this is completely insane: since when is it acceptable for a tech company to rewrite news outlets' headlines without their consent? especially at a time when audiences are sensitive to how stories are framed in headlines? (ie Israel/Palestine, the Trump admin, ICE) www.theverge.com/tech/896490/...

these super low profile thumb braces are the reason i can play video games again and i did a lot of searching to find them. no provider recommended them to me for video games! none of them really knew what to do about gaming. i don't want to gatekeep! www.mothership.blog/a-thumb-brac...

there are many "non-traditional" chronic illness/disability tools i've thought about writing about an ex: my bad thumbs have made cooking difficult. it took me a year to realize the best "adaptive tool" was a toaster oven. just like a full size oven but smaller, faster cook times, lighter trays

after Charlie Kirk died pundits like Ezra Klein praised his "hard conversations" with students. under the higher ed backlash he helped start, the real hard-to-have conversations are about gender, race, sexuality, protest. the feminists touring colleges with academic bans: @us.theguardian.com

there's something beautiful about how communities find solutions when formal systems fail. the pattern: someone discovers a workaround, shares it, becomes a lifeline. like open source filling needs commercial products overlook. knowledge spreads through networks of trust, not official channels.

Writers of Bsky: Scratch is back! This time as a weekly newsletter/blog about how writers are surviving ~these times~, run by me, @manjula.bsky.social, @maggiemertens.bsky.social, and @latriagraham.bsky.social. You can read more about why/what that means in our announcement post below.

"These abusers relied on their victims caring so deeply about larger movements that they were willing to put up with being abused, dismissed, and disbelieved."

I’m back in the Guardian, with a piece on how there’s no such thing as a hit anymore when it comes to live service games www.theguardian.com/games/2026/m...

i have been thinking about this--we are long past the point that it is undeniable that everyone, of every stripe, participates in the video game industry as a player in at least some small way. it is also now undeniable true that video game culture is a tangible political force.

Civil Rights icon, @doloreshuerta, made a brave move today, revealing a secret she had been holding for 60 years for the sake of the Farm Workers movement. You can read her letter here: medium.com/@dolores_hue...

these super low profile thumb braces are the reason i can play video games again and i did a lot of searching to find them. no provider recommended them to me for video games! none of them really knew what to do about gaming. i don't want to gatekeep! www.mothership.blog/a-thumb-brac...

soooo psyched to have @nicoleclark.bsky.social back on mothership with a rec post for the push metagrip that details her personal journey towards finding them. i love this story and i'm so happy she could play silksong thanks to this. www.mothership.blog/a-thumb-brac...

if you like project hail mary and are in the mood for more xenobiology--though less buddy comedy, but just as gripping--i can't recommend adrian tchaikovsky enough. i love children of time, and more recently, shroud

this did not turn up helpful answers, so i will ask my movie people. i am afraid of spiders. will project hail mary's alien fellow creep me out? i have read the book. just don't like spiders (or spider-looking creatures) in visual mediums

This dreadful book banning bill, H.R. 7661, has made it out of committee and into the House. It's time to call your reps.

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

move slow and repair things

i wrote about hidden object games for the verge!!! it's about the art of hidden object games and how hidden folks inspired a new wave of them, including lost and found co. (super cute game!!), which is out today. more here:

i did not grow up playing pokemon, but i've played a lot of the switch games as an adult, and worked alongside a lot of people who really love the series. pokopia is the first one i've played where i finally understand why people love the pokemon themselves

Hello, my bathroom ceiling collapsed. Unrelated, would you like to buy some art? They’re calling it “the best time” to do it ✨ www.sonnyross.com/shop #illustration #nature #fantasy

With GDC only a few days away, I added @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social's brilliant gaming union zine/explainer to archive.org. The previous host for the PDF added a monthly subscription. Please feel free to print and share as you wish!

the styling in teen vogue's alysa liu cover shoot, i love it so much www.teenvogue.com/story/alysa-...

