In the coming year, I wish you all a thriving community

"I could never figure out which network was carrying the sports game I wanted to watch so I went back to listening on A.M. radio." "The movie I wanted to watch had been removed from streaming services so I started renting DVDs from the library." "Social media sucks so now I just have group texts."

It's a typical populist trick in many countries

Yes. There's even an expression for the idea real France is where Paris isn't: "La France profonde".

Do other countries have this weird notion that you’re not a “real” representative of the nation if you live in an urban center? Like do the French say Parisians aren’t really French? Are you considered not a real German if you live in Berlin? Or is this mainly a weird American thing?

Live by these fucking words in 2026. Be SPICY and lend a hand.

NYT Opinion: Zohran has been mayor for nearly 12 hours and yet there are still problems.

In 1773, a crack monastic order was dissolved by the Catholic church for a heresy they didn’t commit. Today, still wanted by the Holy Office, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can hire - the J-Team.

One of the most important pieces I've read this year. A lot of journalists tried to capture what it was like on the ground, as Chicagoans resisted an onslaught of federal agents attacking our neighbors, and @melissagiragrant.com pulled it off.

This section caught my eye as well

One of the best things I did this year was to tell someone they needed to apologize to me. And then get that apology. But it was the *first* time I'd ever asked for an apology.

feel like the common thread to everything is that increasing other people's precarity increases their political power

"While children in California, which does not allow for nonmedical vaccine exemptions, are vaccinated against measles at 96 percent, there is not a single county in Idaho, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah or Wisconsin whose kindergarten rates meet herd immunity protection."

Something that many (at least online) seem to forget it how high this man was flying in January and where he is now. Yes he is richer and still terrible but the Tesla protests pierced the sense that he was beyond reach. And that matters a lot. Thanks to everyone who joined those ongoing protests.

Reminds me of the chancellor of UCSD getting himself a raise to a million dollar a year salary and now other UC chancellors want a raise out of equity.

It’s unconscionable that the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times and public radio station WBEZ laid off staff while outgoing CEO Matt Moog pocketed more than $900,000.

The biggest surprise in 2025 for me was The Séance of Blake Manor. It's set in 1897 Ireland, with hand-drawn 3D animation, great voice acting -- and a talent for scaring without jump-scares. It deserves its many rave reviews, and you should play it! store.steampowered.com/app/1395520/...

Not a puzzle or detective game! There's now a big action incremental subgenre. For many, the action is a bit throwaway. But Astro Prospector actually cares about both - it's a genuinely solid incremental and bullet hell (without hellish difficulty). A+ store.steampowered.com/app/3503440/...

A 2025 video game list must include Blue Prince, a 9-year labor of love. Makes me wish I'd discovered the book Maze as a child as well. I'm still thinking about Blue Prince many months later. It's a complete classic. Bring a phone camera and some paper. store.steampowered.com/app/1569580/...

The Electrifying Incident is a bite-sized puzzle game, by Draknek et al. It's at a more accessible difficulty than their others, but with the same level of design and charm they always bring. This was a joy to play with my 5yo, who loved the whole thing. store.steampowered.com/app/3352300/...

I virtually never play text games. But Type Help is a (free) arresting detective mystery with wild twists: william-rous.itch.io/type-help And it was such a break-out success that 2026 will see a commercial graphical remake! I hope it helps more people see it: store.steampowered.com/app/3641000/...

I have to impress upon you that Sudokuvania is a fully realized Metroidvania. It is merely expressed as 20+ integrated variant sudokus. There is nothing else like this. Solving it is one of my proudest achievements. It is a $0 website. Use a laptop. sudokupad.app/6u61fsw0di?s...

Rise of the Golden Idol was on my 2024 list, but the four(!) DLC they made since then, with 17 even weirded detective cases, stand as another whole entry. They're designed by 4 different teams, each with their own flavor, and license to go wild. Do it!! store.steampowered.com/app/3333860/...

Strange Jigsaws (sequel to 20 Small Mazes by @flebpuzzles.bsky.social) is a short, $5 game that optimizes for variety and surprise. I was delighted the whole way through, even when it was tricking me. Come on!! You can't afford *not* to play this game! store.steampowered.com/app/2702170/...

Mind Diver is a 3D detective game about repairing memories, built out from a Danish student project. I was completely taken by the native Danish actors, writing, art, and novel concept. A very fresh take on the Obra Dinn model - and deserves more eyes! store.steampowered.com/app/2259330/...

