Wow — listen to these new comments from Trump. Thanking Putin, trashing Zelenskyy, characterizing Russia as eager for peace and Ukraine as intransigent. The mask is totally off.

I'm excessively amused by this.

The “ICE” in “ICE agents”: Acrynomised noun phrase or emphatic imperative verb? Discuss.

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

The same people who lambasted other nations as "shithole countries" seem to have made diarrhœa the central pillar of their health platform. Make America Gush Anally, I guess.

It occurs to me that Mar-a-Lago face (and the male equivalent) is kind of like a facial gang tattoo. It's not natural appearance or personal taste so much as a mark of fealty, only inscribed with a scalpel instead of an improvised prison needle.

hollywood releasing a bunch of movies about how an insane, radicalized cabal of billionaires are trying to gobble up the world economy approximately 3 weeks after said insane cabal gobbles up the entertainment industry is what historians call a "whoopsy doodle" moment

Canada drops sponsorship of conference that talks of U.S. as foreign interference actor www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Canada drops sponsorship of conference that talks of U.S. as foreign interference actor

Global Affairs cites changes to several panel discussions, says officials will still take part in the conference

theglobeandmail.com

I've never been comfortable with the Death of the Author idea. Not fully. I think there's a good deal to it, but as one lens alongside another that keeps the author in view. If I did buy it completely, I'm not sure how I'd justify privileging human writers over AI slop.

It's good to point out these sorts of lame intimidation efforts. But it's also important to put the ineffectiveness in context. If the goal is to promote voting, flagging the structural limitations of federal threats should be part of that process.

I'm not sure what the point of including cucumber in food is supposed to be when it isn’t serving as a vehicle for flavourful vinegar or brine solution. It’s a bite of soggy nothing with a nasty rind.

I bet life is easier for people capable of either hope or a sense of accomplishment. Or both, but even imagination has its limits.

These OpenAI hacks remind me that 'people must still be held responsible for autonomous agents that are not *moral* agents' is not a new idea. See: the fucking *Bible*, Ex 21:28–29…and I’m pretty sure they borrowed it from or based it on other ANE law codes.

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is one of my favourite minor LotR characters. From Wodehousian auntagonist to redemption with her testamentary charity, she's a surprisingly rich portrait in such few words and a female LotR character with some depth.

I could actually feel a little bad for Ed Sheeran in the first few moments. I could understand wanting to stay publically…not neutral, but silent. I *enjoy* the luxury of not having my opinions scrutinised by the world and risk massive backlash and even serious threats. Insignificance has upsides.

I think I’m the only person I’m aware of who regularly footnotes¹ their messages in Slack and on social media. ¹ Thus.² ² Obviously, setting up a Compose Key to easily type ¹, ², ³, &c.—or for that matter ₄, ₅, ₆, or ⅓—makes it easier.

Once told this joke to some coworkers as we were heading back from lunch, though I may not have mentioned Discworld, just the joke itself. When I finished the bit about carefully torturing small kings, one of them asked me if it was true. Only time I can recall *actually* doubling up laughing.

Micah@rincewind.run · 3w ago

Discworld QOTD, from Mort

It would be very funny if the toxic tech bro problem were solved by 2,400-year-old means from the classics/humanities: Lysistrata-method Palantir’s workforce out of existence. I’m not saying that’s a realistic hope, but it’s at least entertaining to imagine Aristophanes vs. Alex Karp.

Why No One Wants to Date Tech Bros

Once seen as nerdy but harmless innovators, men in tech are now widely regarded as red pilled Elon Musk wannabes. It’s made getting laid a whole lot harder.

wired.com

Tens of thousands of voter registrations have gone unprocessed in Texas. Affecting large areas deeply. If you’re in Texas, check your registration is up to date and accurate ASAP. www.texastribune.org/2026/09/22/t...

DPS voter registration applications weren’t sent to counties

Counties will start receiving a surge of applications less than two weeks before the Oct. 5 registration deadline, adding work at one of the busiest points in the election calendar.

texastribune.org

I want Bluesky to be the platform where I keep a lid on the worst of my anger and snarky retorts, but constant existential dread and a lack of other outlets keep tripping me up. I know my mental health would improve if I spent more time and energy on my life offline, but I don’t have one.

Only now realised I assumed that Tsushima meant something like ‘harbour island’, though that analysis may just be a coincidence; but hearing an American drop the leading T and pronounce it Sushima (‘distance to a kind of seafood’?) was plain weird.

Everything the pro-Trump billionaire Ellison family will now own: Paramount+ CBS CNN Showtime HBO Warner Bros TNT TBS MTV DC Studios Nickelodeon Comedy Central And more... With this comes the power to decide which stories get told, but more importantly, which stories DON'T get told. Shameful.

The only things I hate more than putting my dog through the ordeal of my clumsily injecting his arthritis medication are (a) unnecessarily putting him through the stress of a vet visit and (b) watching his discomfort on walks when it's wearing off. (Once every few weeks; shows when he's due.)

With 45 days until the midterms, I urge you all to: 1) Help get out the vote. 2) Protect our electoral machinery from interference. 3) Not succumb to complacency, defeatism, or cynicism. We are the only ones who can end this nightmare. We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

Sometimes I have an idea that I think *might* be good, but could also be (a) stupid or (b) reinventing the wheel, only square. And I'm the wrong person to have the idea, and I don't have anyone to bounce it off. This is my possibly bad idea for a distributed co-op journalism platform.

throwaway-platform-brainstorm/README.md at main · haggholm/throwaway-platform-brainstorm

Contribute to haggholm/throwaway-platform-brainstorm development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $8 trillion. The entire bottom 50% of American households is worth just $4.27 trillion. Read that back. Remember: Wealth can’t be separated from power. Power begets wealth and wealth begets power.

If there's a nuclear/AI apocalypse in our near future, it’ll be a stupid one for stupid reasons, not because the computers launch the missiles directly. Launch systems being inaccessible to AIs is, therefore, at best very partial protection. Human hands act out digital paranoia.

Andy Diggle@andydiggle.bsky.social · 3w ago

Hallucinating AI "almost started a war" by FALSELY claiming China was smuggling nuclear materials. "The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel... Military planes were in the air"

When a character in visual media has been petrified by just turning to stone and turns back with the outer layer flaking off, they'll have lost their skin, their corneas...