Typo of the day: _drid fish_ (for an intended _dried fish_). The Drid Fish is a mystic beast, well known to those-who-know, that swims in the dark humid currents of the night air and sneaks up to whisper in your ear, as you're trying to sleep, "I know what you drid."

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

A small atmospheric seascape for you. Tisha Mark ©2026, Soft Peaceful Sunset No. 2606, oil on Arches oil paper, 6"x4" Original works on paper (including this one!) are available on my website: tishamark.com/product-cate... #art #painting #SciArt #bsnm #ArtSky

Series - Widows Bay | tv Official Trailer!! Lets go The haunted series Drops April 29th Matthew Rhys is Mayor Tom Loftis #WidowsBay

Humanists: Chasing the latest tech fad has not worked out well for other generations NC: But it might work out well for us! Humanists: The most reliable path to ROI is to study things you're good at and learn both broadly and deeply and the data supports us NC: I asked Claude and it said it's alive

At this point, simply enforcing existing laws would be indistinguishable from a political purge, and we need to do it. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment alone could clear out Trump's entire cabinet and most Republicans in Congress.

"Among young American men, the strongest predictor of support for the tradwife lifestyle was not gallantry but hostility towards women" Apparently this is not what researchers "expected". Which makes one wonder: had these researchers thought about it for 30 seconds? www.thetimes.com/life-style/s...

The weird thing is, no matter how many loyal Trumpists get thrown under the bus, there's an endless supply of dupes who think that they're the ones who _won't_ be thrown under the bus.

Inside the Bizarre Feedback Loop Between DHS and MAGA Influencers talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-...

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)

"(Ppl who want to ditch smartphones) 'showed significant changes in psychological well-being' after adopting the Light Phone. They were less stressed and reported greater levels of 'life satisfaction.' They weren’t on their phones as much; their dependency decreased." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"Yes, the Pharaoh has spent his entire life lying and defrauding, and he might throw us under the camel at some point, but he was friendly to a few token tribe members, so just ignore that other stuff."

Pete Hegseth just held a prayer service in which he appealed for God's help in killing our "enemies" with maximal violence and brutality. Hegseth's bloodlust and sadism are drawing sustenance from his particular brand of far-right Christianity. 1/ (new piece from me) newrepublic.com/article/2083...

Free newsletter: The Subprime AI Crisis is here. I explore the disturbing parallels between the run-up to the global financial crisis and the heavily-subsidized AI bubble, and how Anthropic and OpenAI's rush to IPO accelerates the crisis further. www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here/

Did you miss the WERE-2 anthology Kickstarter? Good news! You can do a late pledge! You can still get a copy of this #urbanfantasy anthology about #shapeshifters other than #werewolves in ebook or paperback. Go pledge at www.kickstarter.com/projects/znb/were-2 and preorder this anthology now! #sff

NEW: After not releasing patches for the DarkSword hacking technique that impacts iOS 18—which has been spotted in use in the wild—Apple now tells @wired.com patches will be released in an update on April 1. @agreenberg.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/apple-...

My next book, a practical guide for how to write for mass media, publishes four weeks from today. I hope you'll consider ordering it now, inviting me to speak, and to tell others. Here's what @tressiemcphd.bsky.social said about my work. Pre-order here: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

"This is a relationship based on a moral and binding oath whereby, in offering puffer coat investments, you swear fealty to us, forsaking all other puffer coats, and you promise us military service to defend the good Marshmallow Puffer name."

personally I think "Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn" is a bad thing to read in the newspaper www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/u...

Strongly disinclined to accept this flag of surrender, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if the dissertation, the dumbest thing in graduate education, got the axe. "Take ten years to write a kind-of book." "Which other people in my field will want to read?" "Christ, no."

Milestone: Trump's approval has fallen below 40% in NYT polling averages for the first time:

It’s actually not okay to pay someone with a PhD $2500 to teach a college course

Doing our darndest over here at Brackenbury Books!

The mere existence of this sentence in the chyron is evidence of a staggering level of incompetence, stupidity and failure. You talk to the people who control the army and state power ministries. They seem to be playing games going on something they heard from a guy who said who knows a guy.

this and this time it’s failing

The god of war has no favorites and is wont to slay the man minded to kill. ξυνὸς Ἐνυάλιος, καί τε κτανέοντα κατέκτα. (Hom Il. 18.309) #AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #BlueSkyClassics

Art by Martin and Roger Dean and Richard Clifton-Dey originally intended for Jeff Wayne’s 1977 War of the Worlds album, but never used.

From time to time, I post here transcripts I’ve come across of particularly insightful conversations. Here’s one that’s particularly relevant to this past weekend's No Kings Day protests. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-americans-can-learn-from-other

Typo of the day: _commets_ (for an intended _comments_). I figure commets are little commas, like cigarets are little cigars. But maybe a commet is a comet with an extended midsection. Not sure what that looks like but it's probably a bad omen. (God knows we don't need any more of those.)

Diane and Leo Dillon's cover art for 'And Chaos Died,' by Joanna Russ

wouldn't it be funny if EVERYONE blocked this Attie AI account @ bsky.app/profile/atti... before they could do anything with it

Now get out and vote in the midterms like your life depends on it, because it does. #NoKings

Re protests: some chants are always going to land better than others, but here's a style I wish would go out of style. a SHORT! CLEAR! LINE! another SHORT! CLEAR! LINE! then a SEVENTEENSYLLABLESENTENCETHATNOONECANUNDERSTANDATADISTANCE

A little late to the protest but I remembered my #NoKings flag.

1. How many of your ship’s planks did you replace since your last insurance payment? 2. How many of your ship’s planks did you replace since you first took out your insurance policy? 3. Have all the planks of your ship been replaced? buff.ly/yZoe2Ke

Premium Newsletter: How much of the AI bubble is real? In an analysis of every major AI data center project, the majority are theoretical or behind schedule. Their customers (AI startups) burn $3+ per dollar of revenue, with no possible path to profitability. www.wheresyoured.at/premium-how-...

Rising Conservative Star Just Guy Wearing Nazi Armband And Crying https://theonion.com/rising-conservative-star-just-guy-wearing-nazi-armband-1849855062/

Musicologists! I’m looking for someone willing to review The Cambridge Companion to Florence B. Price by Samantha Ege and Alexandra Kori Hill. For the Journal of Musicological Research!

Job details: Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

"A Turkish proverb says 'When a clown settles in a palace, he does not become king, it is the palace that becomes a circus," said Malhuret - French Senator blasting the administration. The whole speech was gold.

after much deliberation and giving AI the benefit of the doubt, Wikipedia editors have had enough of AI slop. New policy bans LLM generated content, periodt www.404media.co/wikipedia-ba...

A Texas school district has banned HOW LONG TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH, along with over 1500 other books. Mine was kicked bc it's labeled for adults, which is true. But so are every one of my books, which are available in most schools. That's the only one with "Black" in the title, tho.

It turns out that there isn’t a ratings bump for MAGA capitulation. www.mediamatters.org/bari-weiss/l...

Breaking: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable in landmark social media addiction trial.

Happy Downfall-of-Sauron Day to you. But remember: "Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."

As another big wave in tech turns out to be more a transient ripple (like NFTs, cryptocoin, etc), I'm becoming nostalgic for the days when tech companies innovated with products that actually worked and were useful (e.g. search engines, smartphones, tablets, etc). www.404media.co/disneys-open...