That is at first so weird (why would leaner times lead to less people taking discounts?), but then makes a lot of sense on closer inspection. Taking a discount underlines a loss, while taking a premium underlines a gain - easy to see which one is emotionally easier.
Posts by JT Smithling
The Artemis II crew proposed naming a moon crater after Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife Carroll, who lost her life to cancer 😭
13. In short, all writing is political, because all writers are political, and so are all readers. We can't help ourselves in either case. It doesn't matter if you're writing a narrow polemic or an attempted blockbuster. It's okay to be comfortable with these facts; they exist even if you're not.
Happy Birthday to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and a massive thank you to her for inventing rock and roll
She was born on March 20th, 1915
Maphra is amazing! I've never heard a voice quite like this. (and before you ask: both her and her husband have social media presence going back far before AI - they're real).
All six or so covers posted are great, this one has growls that I especially like
youtu.be/LUiL0qsNg9w?...
Not art, but surely a creative win for me (and hopefully a small win for Earth too): a web service I designed allowing people to search and explore how food and other consumption choices impact biodiversity loss went live today, and got over 300 unique visitors on the first day. 🥳🌱
NOW - Musk: "My prediction is there'll be more robots than people... everyone on Earth is going to have one and going to want one... who wouldn't want a robot to... watch over your kids, take care of your pets... we are in the most interesting time in history." 4:08 PM Jan 22, 2026 223.8K Views
Isn't this a telling aspiration? To want robots to look after your kids, so you can do stuff, rather than robots to do stuff, so you can spend time with your kids?
The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.
I haven't seen it yet, but going to the movie theater next week (waiting for the crowds to thin, because noisy Other People are the downside of seeing a film in theatre).
Beyond the Amorphis theme song, the whole movie soundtrack is by a heavy-metal musician Lauri Porra, so should be good.
It might! Clearly they do intend for it to go to international distribution.
I hope it spurs a franchise - the are a lot of stories in our mythology that are film-worthy, certainly more interesting than marvel-movies. Kullervo is just one, small part of the body of stories!
Sublime. Thank you for sharing!
Third anniversary for me participating in WB Autumn Short Story Battle! One week to write a 2K short story, then a month to judge other stories. Join up! @writingbattle.bsky.social #WritingCommunity #writersofbluesky
www.writingbattle.com/join-battle
With Finnish names, a simple trick makes English speakers sound almost native: if the name has double consonant, put micro-pause between them, voice both consonants. Mik-ko, San-na, Os-si, Jan-ne...
think why that is, before I was able to give a useful answer to "how do you pronounce your name?". Because the better question is "how do *I*, a person who rarely even hears your language, pronounce your name?"
Just repeating the name often does not help, because human brain simply does *not hear* the relevant nuances of phonetics in a very different language. I had to listen where exactly English-speakers get it wrong, and
I've noticed (in academic and scholarly publishing policy & tech events) a marked increase in how often I'm asked. It's nice.
But figuring out how to answer that when English is not my native language took time!
Ha, scrolling down I read only the headline and immediately thought, hey I need to tag @eleanorlennox.bsky.social on this, she'd really like it! Then checked who posted it... 😄
At first I was surprised how light pop this new Amorphis song is. Without Tomi Joutsen's dark growling from the shadows, this could be a... dance tune?
Then I noticed the song's name. My bad. Is #metal. Well done. Carry on. 🤘💃🤘
open.spotify.com/track/76vjqp...
It also why I am not a fan of David Lynch's work [unpopular opinion, I know]: I am not convinced there is anything we're meant to understand, any epiphany he wanted to convey, any intended emotion, underneath the surrealist surface. There's no there, there.
This. Before getting invested in a TV-series I go find plot synopsis online to make sure the writers have indeed wrapped up the mystery (I don't believe spoilers spoil anything). And if it's in n-th season without resolution, I bail out immediately.
Never again will I submit to shit like Lost.
In Finnish, we may reply to a how are you with: "Nothing but standard misery".
It means everything is OK.
Mixed?
On one hand, usage of those tools is (for now) priced low enough for almost everyone to be able to afford to do stuff with them on their own.
But ability to build a LLM is absolutely in the hands of few uber-capitalists, so true ownership of "means of labor" is no different from 1800's.
The arrogance and (sinful) pride of evangelical missionary groups on display once again. Leave remote peoples alone.
Get to this roadside cafe near my home village. I mean, Finns don't talk unless under extreme duress, but the crowd there is *really* silent. (it's a somewhat spooky art installation of a large field full of scarecrows in donated clothes)
earth.app.goo.gl?apn=com.goog...
This was fun - helping @michaelboulerice.bsky.social global guerilla-campaign for his upcoming book. No, I have not read the book, but expecting it to be riveting, based on this wonderfully weird fever-dream dark western horror short story I have read: www.houseofgamut.com/magazine/in-...
Jan Rechberger's drumming in Amorphis is mesmerizing, very happy to find he's also in another band, and credited as composer.
Dark, melodic, melancholic, progressive, doom metal. If that doesn't make you happy, something's wrong with you! Heal! Listen to The Eternal!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjmq...
I know you joke, but "patriotic rocks" actually on sale was literally one google search away. Screenshot from Etsy. Low on stock, only 3 left.
To spice (heh) up my music posts usually linking to metal with something different: the soundtrack to the new Dune-game is magnificent!
open.spotify.com/album/7ywGD6...
This guy consistently posts songs with incredible lyrics mere hours after events unfurl. This was a good one.
Well, because food and shelter depends on that writing, in that sense it's professional. Not necessarily good, but always desperate.