BLM

#VoteBlue + Hand Marked Ballots

[BLM @RobSample]

@BrianRoemmele But this is just intelligent software blocking the printing of components used in making unlicensed guns. I know the whole slippery slope thing, but that’s what regulation is all about.

[BLM @RobSample]

@BrianRoemmele Are these AI voices?

[Jack Sarfatti @JackSarfatti]

This is much ado about nothing. There is deliberate ignorance among all the UFO narrative wannabes controllers including Spielberg. We have solved the problem. The physics is conceptually simple, obvious and mainstream. The fact that none of the Pundits are willing to debate me on this proves my point.

[BLM @RobSample]

PDX friends, if you want to spend this Sunday in one of our prettiest city parks, have a fun time with your family, learn how you can help save our democracy, help underserved communities, and make a difference, here you go! #50501 #NoKingsPDX #StrongerTogether #MakeAmericaFair

[BLM @RobSample]

@thesigmamindset

[Laurie Jerkins☮🤜🤛🌎 @GracieGodzuki]

@Acyn Lambert, speaking of Medicare fraud, is @SenRickScott a Somalian?

[BLM @RobSample]

@BocasBrain @BrianRoemmele No wonder I thought it resembled our 59 Plymouth! I love the way design elements from show cars end up in some small way in production cars.

[BLM @RobSample]

Brian explores interesting things. Too bad the communities feature is going away on X. https://t.co/6EFv2UZYq9

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

The Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion: A Window into the Constructed Nature of Self

Most of us take for granted the familiar face we see in the mirror each day. But what if that face is not a direct reflection of a fixed “self,” but an active, real-time construction by the brain—one that can destabilize under the right conditions?

The Illusion: What Happens When You Stare

In a dimly lit room (typically with low illumination around 0.2 cd/m², enough to see facial details but reduced color), simply gazing at your own reflection in a mirror for a minute or more can produce striking perceptual changes.

Participants in studies report:

•Huge deformations of their own face (reported by about 66% in early experiments).

•Apparitions of parents or relatives (alive or deceased, around 18%).

•Unknown or archetypal faces (e.g., old woman, child, ancestor; around 28%).

•Animal faces (e.g., cat, pig, lion; around 18%).

•Fantastical or monstrous beings (around 48%).

The effect was systematically described by psychologist Giovanni B. Caputo in a 2010 paper.

Observers gaze at their reflection; after a short time, the image begins to morph dramatically.

Subsequent research has extended this to eye-to-eye gazing in dyads (pairs of people) under similar low-light conditions, producing comparable dissociative and apparitional experiences, including feelings of derealization, depersonalization, and altered identity.

These illusions are robust and replicable. They likely arise from a combination of Troxler fading (peripheral visual adaptation), neural fatigue in face-processing areas (such as the fusiform face area), and top-down expectations or over-interpretation by the brain’s face recognition systems when sensory input becomes ambiguous.

Connection to Thomas Metzinger’s Self-Model Theory

This phenomenon aligns with the work of neurophilosopher Thomas Metzinger, particularly in his 2003 book Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity. Metzinger argues that there is no fixed, permanent “self” in the world—only a phenomenal self-model (PSM), a transparent, ongoing representational process generated by the brain.

This self-model integrates sensory input, bodily signals, and internal predictions to create the seamless first-person perspective we experience.

It is “transparent” because we do not notice the modeling process itself—we see through it directly to what feels like a real, enduring self.

When sensory input is altered or stabilized (as in low-light mirror gazing), the model loses reliable anchors and begins to “destabilize.”

The illusion reveals the constructed, malleable nature of self-representation. Metzinger’s framework, grounded in cognitive science and neuroscience, explains why the self can seem to dissolve or transform under certain conditions—such as in meditation, psychedelics, or neurological disruptions.

This aligns with broader ideas in consciousness research: the self is not a homunculus or soul-substance but an adaptive, virtual model useful for survival, coordination, and prediction.

Broader Implications:

Consciousness, Dissociation, and What Lies Beneath

The Strange-Face Illusion provides a safe, accessible way to glimpse the brain’s predictive modeling at work. It has been studied in contexts of dissociation, depression, and clinical populations, as well as artistic or contemplative traditions that have long used mirror-gazing for visionary purposes.

