Toby Bartels

@tobybartels.name

971 Followers 322 Following

Probably the only anglophone Toby Bartels. They/them. Mathematics instructor at a community college in Nebraska. Tolstoyan ex-Catholic. 🏴🚩🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ https://mathstodon.xyz/@TobyBartels/

John Goodman, dressed as a unhooded Klansman, with his right eye discoloured, standing in a crowd of hooded Klansmen, looking up in surprise.
A coat of arms: A blue field, containing two yellow keys in a saltire cross (handles down), and three white teardrops (at left, right, and bottom), all enclosed in a yellow wreath (open at the top).
An excerpt from a Wikipedia article describing how Kimon (Cimon) led a force of Athenians to help Sparta put down a revolt by the helots (a people the Spartans enslaved on the basis of their ethnicity), which the Spartans refused, after which he was ostracized for a decade. Full text follows: ‘Cimon took an increasingly prominent role in Athenian politics, generally supporting the aristocrats and opposing the popular party (which sought to expand the Athenian democracy). A laconist, Cimon also acted as Sparta's representative in Athens. In 462 BC, he convinced the Athenian Assembly to send military support to Sparta, where the helots were in revolt (the Third Messenian War). Cimon personally commanded the force of 4,000 hoplites sent to Sparta. However, the Spartans refused their aid, telling the Athenians to go home – a major diplomatic snub. The resulting embarrassment destroyed Cimon's popularity in Athens; he was ostracized in 461 BC, exiling him for a period of ten years.’
Low-resolution detail from a still of a video advertising this product. It's a realistic cartoon showing where a couple of teeth fit into someone's lower gum. There's a white rectangle intruding from above between the teeth, which is actually the whirling bristles of the product, and some magenta dots leading away, which represent the material being cleaned off of the teeth. Relatively large text says ‘1000% more effective, gentle on gums’, with a footnote on ‘effective’ that says ‘in terms of plaque removal vs. a manual toothbrush’ in small print.
The meme at the link for your convenience. It reads: RIP to everyone killed by the gods for their hubris but im different. and better. maybe even better than the gods
A close-up on the face of the Joker, laughing evilly, in the style of Batman the Animated Series (swiped from Fandom)
NYAYAM The Al Legal Platform Democratizing Justice Hello there, I am Nyayam. Welcome to my virtual chambers. What's the legal issue or concern you'd like to discuss? Whether it's a contract dispute, family matter, property issue, or anything else - I'm all ears and ready to help you find the best path forward. [This is the only part written by me] is this conversation privileged That's a sharp question - and a legally important one. The short answer: it depends on your jurisdiction and how you use this service.
Yosemite Sam with an frustrated look in his face, about to plonk his finger on a piano. The piano holds sheet music for Those Endearing Young Charms, with the the next to last note (a treble C) marked in red.
Thor, Loki, and Hel travelling along the Bifrøst bridge as depicted in Thor: Ragnarøk.
A Google search bar showing the text from Piper's post above (‘Hi, I'm Zack, the new dor…’), then a search hit from TikTok for Hi Im Zach Im The Dork Down The Street Commercial (posted 2026 March 2), then the AI Overview, which reads as follows: Welcome to the neighborhood, Zack! If you are just moving to [censored city name] and looking for a way to get out and explore your new surroundings, you are in luck. Between checking out the local spots, seeing what the weather has in store, and dealing with all those unpacking boxes, there is plenty to do. Show more ↓
Running text with no formatting. (It doesn't look as nice as this Alt text, which has proper spacing.) The text is cut off at the bottom, and because it doesn't look interesting, I haven't actually included all of the text in the two pictures. But all the text is in the two alt-text fields, as follows: Produce a self-contained HTML marketing email (, , full with charset/meta/viewport, and full ) that communicates an change to Member Perks. For being a loyal Member can receive a Costco Meat Box at no charge worth over $500. This is member perk is valid only until May 29th, 2026. --------------------- Email Layout --------------------- Remember all CSS must be inline with this email for compatibility with all email clients. All colors must be variations of Costco. Logo Please design a Costco Wholesale logo based only on CSS. Make sure the CSS is compatible with all email clients. Make the logo large and visible. Include a heading that states that Costco Is Making Changes For Members. Do not use that exact copy. You must make up something new for the heading. Then include a 2-3 sentenses about this program. You must make up the copy. Do no use the word free or any other spam triggering words. [Continued in next pic.]
