There's been a real trend - because streaming miniseries sprawl over so many hours, I think, but perhaps it's demand driving supply - of spelling out *every* beat, saying *everything* out loud. Leaving no stone unexamined.

Bailey Poletti@baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3h ago

If "Death of the Author" means interpreting a text need not conform to the creator's intent, this might be "Death of the Audience," where there is no interpretation to do at all. A reader is not expected (nor encouraged) to find meaning. Consumerist Non-Being, like an anti-zen breathing exercise.

'It's like Joe Rogan: if he went away, how would anyone know stuff and what to think about stuff? You'd all be lying on the ground twitching, unable to function'.

Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 14h ago

My answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.

This is so funny because the list of people with a plausible chance of ever being President, but who would manifestly be even worse than Trump has one name on it, so he's forced to come up with pretend versions of people who won't be candidates.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 9h ago

JD Vance: "We don't want the next administration, whoever -- god forbid you're gonna have President El-Sayed in three years ... "

I'm really looking forward to the bit where the Doctor and Romana throw their batarangs at the inflatable wavy man.

This is an image from an Amazon listing for an automatic cat litter box, and I'm not convinced it hits the 'product which will allow you to live in the perfect Star Trek future' vibe it's aiming for. www.amazon.com/dp/B0H6JKJ4K...

'First you complained when we stole your money, now you're complaining when we give it to our rich allies - MAKE UP YOUR MIND'

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Bessent: "Here at the Treasury, I had $168 billion of tariff revenues that we're gonna have to refund. So when the Democrats scream, "Oh, the refunds should go back to the American people!', well, the American people had it, it was in the Treasury and it was paying down the debt."

Miller says he's done nothing Trump hasn't done.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

TAPPER: Hold on -- hold on, 'cause I'm not done with the list of women who have accused you of violence. Are all three of them lying? REP. MAX MILLER: Yes. And I'm not getting out of the race because in 2016, President Donald J Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world ...

Emily Wilson gets one more piece on The Odyssey and then she needs to move on and let us know what she thinks about Mallrats

They're all idiots, they're all weirdos.

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · yesterday

Oh my god the dietician who is telling everyone in the White House to only eat steak and sauerkraut doesn't wipe his ass.

ok how many GOP members of congress are secretly dying/dead? this is getting out of hand

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

😳 Rep. Pete Stauber indicates there's something gravely wrong with Tom Emmer's health: "You have no idea what Congressman Emmer is dealing with right now. If you did, you would've never made that comment. He's fighting for his damn life today!"

The mayor of Amity Falls unveils a new tourist attraction: an unconvincing mechanical shark. Many swimmers disappear mysteriously soon afterwards. Plot twist: they have been abducted by UFOs. UFOs driven by velociraptors. Hoagie Newcombe knows that only animatronic Abe Lincoln can put this right.

weinberg@weinbergs.bsky.social · 7mo ago

let's pretend: Universal announces a screenwriting contest for Jaws 5. What's your pitch?

Breathe easy, InfoWarriors! Sen. Mitch McConnell just called in with a reassuring update from the space between life and death!

Sounds like he's a witness. Let's get him under oath.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d ago

Trump: "We have photographs or tapes -- like moving cameras, right? -- where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife."

My latest story has some intrigue. FCC finally released Chairman Brendan Carr’s financial report for 2025 late Friday. The report states Paramount gave him tickets to the gala worth $12,390. But he and his wife sat in skybox seats that sold for $125,000 a piece. www.propublica.org/article/fcc-...

FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount

Citing a ProPublica report on Paramount providing luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets to FCC officials, the complaints note that commissioners accepted the gifts while the FCC was reviewing or about to...

propublica.org

'We have reason to believe that the suspect fights crime at night dressed as a bat'.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown@enbrown.bsky.social · 2d ago

AI-written police reports! What could go wrong? www.techdirt.com/2026/07/30/a... (Reports about cops morphing into frogs, for one thing)

Let me stop you there ...

There are times where legislators seem to be angling to be named in a footnote in a history book about the mania of people on the wrong side.

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

Max Miller, if we're keeping count, helped organize the insurrection. www.rawstory.com/max-miller-t...

Republican desperately tries to downplay his involvement in Jan. 6: ‘Time is not important’

Newly elected congressman, Max Miller, desperately tried to minimize his involvement in helping organize Jan. 6 when speaking to the House Select Committee investigating the attack on Congress. Miller...

rawstory.com

The Slop Eaters not exactly fending off the 'oh ffs, AI is for overliteral friendless lackwits' accusation there.

Aaron Bady@zunguzungu.bsky.social · 3d ago

lol

To be clear, this is on the org. They did not prohibit the use of AI in the contest rules.

AI poster causes controversy in Ohio State Fair contest

Some Ohioans are expressing concerns after a poster created with artificial intelligence won the Ohio State Fair’s poster contest.

fox8.com

Another bank refuses to launder Trump's crime money.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d ago

“.. The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to U.S. President Donald Trump's family business.” @reuters.com $COF www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Important news from SDCC.

The obvious sanction is sentencing the officials who pushed this charge to clean up the Pool. Orange jumpsuits, mops and bleach, television cameras.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.

BASH: But it peeled off. Why did that happen? BURGUM: It didn't peel off. There was vandalism. There was box cutters. There have been 7 arrests. BASH: There are photographs of people cutting a 350 foot gash in the reflecting pool? BURGUM: Dana, I'm not sure why you keep questioning it

Not. Even. Close.

BREAKING: Pirro has dismissed the case against Davey Hearn for vandalizing the reflecting pool, saying that there's no way vandals could have caused the damage.

It's telling it's a 'could' not a 'will'. In the normal course of events, this headline is a 'well ... duh'. Unless people buy things in a Café, the Café will close. AI has so much money poured at it, 'people using it' may not matter.

The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 7mo ago

AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns

Fun fact: Trump's father had dementia and he would get agitated if they didn't sit him down every week in a pretend business meeting and had him sign fake paperwork.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Bessent: "President Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton could not have imagined the economy that we would have created. It is the envy of the world."

UPDATE: After the publication of this piece, Google sent 404 Media a statement saying it was “rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails.” www.404media.co/google-earth...

Google Earth’s New AI Lets Anyone Fabricate Completely Bullshit Satellite Images

"Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam."

404media.co

The issue is not detecting slop if you're looking for it, it's the vast amount of time and effort that has to be dedicated to mopping it up.

Ann Leckie@annleckie.com · 5d ago

For writers worried that they won't be able to "prove" their work isn't Spicy Autocomplete--worry not. You thought about every choice and will be able to talk about those choices easily and clearly. Folks who used the slop machine didn't make choices and won't have anything to say about why

OK. So. Celebrity author? Assuming for a moment that the publishing industry 'makes sense', which I'm not committed to as a position, that's the only way *this* makes sense.

Lincoln Michel@thelincoln.bsky.social · 6d ago

👀 Fascinated by the "withdrawn by its agents" detail. So the AI use was so blatant that the agents due a huge payday preemptively withdrew the contract?