I have no desire to hold public office & am entirely unelectable besides. my recreational habits in 1986 alone disqualify me. but I'm running for president anyway & my entire platform is "when you need your health care provider, you get a live operator every time." I will win in a landslide

was looking up one of my old essays, happened across this wonderful review of NULL STATES by @hawkwinglb.bsky.social and, honestly it makes me so proud, can't resist sharing. Just in case you loved INFOMOCRACY and didn't realize there are sequels ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ reactormag.com/book-reviews...

Humanizing Systems: Null States by Malka Older - Reactor

Malka Older’s Infomocracy (book one of the Centenal Cycle) made its debut last summer to rapturous praise, including from The Washington Post and The New York Times Book Review. (I admired it too, alt...

reactormag.com

Heath's Pride Comes Before A Fall is the best of her witty series, Miss Prentice's Protegees.

Historical Romance Review: Virginia Heath’s PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL (Miss Prentice’s Protegees #3)

I enjoyed Heath's first two Miss Prentice's Protegees' romances well enough, but had to reread my reviews to recall their bits and pieces, telling me they were pleasant, but forgettable. I think I'll remember Pride Comes Before A Fall, however, because it was the best of the lot. Portia was always my favourite of the four heroines because of her crusading, reforming spirit.

missbatesreadsromance.com

So, if, like me, the "the hands that brought you Coraline" make you blink a bit for obvious reasons, Wildwood is made by the same stop-motion company that made Coraline, not, y’know, HIM. I’m not sure I’d have chosen to make the link to Coraline given, y’know, HIM, but as far as I can tell, no.

Holy shit.

Hahahahahaha I wanted to type something here but I'm laughing too hard "could you still get through an entire workday" what the fuck, man, you just sharpied "I am incompetent" on your forehead.

Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 11h ago

My answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.

It's a grift. It's grift all the way down, and bagholders will become increasingly desperate in the coming months.

With the Author's Guild, it was someone accepting a seat on the board of an "'AI'-free certification" company. NaNo got "AI"-corp cash. With HWA, it's someone who has links to an "'AI'-based writing 'aid'" app. I'd list more, but the pattern is GLARINGLY obvious.

When a writing org (or company providing services to authors) starts bleating about how great "AI" is, look to see which of their higher-ups has recently set themselves to profit by the grift.

I love this comic! Also, if you need whistles, linktr.ee/3Dwhistles is still sending them. For completely free!

3D Printed Whistles | Linktree

We ship community protection whistles for free. Need some? Click the email link below & tell us how many you need (between 100 - 3000) & where to send them.

linktr.ee

Alex Segura@alexsegura.com · 2d ago

We are seeing an increased ICE presence in NYC - making it imperative that NYers KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. I wrote a comic with @mayor.nyc.gov @nycimmigrants.bsky.social @davidhahn.bsky.social @elllewrightart.bsky.social @tayloresposito.bsky.social to do that! DOWNLOAD: www.weteachnyc.org/resources/co...

You don't get better/more art by skipping the creative process. It's a big org's responsibility NOT to platform pro-AI dipshits. It's their responsibility to be a goddamn brick wall about that absolute donkey-brained buffoonery. It's not a difference of opinion. It's right/wrong. *fin* (Maybe.)

At the absolute LEAST, it should value the artform of writing. It should NOT champion bullshit. It should not throw ANY weight behind thievery machines & offloading creative endeavors. Gen AI is not a tool that solves a problem. It is simply A PROBLEM. It has NO place in the craft of writing/art.+

Regarding HWA, I'm not a member. (I'm a member of SFWA.) Any big-name org is supposed to protect your interests. It's supposed to safeguard your creative life. Provide resources. Forums. Tangible support. It's NOT supposed to back the ideology/entity that's threatening your livelihood.+

Sure, it's annoying to have to wait out a hold on a library book, but in a world where we're being told people are stupid and they don't read, how amazing is it that there are 7-100 people in your community RIGHT NOW wanting to read the same book as you?

Public libraries: prepare yourselves and your staff for this. BRAVE Books has decided to change things this year, incorporating as a 501(c)(3).