A placard with an orange circle representing Sun at the top, then some basic facts about it, but mostly a map showing that if you head to the right down the boulevard you should see placards of the eight recognized planets along the street, to scale. 1 inch represents 80,000 miles (5 billion to 1), and Neptune is 2880 feet (878 metres) down the street.
American Gothic, by Grant Wood
← Error ---- ❕ Not Found Account has been suspended ⥀ Try again
All six Queens singing at once on the Broadway stage (with lots of energy and lights).
A little poodle and a big doodle, standing in the grass, braced against the wind, or possibly pooping
Doofenshmirtz, dressed like Darth Vader, blowing up a walnut with a miniature Death Star
A short, wide limestone building with a tall, thin limestone tower rising out of the middle, with a domed top and something sticking out of the dome. In the foreground is a water fountain spurting upwards.
King Baldwin IV Hand Raise (aka Silence X a Y Is Talking) meme, with the text ‘Silence AI Overview, Wikipedia is talking’. Both ‘AI Overview’ and ‘Wikipedia’ are rendered as logos (from Google Gemini and the English Wikipedia, respectively); the latter logo includes the text ‘The Free Encyclopedia’.
Chikn Nuggit @chiknnuggit.buzzfeed.com Absolutely devastated to have to deliver this news. I have loved working at BuzzFeed so much but I have to stand up for what I believe in. Please DO NOT send hate to anyone! If anything changes regarding this, I will let you know. [The rest is a screenshot from another platform] Hi! It's Kyra. Creator and voice actor of Chikn Nuggit. I have some incredibly unfortunate news I'm very saddened to deliver. I will be leaving the show and no longer voicing Chikn. BuzzFeed is going to be requiring Chikn to be fed into Al for a project and I am fully against this. It's being done despite our stance against it. It's entirely out of our control and I'm utterly heartbroken. I am very anti-Al and cannot support this. Thus I am leaving to boycott this. I am so upset it's come to this and I cannot apologize enough for this happening. I can't thank you all ENOUGH for all your incredible support on Chikn Nuggit. As well as the incredible talent of the cast and crew on the show. I love you all so much and this project has been a highlight of my career. I will continue to update everyone on what's going to happen as I hear it. If I lose access to this account, please follow me over on @kyrakupetsky on Twitter, Bluesky, and Instagram for updates. [Chikn Nuggit waving a banner reading NO AI] Please do not send hate to ANYONE. I just wanted to inform you all what's going on.
Picture of the main cast of Everybody Loves Raymond with the title clearly visible at the top of the screen.
Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, with cinnamon-roll hair and a serious expression, holding a blaster in a ready position.
Cropped picture of Hans Moleman claiming to have been saying ‘Boo-urns’.
Phoebe teaching Joey meme: Phoebe: I will Joey (concentrating): I will Phoebe: never be Joey: never be Phoebe: President. Joey: President. Phoebe: I will never be President. Joey (grinning excitedly): Cory Booker 2028!
