"I don't understand why you, a fantasy writer, don't appreciate the value of making bargains with the fae."

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 2d ago

Every now and then someone takes a run at me along the lines of "I don't understand why you, a scifi writer, don't appreciate 'AI'," and I'm all, motherfucker, it's *because* I'm a science fiction writer I have the positions I have, how many times do we have to fucking yell "torment nexus," my dude

Fossil fuel industries get an estimated 7 trillion in subsidies. We are paying for our own mass death and destruction.

motherfuckers be angry that their tax dollars are being used for groceries instead of genocide additionally if you get a discount and you don't use it you're just fucking stupid

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 2d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

hey if there's an academic paper you are interested in reading, and you aren't a student, but you contact the author directly, they will usually just send it to you. this works like 70% of the time. seriously just ask

Chaucer Doth Tweet@levostregc.bsky.social · 2d ago

Academics and scoleres are not gate-keeperes. Thei will talke to you about their topiques. For dayes. Thei will sende lynkes. Thei will order bookes. Thys ys why thei lyve. Thei are the route bitwene past knowledge and future knowledge.

Ed Zitron and Nik Suresh made a good point on Better Offline: pay attention to and keep track of those people who are using and boosting AI now, because when that bubble pops, they’re all going to suddenly pretend they were against it, or promote themselves as “cleaning up after AI” experts

it wouldn't solve all of america's problems but legalizing non-dealer models of car sales would probably defang a lot of the GOP donor class

Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · 2d ago

lol

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (NBIM) lent Meta money so that they could build this Louisiana data center.

Kashmir Hill@kashhill.bsky.social · last wk.

This is some incredible in-the-room reporting from @elitan.bsky.social and Maureen Farrell on how Meta got its vast, six-square-mile data center cooking in Louisiana www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/t...

America is a weird place

slate@pleasebegneiss.bsky.social · 3d ago

my neighborhood 7-11 closed a couple years ago and tried to reopen but couldn’t get the permit approved because there’s a preschool next door and 7-11s sell alcohol (the previous permit was grandfathered in). i saw a fence going up around the lot recently and looked up what was moving in: a gun shop

@/argontheopossum.bsky.social Thanks to the previous person, I’ve now learned a new neo-Nazi term, loxism. This account was active as of 5 hours ago and also has said stuff about Jews and banking, owning Congress and asking about how many Jewish billionaires there are compared to Christians

Amnesty have issued an apology to JK Rowling and the rest. Adjust your expectations, and donations, accordingly www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

An Apology for A Growing Threat briefing, published on 8 July 2026

Amnesty International UK has made a public apology for the publication of the briefing “A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK”. Click here to read it in full.

amnesty.org.uk

Had a v funny feeling today, looking at art and aesthetics I really like My immediate first reaction after admiration was just like “man I wish I could make [was good enough to make…] stuff that looked like this” And then realized that that is just a feeling I made up for myself. And it’s not real

Yes! She would still have offered to cook him dinner! The cultural myths about abuse are so inaccurate. Most people who are abused initially think it's not so bad or even their fault. Most! Most people who are sexually assaulted don't realise that's what happened to them until later. Most!

Harm and Justice

YouTube video by The Leftist Cooks

youtu.be

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 3d ago

Rep. Max Miller: "My former wife has claimed that during a custody exchange at my home that day, I assaulted her…If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?"

It will be worse than this! Most websites will be forced to ask you to send your ID to a third party surveillance service, adding a credit card won't be enough for most. Bluesky asks for your *social security number* if you live in Texas now, due to this shit. Call in, and kill it.

Eromancer@eromancer.bsky.social · 3d ago

This will be the US if the SCREEN Act passes. Call your Senators before August 5 and tell them that you oppose the SCREEN Act, KOSA, and the KIDS Act. Use the official lookup tool at www.senate.gov/senators/sen... to find yours by state.

Let's be very clear. What Amnesty have done here isn't just bad for the trans community. This is bad for every single persecuted minority in the world because they have shown that money and threats will remove opposition to persecution. Think about it.

Median UK voter in 2026, as predicted by Hugh Laurie some decades ago:

I noticed from my 12yo's lock screen notifications over the w/e that he is still using all of the apps, only difference now is that none of the parent filters and controls apply

Ben Schwarz@benschwarz.bsky.social · 2d ago

Australia’s eSafety commissioner buried a report (released Friday afternoon) that shows the under 16 social media ban didn’t tangibly reduce teen social media use, and also resulted in parents tuning out of kids usage. We traded our privacy for no reason. theconversation.com/more-than-80...

