I hate seeing comments on bodybuilders' posts like "you know members of the opposite sex don't find this attractive, right?!" because they fundamentally misunderstand what bodybuilding is. You don't do bodybuilding to attract a partner. You do it because you are insane.

This video essay was *real* good - www.youtube.com/watch?v=shhu... @maggiemaefish.bsky.social

In light of today’s conversation on academic accommodations, I’m going to revive a thread lost to time when I deleted my Twitter profile. It’s about a bunch of academic accommodations that instructors can offer in lieu of an extension on an assignment. 🧵

Thread for my Books What I've Read This Year:

honouring von Däniken's legacy by saying I don't think he's actually dead. Ancient Norse legends refer to a god called "Loki", the Liar, known for being a bit of a fuckwit and ... surely it's not a coincidence that von Däniken is both a liar and a fuckwit? I'm just asking questions.

BackerKit experienced a phishing attack that targeted accounts with weak or externally compromised passwords. We have reset passwords on select accounts. If you’ve received emails that appear to be from BackerKit, please first verify they come from backerkit.com, s.backerkit.com or o.backerkit.com.

40k fans: "the pharaoh narmer was three stories tall"

Hey @bretdevereaux.bsky.social a thread I wrote about the History of Eugenics In New Zealand

Let 2026 be the year you draw your weird cringe sci-fi/fantasy webcomic, don't let that shit die with you having never left your head.

Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts is offering scholarships to help you start (or continue) your explorations in art, design, music or screen arts… Apply today! … Or forward this to someone you think might benefit from a $1000 head start www.massey.ac.nz/study/schola... #redesignnz

It's always nice to take your GF to the beach

happy new year to all the nerds and freaks also to the others i guess

a reclusive billionaire has hidden the passcode to his fortune within the 10-year, 477 episode backlog of a 2-player tabletop RPG actual play podcast. To find the code and earn your fortune, you'll need to listen to every episode, write down your favorite moments, and send them in an email.

The weird thing about going away for Christmas but being back before NYE is that Going Away was the whole thing I planned, and now its NYE and I've got no idea what's going on except that somehow its also a Wednesday

There's no doubt about it - spend enough time in Night City, and you're eventually going to run into some gonks. Can you guess who you want by your side when the gonks roll up? That's right - some chooms.

I'll never escape this Fucking Article

THE COUNT DOES NOT MISS

YES! I've had to put two of my museums on a strict "you may not accept any additional wool uniforms or synthetic wedding dresses. Period." Pictures of your family service-member? Yes. An invitation to the wedding? Sure. We do indeed want to carry your family story forward, but in a responsible way.

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a optimistic tale about how the arachnids of Klendathu could be defeated Dutch filmaker: At long last, we have parodied the Torment Nexus from terrible sci-fi novel Please Create The Torment Nexus

We're given to thinking of alt-text as a literal description of an image, but given the distinctions in uses of images, alt-text is more contextual than that. On this view, it is not making someone experience an image through text that we aim for, but how we can use text to enable an experience.

For example, alt-text on art might need to be more literally descriptive than the text on a reaction meme or a reaction gif which would require more contextualization. In this sense, literal description is not the aim of all alt-text, which exposes a kind of problem with how we think of alt-text.

Further, given that the nature of BlueSky is multimodal (both text and image) many of our posts (skeets if ya nasty) are supplemented by images so the image itself is interconnected with the text in ways that require us to treat the text of our posts as the contexts for the image.

To this end, it is not the case that alt-text aims at enabling someone to experience an image. Indeed, no one experiences an image in the same way, just as no two people will understand the alt-text of an image in the same way. So the goal should not be to duplicate the experience of the image.

As a Philosopher of Art, I have to say that the objective is not to have the "same" experience as seeing an image, but to have "an experience" that unfolds similarly when one sees an image. That is, engaging with the alt-text they come to understand the experience conveyed by the image.

