damn aaron swartz tried to warn everybody about sam altman

Jeff Bezos has $222 billion. If he paid my wealth tax this year, we could fund insulin in America for everyone who needs it plus free school lunch for every kid in Texas—and have plenty of money left over. And Bezos would still have $215 billion dollars to spare.

Y'all there is a woman and a black man circling the moon and NASA's mission control+ science teams are so diverse and people are nerding out about science and exploration this is all a gigantic middle finger to the stupid and hate and grotesque ghouls running our country

Dear American citizens, whatever you wish more German citizens would have done in 1933, do that now.

He's confessing to planning war crimes on live television

Today's press conference: We pulled of a risky rescue and we're going to tell the world exactly how we did it. Our administration leaked about the second airman, endangering his life. We're super good at endangering more lives to clean up messes of our own making.

Enter the world of the Nina Bell! The series begins in 1996, New York City. Nina’s a theatre graduate determined to make a life for herself in the arts, navigating the world of love, lust, theatre, rock ‘n roll – and murder! 1/ #Writing #WritingCommunity #Mystery

Community Tarot Reading for the Week of April 6, 2026, using the Green Witch Tarot by Ann Moura, with art by Kiri Østergaard, along with the Green Witch’s Oracle Deck by Arin Murphy-Hiscock, illustrated by Sara Richard. cerridwenscottage.com/2026/04/06/c... #Tarot #CommunityTarot #TarotReading

Intent for the Week -- Brick by Brick: devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/m... #Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance

I’ve never written anything using AI, I never will, and I have zero respect for any professional who does.

"Donald Trump had time to take Tiger Woods' call after he crashed his car, but I don't see him addressing the American people after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down in Iran. I guess daddy's not home today," entrepreneur and Democratic strategist Mike Nellis wrote on X" www.rawstory.com/2676662279/

The last 24 hours marked the highest number of U.S. aircraft shot down in a single day since Vietnam Trump did that.

BREAKING: Trump's new military Budget would increase our National Debt by an additional $5 TRILLION over 10 years and lead to the largest deficit spending increase ever. Did you vote for this? I certainly didn't. Trump clearly wants to bankrupt the United States like he did his casinos.

it's Good Friday! you know what else is good (i think. i dunno, some readers think so)? this book i wrote about the nightmares of having to speak to academics. available everywhere books are sold.

After taking time to connect with the Pretti family and with their consent, we are honored to share that we have created the Alex Pretti Nursing Scholarship. For those interested, you can learn more and make a gift here: crowdfund.umn.edu/campaigns/Al...

The Trump budget calls to eliminate the Native Hawaiian education program but doesn't eliminate the Alaskan Native education program. What's the difference, you might ask? One state voted for him, and one didn't.

If you're under the age of 54, you've never seen a picture of the earth taken with you on it.

Hegseth must go. There are many, many reasons why. In this column, I offer a few of the top ones. thedailybeast.com//these-are-all-the-reasons-pete-hegseth-needs-to-be-fired-right-now/

We are not here to wage war, and pay taxes. We are here to love each other, and protect this magical planet.

Barry McCaffrey says Gen. Randy George is “probably the best leader I’ve encountered in uniform." Why fire him? I’m told that Hegseth had long been suspicious of George, who had previously worked for Lloyd Austin and clashed with Hegseth over promotions for women and minorities. wapo.st/4v9trlZ

Tesla should be banned until they can be made safe. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a....

Trump and Hegseth halted funding for research to get blood to wounded U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy sailors: "When someone is wounded and survival depends on the availability of blood, this software would have made that survival more likely. Now it will not." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/s...

Wage theft, especially when it's from someone who you interact with on a regular basis face to face, is honestly one of the most psychotic crimes that has been normalized

Recalibrating: devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/04/03/f... #Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance

Gotta run, I hope to spend time with you again next week! Thanks for everything. #FreelanceFriends

I am more efficient at some things, I am better bec I’ve done them a lot. I don’t sweat certain things that would’ve been hard years ago. But you get to that point thru repetition, learning along the way, not outsourcing the practice. BTW it actually feels fucking great when you know you’re cooking.

