Tuesday! I'll be hosting an online panel on literary podcasts for @bookcritics.bsky.social -- free to attend, and registration is at the link below. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Podcasts as Criticism. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Literary podcasts have established themselves as a place for insightful conversations about books and reading. For this virtual event, representatives of five bookish podcasts will discuss the ways in...

us02web.zoom.us

If you see this, post a knight:

Wanda@itswanda.bsky.social · 6d ago

If you see this, post a knight:

at least one tape measure and some loose screws of varying sizes

darth™️@darthbluesky.bsky.social · last wk.

for a junk drawer to legally qualify as a real junk drawer, what is the ONE absolute mandatory item it must include? a mysterious key that does not unlock any thing

happy #Caturday

Good Trailcams@goodtrailcams.bsky.social · 2mo ago

the Mamdani Boom?

Bailey McCann@baileymcc.bsky.social · 2w ago

Turn this into a commercial and it would make so many different people mad it would absolutely be worth it

I cannot rest from discourse. I will see that film again tomorrow. I will drink life to the lees. Again I will enjoy greatly, will suffer greatly, both with those that love me, and in Pleasantville NY. I am become a meme. Film showing: burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/the-...

The Odyssey : Jacob Burns Film Center

The Odyssey, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Odysseus, Greek, Classic, Antiquity

burnsfilmcenter.org

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

“First, good people help to legitimize a dangerous system […] by staying... Second, by helping one legitimate part […] you free up personnel and resources to handle the vile tasks… Third, by staying you may not be able protect the people you think you can, and your work may be used to harm them…”

Working for the enemy

Links to the podcast! And seeking change from the inside vs. walking away.

degenerateart.beehiiv.com

One week away! Join me Aug. 6 as I discuss my book "Eckie" - which, I'm proud to say, made the Short List for the 2026 Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award, honoring a book that "transforms public understanding of Chicago, its history, or its people." www.chicagohistory.org/event/author...

Author Talk | Chris Serb - "Eckie: Walter Eckersall and the Rise of Chicago Sports" - Chicago History Museum

Author Chris Serb discusses his recent book Eckie: Walter Eckersall and the Rise of Chicago Sports (2025).

chicagohistory.org

“AI watermarking and deepfake labelling will soon be required by law in the EU as the transparency part of the bloc’s sweeping AI Act comes into force on August 2nd.” It also requires disclosures on company chatbots: www.thelocal.fr/20260727/exp...

Explained: The EU's new rules on AI, deepfakes and chatbots

AI watermarking and deepfake labelling will soon be required by law in the EU as the transparency part of the bloc’s sweeping AI Act comes into force on August 2nd.

thelocal.fr

happy #Caturday

Brendan O’Kane@bokane.org · 2mo ago

18th century "cat contract" (納貓兒契式; based on a Yuan-dynasty original), laying out the cat's duties and responsibilities: tirelessly guarding the grain, repelling the "mousey bandits" (鼠賊), not messing with the livestock, not stealing numnums "of any kind whatsoever" (不得偷盜食諸般).

It must also be connected to exposure to the local news on TV, with the local news consisting of the greatest hits of the worst possible events captured on video.

whet moser@whetmoser.com · 3w ago

"According to the findings, perceptions of city crime levels appear “closely tied” to social media exposure"

nominative determinism strikes again: “Matt Jury, a lawyer” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/u...

Tate Brothers Arrested in Miami As U.K. Authorities File Sex Crime Charges

Federal marshals arrested the influencers, who are known for their misogynistic views and have faced years of criminal investigations in Europe. The new charges concern offenses dating to 2010, Britis...

nytimes.com

happy #Caturday

a lot of people outside are just rawdogging the air out there without masks or anything, it’s wild

emily north@north0fnorth.tgirl.gay · 4w ago

at o’hare right now and the situation is truly dystopian

for those in the path of the wildfire smoke:

âpihtawikosisân@apihtawikosisan.bsky.social · last mo.

For folks struggling to figure out how to deal with wildfire smoke, I put together some information a few years ago: apihtawikosisan.com/2023/09/miti...

was just outside (wearing a mask) and saw a guy on Lincoln Ave in this thick-as-pea-soup noxious brew and he was having a cigarette

Lake Michigan! Live!@lake-michigan.live · 4w ago

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

Some people have no idea, like... *everything* smelled bad. Everything. We lived in a hazy, toxic, smelly public world where the furthest you could get from cigarette smoke in busy places was to be in the 'non-smoking' part of a café, which was the same room as the smoking part.

Olivia Hill@machineiv.bsky.social · last mo.

I genuinely hate the push to make smoking a thing again. I have watched so many drawn out, ugly, painful deaths from smoking. It makes everything disgusting. It enslaves us to the worst kinds of corporations. There’s ZERO positive here.

find where Flock cameras are near you with Deflock: deflock.org

Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 4w ago

New: cops are using Flock to track people, not cars. We reviewed Flock search data and found many, many cases of cops searching for people based on their appearance, race, tattoos, etc. Some searches are so vague like "tall man" that innocent people likely swept up www.404media.co/how-cops-use...

they mention increasing security costs for CEOs and other execs ‘since 2024’ but they don’t reference what happened in 2024 www.wsj.com/us-news/the-...

Exclusive | The AI Backlash Has Tech Executives Fearing for Their Lives

Violent threats against artificial-intelligence companies are rising and spilling over into real-world security incidents.

wsj.com

same

Olivia Hill@machineiv.bsky.social · last mo.

I genuinely hate the push to make smoking a thing again. I have watched so many drawn out, ugly, painful deaths from smoking. It makes everything disgusting. It enslaves us to the worst kinds of corporations. There’s ZERO positive here.

ok this is the match i wanted to see, just not on the day it‘s being played

In Vancouver, cycling volunteers help seniors break out of isolation and feel the wind in their hair. Cycling Without Age enriches the lives of long-term care home residents by getting them outdoors, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0fc7a92... via @theglobeandmail.com

In Vancouver, cycling volunteers help seniors break out of isolation and feel the wind in their hair

Cycling Without Age works to enrich the lives of long-term care home residents across Canada

theglobeandmail.com

My son just told me is favourite sentence is: “I didn’t say we should kill him” because if you emphasise each different word it changes the entire meaning

“Influencer brain drives someone to think it’s hard to get an aesthetic selfie in a subway station because of all the passengers. It makes a fitness influencer fail to see why running the NYC Marathon accompanied by a camera crew on e-bikes might be a problem for other runners”

The trademark wars of influencer culture

From "Hot Girl Walk" to "Hot Girls Read," girlboss creators are weaponizing trademark law.

salon.com

effortlessly iconic tree 🌳

ChicagoVintageTileFloors@chicagovtfloor.bsky.social · last mo.

Stumbled upon this one a few weeks ago.

belated happy #Caturday

Good Trailcams@goodtrailcams.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The future site of Chicago's Merchandise Mart.