It encourages direct inquiry without dogma: experiment, observe, and form your own view.

Try It Yourself (Safely)

•Dim the lights so your face is just visible.
•Sit comfortably about 0.5–1 meter from a mirror.
•Gaze steadily at your own eyes or face for 5–10 minutes.
•Note any changes without judgment.

Many find it bizarre or unsettling at first precisely because it challenges our default assumption of a stable self.

Paper: https://t.co/BI3ewOgEXn

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Let's be precise about what Bill Pulte actually did.

In December 2023, Pulte organized an event at a Florida hangar for investors in a company that had already gone bankrupt. They paid $500 each believing he had secret knowledge about how to recover their money. He arrived in a helicopter that had taken off from the same airfield, circled overhead, and landed again for dramatic effect. Attendees signed away their shareholder rights to one of Pulte's associates as a condition of getting a single share of Pulte Homes in their ticket package. They got cases of Coors Light, bottled water, and a promoter slapping a supporter in the face with a green dildo.

The bankrupt company did not resurrect. Nobody got their money back.

This is the man now nominated as acting Director of National Intelligence. Not a reformed con artist. Not someone who made one bad call. Someone whose documented record across memestock promotion, a failed 50-year mortgage proposal, and opposition research that went nowhere is a consistent pattern: say what the audience wants to hear, perform confidence, collect the reward, and move to the next room.

The intelligence community employs roughly 100,000 people and holds the country's most sensitive secrets. Indiana families have kids in that workforce. The people who rely on accurate threat assessment to make decisions about American safety deserve someone whose qualifications extend beyond getting a retweet from Trump and buying a Mar-a-Lago membership.

[BLM @RobSample]

@DorkSirjur Unroll @threadreaderapp

[DS @DorkSirjur]

Up next is nearly four hours of one of the very best, and most important names in house music. 35 years ago:

This is Franke Knuckles (RIP) @ Sound Factory, New York 04.08.91

This is the full, complete set and is an absolute masterclass of soulful house (bits and pieces exist online). Just an incredible thing. Tracklist in comments.

Reminder that all mixes uploaded here today go on my Kofi for download tonight.

👇🔥👇

[Vernon Reid @vurnt22]

Chuck D is one of the greatest portrait artists working, right now.
Original.
Insightful.
It may be difficult to take that information in, as he is also a bonafide HipHop Icon. I’m not coming from subjective bias. We just don’t have the bandwidth to accept challenging realities.

[Film Festival @LifeIsAFilmFest]

Questlove’s documentary EARTH, WIND & FIRE (To Be Celestial VS. That’s the Weight of the World), which opened the 2026 Tribeca Festival earlier this week, is now on HBO Max.

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the extraordinary outbursts of the President of the United States against female journalists... well, actually against journalists in general and journalism. But it feels like he saves his most childlike behavior and irrational language for female reporters, calling them all kinds of names that kids in kindergarten are given times out for. It’s stunning to me to witness such behavior from any leader, any CEO, any person of influence or importance. I’ve never witnessed someone like this raging, this weekend with @meetthepress host @kwelkernbc, just last week in the Oval Office with @cnn’s @kaitlancollins, calling women stupid or piggy, telling them to “smile”, calling them darling, demeaning their credibility. Every good man should denounce this behavior. Every person should be able to stand up for their colleagues and say “No more.”

Imagine this man screaming like this at your daughter, your wife, your sister, your mother... would you stand for it? No, you wouldn’t! And neither should any of us. It’s unacceptable and undignified. Period. End of story.

[Brian Cardone 🏴‍☠️🇺🇦 @cardon_brian]

Good god this is a crazy interview. Listen as Scott Pelley describes how Bari Weiss wanted journalists at CBS to cover the killing of Renee Good in Minnesota. This is why we can’t have oligarchs running our news outlets, this is absolutely devastating.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

I will soon be introducing a bill to give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America.

This would guarantee that the trillions created by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us — and block oligarch decisions that harm the American people.

[BLM @RobSample]

@hellmouse @Newsforachange @YarrowGrace Perhaps generations.

[BarrySummers™🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦 🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️🇪🇺🏴 @Newsforachange]

@YarrowGrace This was predicted a year ago.