People like to paint the Big Sites as criminally indifferent to the harms they cause (or worse, deliberately engaging in them) when every bit of "proof" that's been produced was PART OF AN ATTEMPT AT HARM REDUCTION.

The "Facebook knew their product was causing body image issues in teen girls and did it deliberately" narrative is taking the ACTUAL RESEARCH Facebook did entirely out of context! They commissioned that internal research to SEE HOW THEY COULD STOP IT HAPPENING.

Got a first....almost play (we played through one round! It took 3.5 hours!) of Trickereon. It definately won't take nearly this long the next time, but: 1. I really love this game. Will see if this survives my first actual play of it, but honestly probably especially with the right expansions […]

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

Federal judge has ordered the release of Liam Ramos (the bunny hat boy) and his father. A brief and rather remarkable order. Clearly written to be shared widely, so please do. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Fun phrase coined today: "You are incorrect in both the polarity and the plurality of your statement". Coined when @drcpunk.bsky.social said the oncoming subway train was not going our way.

We did a quiet Thanksgiving day in. Dinner was a turkey leg, which I stuck into a a dutch oven with carrots, mushrooms, garlic, spices, consome powder (2 tbsp), half a challah torn into shreds, slow cooked for a few hours, then baked for 15 minutes. Not quite what I'd intended, but...turkey stew!

advocate.nyc.gov/blog/nyc-bal... This is a great breakdown on the NY/NYC ballot proposals by @advocate.nyc.gov, and...I wish it had gone up earlier than the 3rd. Early voting started in late October, and it's important that everyone have a chance to weigh and take in knowledgable opinions like this!

Donald Trump deleted this from the government website. Let's be clear: there's funding available to cover SNAP benefits next month. Trump is stopping SNAP benefits because he wants to. He is forcing mommas and babies to go hungry.

"[By claiming to defend a minority, while] feeding into antisemitic narratives of shadowy Jewish power behind the scenes..., If, in the future, Americans start to miss the valuable research being cut...Jews can be made into easy scapegoats" religiondispatches.org/jd-vance-tri...

Opinion: Jimmy Kimmel has Supreme Court precedent on his side. He should sue the Trump administration, writes law professor Aziz Huq. Read the full opinion piece: ow.ly/Curx50WYXq4

In "entirely trivial but it's what I care about", CNN writes: "[FBI AD] said officials will move from trying to identify the suspect, who killed conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, to building a prosecution case." ...no. If he killed Kirk, what is he a suspect for again?

Ok, fine, one more skeet: @jenk3.bsky.social helpfully points out that the singer I failed to identify is (almost certainly) the amazing Cecelia Eng. Thank you, Jen! #worldcon #hugoawards

Final song, this time with extra haromony and great guest singers, still not sure who's in gold on the left. Thank you for coming along with me, and I'm out! #worldcon #hugoawards

Best Novel: The Tainted Cup! #worldcon #hugoawards LOL--ahthor's (recorded) speech isn't quite as surprising as one of Ursula's, but is still super funny!

I will reuse it!

Lodestar Award for YA fiction: (no, not a Hugo but has its own cachet, maybe we can add more Lodestars like one for MG or Children's): Shiene Lende #worldcon #hugoawards My battery is down to 15%, hope it lasts! Speech I think started in a Native language, and includes oppression and resilliance.

Best Novella: The Tusks of Extinction! #worldcon #hugoawards (i'm sure there's a banger of an Ursula recorded speech we'll never hear) Author thanks Sheila Williams--that's two in a row! Short and sweet, can't complain. And yes, we're still doing the song. #worldcon #hugoawards

Best Novellette: (hey Seanan, who is presenting, and rocking a sparkly corenet): The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea! #worldcon #hugoawards Struck at how author's dress also visibly sparkled. Speech talked about when husband watched the kids while she was writing (18 years ago!)

Best Short Story: Stitched to Skin, Like Family Is! Recorded acceptance speech. I like seeing the author's crowded library in the background. Sweet and short, and shouts out Uncanny Magazine.

Best Poem presenter's speech is a poem in iambic parodying the Bard, got applause just for the poem: A War of Words! Good speech but the specilative poetry group did not pass the award -- The Business Meeting did! The push is good, but any Worldcon member can show and vote! #worldcon #hugoawards

Best Series: Between Earth and Sky! #worldcon #hugoawards Also not expecting to win this--I didn't bet! But that didn't mean not giving a fantastic speech. Calls out her editor not having a Hugo and you know, I expect this to matter; that's how we find out which editors to nominate!

Best Graphic Story or Comic: Star Trek, Lower Decks, warp your own way! #worldcon #hugoawards Writer accepted, had to run up the long ramp. Oh, the comic is choose your own adventure? wow! "Use the Hugos as a reading list" Damn straight.

Best Related Work: Speculative Whiteness! Winner's speech is focused on fascism (hear hear) and loves that an academic work escaped containment #worldcon #hugoawards And yeah, we're still doing the bit (the song) with Tempest and it's great, better every time.