WHOOPS I ACTUALLY HAVE TO PUT THE LINK OR I'LL NEVER GET THERE DUH www.patreon.com/swordscomic

Especially relevant in NZ, where funding for the Archives NZ digitisation programme of official records was axed in 2024.

I'm with @therisingtithes.bsky.social on my shock at Wake Up Dead Man having the character of Lee Ross, a wash-up author, write a book that is 782,815 words long! I so loved the film slipping in something that only writers will laugh at that I screenshot the scene.

there’s even a really good manga about it (no lie, this is my favourite hard SF manga)

'Garrison World explores the lives of soldiers, sailors and their families stationed in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the British empire in the nineteenth century.' In this new book trailer, Charlotte Macdonald introduces her latest book, 'Garrison World'! 🎥 @reverie_nzl #booktrailer #bwb

I don't remember the last time I read something about the New Zealand health system that didn't leave me at the edge of tears. What we've done to ourselves as a nation is a crime

I get that a lot of markets don't care for second person. And frankly, that's a you problem

after the revolution, my second act as Maximally Beloved Supreme Elected Leader Eternal will be to Ban Chrises. It's too dangerous a name to be allowed

PSA for authors youtube.com/shorts/R6KgU...

Since Polygon is leaving it out of the headline: Epic Games partnered with The Game Awards to put money into the pocket of a bigot who uses her wealth to further the genocide of trans people through lawsuits and legislation. Every 'free' game gives money directly to JKR, and they are complicit.

Both the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize submissions have been extended until midnight this Friday! Links below:

Want to support trans rights in Aotearoa & get a bunch of cool TTRPGs? The Ban the Ban bundle is raising funds for action against the NZ govt's blocker ban. Proceeds go to PATHA to fund their court challenge & support individuals. Get it now! itch.io/b/3421/ban-t... #transrights #ttrpg #nzpol

people are so shocked that eugenics was, and still is, normalised because of the normalisation of the assumption that what is normal must be Good eugenics is Bad so it must only be associated with the abnormal Other it's fractal and it hurts

Archaeologists are looking for a lot of historical artifacts, but for them to find the cup that Christ drank from, well, that would be the holy grail.

@remedy.bsky.social the blog I mentioned, specifically the stuff he thinks is useful worldbuilding. He's also here on bsky @bretdevereaux.bsky.social

Nothing like a Friend Hangout to leave me certain that I have nothing but the most correct opinions and the smartest friends

BONUS VIDEO: The Monster at the End of This Book Ending Explained!

its the greatest holiday of the year

BREAKING: PATHA has filed an urgent injunction in the high court seeking to prevent the puberty blocker ban from coming into force, as part of an urgent judicial review we are seeking to overturn the ban entirely.

I was trying to track down the source of Gramsci's "time of monsters" quote and found that it's a "mistranslation" (ie he just made it up) by Slavoj Zizek. Gramsci's line clearly translates as "morbid symptoms" instead. Mad that you can just rewrite a famous quote and get it widely accepted.

I think I found a new answer to "if you could talk to anyone from history, who would it be?" Martin Luther. I sit down across from him, say a brief prayer to the Virgin Mary to start. Then I begin explaining Prosperity Theology to him in detail. He runs to the door, weeping. It's locked.

The behaviour of the Coalition Govt over the last two weeks SHOULD provide more than enough ammunition for Labour to hound them into oblivion, but lets just wait for Chippie to take a shot at a Greens mp instead

PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS! EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PUBLISHED BOOKS! gonna be reposting your books because hoo you made a book! www.upress.umn.edu/978151791708...

Ranking the best of Star Wars: 1.) Andor 2.) Any SW movie when you’re 8 years old 3.) Knights of the Old Republic 4.) Knights of the Old Republic II 5.) Tattered Star Wars expanded universe paperback you found for $1 6.) Empire Strikes Back 7.) A New Hope 8.) Christmas in the Stars holiday album

Jesus Titty Fucking Christ Woolworths wants me to pay Eight and One Half of Michael Joseph Savage's Own New Zealand Dollars for a Fucking pull apart bread