A new era of political violence, by @daylightatheism.bsky.social This bloodshed is a sign of democracy failing to deliver on its promises. onlys.ky/a-new-era-of... #charliekirk #gunviolence

Can we imagine life without cars? The builders of a car-free community in Arizona want to find out. @daylightatheism.bsky.social reports on Culdesac Tempe: onlys.ky/life-without... #urbanism #carculture #culdesac

Today on OnlySky, new short fiction from @daylightatheism.bsky.social: "A list of friendly AI directives recovered from a degraded memory chip, excavated from a circa 22nd-century ash layer" We only wanted it to solve our problems. onlys.ky/friendly-ai-... #fiction #scifi #ai

The fertility freeze: Why the birth rate is falling, by @daylightatheism.bsky.social Fewer women are choosing to have kids, and the reasons should be obvious. onlys.ky/the-fertilit... #population #demographics #natalism

Some good news for the day: For the first time ever, the EU got more energy from solar power in June than from nuclear, fossil fuel, or any other source. www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

Good news, everyone! We found something else to blame women for! www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...

I should've been expecting this. I just got my first pitch where the pitch itself, as well as the writer's portfolio, were clearly AI-generated. (Pitch us at OnlySky! But human-written entries only, please: <https://onlys.ky/submissions/>)

Well done, New York! The state legislature finally passed a medical aid in dying bill. Now it's up to Governor Hochul to sign it. It has supermajority support according to opinion polls, so I'm optimistic. deathwithdignity.org/news/2025/06...

Today's strange-but-true fact, which I learned from reading Candide: the word "bugger", as in the derogatory term for anal sex, is derived from "Bulgaria" - because medieval western Christians thought that medieval eastern Christians were all dirty perverts. www.etymonline.com/word/bugger

We need the East Queens Democratic Club because they’re not going to smile for photo ops with fascists. Unlike the wishy washy appeasers current running the show.

I'm the new editor-in-chief of OnlySky, and we want you! We publish columns about the future, in all the forms it may take. We pay money for original submissions. Want to write for us? Send me a pitch! freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202...

The future of dying: "Freedom to choose what we do with our lives implies the freedom to stop living. It's the ultimate declaration of self-ownership and autonomy." onlys.ky/the-future-o... #onlysky #maid

Here's a really interesting paper by an astrophysicist, arguing that physical law conclusively disproves the claim that we're living in a simulated universe inside a computer: arxiv.org/abs/2504.08461 arxiv.org/html/2504.08...

Pope Francis dies: "This seems like the theme of Francis’ papacy. He tried to convey an impression of acceptance and tolerance, but without changing the religious dogmas that were the problem in the first place." freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202...

Signs of spring.

Excited for the #QueensBookstoreCrawl today. #IndependentBookstoreDay. Remember kids, it’s not hoarding if it’s books

If America won't build the future, China will gladly do it: "It would be wrong to give in to provincialism, believing that nothing counts unless America does it. That being said, there are also reasons to feel ambivalent about this story..." onlys.ky/if-america-w...

How can we get a warning to the distant future? onlys.ky/a-warning-to... #onlysky #finland #nuclear

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but that's an underestimate. Sometimes, a single picture can be an entire short story.

Death of personality: "Lack of taste aside, there was something else I noticed about the counterprotest that’s deeper and more telling. It’s this: no one in that crowd had a sign that expressed any coherent message." freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202...

Suffering is optional: "Why was life full of pain and hardship? Every culture has wrestled with this philosophical problem. Most of them invented religions to account for it... But the old myths have outlived their usefulness. Life doesn't have to be painful anymore." onlys.ky/suffering-is...

The Texas Mennonite family whose 6-year-old daughter died of measles says they have no regrets. This is what a death cult looks like. www.texastribune.org/2025/03/20/t...