Best Dramatic Presentation, short: Star Trek, Lower Decks! They sent a sweet recorded acceptance speech! #worldcon #hugoawards

And this time the song was coming together better, noice! Best Dramatic Presentation, Long. They're showing clips, sure hope strream doesn't get blocked! (also, auto-cc, yer drunk): Dune, Part 2. Unsurpringly,Legendary did not send speech or acceptor. #worldcon #hugoawards

Well, the audience was singing. But hopefully next time will be louder! Louder! Best Best Game or Interactive Work (presenter's speech was in a charming meta style, with stage directions): Saves of Cud! Really appreciate having creator (half of leadership, but would have been both) showing up!

Great Nisi speech for Best Editor, Short Form: Neil Clarke! Yes, this is a lovely present, Neil. Apparently Clarkesworld has two Kates (with an E, with an I). Who doesn't like two Kates? Speech is very anti-Gen AI, and very right. #hugoawards #worldcon

Best editor, long form: Diana Pho: yes, yes it's a long walk!, we feel it. Speech is beautiful, full of grief and hope, and political in wonderful ways. #hugoawards #worldcon

Best Professional Artist: Alyssa Warnes! Speech was unrehearsed and very, very charming. Best; Thanking her fellow artists! Singing is still going on, and Tempest has asked is to sing along. Well, you asked for it @ktempestbradford.com ! Looking to see how this comes out! #hugoawards #worldcon

Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine! Appreciated how more of the nominees allowed their names to be elided for space and fewer errors -- the Chinese (I think) zine let just them go by...team" and another zine credited the zine to "the [zine name] collective" Space Unicorns! #hugoawards #worldcon

To absent friends. (raises glass) Nah, no onions, but we've most too many. Always too many. #hugoawards #worldcon

Keeping the the filk up whenever our toastmasters (Tempest and Nisi) enter is fantastic. I mean aside from @drcpunk and I vibing with the song. Astounding Award: Monoquill Black (acceptor, with a speech written by the winner). Speech was full of indigenous pride and grace. #hugoawards #worldcon

Best Fan Writer: Abigail Nusbaum! #hugoawards #worldcon Appreciate the accessibility of the ramps, but it does make for a long walk. Also didn't expect it, I see a theme. Speech is all about criticism, which, well, hear hear.

Best Fan Artist: Sarah Felix! I can't not appreciate it when an artist in non-flat forms wins. Break the mold! Well, maybe not literally. It:s ok, we are vibing with the swearing, Sarah! #hugoawards #worldcon (sorry if I misspell, but it's dark)

Sadly, BNp didn't send along an acceptance letter (maybe they didn't expect to win?) but our toastmasters accepted, appropriately ebough, on their behalf. Best Fancast: 8 days of DWJ. Also didn't expect it, but gave an extrmporaneous speech anyway. #hugoawards #worldcon

Best Fanzine: Black Nerd #hugoawards #worldcon!

hehe. Hilarity. Getting the lighting crew to -not- light up the glass refractive base. It was gorgeous when they finally managed it, though. #hugoawards #worldcon

Oh, nice, the base artist is a fan, and also a previous base designer, with a beautiful glass design. #hugoawards #worldcon

OMG. Hugo Witches Road Filk, performed by Seanan, Alec, our toastmasters, Cathy McMannon, and...ok, I'm not sure who the other singer is but it's probably someone I should recognize. #hugoawards A -full- filk, with amazing harmonies.

Puzzle #781 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Had a lot of fun with this one. Caught onto gur gurzr within seconds, but even before vg pnzr gbtrgure, n ybg bs gur vqrnf V unq jrer sbyybjvat n cnggrea. #Connections

#Connections Puzzle #778 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 This was a tricky/fun one (yes, a perfect RR tho): We had to rearrange our categories several times to get something that worked out well, but even the purple wasn't -that- hard.

#Connections Puzzle #759 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 After breaking streak and failing I think 3 puzzles in the last few weeks, finally got another RR! Solved Y first, then @drcpunk.bsky.social spotted P--IDing the category order was pretty easy this time, since B was clearly the second hardest.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/o... tldr: The writer, an officer resigning, and writing an op-ed in violation of orders, over the obvious vile-ness of the transgender ban. (gift link) ... And this is why I push back against people who say "all" Republicans are vile. Conservatism serves some people...

Connections Puzzle #748 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Can't complain about the reverse rainbow; our solve order was a regular rainbow so we just reversed it. This one had a 72% fail rate, so it was a huge filter--but not for us; we saw a few false trails but followed our early guesses to success. #connections

Broke streak 4 days ago, and then failed hard again 3 days ago. But today was a good day! Connections Puzzle #745 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Fell hard into the rainbow red herring, then worked our way out; blue and green were similarly difficult, so no shade. #connections

Last minute research for the downballot candiates, I got to Qns judicial race between Eve Cho and Julie Milner. Eve Cho is clearly the favorite. Milner...couldn't find much (bar: "not approved"), so...website. Blog complains: a guide calls one of her 3 endorsements "anti-vax" (it is)...K, thanks?

Connections Puzzle #740 🟦🟨🟪🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Too many theories so had to test. We -knew- our first guess was either the answer or the rainbow, so when it came up as not 1-away we could use the fact that it was the rainbow to help figure out the rest. Got blue only when it was alone. #connections

Connections Puzzle #735 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 Was NOT happy with the puzzle this time; purple was leftovers and wasn't sure on some of the other categories. #connections

Connections Puzzle #733 🟦🟨🟪🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 We had a "complete solve but the last bits aren't coming together", so no a real surprise that our first guess was the rainbow red herring. Recovery was fun, though.