You can now read the Spanish translation of "Laws of Impermanence" by @kenschneyer.bsky.social in Cuentos para Algernon. First published in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social. Enjoy it! cuentosparaalgernon.wordpress.com/2025/11/01/l...
Our annual free anthology is now out: “Cuentos para Algernon. Año XIII”, with terrific stories by @gregegansf.bsky.social, @gemmafiles.bsky.social, @jeffreyford8.bsky.social, @thomasha.bsky.social, @rachaelkjones.bsky.social, K. J. Parker, @rebelsam94.bsky.social, @kenschneyer.bsky.social… (1/2)
@alexachipman.bsky.social Is there a chance you might do a set of reaction videos to the TV show "The Prisoner"?
Got an actual, honest-to-goodness fan letter! (Well, fan e-mail.) Whee!
Do you think your mom would be interested in stories about economics? I’d recommend “The Cambist and Lord Iron”.
Calligraphy: “how do you amortize a hoard of gold”
@kenschneyer.bsky.social recommending a story about tax accountants for dragons
Across the US, university presidents, deans, and provosts are opening the academic year with the following nuanced, complex, and inspiring address:
"First, AI. AI AI: AI, AI AI AI AI. When AI, consider AI, not to mention AI, AI, AI, and AI. AI AI AI AI.
"In conclusion, AI AI AI AI AI."
Indeed, the author touts the value of AI in “storytelling,” in an article that demonstrates just how bad LLMs are at doing that.
How the editor didn’t catch this irony (or the awfulness of the writing) is beyond me.
I dunno, maybe it’s a joke, & I’m missing it?
/end
These, of course, are the markers of the bad writing I typically see in LLM-written student papers. So I wasn’t surprised to learn that AI was used in the composition of the article. But what horrifies me is that the author doesn’t seem to understand just how bad the writing is.
/2
Latest Mensa Research Journal contains an article supposedly describing the ways AI can be used to enhance human intelligence. About 1/3 through, I noticed that the article was unnecessarily repetitive and at a unhelpfully high level of abstraction.
1/
A portal-fantasy, time-travel story with Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie? Jeez, it's like the studio bosses said, "Let's market this to Ken."
#ABigBoldBeautifulJourney
With the appearance of Hishashi Kujirai's Japanese version of "Laws of Impermanence" in Babelzine vol 4., my work has now been translated into seven (7) languages.
Completing my panel-selection process for a con, and noticing how great is the temptation to opine on subjects as to which I am not remotely qualified...
Wow, Beth is Ogion the Silent!
Look, I didn’t like that immunity decision either, but are you honestly saying that there are no judicial checks on the executive branch unless you can put a president or ex-president in prison?That the only thing stopping the previous 44 presidents from abuse of power was the threat of prosecution?
A lot of resistance work also will not SEEM like resistance work. People have a tendency to believe everything is dramatic like movies and comics when a lot of resistance is community building. Someone feeding friends who've had their SNAP cut is still doing something critical.
"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."
-- John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961
/end
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.
/1
This was precisely the strategy in N*zi Germany: put a Party official in a parallel position alongside government officials, and give them the real power. Later, an SS official was added over the Party official in each position, and then *they* had the real power.
In such a scenario, it would not surprise me if 20 states, comprising 44% of the population and 50% of the gross domestic product, declared their independence.
...and if history is any guide, what probably follows next is horrific.
/end
The States recover their complete independence and no longer owe anything to the federal government. The Congress ceases to have authority, the President is no longer an executive with legitimate power, and federal law evaporates.
/5
Should the federal government declare the Constitution to be suspended, or should it act in defiance of SCOTUS orders interpreting the Constitution (esp. in cases where States are asking for their rights and powers to be upheld), the compact no longer exists, and thus the Union is dissolved.
/4
The Constitution contains no provision allowing it to be suspended or held in abeyance, even in an emergency. (There are exceptions, such as the writ of habeas corpus, but they are enumerated and specific.)
/3
That document is the compact by which the States agree to forego some part of their independence in order to form a single unit. It contains compromises and adjustments, some of which are awful, which were the price of getting consent to form the federal government at all.
/2
The United States might exist as a nationality or cultural identity regardless of what legal framework accompanies it.
But the United States as a POLITICAL and LEGAL ENTITY does not exist without the Constitution.
1/
There will be moments when you wonder if it's pointless to do the right and ethical thing; to still care about justice and helping others when it seems like the worst people are getting to rob everyone else without consequences.
Little actions still matter. Ethics still matter. Keep helping others.