A lot of times when I get stuck, it’s bec I haven’t thought out what I want to say. What is this section supposed to be about? What am I trying to say? What’s important? I revise until it’s clear to me, so it can be clear to you. There has to be a a goal. LLM has no goal, no brain, no point to make

This worship of efficiency kills creativity. Every transcript I have, every piece of research, I go over again & again, looking for detail, pattern, illuminating anecdote. It’s not efficient. I flail sometimes! But it’s essential. It’s how I learn to tell the story to myself, so I can tell it to you

(Not so incidentally, newspaper editors ought to know these differences, if only to appear of basic competence.)

Using these terms precisely and correctly adds meaning (or in certain cases in-jokes and shades of irony) to one’s writing. It’s part of the fun of making art, and you must *know* the rules before you can break them *effectively*.

To “reign” is to rule over something; “free rein” is when a horse’s reins (leather bridle straps) are held loosely to allow the horse its choice of speed and direction.

Also, to “bail out” is to remove water from inside a boat so it may continue to float. To “bale out” is to jump from a plane. A “bailout” is when a company is kept afloat by an infusion of cash. English is fun.

To “hone” something is to sharpen its edge. To “home in” is to find and follow the signal that helps a plane return to base.

Given that a large number of Trump pardon recipients turn out to be repeat offenders, maybe Congress should pass a law providing for enhanced penalties for anyone who gets a pardon and commits a subsequent crime.

🎯

Please don't forget this story. They deliberately dropped off Nurul Amin Shah, a blind refugee, in freezing weather miles away from home. Less than a week later, he was dead. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

if you are using AI to 'write', you are only proving that you can't do what I do, and you have no intention of learning how to, either. And worse, you are fundamentally missing the point of writing, art, and creativity.

Apparently people are now claiming that 'all writers secretly use AI'. To be clear: I don't use AI because I'm actually a writer. I am good at what I do & would never need word salad machine to do any of it. People using it are not writers. They are playacting. They are children in a Wendy house.

A1 (even more): Just remembered -- mid-May is the big regional chamber event, always lands me a spate of new work. But I will keep sending out LOIs. I've been back & forth with a particular potential client for months, and I wish we'd just get down to contract. 🚩that we haven't. #FreelanceFriends

In this April edition of @librariesftp.bsky.social's newsletter, we feature my friend and comrade Shana's collaborative book with @edrabinski.bsky.social titled "Here's What Happened at the Library This Week" and raffle 5 copies. open.substack.com/pub/librarie...

My very dear friend Justin has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer. Justin is the funniest & most talented person I know. We are crowdfunding to help with his bills while he undergoes treatment. Anything helps.

Plot Bunnies -- a 99 cent comic mystery novelette (as Ava Dunne): books2read.com/u/bONveQ #Writing #WritingCommunity #Mystery

Illustration countdown to #WrensAria publication! 37/52 The Queen is a vain and petty tyrant who is inordinately proud of her tail feathers even though it is an open secret in Court that most of them are borrowed plumes. What is the ultimate fate of the Whitefeather Queen? Readers will find out 👀

A day after Mike Johnson and John Thune put out a joint statement declaring a "deal" to fund DHS, the Senate voted early today to pass its bill to reopen DHS and House Republicans... chose not to vote on it. DHS shutdown continues! www.huffpost.com/entry/news-l...

Thank you! Profoundly. Ethics matter, and this is gold.

Update to our 99¢ Book Page. Each are Book One of either an ongoing or a completed series. Please support our writing and publishing future. Thank you. 📖 🫶👋 carsonhume.com/2026/... #writingcommunity

The Trump era GOP has three policy planks: enriching donors, harming outgroups, and owning the libs. That's it. That's all they've got.

The AI writing discourse has been aggravating but it feels a little like astroturfing from "authors" benefiting from selling AI. The flip side that is really concerning is the thought that we may reach a point were publishers (and maybe agents and editors) will be using AI to help go through subs.

Can't think of a worse situation than one where writer's original work gets scraped in the process of being rejected by a robot. I really hope this doesn't come to pass as an industry practice

Most business problems aren’t people problems. They’re communication, process, and access problems. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...