Someone once told me that it's "classist" to advocate for people to have indoor cats because you need to buy them lots of expensive toys. Marcel has been playing with the discarded stem of a fresh green bean for 20 minutes. 🤷♀️
Brian McCullogh
@webmccullogh.bsky.social
74 year-old retired guy, didn’t expect to have followers. Joined to continue reading interesting posts from favourite f&sf authors, science writers, and learning new things from other interesting people. Occasional likes, replies, and reposts.
Introducing, coming to Winnipeg this summer: Other Places Books. A bookstore specializing in science fiction and fantasy. opbooks.store
Other Places Books
Other Places is going to be Winnipeg’s science fiction and fantasy bookstore. It will be a friendly, inclusive, and very queer space. When we open in the summer, you’ll find us in the Omega building o...
opbooks.store
I'm just gonna say: it somewhat baffles me that people who are understandably skeptical of opaque LLMs as legitimate sources of information will suddenly go full on "the computer KNOWS" when they are using opaque tools to "detect" AI. The computer does not know.
Susanna Kearsley@susannakearsley.bsky.social · yesterday❤️ Gillian Green, publisher at Tor Bramble, told The Bookseller: “HM Wolfe has confirmed that Daggermouth was written entirely without AI. We stand behind our author, and we do not recognise third-party AI detection tools as a fair or reliable measure of authenticity when used on their own.”
Beware of people saying those opposed to AI use in art & writing are gatekeepers. The true gatekeepers wait for the world to buy into their products. And once we do, they will gatekeep like hell! For more on why I don't use AI, check out this essay I published last year in @apexmag.bsky.social. 6/
"Why I Don't Write with Generative AI" by Jason Sanford
These words aren’t about the tech companies worth billions of dollars or how they created generative AI models by pirating the works of artists and writers without permission or payment. These words a...
apexbookcompany.com
Regarding the Horror Writers Association (HWA) newsletter promoting AI usage, why why why do people keep using the term "gatekeepers" to describe those opposed to the use of LLMs in writing and art? The true gatekeepers are the billionaire tech bros whose companies push to normalize AI usage. 1/
Rick Moranis: Are You The Gatekeeper?
Alt: Rick Moranis: Are You The Gatekeeper?
static.klipy.com
I say this b/c tech bros are literally attempting to place a gatekeeper program into the creation process for writing and art. Once people normalize that writing and art can't be created without an LLM, what happens when people can't afford to use that LLM? Gee, you then have a true gatekeeper! 2/
Severe Covid leads to persistent viral reactivation, with >10 different viruses noted in the first 40 days after hospital admission. Long Covid was specifically associated with reactivation of latent Anelloviridae virus @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Virus reactivation in acute and long COVID-19 - Nature
Chronic reactivation of distinct herpesviruses and anelloviruses occur during acute and long COVID-19, and track with disease severity, inflammation and outcomes, revealing immune signatures with prog...
nature.com
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.
El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"
FYI Science Policy News: More U.S.-trained physicists are leaving the country, an exodus that adds to fears of a U.S. "brain drain" www.aip.org/fyi/physics-... a near-doubling of non-US citizens left the US after receiving their PhD, around 29%, in 2025 @aip.bsky.social
Physics PhDs Are Leaving the US at a Record-high Rate
The exodus of non-US citizens has “certainly” been influenced by science funding and visa policy changes under Trump, a new AIP report says.
aip.org
Phang: "Capital One said, 'We don't want the business anymore of the 45th president of the United States, his businesses, his failed sons, and his revocable trust.' So you can imagine -- I am just hypothesizing... but it suggests whatever Capital One uncovered was pretty bad. Makes you wonder..."
speaks to the value of the taboo on the use of armed force and the postive value of colletive security, as imperfect as it has been, most states have not felt the need to have nukes
the intentional abdication by Congress of nearly all of its constitutional responsibilities is at the core of most of our problems as a nation
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayCornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"
Gill: All 100 senators last week passed a non-binding resolution condemning any pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell. They're simultaneously considering confirming the guy who met with her and moved her to a low-security facility as the top cop in the United States. That is so insane to me.
honestly, the fact that we have made it through the atomic age *without* another use of nuclear weapons since 1945 is a miracle we don't fully appreciate
Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 23h agoToday is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:
No cheating, post your lock screen
Iain Clark@iainjclarkart.com · yesterdayNo cheating, post your lock screen.
No cheating, post your lock screen.
CE (Catie) Murphy@cemurphy.bsky.social · 12h agoNo cheating, post your lock screen
A simple way to think about basic income. Wealth transfer is also a transfer of power.
Catie's books are super fun. While this is a shifter romance, it's a bit more action packed that the general trend there (I've read bits because I'm on her patreon) And honestly, don't you need to own a book with a cover this fabulous?
CE (Catie) Murphy@cemurphy.bsky.social · yesterdayThe SEDUCTION OF SHARK-MAN crowdfund is now live - and we've already unlocked the FRIDGE MAGNETS stretch goal!!! YAAAAAY!!! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/c...
Everybody needs this little joy in their life,I think. 💗
Gail Simone@gailsimone.bsky.social · 2d agoOkay, I am going to tell a little story. It's one I have saved for the last couple years, almost nobody knows about it. But it lives in my heart. I don't know how others will feel about it, maybe something, maybe nothing. It's about the Uncanny X-Men. 1/
Just a reminder: at #Ebooks Direct, our #Summer #Reading #Sale (with all our ebooks hilariously discounted) is still on! Drop by and take advantage of us. 😃 ebooks.direct/pages/our-su...
All of this. If you want to teach kids to critique literature, that works just as well with something that's fun to read. Probably better. (This is one of my hot button topics but apparently it's one for all my friends too, so *gestures*)
Kingfisher & Wombat@tkingfisher.com · yesterdayI swear to God, part of the problem of literacy is that we make kids read SO MANY books like this. Of course they’re going to associate reading with misery! We put them in a Skinner box and shock them when they read, what did people THINK would happen?
Daaaamn. “AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage." www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...
thenerve.news
This Thursday, SpaceX insiders will be released from their first post-IPO stock lockup and can cash out early. As I've been saying, this has all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme.
Frances Perkins was the patron saint of American workers and an inspiration for me during my time as labor secretary. She was the guiding light behind the creation of Social Security, the 40-hour workweek, the National Labor Relations Act, and much more.
David Dayen@ddayen.bsky.social · yesterdayToday's Prospect Patriot is Frances Perkins. She saw the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory go ablaze in 1911 and her life changed. "The New Deal was born that day," she said. 22 years later she'd be America's first female cabinet member. prospect.org/2026/08/04/a...
I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:
How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran
The question is: what on earth is Google doing?
digitaldigging.org
RFK Jr's CDC reportedly scaled back foodborne disease tracking last year, removing cyclospora from mandatory reporting. The CDC also lost roughly 3,000 employees since 2025. Now a cyclosporiasis outbreak has killed 2 and sickened thousands across 45 states. "Make America Healthy Again."