Come, Sweet Death #darkart #sygnin

"The widespread use of AI tools and social media platforms has contributed to a sharp deterioration in the reading skills of high-school students around the world, according to the OECD" Progress!

AI Use Contributes to Global Decline in Student Reading Skills, OECD Says

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said tests taken last year by 15-year-olds in 91 countries and economies revealed a big drop in scores compared with a decade earlier.

wsj.com

Here's the official announcement of Parton's passing from her reps, along with the request that in lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at www.imaginationlibrary.com

Alex Zalben@azalben.bsky.social · last mo.

Dolly Parton, among a thousand other amazing things she did in her life, gifted over 330 million books to kids through her Imagination Library program. Her passing is a tremendous loss to the world, but you can support the program today to keep it going imaginationlibrary.com

"We have been telling stories about the end since the beginning. And the story we like to tell is that it’s not, in fact, the end." Author @jrdawson.bsky.social draws from speculative stories such as Hadestown, Legendborn, and The Good Place to measure how we face the ultimate unknown:

A Guide to Death: How Speculative Fiction Makes the Afterlife Less Lonely - Reactor

I wanted to write a book about death. Death touches all of us, to one degree or another, and then it catches everyone at the end. It’s difficult for most of us to contend with the fact that a life con...

reactormag.com

"AI" has existed in its current form for barely four years and the fact that it's jammed up the cognitive development of an entire generation that fast (and that there's a specific overclass of techofascists who are deeply thrilled about this) is a big damn red flag. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...

What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing? (Gift Article)

Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.

nytimes.com

If anybody was excited that Science Fiction Weekly is aiming to "revive" Daily Science Fiction, you should know they are straight-up lying about having gotten permission from writers to republish DSF stories on their website. (Yes, I have sent a DCMA takedown notice.)

crafting night, we made some collage pins

It's International Nonbinary Day, and I am, as it happens, nonbinary. So here are five speculative novels that keep nonbinary characters at the heart of the story, some as sole narrator, some as the standout of a wider queer cast. Indie buy links below. A thread. 🧵

Sewing always feels a little dangerous bc my cat may at any moment decide to nibble my feet.

Happy publishing news! My short story THE PERILS OF AN UNDISCLOSED TIME LOOP has been published with the Freak! See link below

On this, the 6th day of our Queer Holy Month of Pride, I'd like to share some queer book resources! 🌈📚 First off, I've been creating/curating queer adult SFF lists since 2019. The latest has links back to all of the previous lists:

2025 Queer Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

Welcome to the 2025 list of queer adult science-fiction and fantasy books! If you’re new to this dance, this list and the ones before (see: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019) are my answer t…

kadoore.com

Okay, here's an thing for today. One like, one very good SFF book starring queer people. I don't promise more that 30, on account of time, but who knows?

For Pride month 2023, I invited some trans and genderqueer folks to review classic pulp stories of gender identity and transition. It was a productive and interesting look at how genre writers had handled such topics . . .

After a short delay, hot of the press we have the Queersar Not An Award for Excellent In Queer SFF & SFF with Queers 2023! This list might, more than any other so far, reflects the key kaupapa I've been trying to capture: Quality commercial midlist SFF with real artistic merit & a bunch of queers.

The Queersar Not An Award 2023

For excellence in queer SFF and SFF with queers released in 2023

borrowed-and-blue.beehiiv.com

this was HR 2616 which also bans books by or about trans and nonbinary people from schools START CALLING YOUR SENATORS NOW CIS FRIENDS TRANS KIDS NEED YOU

ACLU@aclu.org · 4mo ago

BREAKING: The House of Representatives just voted to require teachers to forcibly out transgender youth against their will. Censoring "gender ideology" does nothing to advance the basic promise that every child deserves the same opportunity to thrive, and that includes transgender students.

