I've played enough Crusader Kings to know that if the Pope and the Shia Caliphates are allying against you, your game is not going well.

It's part of the great American religious tradition of getting conned by charlatans

Meme images from the Good Place with the character Chidi delivering the lines "Okay but that's worse, you do get how that's worse, right?"

"Automation just creates new jobs!"

The 18th century English peasant did not walk off the fields and into a warm, safe office role writing JavaScript.

Not quite a Torment Engine since Bentham is pro, but...

Yes, pretty much. The game was making more and more awkward allusions to pop culture for the sake of it; now it's just straight up Pop Culture.

There are 2 Magic sets set on the Japan-inspired plane of Kamigawa. In the first set lore, the Kappa (turtle people) are extinct, as seen on Shell of the *Last* Kappa. In the 2nd more recent set, they're randomly back for one card so WotC can make a TMNT reference with the creature type.

do the prots not realise that Sola Scriptura is literally a heresy

Empire?

Warhammer 40,000 is so English. Two of the most evil forces in the galaxy are the dark gods of "pleasure" and "change", and the dystopian vision of society that represents a hellish low for humanity is "Being very Catholic".

"Estranged parents and their ungrateful children" I'm sorry you committed the gnostic crime of incarnation against a perfectly good unbodied divine soul and you expect them to be nice to you about it?

this is a good thread but I might actually take it further -- I don't think manosphere shit is actually about getting laid, I think it's literally about male loneliness, by which I mean, men addressing their loneliness via homosocial bonding through misogyny

Incontrovertible evidence, now, of *police* investigating families supporting their kids with gender affirming healthcare in the UK. For trying to do the best for your child, following best practice in most of the world, here you get a visit from the police.

Thank you, Wes Streeting.

Wicked and the Divine vol 3 hardback with signed page

Wonder Woman Historia cover

Cover for The Imposition of Unneccessary Objects by Malka Older

Cover of King Sorrow by Joe Hill

It's my birthday! 🎂 To celebrate, can I invite you to check out the charity auction for trans rights that @ngjeannette.bsky.social and I are running with verrrry covetable donations by brilliant genre creators, ending 1am BST 7 June. bit.ly/genrefortrans

Last 5 days of the Genre for Trans Rights charity auction, featuring the likes of: a first ed. galley of Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, signed & decorated books, art, comics, a bespoke cocktail, handmade delights various, and the chance to get a character named for you bit.ly/genrefortrans!

The problem with internet culture is that it's basically impossible islands to develop. The second anything even semi-original or interesting pops up, everyone is immediately on it. It immediately goes viral & spreads everywhere. There is no shelter, no hiding, no isolation.

Genuinely annoyed that the Labour Party resignation form has radio buttons rather than checkboxes for "why are you resigning". I can assure you, there are multiple reasons.

Just out! Our peer-reviewed critique of the Cass Review has been published by BMC Medical Research Methodology. Please read and share. We show that the Cass Review is fatally flawed and should not be the basis for policy or practice in transgender healthcare.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Pope may be American, but Jesus is still English.

The Eye of the World (rare galley proof) Auction item 'The Eye of the World (rare galley proof)' hosted online at 32auctions.

Been waiting to drop this amazing donation for the Genre for Trans charity auction! @pnh.nielsenhayden.com kindly dug this up from his archive: one of the very first bound galleys of The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, prob 1/600, intact spine, never been read. www.32auctions.com/organization...

It's genuinely fascinating to me that the WC team apparently anticipated no moral hazard to utilizing LLMs. It's like hiring a war criminal to do your paperwork and then being shocked people are angry.

"We're using the machine made of ground up puppies to lessen our admin burden, not generate soulless facsimiles of human art. This is fine surely?"

Authors Jeannette Ng and Lauren Beukes establish The Genre Creators for Trans Rights auction

Authors Jeannette Ng and Lauren Beukes have established The Genre Creators for Trans Rights auction with all proceeds going to The Good Law Project and The Triangle Project 👇 #BookSky

Genre Creators for Trans Rights in the UK and SA Silent auction 'Genre Creators for Trans Rights in the UK and SA' hosted online at 32auctions.

I have a long enough memory about internet flame wars to remember that attempt by TERFs to claim Pratchett as their own for the absolute nonsense reasons.

So I daresay I feel a certain satisfaction from the 1stEd signed Monstrous Regiment being the centrepiece of our auction.

EasterCon 2026 Membership Auction item 'EasterCon 2026 Membership' hosted online at 32auctions.

The Genre for Trans auction wouldn’t be happening without the support of @easterconuk.bsky.social and appropriately the incoming team of organisers have donated a membership to 2026 to the auction.

Currently going for £15 which is an absolute bargain.

www.32auctions.com/organization...

When "an easy access dashboard so you can log in seamlessly to check on how your pension is doing" stops being a feature

IRL "Drake" as a word is synonymous with dragon, but I would hypothesize wizards uses it for its blue flying lizards as it has more of a "noble, enigmatic, evanescent" feel than "wyvern" which is associated with being more evil/bestial. Worth noting that Magic's five wyverns are all Creature -Drake.

You can blame medieval bestiaries and heraldry. By the late middle ages, dragons are generally defined as "four legs, two wings" and wyverns are two legs, two wings. It's a distinction that's pretty default in fantasy. (Game of Thrones actively a bit weird for four-limbed dragons.)

Seeing other human beings as Actually Human is always good though.