"After about two weeks it hit me like a sword strike to the throat: we are all gonna die and that is a simple fact of physical existence. As for me, I’m already on Death Row which puts my death right there in my face."

I was going to see Emma Thompson's Dead of Winter but it's no longer at my local theatre. I'm confused. It felt like it was there for like a week.

👀 Cameroon's 92-year-old President Paul Biya faces an unexpected challenge as he runs for an eighth term in office: a viral TikTok video by his daughter Brenda saying she will not vote for him. "Do not vote for Paul Biya, not because of me, but because he has made too many people suffer," she said.

BlackRock will buy AES, one of the largest publicly traded utility companies in the U.S. AES is a major power provider for Big Tech companies building out data centers. Yes: while these data centers drive up your electricity costs, wealthy financiers are going to make a killing.

This was a piece I wrote about when I knew the world would move on from his brutal murder. One of the most chilling moments I’ve experienced in my career was at a Time Magazine party, “honoring” Jamal. wapo.st/3WjFi0A

An Indiana prison allows some residents to raise kittens thanks to a partnership with a cat shelter.

It sucks when one of your faves is the villain. #notlikethis

In May, PJP ran a reader referral program and, thanks to Bluesky readers, we reached our goal of 200 new newsletter subscribers in just 14 days. In June, I (@lyneka.bsky.social) spoke with @lexroman.com about the two-week campaign. H/T Bluesky folks!

Has everyone heard that Reading Rainbow is coming back and that Mychal the librarian is hosting?? 🤗🌈🤗

Too many shitty people grew up being told to “be themselves.” That’s not good advice for everyone, folks. Some people should try to be like somebody else.

SMH

Is that generational or cultural?

Okatsuka posted the censorship rules for the controversial comedy festival, noting how many "You can’t say anything anymore!" comedians have signed on. www.avclub.com/riyadh-comed...

Honestly, I thought Relay was a nice little surprise at the theatre. I appreciate when I don't solve the film in the first 30 minutes.

The multidisciplinary artist is exploring identity using art and we are here for it. #Paris #LesGens

This is impressive.

it’s Sunday on bluesky so I am urging everyone to take care of themselves. Take a walk, have a second cup of coffee or tea, read a book, spend some time looking at small poems

"For example, CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving."

"AI is going to replace actual teaching & instructors & solve the problem of unplugging 20-25% of the entire budget of every research university in America" is an incredible revealed preference. I mistakenly believed we were trying to educate students & conduct actual research. How naive of me.

Science research gets more engagement on Bluesky than X, study finds

Back in the early Venmo days, there was a story about how the apps were changing friendships. A woman invited a friend over for a movie, and offered her a glass of wine, and when the friend left the house she received a charge from her "friend" for the glass of wine. That was WILD to me.

I'm not against people fundraising for a wedding. I am against putting a price tag on invite to attend a wedding if that makes sense? But, I also think people should do what they want. No hard feelings if I don't pay $1000 for a ticket to a wedding.

Friend's book, Surviving Paris, just dropped. Check it out and buy from local bookstores. loyaltybookstores.com/book/9780063...

I only made it to episode 3 before the VPN I was using stopped working. 😭

I sometimes get asked why I haven’t gone back to Thailand since I worked there more than a decade ago, and there are a few reasons but 1 is that even at a young dumb age, it started finding it harder to reconcile the “Land Of Smiles” propaganda with what life actually looks like for the poor and…

separate from everything, the idea that 2020 was a squeaker but 2024 represents a historical mandate will simply be the death of me

Support nonprofit news. #IJS

One Battle After Another was pretty good.

How are people tricked into engaging with TCW? Like, you should not even screengrab and share his stuff. The intention is to grow a following and folks willingly help him do it. Please make it stop. Learn from the past.

americans don’t understand this very well because they mostly talk among each other, and the concept of waking up to an active conversation they have missed (cause the majority of the community on a certain topic is awake when they’re asleep) is foreign to many of them. so they don’t get the problem

this kills cross-timezone convos. but the sad thing is that it’s difficult to imagine the bluesky team fixing it because there will inevitably be a crowd of people shouting “but i PREFER to not get notified” who would fight fixing this. maybe other opt-outs could be built (“leave thread” button)

i really dislike the bluesky heuristic of “i’ll stop notifying you of replies downthread if you haven’t participated in the last five of them”. i lost track of many interesting conversations (between mutuals!) this way. really disheartening and one reason twitter felt better for conversations

I'm not Gen Z but definitely embracing ways to be offline and use less tech.

"Music connects me to my past and to people, some of whom I will never see, and never hold, again."

At this point, folks aren't doing their jobs if they aren't paying to bot performance.

I am watching DJ Mehdi: Made in France while trying to figure out how to untighten my hamstrings. I accept advice on the latter because wth.

men and women are lonely. the focus on men alone is kind of a tell. 1

Please give this piece a read and a share.

Good morning, Bluesky! Our "In Case You Missed It" section has been refreshed. Take a look at our home page.

A Q&A with French Filmmaker Soraya Milla on Exploring Black Hair and Identity Through Filmmaking

SCOOP — Part of the reason Disney/ABC may have rushed to sort things out with Kimmel is because tomorrow they have a planned price increase for Disney+ streaming, a Disney source tells me. With subscriptions hemorrhaging since last week, they couldn’t risk losing more users with this announcement.

Large Language Funding Model

Of all the things, why Tylenol?

1. Bluesky doesn’t downrank links 2. You can choose your own algorithm from among thousands 3. The whole app is open source This keeps it a free and open platform by design, leading to better click-throughs and traffic to your site. We 💙 the open web.

My Girl and Simon Birch

I see another Bluesky conversation starting up. We now have three to four times as many followers as we ever had on any other platform. But it’s not about the numbers, people are not only reading the articles, they’re also supporting our work. Who can argue against that?

I had some fish today that tasted extremely fish. I couldn't finish it. I thought I just didn't like it. I hopped in an after and the driver asked if we were near a fish market. So basically, I smell like the fish I tried to eat. I hope I don't get food poisoning. I just thought the fish was nasty.

Add rice-a-roni and you have what's currently loaded up in my cupboard.

If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support: • 404 Media • Defector • The Flytrap • Flaming Hydra • The Appeal • Aftermath • Racket • Hell Gate • The 51st • The Colorado Sun • Range Media • Discourse Blog • Pop Heist

“I find it somewhat ironic that a person can learn to live life in a place where they were sent to die.”