The decision to bow to government pressure and take Kimmel off the air made my mother stop watching her morning shows. Before this, the couch could have been on fire and she would not get up without first seeing what was on GMA's deals and steals. Disney may have made a tactical error on this one.

I'm just saying, if CBS/Paramount are claiming that management is *so* bad, even their highest-rated late night show that's been around for 3 decades is a 40 million dollar loss that needs to be scrapped, maybe Skydance should reconsider how much this lemon is worth.

In Children of Memory, @aptshadow.bsky.social asks a very important question...How many times can a reader's mind be broken and rebuilt in the span of 480 pages? (Spoiler: many many times😁) Given the trajectory of this series, I don't know if I'll survive the next one, but I'm definitely reading it.

I am making full use of the "muted words and tags" feature here today. Amazing how you can get a reprieve from almost all of the current horrors by excluding one name.

I somehow think I have a better connection to this after reading @aptshadow.bsky.social 'Children of Ruin'. 🐙

What the artificial idiocy is going on here? (I have not yet looked at solving the puzzle, so maybe it is a joke? I hope.) @nytimes.com

Worldcon and the Hugos *seem* like a good idea, but in practice I'm starting to wonder if the community wouldn't be better off just organizing a way for everyone to post their favorites of the year. I mean, I'm happy for the winners each year, but I get most of my new reading recs from nominees.

I would like to see the reactions of these medical conspiracy people if they went to a doctor with a real problem and instead of doing an exam, the doctor pulled out a phone to ask reddit for a diagnosis and treatment.

People need to update their scams. I was just followed by this one... www.seattletimes.com/business/pol...

This moment highlights the division between educators and the wealthy people running universities. To one group it may be an institution of higher learning tasked with teaching and encouraging independent critical thinking, but to the other it is just a business tasked with lining their own pockets.

Anyone who voted for this shares a portion of the burden on their conscience if they have one and on their soul if they believe in one.

Hey, say what you want about the orange menace, but giving everyone permission via executive tweet to do anything necessary to save the county from himself took guts.

Tech companies have obviously learned that if they steal on a large enough scale, nothing will be done about it.

I'm not even sure why we bother with senate confirmation hearings when it has been proven time and again there is zero consequence for lying your ass off. Sure, we can point at a transcript later and say "ha! gotcha!", but at that point it is too late and they have exactly what they wanted anyway.

"They were only supposed to hurt the people I wanted them to hurt" is maybe not the conscience-clearing excuse some people seem to think it is.

We are really speedrunning fascism this time, aren't we. It hasn't even been a week.

I can't wait to see what an update to the endangered species list will look like under the new administration. Looking at other policies, I'm guessing there will be a "Save the guinea worm" initiative.

Apropos of nothing... www.youtube.com/watch?v=og9D...

I realize recent events have stressed my brain to the point of overreaction, but I fear my bookshelf. Like, what hidden poison threatens to overshadow stories I've loved for years because of the name on the dust jacket? I don't put authors on pedestals, but I admit a few books might be up there.

As some websites get more and more encrusted with advertisements (and I'm not just talking banners; they have pop-ups, fly-ins, ads that follow as you scroll, ads that cover the text, ads that pretend to BE the text, etc), are they starting to remind anyone else of the gaudiest of old MySpace pages?

Now that Bluesky has video, does it also have a way to NOT autoplay video?

I wonder what will happen when it is complete and whether I should be far away.

I'm not saying GRRM has any kind of "responsibility" to readers to deliver on the final ASoIaF books. He owes me nothing. If they don't get written they don't get written. But I do wish he'd at least stop hovering in the corner whispering "soooooooooon......".

Am I the only one who hears all these "historical documents" talking points being thrown about (Louisiana, Oklahoma, etc) and instantly thinks of Galaxy Quest?

I am reading posts declaring that all these SCOTUS decisions will come back to bite the far right. Even if that is true, it sounds to me like laughing at someone who is busy stabbing you to death because 'boy howdy, the dry cleaning bill to get those blood stains out of your suit is going to hurt'.

Instead of all the "AI" business these days making me believe there may eventaually be intelligence in machines, it is making me doubt it in humans.

How is it not illegal to allow companies to wreck your credit score just because you want to cancel a credit card that has no balance on it? Why did we hand them this kind of power?

The way TV execs act anymore, serving only short-term goals that result in the biggest bonuses and tax write-offs, preparing a show's story so any season finale can be a series finale without major cliffhangers is feeling like a necessity.

I am past tired of all companies just assuming I'd prefer to use their app for everything. No. Leave your websites up. I don't want my banking info, wifi controls, or podcasts on a phone app. Why the push? Is it paranoid to assume it is because the apps provide more access to data they want to sell?

So, now that signups require a phone, I have friends who can't or won't join. There are reasons to ask for one (although I suspect overall it impacts real people more than bots), but there are also reasons to not trust that info to companies these days. Any options for future, @jay.bsky.team?

Google: "We are shutting down the simple-to-use Podcasts service you love, but you can now migrate your subscriptions to the overly chaotic YouTube Music!" YouTube Music: "I don't know what these podcasts of yours are, but here are some artists you don't want to listen to instead! Yay!"

I am impressed that youtube managed to break something that has worked for so many years and is basically just "play these videos in this order". I don't even want to imagine how they are attempting to make that function worse.

I understand being annoyed that a game dev would ask their customers to buy and then test an unfinished product for them. What I don't understand is thinking this is a new thing. Steam "early access" has been doing this to us for over a decade now. massivelyop.com/2024/01/05/o...

When did we as consumers decide it is ok for companies to treat us guilty until proven innocent? Online DRM in everything from video games to books to cars makes us prove every day we aren't criminals. Now Netflix wants to know where we live, when we leave, where we go, to prove we aren't "sharing".