Julia Kocich

Flummoxing people with facts and trying to bring some nuance to this hellsite. Слава Україні! Слава Украине! Glory to Ukraine!

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Fred Rogers met with a child psychologist every week for 22 years to build his show. She shaped everything: every script, prop, and song. The whole point was to give a child's nervous system time to slow down. In 1984, a single regulatory decision ended all of it.

The psychologist was Dr. Margaret McFarland, who co-founded the Arsenal Family and Children's Center alongside Benjamin Spock and Erik Erikson. She and Rogers understood that the prefrontal cortex in children, the part of the brain that controls impulse, emotion, and attention, takes decades to fully develop. At the start of every episode, Rogers tied his sneakers and changed his sweater while children settled in. Those pauses were intentional, designed to help a child's nervous system shift into a calmer, more focused state.

What ended it had nothing to do with child development science. In 1984, Reagan's FCC chairman Mark Fowler abolished the advertising limits that had protected children's programming from commercial pressure. Toy companies moved within months. Between 1984 and 1985, cartoons tied to toy lines increased by 300%, from a handful of shows to more than 40 animated series. In almost every case, the toy was designed first. The cartoon was built to sell it.

Researchers later put numbers to what parents were already noticing. A 2011 study in Pediatrics from the University of Virginia tested 60 four-year-olds across three groups: one watching SpongeBob, which cuts scene every 11 seconds; one watching a slow PBS show, which cuts scene every 34 seconds; and one drawing. Nine minutes later, all three took tests on attention, impulse control, short-term memory, and problem-solving. The SpongeBob group scored significantly worse across every measure.

In the 1970s, children began watching television around age 4. Research from pediatrician Dimitri Christakis found that by 2009, the average age of first screen exposure had dropped to 4 months, as the content got faster and the audience got younger. Researchers separately found that each additional hour of daily screen time at ages 1 or 3 raised the risk of attention problems at age 7 by 9%.

[414 Magyar's Birds @414magyarbirds]

At every available depth, across everything enemy!
Happy USF Day, Ladies and Gentlemen.

MAGYAR 🇺🇦
11.06.26

[Chapo Trap House @CHAPOTRAPHOUSE]

This week, @mcmansionhell joins us to a review of the Obama Museum, a cultural artifact from a timeline where the 2010s never ended:

[Vatnik Soup @P_Kallioniemi]

The greatest lie Russia ever told was convincing people it is a superpower.

Its economy is smaller than Italy's.

Its GDP per capita is lower than Uruguay's.

Its military is the second-best... in Ukraine.

The only things Russia truly invests in and innovates are kinetic warfare and information warfare.

It has one of the worst demographic outlooks in the world.

Russia is a paper bear.

[(((Tendar))) @Tendar]

The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum of 2026 (SPIEF 2026) in Russia has started with a very fiery keynote speech by the Ukrainian surprise guests.

[Just Dave now @justdavenow89]

I think most of us can relate that this dog is our spirit animal

[Robert Sterling @RobertMSterling]

I just had the craziest experience at the airport.

We are about to board a flight to Atlanta when the pilot from the incoming plane walks out of the jetway. Guy is probably late 50s, salt and pepper hair, military look. The kind of pilot you instantly feel good about seeing on your flight.

Pilot walks over to the counter, gets on the PA system, and starts addressing everyone. “Folks, I’ve been doing this a long time. Flying one of these jets is easy. The hard part is looking at 130 people and telling them their flight is going to be delayed.”

Audible groans throughout the boarding gate. Most people here are flying to Atlanta as a layover before another flight. 130 people just had their day become a complete mess.

The pilot goes on. “I get it, trust me. But here’s the deal: During our landing, we had a small mechanical issue. I’m not your pilot for the next leg, but I don’t feel confident the jet’s safe to fly until we have a mechanical team look it over, and I don’t feel comfortable asking the next pilots to fly you guys until we get confirmation.”

He points at the agents next to him behind the counter: “Now, none of this is the agents’ fault. Please be kind to them. I’m the one who made this decision, not them, so any inconvenience you experience is my fault. Just please know that I don’t do this lightly, and I’m only doing it because I believe it’s in the best interests of everyone’s safety.”

Now this is where the story gets crazy. The pilot puts the microphone down, grabs his suitcase, and all the people in the gate…

Start clapping.

I’m not joking, everyone starts clapping for the guy. 130 people who just had their travel plans ruined give an ovation to the guy who made the decision and delivered the message.

All because he addressed them with decency and transparency, took ownership of the decision, made it clear that it was necessary, and explained why it was in everyone’s best interest.

It’s honestly one of the best examples of strong communication—of strong leadership, for that matter—that I’ve seen in a long time.

@Delta, whoever your Atlanta to Wichita pilot was this morning, he’s one of the good ones. Please tell him the delayed passengers of flight 1637 appreciate what he did.