BRAVE Books and Kirk Cam3ron's "See You at the Library" right-wing, Christian nationalist storytime is coming back for the fourth year. This time, it lands in October–the pre-primary timing is intentional. bookriot.com/see-you-at-t...

Right Wing "See You at the Library" Event Back for 2026

BRAVE Books is once again coordinating its right-wing, Christian nationalist "See You at the Library" events this year on October 3.

bookriot.com

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jul Markey at debate: "We should have been loving those kids. There's only 12 trans athletes in the whole of the NCAA. We should have been embracing them. Instead, what Congressman Moulton did was he threw them under the bus.” Hope this guy is contagious...

An #IceAge masterpiece: This small carving (4.7cm) of a water #bird was made from mammoth ivory some 40,000 years ago. It's thought to be a #diver, #cormorant, or #duck. Found in the Hohle Fels cave on the Swabian Jura. It's the oldest known representation of a bird. 🧵1/2

Okay, now all of the other states with tax cuts on your ballots, do like Missouri and absolutely demolish the latest tactic from the GOP to demolish public goods! www.stlpr.org/government-p...

Missouri voters reject Amendment 5, declining to eliminate state income tax for more sales tax

With Amendment 5’s failure, state lawmakers are now unable to expand sales and use taxes in order to eliminate the state income tax.

stlpr.org

My world, my Earth is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and fought and gobbled until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first.

If you were a notable neo-Nazi, and you are trying to do better, that is good; but if you do not understand that "I will no longer seek power over anyone other than myself" is an essential part of that redemption you are not redeemed at all. You're still a fucking Nazi.

British media trying to pull a Charlie Kirk over a dead racist pedophile wife-beater is just more proof that ruthlessly and brutally denazifying British news media is going to be important.

"corporate leadership is starting from the premise that AI has (or will) radically change the business, and they're working backwards from that premise to find the evidence to support this article of faith."

Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying

It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...

thenerve.news

Kitchen Math Costco* vs. Fred Meyer Meal Costs $5.19 / $8.09 6-8 servings, cost per serving: Costco / Fred Meyer $.87 / $1.35 Total ingredient cost higher at Costco ($41.79 vs $16.95) due to bulk sizing *Yields ingredients for 7 more 8-oz chicken meals plus lots of extra onions & potatoes

Ann Aguirre@annaguirre.bsky.social · 17h ago

Dinner tonight is Bubble & Squeak: Half a head of cabbage, chopped 1 med onion, chopped 8 oz minced chicken 3 small sweet peppers, chopped 2 potatoes, chopped Caramelize cabbage & onion. Add chicken. Sautee. Potatoes in air fryer 10 min @ 370 while you do. Next microwave potatoes for 6 mins.

Susan Collins announcing she'll vote against a controversial nominee is basically the moment it becomes clear that nominee will be confirmed. It means Thune has enough votes to confirm, and thus, Collins gets a pass to look independent.

Despite that, in many places it's still not legal to use. I'm in South Carolina and right now balcony solar is being debated in the statehouse. At the moment they're not technically legal.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · yesterday

Not sure if everyone appreciates the difference. Rooftop solar hardwires into your main panel via a dedicated breaker, so it requires a permit, an installer, an electrician, and a utility agreement. Balcony solar just plugs into a wall outlet, sharing an existing circuit with no permits or rewiring.

That HWA pro-AI lady has an AI-powered "writing coach" app she just launched and lol btw I will be your writing coach for free with no AI! Here: Turn off Bsky, you creep closer to death every day so WORK ON YOUR BOOK NOW--the discourse will still be here in the morning. You're welcome! 🥰

let me repeat myself: we have vaccines for cancers now. also, 40 years ago was 1986. height of the AIDS crisis. and now we have treatments and preventatives and it isn't a guaranteed miserable death sentence anymore also also, the internet is nice

Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 19h ago

Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.

a lot of people seem to think there is a fundamental inferiority to women that simply isn't true and a lot of those differences are less your biological makeup and more the fact that boys get so much more support, food, and training than girls, that gulf vanishes the more you equalize those things

Micah@rincewind.run · yesterday

it's the old serena williams tweet in action, that there is a physical difference between the top tier of male athletes and the top tier of female athletes gets taken by far too many delusional men as "I can beat a woman at anything" no, you cannot beat a decent athlete of either gender at anything