I've never related so strongly to a robot before

Once again: corporate-approved horny.

Baldur's Gate and The Witcher and Cyberpunk will not be banned on Twitch, while less lascivious indie games are banned from sale. Horny is an increasingly relevant Cultural Trend, and culture must be consolidated into the hands of capital.

The end of the sidewalk, where the concrete meets the rabbit-bitten grass. Seemed important at the time.

FOUND IT

Being known is not a mortifying ordeal, it is an impossible dream. The mortifying ordeal is trying to find the optimal balance between being known and being tolerated.

Increasingly clear that AI doomerism—whether for jobs or human extinction—is just Silicon Valley propaganda to sell its products to investors and a credulous media.

As a trans engineer who left the space industry in order to feel safe enough to transition: oof.

People have been sharing stellar poetry this week. Our circumstances have degraded beyond the level at which they can be adequately described by mere prose.

More than the initial investment, time commitment, etc., what ultimately dissuaded me was the risk that the service might prove too useful -- that clients would become dependent. Certainly if I let myself start screaming now, even once, I could not guarantee I'd ever be able to stop.

Had this business idea to get a box truck, outfit it with some heavy-duty soundproofing, and make it a mobile scream room. Sell tickets and let people really scream. In urban areas we are deprived of any opportunity to scream unmolested. Our natural screams are painfully repressed.

We didn't deserve this day.

Of The Empire We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness. - Mary Oliver

God this poem is haunting me again.

Text of "Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars)" by Muriel Rukeyser. Text is online at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47657/poem-i-lived-in-the-first-century-of-world-wars

Muriel Rukeyser, always but especially today. Full text at www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47657/...

Today is a good day to remember that Carl Sagan was as outspoken about the dangers of war and nuclear weapons as he was an advocate of space exploration.

He's just going to keep going like this until either he croaks, somebody steps up and removes him from office, or he nukes a city for personal gratification.

Whether you find asbestos exciting or frightening, its widespread use -- including in old buildings -- means we all need to learn how to breathe asbestos dust responsibly.

From Clickhole's "Incredible! We Asked These Astronauts What It’s Like To Be In Space," Barry Wilmore: You never know true beauty until you see Earth from space, or true terror until you hear someone knocking on the space station door from outside. You look through the porthole and see an astronaut, but all your crew is inside and accounted for. You use the comm to ask who it is and he says he’s Ramirez returning from a repair mission, but Ramirez is sitting right next to you in the command module and he’s just as confused as you are. When you tell the guy this over the radio he starts banging on the door louder and harder, begging you to let him in, saying he’s the real Ramirez. Meanwhile, the Ramirez inside with you is pleading to keep the airlock shut. It really puts life on Earth into perspective.

One of the very best from Clickhole

Top image with Jerry saying, "You're crying because of Artemis II?" Bottom image with George saying, "The spirit of space travel got to me." Jerry then says, "Alright."

Every last thing about the USA seems totally irreconcilable with its infatuation with the word 'freedom' until you realize it's only meant as a brand slogan, like "I'm Lovin' It" or "Taste the Feeling", and that it primarily connotes the freedom to hurt people.

The two truths:
1) There is nothing wrong with porn, let people safely make it, let people safely enjoy it.
2) If you let people define porn as bad, authoritarians will ALWAYS expand the definition until their hands are around your neck.

There's something a bit poignant about a Bluetooth device failing to connect to another device right next to it when they're the only Bluetooth devices for hundreds of thousands of kilometres around.

It’s Time To Grow Up | Defector HBO’s new Harry Potter TV series is premiering this Christmas Day. Under current plans, it will last at least a decade. The trailer looks like the original films were run through an AI generator, but ...

I’m completely sick and tired of hearing about HP but this article is excellent.

“What you feel in your heart towards the series is almost entirely irrelevant. What matters is what you do, because J. K. Rowling is out there doing a lot of things.”

defector.com/its-time-to-...

Trans women are biological women. Trans men are biological men. Please stop using the phrase “biological” to distinguish cis from trans people. Cis does just fine and you’re also revealing your own ignorance of how biology works, as well as underlying inherent transphobia, even if unintentionally.

Artemis II just finished its translunar injection burn and will now spend the next five days floating farther and farther away from this planet, and can you imagine how nice that must feel

1. "Here's an extreme idea. We're platforming it, so that people can watch out."
2. "This idea is gaining traction. We're publishing an op-ed in favour, for balance."
3. "This idea is popular now. Why does the left refuse to consider it?"

Not for research. Not for proofreading. Sure as hell not for actually putting words or ideas together.

I will very literally die before I integrate AI into any part of the writing process whatsoever.

THE SAGAN SERIES - End of an Era: The Final Shuttle Launch YouTube video by Reid Gower

my skills aren't good enough to articulate the deep emotional reasons of why I think Artemis 2 is important, why human spaceflight is important, but Carl Sagan was much more skilled

Extra special thanks to the publishers in translation, Albin Michel Imaginaire and Zona 42, who brought it to new audiences across the world.

This month is my novel's 5th birthday! So much gratitude to the folks at Tachyon, and to everyone who's read my gritty little debut and shared it with others.
💛💚💙👁️💙💚💛

Screencap of an ill-advised post by The Walrus: Authors are using AI. Publishers know it. And now, says publishing consultant Thad McIlroy, authors are being forced to lie about it. One canceled horror novel didn’t just end into career, it exposed an industry wide reckoning.

Your friends are eating vomit. Everybody knows it. Your friends are being forced to lie about it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Eat the delicious vomit. Delicious vomit for everyone.