaluation of values not, um, the abolishment of, um, faith.

the babahuck@tylerhuckabee.bsky.social

we really need to start calling out these conservative christians for just straight up not believing in christianity. if you don’t believe christian teaching, nobody is forcing you to call yourself a christian! free yourself!

The state of academia laid bare.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick.bsky.social

I hire seventy biz profs and put them in a new building with a cafe and working doors and at the same time I hire two historians and make them share an outhouse I hire a contractor to nail shut. a year later, there are more biz students than history students. Q. has the market spoken

I know great country music when I see it. This is not great or even good country music.

beep beep i'm a sheep@foxkvells.bsky.social

also the subtitle of the article is hilarious, bc I know what they're going for, but also just not being into country as a genre is a totally reasonable explanation for why some ppl haven't heard of this artist or this song that this article rejects out of hand

I will never give a dime to the Adult Day Care Center (MS ‘03) after this disgusting display of Fascism until there is a formal apology and mass resignation of senior administration up to and including Randy Boyd. All of this to appease Trump and Allan Jones, racist inventor of pay day lending.

Administrators. That's where the money goes. Pedagogically unsound teaching tools like Chromebooks. That's where the money goes. Crumbling school infrastructure. That's where the money goes.

Minnesota Reformer@minnesotareformer.com

There’s been a puzzling trend over the last few decades: Adjusted for inflation, school funding has increased substantially, but teacher salaries have not. In recent years, real teacher pay has actually dipped as inflation surged.

Transcript: All of these men in helmets auditioned for the construction worker part in the Village Part <inaudible> This guy and that guy tied so now they will fight to the death.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

LMFAO -- Trump is holding an event at the White House right now but there's no audio because the press pool isn't there. The Newsmax host notes that this is an example of Trump's attacks on the press "backfiring just a little bit"