Sam Scrofani

Digital Nomad | #LeicaPhotography | #Technology

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

Orwell!

[Ron S. Friedman @RonSFriedman]

1984.

Wikipedia rewrite Jewish history, Orwell Style.

[Haviv Rettig Gur @havivrettiggur]

You’re darn tootin’, as the kids say, that Israel needs to make sure its nuclear deterrent is up to spec.

Is that racist?

It’s funny, because throughout the Arab and Muslim world, Israel’s nuclear deterrent never made anyone fear it might actually use a nuke in a fit of ideological pique. No one‘s fundamental policies changed when they believed Israel had developed nukes.

Because everyone understands in the region that it’s actually a deterrent, and nothing more.

Whereas Iran’s nuclear program caused a great shifting of Arab loyalties and fears, a reordering of regional power dynamics. Because no one in the region is ever really sure they won’t use it.

Mehdi wants you to believe this difference reflects Western racism. Or something. Easier to shout “racism” than to deal with the simple truth — that the Iranian regime is an imperialist martyrdom cult that its own neighbors think might actually use a nuke.

Mehdi doesn’t actually think I’m racist. It’s just the only cheap shot he has left to cover for the butchers of Syria and demolishers of Yemen, for mass-murdering religious fanatics who have driven their own country into the ground in pursuit of nukes that maybe, just maybe, it is perfectly capable of using offensively.

[Yossi BenYakar @YossiBenYakar]

Mabina Beheshti was only 21.
From Gorgan. A young woman with a whole life ahead of her.

On Thursday night, January 8, 2026, regime forces shot her at point-blank range in the streets for daring to protest. They did not just kill her. They hunted her.

Then they returned her body to her family under threats and intimidation.
Her funeral was silent, not because there was no love, but because fear was standing at the graveside.

This is the cruelty of the Iranian regime.
They murder the youth in the streets, then terrorize the parents into quiet burials, as if silence can erase the crime.

Say her name. Mabina Beheshti.
She deserved a future, not a bullet and a whispered goodbye.

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

“Female prisoners who are virgins must be raped before execution, to prevent them from entering heaven.”

In Iran, under Khomeini and now Khamenei, executing a virgin woman is illegal.

So prison guards are asked to hold a “wedding ceremony” the night before: raping the girls so they can be executed the next morning.

This is the reality for women under the Islamic Republic.

EVERY FEMINIST, EVERYWHERE, MUST STAND WITH IRANIAN WOMEN.

[Adam Butler @GestaltU]

Fun fact: The 1998 paper that introduced Google and PageRank to the world ends with this acknowledgment:

"Supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement IRI-9411306. Funding also provided by DARPA and NASA."

Sergey Brin was on an NSF Graduate Fellowship. Larry Page was a PhD student on the grant.

Google—now worth $2 trillion—exists because American taxpayers funded "the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project."

Not a startup garage myth. A government grant.

Every time someone says public research funding "picks winners and losers" or "crowds out private innovation," remember: the most dominant technology company of the 21st century was incubated entirely with public money, inside a public university, by researchers on federal fellowships and grants.

The private sector didn't see it coming. VCs passed. The government funded it anyway—not because it would become Google, but because fundamental research into information retrieval seemed worth understanding.

That's the point. You can't predict which grants will change the world. You fund the science and let researchers explore.

The internet (DARPA). GPS (DoD). Touchscreens (CIA/NSF). mRNA vaccines (NIH). Google (NSF/DARPA/NASA).

Public investment in basic research isn't wasteful spending. It's the seed corn of the entire modern economy.

[Peter Boghossian @peterboghossian]

Me to the TSA guy who collects the empty bins: What percentage of people stack their empty bins?

He: 40%

Me: What would it tell you about society if 100% of people did. What about 0%?

[Save A Man @Save_A_Man]

5 years old - Dad knows everything!

7 years old - Dad knows.

10 years old - Maybe Dad doesn’t know?!

12 years old - Dad doesn’t know.

14 years old - Dad's gone crazy!

16 years old - Can’t take Dad seriously.

18 years old - What does dad know?!

22 years old - Dad's talking rubbish!

24 years old - I know more than Dad!

26 years old - Dad seems to know some things after all.

30 years old - Think I should ask Dad about this?!

40 years old - It’s amazing how Dad went through all this!

45 years old - Dad's been right all along.

50 years old - If Dad was here, I could have learned a lot from him.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

The “Pro-Palestine” Movement is Hijacking the Palestinian Cause https://t.co/TSSbTrrnXU

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

Remember when the UN called for a ceasefire for Ramadan?

Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust on Simchat Torah.

Hezbollah fired rockets on Yom Kippur.

