Having lived through the Digital Era, it's just been decades of dumb assholes saying, over and over, "We now have The Product. You can't live without The Product. Nothing about human existence will be the same after The Product." It's all just so insultingly stupid.

This is a goddamn cult.

hailey@hailey.at · 2d ago

if you think that AI is not going to be able to augment the thing you're doing in whatever role you hold right now - whatever career path and profession - that is called cope that probably sucks for a lot of people! it sucked for me! but learning and adapting here really is key

It's sort of fascinating how Instagram insists on showing me that Pens and Poison person that I have now told them I am "not interested in seeing"... eight times, I believe.

What a career!

Oscar Winner Jeremy Thomas, Producer of Over 80 Films, Dies at His Oxfordshire Home - Northeast Times

Jeremy Thomas, who won a best picture Oscar for The Last Emperor and produced more than 80 films, died peacefully at his Oxfordshire home on Sept. 12, 2026.

northeasttimes.com

Book #96: Compulsively readable little essays by Lucy Sante, whose curiosity about everything from obscure graphic designers to the telephone book has made her a key cultural historian for decades now.

Rufus Hickok@rufus-hickok.bsky.social · 2d ago

Book #95: Bernard Malamud's novel of a Jew accused of killing a child in Tsarist Russia. Brutal stuff that becomes a story of all the falsely imprisoned and oppressed. Also, a stirring reminder of our own humanity.

live in such a way that you can reach out to a friend and ask them if you imagined something like partying with Perry Ferrell as he dj'd a Purim party 20+ years ago or if it really happened (it really happened, he was wearing an Elvis jumpsuit, my friend was still high the next day at work).

Maybe he's getting paid or something, but I kind of think Jake Lang is trying to get killed more than anything.

Another man… another cat he didn’t want #Caturday

trying not to talk about Texas too much because who cares what I think from this far away, but I do find it bad Dem campaigning to do double-reverse hair-splitting about trans rights. I am never going to believe it's some clever trick that works better than just being openly in favor of good things

No one, I noticed, took time yesterday to mourn the loss of both the twin towers *and* the original "Michael Keaton" on 9/11. Hoping to correct that here.

Would you like to donate to Bethany Terrill, who jumped in to impede ICE officers who were trying to abduct someone in Western Mass and still has to stand trial over it in December? Here's where you can:

Donate to Help Bethany Secure Legal Defense and Peace, organized by Bethany Terrill

Hey guys<3 My name is Bethany. I've been getting stalked and haras… Bethany Terrill needs your support for Help Bethany Secure Legal Defense and Peace

gofundme.com

There's not a way to give one, especially authoritarian, political party its own militia to use on the streets of the nation and detoxify it. A sane country would end it when the regime changes.

Scott Horton@robertscotthorton.bsky.social · yesterday

Former DHS secretaries agree that the whole department is now toxic because of its politicization by Trump, and that ICE in particular is a huge problem. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...

I want to get a "U.S. out of NYC" tee shirt but can't seem to find one.

Oh shit, really? This just keeps happening for some reason or another.

Republican senator fires aide who used Nazi soldiers as Facebook profile picture

Washington Post report also reveals Jon Husted staffer Stephen Woytek created pro-Rhodesia playlist on Spotify

theguardian.com

We're going to wake up tomorrow and find out we just dreamed the last 25 years, and it was a warning about how the country might go insane and crash out after 9/11.

One of those odd little, very-briefly-a-cult-film, films that would likely be completely appropriate to watch today. I haven't seen it since 2003.

The Cruise - Official Trailer - Oscilloscope Laboratories HD

YouTube video by Oscilloscope Laboratories

youtube.com

Before I log back off and go about my day, I wanted to add some thoughts on a somewhat forgotten writer I love.

The Novels of Edward Lewis Wallant

YouTube video by Rufus Hickok

m.youtube.com

It's hard not to think that 9/11 was the best thing that could have happened to cable news.

On 9/11, I was in college, living in books and paying no attention to "news". I knew something was up from how people looked around me in Williamsburg, VA, but not what until that night. I miss being so blithe.

I guess the problem I have with academic liberals at the moment is they seem unaware of how goddamn angry the rest of us are right now and just anticipate that they'll be in charge when this unpleasantness all shakes out. (Also, they're perpetually stuck in the Cold War.)

Book #95: Bernard Malamud's novel of a Jew accused of killing a child in Tsarist Russia. Brutal stuff that becomes a story of all the falsely imprisoned and oppressed. Also, a stirring reminder of our own humanity.

Rufus Hickok@rufus-hickok.bsky.social · 6d ago

Book #94: Clarice Lispector's last novel, in which an older man narrates the unfortunate story of a poor uneducated girl and her misfortunes. Lispector's strange enigmatic style works for mysterious reasons even though it seemingly shouldn't.

She opened for Angine de Poitrine tonight and I thought strongly of buying her album (and probably will).

ANNIE-CLAUDE DESCHÊNES "CULINARY SECURITY" (Visualizer)

YouTube video by Italians Do It Better Music

youtube.com

Yesterday, I did about 2 hours and it felt long, which is interesting. It seems like I'm either on for multiple hours and hardly notice, or a full hour feels endless.

Rufus Hickok@rufus-hickok.bsky.social · 4d ago

I seem to remember American television-watching habits being similar pre-Internet. Anyway, if you can get down to five hours a day online, you're at half the average American's daily consumption, but still more than the average French person's consumption of 3 hours a day.

We demand... a mentally ill shrubbery!

Monty Python: Knights Who Say Ni

Alt: Monty Python: Knights Who Say Ni

static.klipy.com

Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 4d ago

misogyny aside, does this sound like someone who is happy, whose life you'd want to have?

Reminds me of Tocqueville's notion that the problem with the American system is we'd eventually vote to give ourselves the treasury.

US citizens will receive $5,000 if Republicans win midterms, Trump claims in lengthy convention speech

President makes offer that would cost US over $1tn and asks voters to ‘pretend that I’m on the ballot’ despite being deeply unpopular among electorate

theguardian.com

Dining on dim sum with the pizza crew. This place must feed thousands a week.

Well, they do generally release more horror movies for Halloween.

Hollywood Puts Four Tech Moguls on Trial in October Movie Pileup

Silicon Valley founders and CEOs are the next wave of big screen villains in buzzy projects tackling Zuckerberg, Musk, Holmes and Altman.

hollywoodreporter.com

Well, this *is* faster than we were going to do it by at least a decade or so.

Anthropic researchers say AI could cause human extinction by 2030

One researcher who resigned said many in industry believe that without regulation AI could kill off humanity

theguardian.com

AI guy warns: This AI might be *too* amazingly powerful and good at what it does. I frightened myself a little World stunned, markets in chaos