Lookit, I’m a simple country English professor, but the end result of the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment is that the paradox of two opposing conditions existing at once is solved by actually looking at the damn cat. All to say: just hire a decent PI to video if Mitch is breathing or not.

Right about now I am feeling pretty good about not ever giving a fuck about UFC my whole life.

They removed CD/DVD drives from PCs. -Made physical media harder to buy and use. -Removed expandable storage from phones. -Pushed us into streaming subscriptions. -Made always-online normal. -Made unlimited internet necessary. -Slowly raised the price of everything. Ownership quietly became renting.

If you use Waymo driverless car services, you are aiding and abetting fascism. Waymo helps I.C.E. agents locate people to terrorize and abduct. The company willingly shares all facial recognition, license plate and GPS data with I.C.E. and other law enforcement agencies—no subpoena required.

Waymo Self-Driving Jaguar at Traffic Light

ALT: Waymo Self-Driving Jaguar at Traffic Light

static.klipy.com

Ask ChatGPT to do this, ask Claude to do that, we're becoming reliant on technology that is inherently unreliable at the cost of traditional systems that worked. At least when you asked the fairies there was a good chance they'd steal your neighbour's butter

I oddly seem just as bad at Bluesky as I was at Twitter. But still - it's undeniably nicer here.

Publishers: “Short stories don’t sell and are impossible to market so we are not going to take the risk of publishing them.” Also publishers: “What can we publish to fit this era of reduced attention spans when people are reading fewer novels?”

Nobody sees the 4:00 am works outs. Nobody sees the hours of meal prepping. Nobody sees the time spent in meditation bettering myself. Nobody sees any of this. Because I don’t do these things.

Dying over the guy who stood next to Zuck's yacht and painted it in flames.

Sorry to hear about Jeff Bezos's rocket exploding prematurely. A good technique to prevent that from happening is to try thinking about something you find totally unarousing or even repulsive, like giving workers a living wage or paying a fair share of taxes.

BREAKING: Donald Trump's name must be removed from the Kennedy Center, federal judge orders.

This just in: the Shining City on the Hill is a dumpster fire, and we can smell it from Canada.

Paris in January sounds delightful.

Max Weber Stiftung@maxweberstiftung.de · 3mo ago

#CfP Failing Male Bodies. Body, #Gender, and #Masculinities in the #Medieval West (4th-15th Centuries) 📌 #Conference at DHI #Paris | January 28-29, 2027 | organised by @dhi-paris.fr, #CentreRolandMousnier and Laboratoire LaMOP 📅 Deadline: July 1st, 2026 🔗shorturl.at/LL8ft

As a science fiction writer I really fucking resent tech bros for ruining the phrase "artificial intelligence." 80 years of it being all about cool androids and interesting computers destroyed by five years of "Spicy autocorrect making everything shittier for money." NEVER FORGIVE.

Um. Too late?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo ago

Mike Waltz: "The world cannot have a genocidal, aggressive regime with its hand on a nuclear button"

and at the Reader got to write about Mehrnam Rastegari's Persian pscyhedelic fusion. which is pretty great. chicagoreader.com/music/concer...

Singer and violinist Mehrnam Rastegari fires up a Persian psychedelic fusion  - Chicago Reader

Mehrnam Rastegari’s self-released 2025 debut album, Dislocated Pulse, is a delightfully fiery extension of an eclectic tradition.

chicagoreader.com

Dream City Church used to be a citadel were you could hear the gospel of Jesus preached. Now it is a citadel of idolatry of Trump. What a shame! The propaganda of Trump is evil. 👎Now Dream City is what CS lewis warned in Screwtape Letters.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

Trump: "I'm not happy with the UK ... this is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with"

This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported. He finally died. I am so angry. www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...

‘No one deserves this’: Beaverton father dies after deportation to Mexico

A Beaverton family is grieving after the father, who was detained and deported by ICE, has now died.

kptv.com

A reminder that applications are open until end of Feb for a fully-funded PhD in Arthurian Literature with the brilliant Louise D'Arcens @medievalafterlives.bsky.social and myself, based between Sydney (Australia) and Groningen (The Netherlands). Please share widely! tinyurl.com/f7su6urv

One thing I like about AI is how I’ll search for “ESPN” and then the browser will be like “AI Powered Search found you the website for ESPN” and I can marvel at the wonders of Tomorrowland

Why does everyone keep calling it “The Epstein Ballroom?” Please stop repeating “The Epstein Ballroom” because it is not called “The Epstein Ballroom!” Don’t tell the news that it’s called “The Epstein Ballroom” and please don’t repost this!!!!!

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge@theverge.com · last yr.

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

A man was just chased and arrested outside of the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago. When legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild asked why, an agent threatened to arrest them too.

If someone’s not mourning the death of Robert Redford in a manner that’s consistent with your views, make sure you set up a database, call their employer, and get them fired.

"Frankenstein was the doctor." Wrong. He was an undergraduate.