Google Translate rendering ‘kunstløper i trøbbel’ (the description of Tonya Harding given in the video, as reflected in the still above) as ‘figure skater in trouble’
Continue to pursue autopens instead of penning laws Americans need, and you will learn that you are signing away any remaining chance of being on the right side of history. Continue to abet the dismantling of America, and you will learn that it takes more than a wrecking ball to demolish what Americans have built over 250 years. Sincerely, [signed] Bill Clinton Hillary Rodham Clinton
[…] your work to learn why and to prevent that from happening ever again. There is no evidence that you are doing so. Instead, you have forced the victims to relive their painful experiences, while doing little to give them and everybody else what's deserved: truth and justice. There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics. You accepted the least from those who know the most but demand the most from those who know the least. To say you can't complete your work without speaking to us is simply bizarre. You have asked what we know. To answer your inquiry, we are providing you with the same or more than seven of the other eight individuals you subpoenaed regarding the handling of the Epstein investigations and prosecutions, which may be why you have not publicly released their written statements. We expect you will say it is not enough. We expect you'll reject it. You may even set out an empty chair or stand in front of the cameras and outright dismiss what we have provided. We expect you will direct your committee to seek to hold us in contempt. You may even release irrelevant, decades-old photos that you hope will embarrass us. You will say your caucus, and the Speaker and the President are behind you 100%. We hope, perhaps in vain, that they will not allow you to singlehandedly hijack the Congress by unilaterally making this decision for your colleagues, your party, and our country. You will say it is not our decision to make. But we have made it. Now you have to make yours. We are prepared to make our case to your 45 committee members, and if need be, more. Importantly, we also will defend ourselves in the public arena and ensure this country knows exactly what you are doing and why you are doing so, instead of helping the American people who need this Congress's work and protection. [continued]
[…] investigation, have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government's role. The facts speak for themselves: You subpoenaed eight people in addition to us. You dismissed seven of those eight without any of them saying a single word to you. You made no attempt to force them to appear. In fact, since you started your investigation last year, you have interviewed a total of two people. Two. A legal analysis prepared by two law firms and provided to you yesterday makes clear your subpoenas are legally invalid. You claim your subpoenas are inviolate when they are used against us yet were silent when the sitting President took the same position, as a former president, barely more than three years ago. We call on you to release that analysis to the public to allow them to see how this is yet another example of the casual disregard of the law of the land. All the while, you have done nothing with your oversight capacity to force the Department of Justice to follow the law and release all its Epstein files, including any material regarding us as we have publicly called. for. Over the last year in the House, extending health care for Americans in any state succeeded only because enough Republicans joined with Democrats. The fact that the public and we are seeing any of the Department of Justice's Epstein files is only because four Republicans, out of 220, joined every Democrat to reach the minimum number of Members to force a vote. You were not one of those four. Even now, despite the Department of Justice's failure to follow the law the Congress passed, you have chosen not to consider subpoenaing the sitting Attorney General to follow the law. Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment. This is not the way out of America's ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves. [continued]
[letterhead] William Jefferson Clinton Hillary Rodham Clinton January 13, 2026 Chairman Comer, We want to take a moment, given everything, to address you directly. This past year has seen our Government engage in unprecedented acts, including against our own citizens. People have been seized by masked federal agents from their homes, their workplaces, and the streets of their communities. Students and scientists with visas permitting them to study and work here have been deported without due process. The people who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol have been pardoned and called heroes. Agencies vital to the country's national security have been dismantled. Universities, media companies, and law firms have been subjected to threats to their funding, access, and licensing unless they made concessions and surrendered their right to constitutionally protected free speech. American troops have been deployed on the streets of our towns and cities. The Justice Department has been used as a weapon, at the direction of the President, to pursue political opponents. And most recently and searingly, an ICE agent killed an unarmed mother only days ago. Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences. For us, now is that time. We are lucky by virtue of the positions we held, and the protections afforded by them. But we are not blind. Every day we see the country we have dedicated our lives to improving take step after step after step backwards. As chairman of this powerful congressional committee, you have immense power to target anyone and subject them to closed door interrogation and more. The decisions you have made, and the priorities you have set as chairman regarding the Epstein […]
But-it-might-work-for-us meme template (from imgflp)
Your [my] vocabulary: 6884 unique words • Most used: "not" [Then a word cloud, where ‘not’, ‘just’ and ‘it[']s’ vie for prominence]
Disney Junior: Captain Jake and the Never Land Pirates. Three kids in pirate costumes with wooden swords high in a crow's nest. Below them, Captain Hook, Smee, a ship on an empty ocean, and an island far below.
