This is a cute picture of Thomas, but what I want you to look at is the orange comforter. See? It's very orange. We THINK it's from JCPenney's originally, but we don't know for sure. Most importantly, it's old and well-loved, and dying. I need to find a new one, same comforter, to replace. Help?
This answer encapsulates Trumpism perfectly.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2h agoQ: What message does it send if Trump fires a US attorney because she determined there was not sufficient evidence to charge four people with a crime? BLANCHE: If he fires a US attorney, it turns out he's allowed to do that because he's the president
This is maybe the perfect example of @gregpak.net bit that replacing every instance of “AI” with “cocaine” gets to the deeper truth of the attitude.
Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · 17h agoThere is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.
I know that for all the reasons that have been discussed to death a fourth season of Ted Lasso is probably a bad idea...but honestly? The season premiere was really good.
EA officially goes private tonight, meaning: - EA will no longer trade on the NASDAQ for the first time in 36 years - All stockholders of EA (including many employees) will receive $210/share - EA will take on $18 billion (!) in debt, putting it on the hook to pay ~$1.8 billion/year in interest
this is a drum I will beat about Spider-Man any time the subject of his day job is raised: for nearly twenty years we've been saddled with "Peter's day job is Scientist" because comics writers haven't realized he's not a Tony Stark or Reed Richards regardless of how brilliant he might be
Mark O. Stack@markwwc.bsky.social · 2d agoSpider-Man hasn't fully left the Daily Bugle behind because J. Jonah Jameson is one of the all-time support cast members, but Peter Parker has been removed from being a photojournalist for so long that I do really miss it as a flavor.
Hey folks! I'm going to have a little medical downtime in early September (cataract surgery) so I'm taking advantage of that enforced rest to offer 4 writing mentoring sessions at $750/each.
Apparently, after the potential upending of the entire legal standard by SCOTUS, the Ninth Circuit has found that the Bad Spaniel toys are parody. I haven't read the decision yet, but...figures.
Defense attorneys of my acquaintance, might could be relevant (ALPR = Flock cameras)
Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · yesterdayis this good:
"History involves sorting and organizing hundreds of thousands of facts" I remain astounded by how loud and wrong people are about what history actually is.
Basically, comics are trying to climb the side of a pile of gravel that keeps slipping and crumbling and skidding under your feet, and I love it so much, and I could do it forever, and I know it will never love me back, and I am at peace with that. I keep mantises as pets. I don't need to be loved.
@weredawgz.blacksky.app: "People didn't understand the first season of Korra." Me: "The coopting of legitimate grievances by a power-hungry person from the privileged class who pretends to be from the aggrieved class and tries to use them to elevate his own power? People didn't get that? Weird."
I don't want to make it all about religion, but I feel like there's a connection between the "faith alone" doctrine of many (esp. evangelical) Protestant groups, where it doesn't matter what you _do_ but only what you _believe_, and this sort of "My heart and mind matter, but not my actions!"
John Scalzi@scalzi.com · yesterdayMy dude, we don't need to know your "heart and mind," we just have to look at your prior actions. You've already turned CBS News into a ham-handed partisan laughingstock in land speed-record time, so we have an excellent idea what you will do with CNN.
My co-given-named Bluesky amateur* agent provocateur today said "People are telling me to look up Boots Theory, you realize that was something just tossed off by a fantasy writer?" There are some bears best left unpoked. I'm just saying. *Not that he's bad at it, just that he isn't being paid.
Everyone fucks up but how you handle it when you do makes a lot of difference.
Andrew 🇿🇦 Davis@thrownintosol.bsky.social · yesterdayMade a really obnoxious "joke" about getting "express permission from the trans community" to stay subscribed to the New York Times after a trans woman voiced her discomfort at that org getting support. Led to dogpile against this trans person, who now doesn't seem to have her account.
'shouldn't put a finger on the scale' sez man who let Bari nuke '60' "I believe that anyone who oversees a news organization — I am chief executive of Paramount, which owns CBS — shouldn’t put a finger on the scale, especially on matters involving his own company." - www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
Opinion | David Ellison: In Defense of the Paramount-Warner Deal (Gift Article)
The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of CNN
nytimes.com
While true of Bluesky...also true of everywhere and everywhen.
Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social · 2d agoI'm begging everyone here to be less easily baited
I'm just so fucking tired of people being like "no, the free market is working!" and then ignoring all the ways that we don't actually have a free market and our markets are owned by like, twenty men in trench coats.
the truth is corruption and evil are so universal that neither Trump nor Elon will need much explanation for future gens but the one that we will never be able to answer is how we allowed a freak vampiring his own kids to chase youth to be a celebrity instead of a man in an iron mask in a hole
What is happening here is that the folks complaining think writing is a series of correct answers Rather than a conversation about choices. They think gatekeeping is happening bc we can’t tell them the “trick” to being published
Antony Johnston@antonyjohnston.bsky.social · 2d agoSeeing complaints online that authors 'gatekeep' information…! Absolute nonsense. There is no industry or craft in the world which is so comprehensively written about, studied, and discussed as fiction writing, and every author I know welcomes new writers who are serious about giving it a go.
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
This is an important point to keep in mind. While the contours vary and a lot of people have wrong ideas, the basic notion of fair use is not legal, but normalized. "Hey, listen to this couple of lines of the song, the lyrics are awful" is fair use.
The Questionable Authority@questauthority.bsky.social · 2d agoThe thing about most fair uses is that mostly you never need to litigate them, often because they're kinda recognized as areas that are outside what copyright is there to do.
Based Wisconsinites bsky.app/profile/jess...
Jessy Edwards@jessyedwards.bsky.social · 2d agoA video taken Saturday shows former NYC Mayor Eric Adams in sales pitch mode in Wisconsin Rapids, as he's heckled by residents opposed to the data center he's trying to sell them on. "My name is Eric Adams," he begins, as the boos begin to rain down. "You belong in prison!" one attendee shouts.
There certainly was! I saw the history documentary. They were ready to bulldoze Toontown! Wait.
Jake Berman@lostsubways.com · 2d agothis is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?
LearnedLeague is doing a One-Day Special about the Persona franchise. Heh.