BREAKING: The House of Representatives just voted to require teachers to forcibly out transgender youth against their will. Censoring "gender ideology" does nothing to advance the basic promise that every child deserves the same opportunity to thrive, and that includes transgender students.

I struggled to find the right word to describe "Vitrification" by Ishmael Grey in @othersidespec.bsky.social but I'm going to go with "deftly upsetting". A scream of grief and it's magnificent what Grey gets across in <1000 words here.

Vitrification - OTHERSIDE

By the time you come to your senses, his parents have already arranged for him to be burned. Your rage can’t save his body, but you rescue him from them one last time. You spin and spin the cold metal...

othersidespec.com

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent. State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes. www.wired.com/story/gramma...

Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature

The feature, which Grammarly shut down Wednesday, presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics—without their consent.

wired.com

If anyone is up for boosting, Bandcamp is holding a fundraiser for the Trans Continental Pipeline to help trans people escape from Kansas!

Maggie Vail@magicbeans.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Tomorrow's Bandcamp Friday fundraiser will be for The Trans Continental Pipeline, helping trans folks leave hostile states (ahem, Kansas) for Colorado.

At least 1,097 civilians had been killed in Iran so far, including 181 children.

OPINION: "The number of bills directly targeting and undermining the existing legal rights of transgender and nonbinary people in the U.S. has been escalating, with sharp increases since 2021 and with each consecutive year," Jae A. Puckett, L. Zachary DuBois and Noelle Martin write. buff.ly/0ZAExLz

Opinion | Revoking Transgender People’s IDs Has Consequences

Jae A. Puckett, L. Zachary DuBois and Noelle Martin write that revoking transgender people’s identification can invite broader discrimination.

mississippifreepress.org

Welcome back to another year of the Trans Rights Readathon! This year’s readathon will take place from March 17 to March 31. If you want to officially sign up, fill out the form on our 🕸️site to join the fun! #TransRightsReadathon #trr26 #TransBooks

Do it now. Yes, you can leave a message. Yes, call the DC offices. Script here again.

It’s insane this is legal. People around Trump are profiting off war and death. I’m introducing legislation ASAP to ban this.

1. Yesterday, we broke the story that Kansas drivers licenses for transgender people were being immediately revoked by the state. This morning, the ACLU filed suit in state court to block that process. Thousands of trans Kansans watch with horror and hope. Subscribe to support our journalism.

ACLU Files Lawsuit Against Kansas Trans Drivers License Revocations, Bathroom Bounty Hunter Law

The lawsuit was filed in state court on Friday.

erininthemorning.com

“Pope Leo XIV has urged priests to not to use artificial intelligence to write their homilies or to seek ‘likes’ on social media platforms like TikTok.” “‘To give a true homily is to share faith,’ and artificial intelligence ‘will never be able to share faith,’ the pope added.”

Pope Leo tells priests not to use AI to write homilies or seek likes on TikTok

"To give a true homily is to share faith," and artificial intelligence "will never be able to share faith," the pope said.

ncronline.org

My friend made a game about dating guns, PolyArmory: store.steampowered.com/app/4220820/... It’s totally free, which is true love right there.

Polyarmory: High Calibre Love on Steam

The world's only fully-loaded conspiracy theorist gun-nut dating simulation. As the prepper, take the mysterious pill Caliber™ to awaken an arsenal of alluring companions and fight against the dark fo...

store.steampowered.com

Calling up your Dem senators and thanking them for doing this is how you encourage them to hold the line, no matter how low your estimation of them is

Sahil Kapur@sahilkapur.bsky.social · 8mo ago

👀 Every Senate Democrat + Collins and Murkowski just voted for the Bernie Sanders amendment to repeal the $75 billion in additional ICE funding under Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” The measure failed 49-51.

"I need AI to write my story!!!" Then you don't have a story. You have an idea. A beast without bones or meat or a heartbeat. You have smoke with no desire to build the fire underneath. And unless you're willing to put in the effort, that's all it will ever be.