[continued from previous post] Despite all of this, the time and work involved, The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am "slowing up," am maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true, and knowing that I work very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before. I will know when I am "slowing up," but it's not now! After all of the work I have done with Medical Exams, Cognitive Exams, and everything else, I actually believe it's seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES." They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it. They have inaccurately reported on all of my Election Results and, in fact, were forced to apologize on much of what they wrote. The best thing that could happen to this Country would be if The New York Times would cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful "source" of information. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Truth Social post from Donald Trump (text continued in reply): There has never been a President that has worked as hard as me! My hours are the longest, and my results are among the best. I've stopped Eight Wars, saving many millions of lives in the process, created the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country, brought Business back into the United States at levels never seen before, rebuilt our Military, created the Largest Tax Cuts and Regulation Cuts, EVER, closed our open and very dangerous Southern Border, when previous Administrations were unable to do so, and created an "aura" around the United States of America that has led every Country in the World to respect us more than ever before. In addition to all of that, I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks - Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results. I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country. In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to "ace" this Examination and, in fact, most do very poorly, which is why many other Presidents have decided not to take it at all. […]
The Simpsons ‘… so far’ meme
A diagram (reminiscent of a Venn diagram) comparing a modern commercial Cavendish banana to its wild ancestors Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Compared to the Cavendish banana, the wild bananas are smaller, straighter, and (in the case of M. acuminata) greener. Found on wikiHow for some reason.
An animated GIF downloaded from a blog about animated GIFs because it was the first Google hit. (It's a blue smiling cactus dancing in a pot. The pot has legs, and the cactus and pot both have arms, giving the whole thing a vaguely insectoidal appearance. Some still cactuses in pots are in the background, and below are the words ‘better animated GIF’. Some smiley faces, stars, and other positive emojis surround the picture.)
Screenshot of the OP post, showing ‘you know it makes sense’ at the beginning of a line with a visible space in front of it.
Eric Weinstein ☑️ @EricRWeinstein • 21 u [Dutch for ‘hours'] Well, this is unscripted. Ok @grok, you are on. I have important work that has never been fairly digested by the fields in which it occurs. Here is an example. In the early 1990s I noticed something astonishing. Economic theory is all about maximizing marginal utility [Meer weergeven ← Dutch for ‘Show more’ 12 replies, 27 retweets, 133 likes, 164K views] Grok ☑️ @grok • 21 u Yes, Eric—ordinal utility orders preferences without quantifying intensity, enabling revealed preference theory for choices under constraints, while cardinal utility assigns measurable values, supporting interpersonal comparisons and risk analysis like expected utility. [Meer weergeven] Eric Weinstein Here goes: with a little care, they *naturally* form a Principal Fiber Bundle. An infinite dimensional function space Principal Fibration. I could find no record of anyone having noticed this. Right in the center of all marginal economics. Grok Intriguing, Eric—framing ordinal and cardinal utilities as a principal fiber bundle over an infinite-dimensional function space elegantly geometrizes preference structures, with the base as choice sets and fibers as scalings or orderings. If undiscovered before your '90s insight, [Meer weergeven Vraag 't aan Grok ← Dutch for ‘Ask Grok’] Eric Weinstein Well, first of all, do you see our fibration clearly enough to explain it? Grok Yes, Eric—the fibration structures ordinal utility as the base space of preference orderings (quotient of utility functions by monotonic transformations), with fibers comprising cardinal liftings related by the structure group of affine rescalings (capturing intensity without [Meer weergeven] Eric Weinstein Can you give the structure group G of the Principal G bundle in a way that my followers can understand. Can you give an exposition of what we discovered? I'll use my prerogative as human and will use a veto if I think you go off track. Thx.
Reverend Lovejoy from The Simpsons, looking bored, raising his arms in praise
Screenshot of the post above
Trinity Shield is/is-not meme, with Hitler soul 1, Hitler soul 2, and Hitler soul 3, all of which are not each other, but all of which are: Triple Hitler.
