There is a very real argument being made in Hollywood that AI democratizes filmmaking, making it available to outsiders. In truth, the cost of effective generative AI is cost prohibitive to all but corporations, leading to no improvement in quality at the cost of jobs both above and below the line.

Got some time to work on these, and am now ready to start the heels. 🧶🧦 Knit Picks' Felici sock yarn (superwash merino blended with nylon makes it super soft) in After School color.

READER ALERT! Fantasy fans, you have a couple days left to take advantage of two amazing Humble Bundles: Mercedes Lackey and Robert Silverberg. Support charity *and* read some extraordinary classic sf/f. Links here: www.humblebundle.com/books

Did you discover, as part of the Anthropic settlement, that your publisher failed to register your copyright? The @authorsguild.org is collecting information authorsguild.org/anthropic-cl... (This is a correction of something I posted yesterday w/ a significant error. Apologies for the mistake)

If you don't have anything for air purification and are anywhere in North America, you can BUILD something fairly cheaply to move a lot of air. corsirosenthalfoundation.org/instructions/

We, the employees at Hachette Book Group, are proud to announce that we are unionizing with Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild-CWA Local 32035, of the AFL-CIO, in order to ensure better benefits, protections, and rights for workers as well as increased equity, transparency, and agency in the workplace.

Passing this along...

This is your reminder that if you are a class member and have NOT yet filed a claim in Anthropic v. Bartz, the AI copyright lawsuit, you have 9 days to do so.

A friendly reminder that axios is a right wing rag run by an ex-sports reporter pundit who founded politico (another right wing rag) & who married a tom delay-george bush staffer. It’s right wing all the way down at axios while pretending to be a “fair and balanced” news source

Someone with Grammarly will have to tell me whether or not I'm being faked in this cursed app and also whether the advise it gives is any other than "use the word 'fuck' more often" www.theverge.com/tech/891822/...

When you need a break from doomscrolling, check out this horror megabundle that just dropped. More than 50 books; less than $20 bucks www.humblebundle.com/books/dread-...

My dashery store is on sale right now! Get a silly thing if you want! exocomics.dashery.com/

After much skepticism, I've broken down and gotten an air fryer. It, indeed, lives up to the hype. Am looking forward to not heating up my kitchen in the middle of summer.

Seattle dog people: a friend of mine in theMagnolia neighborhood needs a dog walker for her boisterous and adorable pup two weekday a week. She isn’t having much luck. If you have recommendations, please hit me up ASAP. Thank you!

Being a freelancer, nobody would notice if I skied off work today or not. So I will celebrating this general strike by buying nothing. And if enough people do it, friends they may thinks it's a movement.

TikTok is now under US ownership and their new ToS reads like a guide to giving fascists everything they need to put you on a list. They’re collecting information about immigration status, citizenship, sexual orientation, whether you’re trans or non binary and physical or mental disabilities.

FYI: Dems in the senate can't defund ICE. ICE is funded by the Big Ugly Bill. Shutting down DHS on this vote wouldn't touch ICE, but it would shut down FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, etc. Shutting down ICE requires taking back Congress in the midterms. Dismantling DHS requires the White House in 2028.

I'm sure you've heard this before and I don't want to sound like a scratched record but if you're someplace that doesn't usually get storms and cold like this one, or you've only recently moved to someplace that does, treat this fucker with the respect you would give a kaiju.

Your reminder that this amazing Humble Bundle featuring a whole litany of stone classics by female SFF writers dating back to Andre Norton (!) and including some of the absolute classics of science fiction (and, um, several books by me) is only $18. www.humblebundle.com/books/fierce...

I'm having a sale on my website. Let me know if there is something you would like 🙂 karinacoghlin.com/original-art #art #paintings #landscape #snow #snowscenes #worksonpaper #watercolour #watercolor #watercolourpainting #sale #artworkforsale #originalart #minimalistart #treepainting #snowpaintings

1/ California is seeing two major public health stories this week: a deadly mushroom poisoning outbreak linked to foraging, and the first real test of our #WestCoastHealthAlliance due to ACIP’s hepatitis B birth-dose vote. Here’s what you need to know 👇

Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work. Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/

“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion” futurism.com/artificial-i...

carpal tunnel surgery strikes the left hand. not a lot of pain but shows how much i actually need both hands for everything

A good recipe and excellent notes on what's happening in Chicago today. 💖

Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmeri, is a weed that causes massive losses to crop yields. It was recently found in certain Safeway bird seeds. These bags are now being recalled! See WSDA's news release for more information: agr.wa.gov/about-wsda/n... #pnw #agriculture #birds #invasiveplants

Despite *waves hand about*, I read 2 great books this week: Hiron Ennes' LEECH & Cherie Priest's THE DROWNING HOUSE. Atmospheric, great characters, gripping plots. LEECH was the kind of weird I love, and DROWNING HOUSE's atmosphere went well with late night hot tea. Highly recommend both.

You cannot represent as a martyr for free speech someone whose entire line was that most people who weren't white, male, Christian and straight should be excluded from debate. Or who used the public arena to lie and intimidate.

Busy yesterday so I missed that Anthropic had settled. Figures. LLMs have violated thousands of copyrights; they *knew* it would kill them if it went to trial. Anyway, the Authors Guild has some useful info here: authorsguild.org/news/what-au...

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

The U of C/University of Chicago is having a 75% off ebook sale (code EBOOK75). Writers, they have a ton of writing/editing/publishing books (including WHAT EDITORS DO, where I wrote the chapter on editing genre). Lots of other books on sale too... press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/se...

I feel this way EVERY day

Get these and more now in my shop :> www.paraplyshop.com (sharing helps me out a lot, thank you 🙏)

2 at a time socks done--seemed to take a long time but not really any longer than making them one at a time. Used size 2.75mm (2) 100cm (40") long ChiaoGoo lace circular needle. Lost yarn wrapper, so can't ID yarn but it feels like a poly-blend sock weight. 🧶 #sockknitting

Made it to the ankle--doing 2x2 ribbing 🧶 #sockknitting

Starting 2 at a time socks using yarn from frogged socks

"Sinners" is as good as everyone's saying; horror-averse could probably see it w/o issue (unless bloody violence is a no-go for them); music is just superb

Out of the oven and cooling

Making a little loaf

S2 Andor. So. Good.

🚨 Cool new project alert 🚨 WE- you, me, everyone- need to work together to get important science messages out to people. 4 artists & 3 scientists collab'd on these posters. We hope YOU will put them out in your community. Each poster comes w/info about each topic. Get 'em Squidfacts.bigcartel.com

Noodling around with bold colors and shapes #watercolor #art

A little watercolor experiment with salt on the background. Interesting texture #watercolor

Had to post this for all my TTRPG player friends @birdietam.art makes amazingly cute things! Sale going on right now! birdietam.art/collections/...

A little older watercolor with pencils #watercolor

Art noodling with shapes--kind of abstract-ish #watercolor