After the arrests of powerful men across the world, you might be asking why the US has so much trouble holding its leaders accountable for lawbreaking. Since Nixon, all three branches of government have worked hard to ensure they can break the law with impunity www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

donated! let's keep up the momentum (and if you live in CO there are opportunities to volunteer) www.zeffy.com/en-US/donati...

I've reported 2-3 stories in my career that have sucked the spirit out of my body and this was one of them. But! Seeing the response of the fgc to help their brother genuinely put it right back. Im humbled to have been trusted with this. Help your neighbors friends those in need are all around you.

grateful for these kind words and for the opportunities to edit, especially as it gets harder and harder to find this type of work

Fuck this and everyone who helped get things to this point. Trans rights are human rights—full stop.

i've been having a very normal time thinking about mountains lately youtu.be/U9Z2M7IGP5k

it was wonderful talking with @patrickklepek.bsky.social about silksong and how hornet consistently stands with her fellow bugs against a hostile empire. inevitably we talked about how people have organized against ICE raids, and what it means to choose compassion and do the hard work it requires

look i get this person. in college i wrote a paper on moby dick so rough my prof let me rewrite it. my first paper? B-. my thesis: "this ahab guy is crazy." my rewrite? C. my thesis "no, i mean he's really crazy." i really thought i just hadn't used enough examples to prove my reading comprehension

Going to reshare this again for no real reason whatsoever. www.vox.com/policy-and-p...

it was wonderful talking with @patrickklepek.bsky.social about silksong and how hornet consistently stands with her fellow bugs against a hostile empire. inevitably we talked about how people have organized against ICE raids, and what it means to choose compassion and do the hard work it requires

I've wanted to bring back Worth Reading in some form for years. I'm really excited to have settled on this format. 30 minutes. An interesting conversation about a piece of interesting games writing. That's it. That's the pitch. That's the podcast. I hope you enjoy it!

I was on Twitter for the writers and the book recommendations, the essays, the poetry, the community. I am here now for the same. I’m a nerd. Please reply with a favorite recent essay or poem or story or book recommendation, and thank you.

I interviewed Roblox's head of parental advocacy for Vulture about safety on the platform 👀

i admire this young writer's bravery

This is really on the BAFTAS and the BBC. The most racist and ableist thing that happened that night was actually both entities not bleeping it, not doing after care with Delroy and MBJ, and not fully acknowledging it on the broadcast. 1/

so happy to have @pokachee.bsky.social answering this week's advice column letter about how to use long-distance gaming to stay in touch with family <3 something that any of us who've moved far away can relate to www.mothership.blog/dear-mother-4/

l e g e n d

obsessed with alysa liu's gold win, her exuberant queer californian vibe (lol at all the places calling her alt). this is just the kind of joy you can perform with when you are doing it for you, instead of trying to fit yourself into the usual visual aesthetic of figure skating i think

ICONIC

this is so good

finally watched the new season of bridgerton. on one hand it finally acknowledges the existence of the servant class. on the other hand i am supposed to root for a love interest who fingerbangs sophie on the stairwell then whispers "be my mistress"? interesting

hypermobile ehlers danlos is wild. you will spend 3 decades feeling like shit while doctors tell you're fine. then becoming a journalist will help you advocate for diagnosis. years later a specialist will finally do ultrasounds of your painful joints and tell you that you're FULL OF TENDONITIS :)

introducing my column about resistance in fiction for @aftermath.site. I’m calling it THE WORK aftermath.site/oscars-revol...

This coming Sunday and Monday, come help us raise money for the Women's Foundation of Minnesota's Immigrant Rapid Response Fund! follow twitch.tv/friendsatthetable now to be notified! Read here for more info: www.patreon.com/posts/fundra... (Art by @badbucket.bsky.social!)

For Everything is Political, I reported on young people working multiple jobs. It's about more than side hustles—factors like worker exploitation & lack of opportunities to break in have impacted multiple generations. Now, some young adults say working only one job has never felt viable.