First is Öoo, a brilliant puzzle action game whose name is a screenshot of the protagonist. It takes a seemingly simple idea about pushing yourself along via bombs, and takes it down one weird rabbit hole after another. Deeply clever, and adorable. store.steampowered.com/app/2721890/...

Every year, I do a list of 10 games I loved that year -- this is 2025! My guess is you'll know some of them, and also that you won't know some of them. Please let me tell you about these fine video games!! (Links are mostly to Steam, but some are on console too.) /thread

When times are bad, help people. When times are good, help people.

no idea what's going on in Alaska (beyond the fact that it's a small state and so 30k new hires is a lot in context) but this is the best hiring rate the state has ever posted in the 25 years we have data

US hiring rates sank to the lowest levels since early COVID in October, but vary dramatically from state to state DOGE-hit DC has the lowest hiring rate at 2.2% followed by PA at 2.4%, while Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming have some of the highest hiring rates at 5.9% and above

I think it's really worth noting that literally ZERO mainstream media outlets were talking about Trump claiming a land strike on Venezuela until a few others and I noticed this post here on Sunday and started asking questions. That goes completely unacknowledged in coverage.

One of the dismal realities of the human being is that we thing achievements and agency will make us happy but when we arrive at that destination we find that what we actually wanted was validation from others

we’re going to lose so many years off of our technological progress that all of us see in our lifetimes because the reactionary tech CEOs decided to shadowbox the caveman they imagine is cucking them, thinking that surely we could move even faster if they made work culture more manly.

I don't hate farmers. Even if I did write that line about how every farm is a kind of environmental crime scene. I just think farmers should be treated like any other businessmen.

For those with library access, the e-version is also available here: academic.oup.com/book/61783

My new book — Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction — is now available as an e-book (paperback in March 2026)! The book offers a concise history of humanitarianism in an international perspective, from the 18th century to the present. More info here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Dude: "it's in my DNA" to physically change everything about myself to prove I'm evolutionarily superior. Also Dude: I hate women who use makeup, clothing, and plastic surgery to hide their authentic selves. I want a natural girl (who somehow with no effort fits my arbitrary beauty standards).

But overall the project doesn’t seem that different from any other distant future interactive IoT scenario that places like the MIT Media Lab have been experimenting with for the last 15+ years. But now that it has the contemporary label of “AI” applied it attracts a stronger public reaction.

Read the article behind this screenshot, and the researchers working on this academic exercise do something right by at least acknowledging/anticipating privacy concerns as a significant barrier to adoption. www.cnet.com/tech/service...

It’s *really* interesting to me how this post has more than 2x the engagement on LinkedIn and almost 10x the engagement on mastodon. I’ve never seen a disparity that big before! I’m not mad, it’s just so interesting to me what does well in each platform 👀 (Bluesky seems a bit anti tech lately?)

driving this to my bureaucrat job like

Great synergies with Vader Life Insurance

A language is endangered when it has less than 100 users, and extinct when there are less than 10, mostly elderly, and basically nobody willing to learn it. When a language no longer has users, the culture of that community - history, poems, science, songs...- is gone. We are all poorer for it.

I'm actually less worried about putting it in your product (because you can turn that off), and more about how much people are embedding GenAI widely across their internal workflows. You're training everyone to work a certain way, culturally, and it's going to be hard to come back from it.

Also, even if they don't jack up the price they can change how your product functions in completely invisible and non deterministic ways. Just look at how the temperature of Grok has changed wildly based on how Musk is feeling on any given day. You just can't be certain what will happen.

Why is no one in the corporate world is talking about the massive operational risk of building everything your company is worth on top of captured platforms that are completely unprofitable? What happens when your GenAI tool vendor raise their prices by 10x?

i dove into a soft soap dispenser from 2003 🐟🐠🪸 (jk this is raja ampat 2025)

🚀 NOTICE: Federal US website newly registered. https://bluecampaign.gov Action taken by the Non-Federal Agency (Department of Homeland Security) at or around 2025-12-30 06:13:49.

Hey everyone! Just letting you know that I've released the 2nd entry in my Summoning Salt VHS series. This time, it's on Mega Man 2. Only available for a few more days, check it out here - summoningsalt.com/products/meg...

Long-awaited @summoningsalt.bsky.social VHS viewing! Another masterpiece 💯✨