Eslam @ssme-ra.bsky.social had shared the news her sister has fallen seriously ill, so if we can keep Eslam's family in mind during these last days of the year, please do? Photos and updates below. Donate only if you can. Spread the word if you cannot. #GazaAid 🍉 chuffed.org/project/1282...

No One Should Starve for Being Born Here

My name is Eslam Mohammad, I’m 24 years old, and I’m from Gaza.  Over the past year, I’ve lived through unimaginable horror.  I lost my home, my work as a photographer and artist, my friends, and the ...

chuffed.org

Jubilee 🔞@jethanded-wyvern.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Eslam is back! @ssme-ra.bsky.social still doesn't have her old account back, but she's back! Help a sister out? Please. Donate only if you can. Spread the word if you cannot. #GazaAid 🍉 chuffed.org/project/1282...

It's weird when people bristle at the idea of abolishing billionaires. Are you a billionaire? Is your mum one? Why do you care? It would be good to abolish billionaires. More money for public services, less money for them to buy rape islands.

"But if you abolish billionaires what is the motivation for growth?! This will prevent growth!" Good, capitalism is a death cult and it's still less money for rape islands.

this guy gets it

John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota, (1932). James Wilson, 'The Earth Shall Weep': A History of Native America. (1998). #BookSky #ClimateChange

Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf@rahmstorf.bsky.social · 2w ago

Yesterday afternoon 14:09 in Lacanau Océan in France. A pale red sun through the smoke tinged everything in Mars style orange. Welcome in the climate emergency! Despite all denial of the fossil fuel lobby, it’s scientific fact: CO2 emissions heat up Earth & make fires worse. 🔥🔥🔥

When playing certain games, you gotta ask yourself Am I enjoying this or am I making ice cubes? You deserve better than ice cubes.

Only just found out about this For the record, you don't get multiple genetic markers and one of the most effective medications known to science with 'social constructs' Channel 4, this is, in scientific parlance, an absolute fu*king disgrace that will genuinely endanger lives #c4 #ADHD

saw this post years ago and will never ever forget it. sometimes you need to tend to the place from which you create, before you can create again

John Wiswell@wiswell.bsky.social · 3w ago

People really do not appreciate the importance of the "do nothing" phase in the creative process. We are all about the kinetic energy, and forget its duality with potential energy.

found them

𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜ӠӠӠ ☉∇ ☣ 🏜️@wolf.moda · 4mo ago

there's no real way to capture it due to the nature of it but the lowercase highway gothic signs in the Olympics that read out things about the conservation of the area in some amount of poetic stanza are probably some of the most incredible use of medium and I want to do similar so bad

the problem isnt that AI companies are destroying books after digitizing them, it's 1. the copyright laws making them destroy the books they digitize 2. that they aren't sharing digitized copies of rare books, but hoarding information for their training data

Nicky 2@nickyflowers.com · last wk.

copyright law is evil and will not protect you unless you are a large corporation. cutting the bindings of books to digitize them is normal and good on its own. let's try to think about the things we're angry about

It's Random Fact Wednesday!! Did you know the modern two-day weekend (Saturday + Sunday) only became widespread in the early 1900s? Before that, most people only got Sunday off! Labor movements and factories slowly pushed for the extra rest day. 🗓️

Money laundromat's stock fell due to "money laundering" concerns after reports that it may launder money

Jenny Cohn@jennycohn.bsky.social · last wk.

Nvidia’s stock fell due to “circular financing” concerns after reports that it may finance OpenAI’s purchase of $350B in Nvidia chips (vendor paying customer to buy its product) & may separately guarantee financing 4 the construction & lease of a new OpenAI data center that wld use Nvidia chips. 1/

I opted for the more polite version of this post. It is genuinely gratifying to see that the hatred to the police that was reinforced by 2020 has not faded in Portlanders. One of the best things about this city is that you can go days at a time without seeing cops. www.wweek.com/news/city/20...

As Signatures Are Disqualified, Campaign to Hire More Police Cries Foul

With early numbers indicating that a Portland ballot initiative to hire additional police officers is falling shy of the valid signatures needed to place it on the November ballot, its backers on Mond...

wweek.com

What do all vertebrates have in common? Yes, a spine…but the ’brain plan’ too! Using MRI brain scans, Maria Pierce and the Yopak ZoMBiE Lab team are deciphering these differences across species and across age groups to determine ecological resilience and vulnerability, as well as brain evolution.

Wrap your head around smalltooth sawfish neuroanatomy

The Yopak ZoMBiE Lab at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) has been hard at work developing and optimising protocols using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to non-destructively charact...

saveourseas.com