Abolish. Not better training. Not “out [insert] city.” Not defund. Abolish. And then prosecute.

Nearly done with Life: A Users Manual by Perec, this book is ingenious

there are endless headlines about "grok apologizes" or "grok says it will be fixed" after it generated CSAM using pictures of minors and zero headlines about "grok being shut down" or "musk and xAI in big legal trouble" and I think something fundamental has broken here

Parker's piece nails why this matters. "Tech companies... would rather not answer for their products’ failures. Every headline that says “Grok apologizes” or “Grok admits” or “Grok says” creates a world where the chatbot takes the fall while Musk and his executives face no scrutiny whatsoever."

Unfortunately Seattle was too foggy, we could at least hear the fireworks though

BREAKING: Explosions felt across New York City as full socialism begins

Watched 87 new-to-me films this year, which might be a record low for the last decade. Did do a lot more reading, which explains part of it, though I do worry that I also did a lot more doomscrolling. This is how I'm going to justify making my resolution "watch more movies."

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

Definitive ranking of the main Star Wars movies 1. Attack of the Clones 2. Empire Strikes Back 3. Force Awakens 4. Last Jedi 5. New Hope 6. Phantom Menace 7. Return of the Jedi 8. Revenge of the Sith 9. Rise of Skywalker

Found a couple typos in a library book (events on one page are said to happen in 1985 when they happened in 1995). Should I correct them with a pencil? #booksky

maybe the greatest pitch frame in baseball history

This is the exact lighting they use for the pic to accompany a profile of a professor who got suspended because he kept using slurs in class as a supposed intellectual provocation.

The people working on this project seem extremely cool. Sifiso Mzobe, the isiZulu translator, writes great crime fiction. Zukiswa Wanner, the Shona translator, was on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and spent time in Israeli custody -- super brave! Support support support

Snowing pretty hard north of Chicago!

As a person whose mother died in a vehicle fatality that was not in any way her fault, I approve this message

Our podcast, Seattle Nice, has an exclusive in-depth interview with Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, featuring many of your questions for the city's next mayor! Listen (and subscribe) right here: seattle-nice.beam.ly/episode/mayo...

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

The Seattle Mariners waste no time getting their man and have reached an agreement to bring back first baseman Josh Naylor. It’s a 5-year deal, per Jeff Passan.

The Beths show was fun!

Finally disambiguated Scott Adams, Scott Alexander & Scott Aaronson

The David Byrne show was great!!! Life During Wartime especially!

THE EQUALIZER ‼️

On the receding shores of Central Asia's Aral Sea, a Chinese man known as "the King" lives alone in a tent, digging for shrimp eggs. By Liu Zichao, a bold new voice in travel writing, translated by @dylanleviking.bsky.social www.equator.org/articles/kin...

Just finished Raiders, Rulers, Traders by @davidchaffetz.bsky.social. It was great! One thing I'm wondering is: How old were horses before they were sold from the steppe to empires in Tang & Qing China and Mughal & British India? Were they consistently sold just after they reached full size?

Good literary translation requires understanding (language, culture, genre--on both sides of the translation) and an ability to write well. "AI" can't do that. There are no shortcuts. Treat your work and foreign language readers with the respect they deserve. You won't fool anyone with this.

lol

Change in Abstract

Had a great time in Vancouver! This morning I went to Coquitlam and took the west coast express -> seabus, that transfer is as good as it could be. I was inspired by the book Greyhound to take a bus back from Vancouver, it was fine but the customs process was more annoying than it is on the train

(I love Adam Nicholson's books so very much, I should say, though he's hardly the only one to do this and I must again refer to one of my favorite parodies ever)

I better see some of y'all there🥳

Equator is live today. Read about our mission and our first pieces, which include works of reportage, essays, memoirs, poetry, and fiction from around the world: www.equator.org

Shrew at Seattle Union Arts was good! After seeing other falls theatre plays I was confused why the stage didn’t change that much for most of the time, but it was used to great effect at the end.

just went to @stathead.com again. shohei tonight is the only guy ever to record 12+ total bases and 3 walks in the regular season or playoffs. it has never happened before in major league baseball

Finished Ruined City by Jia Pingwa. I liked the story threads through the book, the pigeon scene was crazy. There’s no way writers were anywhere near that revered thouh, right? Random policemen recognized Zhuang

In the Times today there’s an op-ed saying that childless women may have legitimate “private” reasons for declining to give birth. But one reason I have is not private but explicitly political: I want my life to serve as a rebuke to the notion that childbearing is women’s highest or truest calling.

Updating my LEGO White House

This is exactly the kind of thing a good editor will catch. Bring back editors. Give them human workloads so they can do what they do best—leave comments that poke holes in writers' nonsensical lines that they put in because they sound good, not because they make sense.

Glad to have a safe haven like Bluesky sometimes. Have been getting harassed non-stop by bullies on Twitter for suggesting that so-called "adults" should grow up, and stop celebrating Halloween for two weeks straight.

Went to the Seattle Antiquarian book sale & the 51 Personae table at the Seattle Center today. I've been learning Mandarin and it's cool they were selling a book with Dutch, Chinese & English on the same page (Tarwewijk). Possible future Rosetta Stone!

the mariners just hit a ball over the fence. i'd imagine they have a backup baseball on hand for such occasions

Finished reading The Voyage Out. I’m still not sure where they were, it was a British colony near the mouth of the Amazon founded the early 1600s, abandoned, then resettled. There were cliffs too which seemed unlikely. Hirst redeemed himself in my eyes in the end, he was so annoying in the middle

Apparently, as mayor, you can hold a rally at City Hall on the day ballots drop AND invite City employees to take time off work to attend your party. At least, that seems to be the assumption behind the "rally and march" Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell is leading, nominally for the Mariners, today.

PLAYOFF JULIOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Julio Rodríguez with a three-run shot to left field for an early lead! Mariners 3 - 0 Blue Jays T1st, no outs #TridentsUp #SeizeTheMoment #Postseason

Polanco is having a great couple of weeks!

So frustrating to see how RIPTA service cuts are leaving so many riders behind. A Providence teacher raised concerns about buses passing her students, and RIPTA explained it’s due to overcrowding caused by the cuts. Stop throwing riders under the bus, @govdanmckee.bsky.social! 🙏🏽Have you no shame? 🚨🚌

MARINERS WIN

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Never in doubt.

Let’s go!!!!!