Translation is a delicate work that requires deep knowledge of both languages. Nuances and subtleties—two aspects of writing AIs are notoriously terrible at—can be lost or deranged if not carefully considered during the translation process.

When you get the reputation of being the guy with the encouraging words on New Year's Eve, it can start to come through as a little pressure -- what if the situation on the ground is worse than usual? what if people are more scared than they usually are, and with cause? what use are good vibes then?

Sitting a stewing in frustration isn't nearly as cathartic as just designing a poster. Let's see how often I remember that in 2026.

i’ve been spending the time between christmas and work starting back feverishly making things, both to recover from the effects of spending time with my family (Bad) and to make the most of my time off work

in times such as these, it’s important to knit a nice rat

Phone calls home help maintain the connection when loved ones are separated maintaining that connection can translate into a softer landing when being released. This is just cruel and bad policy if you truly want people to be rehabilitated, which we know they don’t.

thinkin about stuff

being back with my family for christmas is a bit like being in an ivy compton-burnett novel

important

LIFE RULES: Insulate your house with books to ward off evil Oppose the zombie AI apocalypse Never click on a link to the Daily Mail Use double the recommended amount of garlic Always stop to say hi to sheep And to horses too (but in a fake posh voice) I think that's more or less everything covered?

THREAD. Some excellent pigs I have met on walks in the British countryside. You will find the caption to each photo in the alt text.

Are you working on an end-of-year retrospective on new music you liked in 2025? You don't have a physical copy of Half-Staff Blues to remind you, but I will! (And I'll keep asking Peter about a small run of something in 2026...) peterpeterhughes.bandcamp.com/album/half-s...

the good that you do persists in this world

Robert sits down with @margaret.bsky.social to talk about how mankind went from building one atomic bomb to building tens of thousands of them, permanently 15 minutes or less away from ending all life on earth. @iwriteok.bsky.social @whysophiewhy.bsky.social www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

There is a direct correlation between how fake your job is and how much value you see in AI

kobold making continental jazz

Part of this story is expertise & intent. ChatGPT is being used by many as “therapy” unable to afford a therapist. The gap between a tool's intent and use is a public health crisis. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

tfw masculine rosary

SO this lady who lives miles away from me in a different neighborhood filed a complaint w/the city that’s now potentially going to get my little free library & little free pantry shut down unless we can amend code to specifically protect site amenities as such pls sign my petition c.org/DRrMJb6Czq

in case you missed it our World Cafe Live session + interview is up and I gotta say it's nice www.youtube.com/watch?v=btCH...

Hope is active. Doom is inactive. Every time you say “it’s over” you have completely given up and simply handed it all to the fascists.

perfect creature

Discworld QOTD, from Wyrd Sisters

making your own clothes is the greatest bc it unlocks the possibility for you to have any item of clothing you can imagine + also it fits you perfectly

quoth the raven: "metalcore"

If you can't or won't stand up for trans people right now, you are never, ever, ever, ever going to do it and that is something worth knowing about yourself.

Lord Milkweed surveying his domain 🧡🖤 Oncopeltus fasciatus male, large milkweed bug, on milkweed #invertebrate

DAMB IT - dashare.zone ADMIN

ok so on 16 June 2023 I had a dream that I was writing an album, and that the album was called "Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan." I wrote the dream down and went back to sleep In the morning, I said: "What if?" Today, the first song from the album is released! www.mountain-goats.com

DO YOU: 1. WANT the new peter peter hughes record HALF-STAFF BLUES coming THIS FRIDAY 2. NOT have a way to give $11 to bandcamp dot com 3. HAVE an email address IF YOU ARE 3 FOR 3: comment w/ one (1) other song on peterpeterhughes.bandcamp.com you like & why! first 5 get a HSB preorder gift email!

MY GIFT TO YOU, WORKERS OF THE WORLD, ON THIS LABOR DAY IS MY HOTTEST AND FRESHEST @themountaingoats.bsky.social COMP: 10 YEARS IN THE BONE ZONE - THE BEST OF MATT DOUGLAS VOLUME 2 (a collaboration with @kyle2.bsky.social) archive.org/details/10-y... 1/6

Beautiful 1860s Victorian butterfly, which was used to store small packets of sewing needles on the underside of the wings. This was a collaboration between a London-based drapers company and a sewing needle manufacturer. On exhibit at Tatter Blue, a Brooklyn textile museum. IG tatterbluelibrary

Important reading as you prepare for your semester

how many times do you microwave the same cup of tea before giving up on it

This, from the Quakers, is a pretty good example of how to resist pressure from bigot lobbying groups. Effectively “we legally can allow trans people to use the loo, we morally should, and we tried it and nothing bad happened”

they think they can just erase trans joy and trans freedom. they can't. they can make things a lot harder and more painful. but that joy and that freedom is not theirs to take and it is incumbent on all good people to say so.

THE WOLF AND HIS KING comes out in the UK in 3 months today, so I'm giving away one paperback ARC! To enter: follow me and reskeet this. Bonus: add TWAHK on GR/Storygraph & drop a screenshot in the comments. Extra bonus: tell me your favourite medieval story. UK only (sorry). Closes midday 29/08.

day 3 #InverteFest #invertebrate weird fact: if you are a baby fly, you can either have a parent that YEETS YOU AWAY AT MAXIMUM VELOCITY (Sabethes style), or have a dotting parent that feeds you milk and gives birth to you as a single fat maggot that is then safely placed in soil (Glossina style) 🦟🪰

there are always reasons to hold on to hope

They have discovered a planet. We could sail there in an old blue shoe. If there are juniper trees there, they could sing.

He was very good in person with his trans fans too. Growing up going to SF cons, I met many trans people before I even knew what trans meant. I gave my parents very little they needed to accept in their child, so they had lots left over for everyone else. 😉 www.thepinknews.com/2021/08/06/t...

this is a super normie riff I know ok. but the idea occurred to me at a traffic light and I had to work it up, and I thought some people would enjoy it, so here

This is so saturated in the culture that parents will straight up apologize to me for needing to bring their kids along, or they'll say they can't come to an event I'm hosting because they'd have to bring their kid. I'm so stunned by this. Bring your kid; let me meet them! Let's include them!

This whole thread is excellent and should be used to tell people like Tom Nichols and every other white man on here pissing their pants about words that are too “woke” to shut up.

[white knuckling the bathroom sink] all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well

“doing hard things is good for you” has somehow become a hot take in our increasingly convenience-obsessed world and that’s pretty depressing

i was always told i was “naturally gifted” with drawing as a kid and it frustrated me, because i spent every free moment of my time drawing. that wasn’t an inherent natural ability, it was an inherent interest that lead me to develop skill through thousands of hours of practice.

There’s a certain type of person that can only respond to something bad currently happening by going “things have been bad for a long time!” Ok? Congratulations? If you get food poisoning do you go “this is nothing compared to the Challenger exploding”?

Matthew 6:2 is a coded message to artists about the perils of sharing in-progress work before it’s had the privacy and secrecy it needs to grow

Americans love technology and absolutely hate science and that’ll always be fucking confusing to me