The Iranian regime launched over 180 ballistic missiles on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

The Houthis sent a deadly drone to Eilat in the final hours of Rosh Hashanah this year.

Two Jewish men were killed in a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.

And today, 11 Jews, including a child, were murdered in Sydney on the first day of Chanukah.

Why is it that Jews are always the only ones who can’t celebrate their holidays in peace?

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

*De-Globalize the Intifada
*De-Normalize Antisemitism
*Denounce Backwards Ideologies & Behaviors
*Defend Western Values from Radical Islamists & Extreme Leftism
*De-Naturalize Terrorists with Western Citizenships
*Demote Rotten Academia from Public Discourse
*De-Platform Hate

[Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن @elicalebon]

On October 7th, the world insisted that jihadists killed Jews only because they were provoked.

That logic rests on a very specific assumption.

That if jihadists were not provoked, they wouldn’t have killed Jews.

After yesterday’s terrorist attack at Bondi beach, the world witnessed that jihadists kill Jews just for being Jewish.

No supposed provocation to speak of.

You know what that does to the earlier logic? Eliminates it.

It proves that jihadists killed Jews on October 7 just for being Jews, just as they kill every other ethnic minority, religious group, or unbeliever who stands in their way.

That’s who the world has spent 2 years defending, and that defense of murderers is exactly why the chickens came home to roost.

[Sam Scrofani @samscrofani]

@EmmanuelMacron I’ve been learning French and can report first-hand that these words are as empty as they are in English.

[Bassem Eid @realbassemeid]

Yet another way Hamas is exploiting Gazan civilians: The Hamas-run Al-Qarara municipality is demanding "rent payments" from Gazans who were displaced and set up tents in open areas on the beach.

Two years ago, Hamas launched a war that devastated Gaza and displaced countless people from their homes. Now, Hamas is demanding those people help the terror group rebuild by paying "rent" for land that Hamas's war displaced them to in the first place.

FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS.

[Haviv Rettig Gur @havivrettiggur]

How you do one thing is how you do everything.

Of course Ahmed el Ahmed turned out to have come from a good family, to have served and protected, to be a good man generally.

[ד״ר עינת וילף Dr. Einat Wilf @EinatWilf]

One of the most devastating aspects for Jews, after experiencing an attack, is to realize that the governments of their countries, where they should expect to be protected, are populated by cowards.
Cowardly leaders make an already horrific situation worse, much worse.

[Ahmed Al-Khalidi @khalidi79397]

Antisemitism never arrives wearing its real name.
It almost never says “kill the Jews” on day one.
It hides behind a mask. A slogan, an excuse, a “principle,” a political campaign.
Today, the mask is “the Zionist regime.”
Same hate. New packaging.

But this tactic is not new. It’s the oldest trick in the book.

“They killed Jesus.”
A theological accusation used for centuries to justify pogroms, expulsions, and forced conversions.

“They poisoned the wells.”
During the Black Plague, Europeans claimed Jews spread disease leading to mass burnings and massacres.

“They control the banks.”
Medieval rulers framed Jews as financial manipulators to justify seizing their property.

“They are disloyal to the crown.”
England used this narrative to expel Jews in 1290, one of the first documented national expulsions.

“They corrupt Christian society.”
Spain used this to launch the Inquisition and force Jews to convert or flee.

“They are racial outsiders.”
19th-century “scientific racism” framed Jews as a biological threat, paving the way for genocide.

“They control the media and culture.”
A favorite of early 20th-century Europe that led directly to violence and boycotts.

“They are capitalists exploiting the workers.”
Soviet antisemitism hid behind Marxist language while banning Hebrew, shutting synagogues, and persecuting Jews.

“They are colonial invaders.”
Arab regimes used this after 1948 to justify expelling nearly 900,000 Jews from Middle Eastern countries.

“They control global systems, the banks, the UN, the world.”
Modern conspiracy theories recycled straight from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, just with better graphics.

“We only oppose Zionism.”
The newest mask.
The safest way to target Jews collectively while pretending it’s about politics.

History is repeating itself.
Antisemitism always begins as a clever slogan and ends as violence.
And every generation has its “mask of the moment.”

Today’s mask is “anti-Zionism.”
The hate behind it is very old.
The consequences are always the same.

[Alex Hearn @hearnimator]

I can’t stop laughing. It’s such a brilliant piece of writing.

[David French @DavidAFrench]

This is deeply disturbing stuff. California is ripping the heart out of its educational system. Meanwhile, a much, much poorer state -- Mississippi -- is in the midst of a reading miracle. Policies matter.

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

There is more and more evidence that putting computers and tablets on students' desks (1:1 devices) was a terrible mistake. I agree with @AdamMGrant that "it's time to remove laptops [and tablets] from classrooms."