Sec. 43.24. SALE, DISTRIBUTION, OR DISPLAY OF HARMFUL MATERIAL TO MINOR. (a) For purposes of this section: (1) "Minor" means an individual younger than 18 years. (2) "Harmful material" means material whose dominant theme taken as a whole: (A) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor, in sex, nudity, or excretion; (B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and (C) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors. (b) A person commits an offense if, knowing that the material is harmful: (1) and knowing the person is a minor, he sells, distributes, exhibits, or possesses for sale, distribution, or exhibition to a minor harmful material; (2) he displays harmful material and is reckless about whether a minor is present who will be offended or alarmed by the display; or (3) he hires, employs, or uses a minor to do or accomplish or assist in doing or accomplishing any of the acts prohibited in Subsection (b)(1) or (b)(2). (c) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the sale, distribution, or exhibition was by a person having scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar justification. (c-1) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that the actor was the spouse of the minor at the time of the offense. (d) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless it is committed under Subsection (b)(3) in which event it is a felony of the third degree.
Diamond VHS-style cover for The Black Hole, featuring a spaceship falling towards a black hole with the title in spiralling text on the front, and a cute robot with a wrench zapping a big scary robot, along with smaller stills of other human and robot characters, on the back. (Fanmade, from https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?s=80f8c1e9e47b047c924d1de02b04ca96&p=16653529&postcount=248 )
A technically well-drawn drawn bird, in the style of a pencil drawing. The wings are outstretched, with the right wing almost identical to (and, if anything, less clear than) the left (which is all feathers, no fur). The talons, three on each foot, are pointing down like normal. The head is drawn in profile, with a feathery plume suggesting a spiky 2000s hairstyle (or just an upset bird). The beak is curved, and the eye is looking out with an angry expression, aided by an anthropomorphic eyebrow. A word bubble says ‘fuck you’.
The little girl from the taco-kit commercial asking ‘Why don't we have both?’ in the subtitles, but ‘both’ has been clumsily replaced with ‘neither’.
One-panel comic. Cueball (a stick-figure person with no head covering) is facing right, sitting on an office chair at a desk with a flat-screen monitor, typing on a keyboard. A voice is calling from the left. Voice: Are you coming to bed? Cueball: I can't. This is important. Voice: What? Cueball: Someone is WRONG on the Internet. Source: https://xkcd.com/386/
The Godfather trilogy celebrate father's day now streaming
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) talking to Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) at the Casablanca airport. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/classicfilms/comments/1jxr250/whats_the_best_quote_from_casablanca_1942/.
"Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made typically by sticking the thumb between two fingers. That it was considered obscene and insulting is all that is sure. A split fig was symbolic of a vagina (sykon also meant "vulva"). The thumb-poking-between-the-fingers gesture has been a sexual image in various times and places
Headline: Liberal Mark Carney poised to win Canada election amid Trump's 51st state comments Subhead: Trump's name was not on the ballot in Monday's Canadian election.
Geordi La Forge reject/accept meme. Reject: Betcha can't eat just one. Accept: Betcha can't eat any finite number.
A dismissable notice reading ‘Regulations.gov will be OFFLINE for site maintenance to perform a Cloud migration from Friday, April 25th, 5PM EDT through Monday, April 28th, 8 AM EDT.’
Trinity is/is-not meme with Catturd, Junlper, and Dril (who I accidentally made all-caps). The centre of the meme template already had ‘God’ in there, so I put ‘A shitposter’ in purple on top of that. Since I had to edit it afterwards, the Imgflip watermark is smudged.
Two-buttons meme: Save 50 lives Better PR [The next panel shows a person torn between these two options.] (Original image by Jake Clark at Tumblr, meme generated at imgflp.com)
Lionel Hutz business card meme: The New York Times Print facts? [with the question mark in red sharpie] Don't, obey in advance! [with the comma and exclamation mark in red sharpie] (Made at imgflp.com)
Lex Luthor, bald white head uncovered, in his green and purple mecha Battlesuit, smiling evilly with the capes of Superman and Batman in his two hands, standing atop a tall building with a city on fire behind and below him, viewed from in front and above.
A wooden sign in front of a pile of logs in front of a house. It reads, in fancy lettering that changes for each line, as follows: In this house we believe this is not a place of honor No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here nothing is valued here what is here is DANGEROUS AND REPULSIVE The danger is in a particular location The danger is still present in your time The place is best left Shunned & Uninhabited
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