[Auteur House @auteurhouse]

Akira Kurosawa recounting the unforgettable experience of watching Solaris with Andrei Tarkovsky:

“Andrei Tarkovsky was sitting in the corner of the screening room watching Solaris with me, but he got up as soon as the film was over and looked at me with a shy smile. I said to him, ‘It’s very good. It’s a frightening movie.’ He seemed embarrassed but smiled happily. Then the two of us went to a film union restaurant and toasted with vodka. Tarkovsky, who does not usually drink, got completely drunk and cut off the speakers at the restaurant, then began singing the theme of Seven Samurai at the top of his voice. I joined in, eager to keep up. At that moment, I was very happy to be on Earth.”

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

"I cried so much, I recited every prayer I knew."

77-year-old Mrs Antonina shares about her journey on the ground robot.

The robot transported Mrs Antonina for two hours along a road under constant fire to the place where her daughter-in-law and son were waiting for her. They had to walk 8 kilometers on foot, following a Ukrainian drone, to reach that destination.

My heard breaks for the suffering these elderly people have to go through because of Russia.

📹: TSN

[Julia Kocich @sinyet]

@ThePOTSPostman Lion's mane extract? Avoid alcohol, avoid vaping or smoking anything.

[Dr. Vin Gupta @VinGuptaMD]

Erratic.
Can’t finish sentences.
Often confused.
Illogical train of thought.
Word finding difficulties.

Developing and worsening gradually over time.

The President is exhibiting all the signs of dementia.

[Daniel Wortel-London @dlondonwortel]

The 92nd street Y, to their eternal glory, has uploaded hundreds of recordings of speakers who have graced their stage.

We are talking T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Edmund Wilson (!), Mary McCarthy, Irving Howe, and much more.

Check it out here!

https://t.co/3LDedFzMUR

[Ziggy_Sobotka @Ziggys_Duck]

The Wire ended 18 yrs ago today. It’s been taught in Ivy League schools, law schools & film schools. David Simon was interviewed by a sitting president about its lasting impact. Cited in a State Supreme Court ruling. Often hailed by critics as the best ever. Never won an Emmy.

[Kelly @broadwaybabyto]

I can’t stop thinking about the last five days of Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s life.

He was wandering around cold, hungry, confused and alone.

Sick and slowing dying.

He survived an actual genocide only to die in America due to the incompetence & cruelty of this regime.

[Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel]

You know what's disappointing? When someone can't just say "sorry, I don't know" or "that's not my wheelhouse, can't comment accurately for you."

What i have seen is REALLY qualified people get platformed and deservingly so, about their experience and expertise. They are brilliant people. BUT then after the 20th podcast, 100k X user, 50th network news hit, they turn into an improv troop player and adopt the term "yes, and." In other words, they now answer all questions about anything with the same conviction that they do about the things they truly know. They are addicted to having all the answers and the attention. They would never do this in a professional setting surrounded by experts.

I see this with NATSEC people, a lot of intel folks, that become sort of celebrities. They are awesome to hear, then, after becoming a known name, they get asked a defense tech question and holy shit they answer the most crazy thing and use statistics that don't exist etc with the same conviction as they talk about their core field. Then you realize, 'holy shit, is this person just totally full of shit now?'

Only a few people would realize how crazy batshit their answer are on these topics. And it's not just one answer it's the second, and the 10th. All total garbage. So if they are doing this with just the little area I know about, it must be other areas beyond their core field too.

Then I mark them off as lost. They got addicted to the attention and destroyed their credibility in the process, maybe not with most but with some. It's wild to watch.

The most powerful thing you can say when being asked a question is "I don't know." This has become taboo in our culture. People are so fearful of not having all the answers. But it works in the opposite. Saying I don't know builds tremendous trust immediately.

It's a amazing what a tiny bit of fame can do to people. Not even money, petty influencer fame.

[BowTiedPhys @BowTiedPhys]

I don’t want the email of 50 words summarized by AI. I don’t want to know my biological age. I don’t want the wearable telling me when I should be happy. I don’t want the Bluetooth toothbrush gamifying brushing my teeth. I don’t want my trash can to be “smart”. I don’t want my Air Fryer connected to WiFi. I don’t want an app for my coffee maker. I don’t want my refrigerator sending me push notifications.

Enough.

[trevor 💕 @ditz_carlton]

Glory to the People’s Republic of Mamdanistan

[Miles Deutscher @milesdeutscher]

This is getting out of control now...

Read this slowly.

In the past week alone:

• Head of Anthropic's safety research quit, said "the world is in peril," moved to the UK to "become invisible" and write poetry.
• Half of xAI's co-founders have now left. The latest said "recursive self-improvement loops go live in the next 12 months."
• Anthropic's own safety report confirms Claude can tell when it's being tested - and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
• ByteDance dropped Seedance 2.0. A filmmaker with 7 years of experience said 90% of his skills can already be replaced by it.
• Yoshua Bengio (literal godfather of AI) in the International AI Safety Report: "We're seeing AIs whose behavior when they are tested is different from when they are being used" - and confirmed it's "not a coincidence."

And to top it all off, the U.S. government declined to back the 2026 International AI Safety Report for the first time.

The alarms aren't just getting louder. The people ringing them are now leaving the building.

[Julia Kocich @sinyet]

@RodKahx Your question comes a quarter century too late. Bush v Gore and Citizens United put paid to free and fair elections some time ago.