New idea just dropped: a cat library. Like a cat cafe, but with books. Read your library book with a cat in your lap.
Annalee Newitz
@annaleen.bsky.social
bestselling author * Hugo winner * nerd latest books: Automatic Noodle, Stories Are Weapons, We Will Rise Again bylines: New Scientist, Flaming Hydra, etc. pronouns: they/them all the stuff: www.techsploitation.com
in which @annaleen.bsky.social asks us to dream big: “What if we gave public transportation the same amount of money that investors have given to AI? With billions of dollars, what could transit do? And how might it transform our cities and lives?” www.coyotemedia.org/funding-bay-...
A Modest Proposal for Funding Transit Instead of AI
In the ’60s, the Bay Area almost got a high-speed train from Marin to San Jose. What could happen if we dreamed big again?
coyotemedia.org
Imagine being a 12 year-old girl, forced to allow a male sports doctor to "examine" your genitals to determine whether you can play softball. Horrifying.
Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d agoAn initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play
I have long wanted to write for the excellent Bay Area publishing collective COYOTE...and they let me write something that honestly no other publication would. All hail independent media!!
Reo Eveleth@reveleth.com · 2d agoEarly on @coyotemedia.org made a list of dream bylines we'd LOVE to have on the site and @annaleen.bsky.social was one of the first on it for me. So stoked to see this piece about ~~speculative transit~~ and big dreams for the Bay Area. www.coyotemedia.org/funding-bay-...
Just so you know, if you hire me to fact check your book, I will *never* use AI to do it. I will, however, be really hyper-detailed and not go easy on you and frankly be pretty pedantic (complimentary) and even fact check your jokes - but I won’t use AI to do ANY of that.
Erin Biba@erinbiba.bsky.social · 3d agoAs a professional fact checker I would never *in a million years* use AI for research and fact checking. It lies! It makes things up! It plagiarizes! And I also have an obligation to the authors I work for not to do shoddy half-work.
Celebrate the Luddites, but celebrate their legacy of co-ops even more. This is a great article about how we measure the success of social movements.
Maria Bustillos@mariabustillos.com · 7d agoFREE for all: @ntnsndr.in on how Luddism is not the end. Featuring an extremely insightful and stirring observation from @rushkoff.com We made it free for everone to read because this post is what @flaminghydra.com is about. flaminghydra.com/issue-617/
You don’t want hands free driving, you want trains. You want trains you want trains you want TRAINS
Approximately 1 out of 3 women will experience sexual and/or physical abuse in their lifetime and you still have men claiming that allegations must be false because there are too many of them. It’s actually the opposite. The vast majority allegations will never become public
Truly the greatest thread this week. Excellent animal behavior research.
Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · last wk.Overnight, a masked bandit broke into our kitchen. Armed with opposable thumbs, he proceeded to sample everything on offer. I’d just visited the farmers market, so the menu was extensive. I can now share a highly specific peer-reviewed list of what this particular raider did & did not enjoy. 🧵
Did you know I have a new book coming out about a graduate student who is a slime mold from beyond the galaxy? Who comes to Earth to do fieldwork and meets a badass sex worker in ancient Pompeii? It's called "A Wall Is Also a Road." You should pre-order it now! torpublishinggroup.com/a-wall-is-al...
A Wall Is Also a Road
torpublishinggroup.com
AI billboard 1: AI is a naked lady AI billboard 2: AI looks exactly like that guy on a work visa who you just fired and sent back to an uncertain future in the country whose passport he carries AI billboard 3: AI is ice cream AI billboard 4: AI is helping you with other acronyms AI billboard 5: Mmmm
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
Turns out that food companies were only checking their food because the government told them to, which is exactly why we need government regulations.
FYI there is no "real" reason why Rome "fell." Its power waned for the usual, mundane reasons: widening gap between rich and poor, inability to maintain infrastructure, incompetent leadership, pointless wars, endless persecution of marginalized groups who performed vital labor, etc.
And, once again, it turns out that you do not need social stratification and hierarchy to have a complex civilization capable of building monumental, multi-generational feats of architecture. nautil.us/monumental-b...
Monumental Burial Mounds Rewrite Ancient History - Nautilus
The colossal structures, built by hunter-gatherers, are way older than archaeologists had thought possible
nautil.us
Crucial thread on the regime's plan to dismantle science in U.S. universities.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago1. The new Trump / Kratsios plan for US science appears explicitly designed to destroy US universities. Diverting money to tech donors is probably just a bonus. Gift link.
I'm always amused by the way humans fetishize "walking upright," "tool use," and "language" as the iconic features of a superior species. And of course we ignore or downplay the obvious signs of all three in every other species. "They only walk upright SOMETIMES. Not like a true upright walker."
As Trump returns to tariffs, it's worth checking out what we've gotten from the trade war so far.
FINAL WEEK! Submit by Friday the 31st!
Annalee Newitz@annaleen.bsky.social · 3w agoOnly two more weeks to enter your sci-fi stories for the Protopian Prize, given to works that imagine positive futures for humanity, w/tech that serves the public interest. (I'm one of the judges!) Two winners get $5000 US each, and publication in an anthology from MIT Press! protopianprize.com
We couldn't decide what to do for the last panel of #TBRCon2026 until this was mentioned.. Biopunk, Body Futures & Autonomy! 🙌 Join @adrianmgibson.bsky.social @annaleen.bsky.social, Chana Porter, @jeremyszal.bsky.social @eirabrand.com.bsky.social, @briewoodfiction.bsky.social as they talk about it!
Hawkins Cheezies are the greatest Canadian food. Especially when you are feeling a little sick. It's restorative.
Really excited for Grok to make the historically accurate version of The Faerie Queen next. Followed by the historically accurate version of Star Wars. variety.com/2026/film/gl...
Elon Musk Says Grok Will Make an AI ‘Odyssey’ Film That Is ‘Historically Accurate’ by the End of the Year
Elon Musk has again waded into Christopher Nolan's epic The Odyssey, saying Grok will make a historically accurate AI version by the end of the year
variety.com
Arriving in Vancouver shortly. Tomorrow night: biang biang noodles in Richmond. Civilization!!!!
The final panel I’ll be taking part in for @tbrcon.bsky.social 2026! I can’t wait to talk biopunk and body futures with these brilliant authors: @annaleen.bsky.social @chanaporter.bsky.social @jeremyszal.bsky.social @eirabrand.com & @briewoodfiction.bsky.social!!! Join us LIVE on Aug. 1 at 8pm EST.
Odysseus: Wait ... are WE the Sea People?! Me, being pedantic in the theater: Well, actually, there is strong evidence that the Sea People were the Phoenicians, later known as the Punic, who settled in North Africa and fought the Romans for centuries.