Don't know if this is good or bad news, but so many people in Texas are getting the MMR vaccine that pharmacies are running out: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The whole thing is important, but listen until the end: the US depends a lot on the flow of capital into the country because it is perceived as the safest port in a storm. Once that is no longer true, a lot of things Americans take for granted go away.

If you feel like reading about something other than real-world politics (and who could blame you), I'm embarking on another marathon review of a novel of libertarian fiction. This time around, it's The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith. Join in! freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202...

The world is going to boycott America, and they'll be right to do so: substack.com/@larrykotlik...

New York State is recruiting unjustly fired federal employees. Good. www.ny.gov/programs/fed...

You love to see it: JD Vance went on a ski vacation in Vermont (!), and was mobbed by protesters who chased him out of town. defector.com/jd-vance-scr...

The old darkness returns: "There are similarities between the 2019 and 2022 outbreaks and this one. In all three cases, the biggest, most glaring commonality at the heart of the problem is religion." freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202... #measles #antivax

Not the Onion: Russia has lost so many armored vehicles and trucks in Ukraine that they're now using donkeys and horses to move troops and supplies. www.kyivpost.com/post/46881 #russiaukrainewar

An evergreen message of comfort, for this time and all others: This too shall pass. onlys.ky/an-evergreen...

I don't know why it took three years (!), but the Islamist who attacked Salman Rushdie on stage in 2022 was convicted of attempted murder this month: gothamist.com/news/nj-man-...

At a London bus stop. The Brits are telling it like it is.

Anyone who thinks AI is about to take over the world should read this absolutely unhinged conversation with a chatbot "therapist": www.reddit.com/r/ABoringDys...

Story time. What do you do with people in your life who are Trump cultists? Here's what I did.

In these trying times, what we all need is another chapter-by-chapter deconstruction of a deranged anarcho-libertarian novel. Let's review The Probability Broach! freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202...

"This is the organization that wrote the MAGA playbook, now apparently worried their creation has escaped the lab." www.techdirt.com/2025/02/04/f...

Trumpflation at the grocery store.

Fascist priest defrocked for giving the Nazi salute. Good. religionnews.com/2025/01/30/a...

NYC public schools must protect trans students, respect LGBTQ+ educators, & teach real history—no matter what Trump says. Send a letter to NYC education leaders saying we want education, not erasure! actionnetwork.org/letters/educ...

My long read of the day is this pleasurably elegiac story about the last factory in the world that still makes lace on weaving machines from the 1800s: www.ft.com/content/43c7...

From "three days to take Kyiv" to: united24media.com/war-in-ukrai...

Two portraits of Christianity in America: "Christian nationalists only want to teach the good stuff – the biblical passages about stoning gay people, butchering heretics, and commanding women to submit to their husbands." freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202... #christiannationalism #secularism

Pretty big deal. @bookshop-org.bsky.social is selling ebooks now. You can now support indies while purchasing digital books. bookshop.org/ebooks

Matthew Huttle, 42, was pardoned by Trump last week for his participation in the January 6th Capitol riot. Yesterday, he was shot dead by Indiana sheriffs during a traffic stop wherein he allegedly resisted arrest. fox59.com/indiana-news...

PSA: Don't look into the Palantir. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8FwEPJh/

Congrats, America, you voted for this. Next up, soaring food prices and empty shelves at your local supermarket: www.yahoo.com/news/trump-i...

I don't want a Great Firewall of America: "It's roaring hypocrisy for Congress to ban a Chinese-owned company from doing the same things that American companies have been doing, successfully and profitably, for years." freethoughtblogs.com/daylight/202... #tiktok #freespeech

I like Dan Olson and his YouTube channel Folding Ideas. His new video is about the Paluxy River in Texas, a rich field of fossilized dinosaur footprints beloved by creationists. It's an almost pleasantly nostalgic tour through the culture wars of the 20th century: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UDX...

So I guess Musk's defense is that he's Dr. Strangelove, and his arm just spontaneously does that when he's excited? freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2...