“verify your age” In my job the summer after high school I learned how to use an IBM MagCard II Selectric typewriter, an early form of word processor. I was headed to college to study computer science and was fascinated by the store-and-recall technology.

Submitted mine this morning, citing my experience with NSF proposals from the submitting and the reviewing sides. The submission was easy. Looking at a summary of the proposal and deciding which aspects to comment on took a little time. Commenting on one or two things is better than none. Go do it.

Sometimes I really miss the old Making Light no-politics threads. People are entitled to feel what they feel and say what they think, but I have had enough and can’t fully filter the Discourse from other conversation. Muting the name helps but not enough. I guess this is my cue to quit scrolling.

Here’s a thread of wonderful cats & kittens we have who need people!! Some are shy and sensitive and some are outgoing and extroverted! All of them are located in Elkton, MD and you can apply for them here: form.jotform.com/crits4cats/c... Starting with our longest resident of 21 months, Shoyu🧵⬇️

Martha Wells Lois McMaster Bujold T Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon Nora Roberts/J D Robb Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette

BREAKING NEWS: Small otter thinks it’s a cat, but nobody really minds and everyone has a great time.

Oh, have I not told this one here? Okay. So Grandma had The Charisma.

SF writers and readers are some of the nerdiest nerds on the planet. We love tech. We are so early-adopter that we imagined it before you built it. If you’ve lost us, you’ve lost the fight.

I am doing this reading equivalent of a Couch to 5K. I read a lot, but it tends to be rereads or favorite genre authors, and I would like to reaccustom my brain to reading more deeply.

The image here borrows its title from Grant's 1868 presidential campaign slogan, "Let us have peace." Here's what Frederick Douglass had to say about that sentiment.

It is going to be FASCINATING to see what Leo does! On the one hand, he's very much a believer in the diversity of approaches in the church; on the other, he is absolutely DONE entertaining Vatican II denial and is signaling he is ready to start using the Holy Papal Baseball Bat of Loving Correction

GOOD NEWS! A personalized mRNA vaccine, known as mRNA-4157, has shown promise in keeping melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, from returning. FIVE years later, NEARLY 70% of people in the vaccine group are CANCER-FREE. The vaccine also cut a person’s risk of the cancer metastasizing by NEARLY 60%.

When the selkie returned to the beach, a man was holding her sealskin. "Is this yours?" he asked. "May I borrow it?" "You want to be a seal?" "No, but when I take it off, I'll be a woman, right?" "My heart, you already are," the selkie said. "That skin is mine, but I can help you find yours."

Where is my hairbrush? Where oh whe-e-ere is my hairbrush?

WANT TO SNORFLE THE MURDERCAT (🔊 up)

Young great blue herons watching a helicopter. Filmed June 20, 2026, at Oak Woods Cemetery.

Now open for pre-orders, a new series set in Chaz Brenchley's Red Raj, featuring the one-and-only Sherlock Holmes wizardstowerpress.co...

When you dress up for the work party and everyone shows up in business casual 🪶

This makes me happy.

The White House before the current occupants and as it should have looked for America’s 250th birthday.

Today in "the metaphors just write themselves, don't they":

Great article. Neither blind boosterism nor pooh-poohing of partial solutions. A portrait of a pragmatic effort that has evolved and improved since its first proposal. Unsurprised that it’s a Dutch guy. Pragmatism, incrementalism, and honestly listening to criticism are part of the culture.

I am SO sick of headlines like this. The public sees "AI" as being LLMs/ChatGPT, not an ML algorithm - and articles like this mislead the public into thinking that LLMs are discovering novel things. It's a cool thing! I'm excited! But it is lazy reporting to suddenly use "AI" as such a broad term

Yes. Using a computer now feels like this at all times.

reskeet if you’re radically pro-transgender

Looking for a new author to try out? Here's everything you need to know about the books of KJ Charles.

Name 10 movies you have seen on the big screen, original or rereleased The Sound of Music 101 Dalmatians The Exorcist Star Wars Blazing Saddles Gandhi Amadeus The Black Stallion The Eagle Huntress On the Basis of Sex

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

I want to mention something nice that happened to me today, in part to document, for my own sake, that good things still happen in this horrible world. It involves the London Underground, an escalator, a small boy and some rubber ducks.

🧵 about hope in dark times, and particularly about hope in redemption of those who leave extremist groups.

The ministry nobody calls ministry: the phone call to check in, the errand you ran because someone needed it, the showing up when you’d rather not. That’s real work. That’s sometimes what holds everything together.

I am once again begging, praying, weeping for lists of written instructions rather than videos. I do not want to watch your two minute video in the hope of catching the two seconds where you whizz past what goddamn menu the thing is under. Write. It. Down.

We Support Jamie Raskin 💙.......

Scientists named this species of hairy ghost pipefish after beloved Sesame Street resident Mr. Snuffleupagus and we're obsessed.

Someone AGAIN has posted on another platform that "reading is elitist" and I am sorry but NO. That's ridiculous and it's actually INSULTING. The end.

I set up this screenshot to dunk on Odysseus but now I kind of want to do this

Guys. Heads up. Let’s talk about Hantavirus. There have been SEVERAL bad takes and BLATANT misinformation circulating regarding this outbreak so I figured it was a good idea to make a thread about it. Stay calm. Stay vigilant. Know your facts. Here’s ALL you need to know. 🧪🧵⬇️

Despair Is Not Wisdom

How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, Chachra An Immense World, Yong The Plant Hunter:A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines, Cassandra Quave Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder What Management Is: How It Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business, Joan Magretta

My household has been Physiotherapy, medical appointments and taxes--and I was so completely frazzled that I forgot the *good news*, which is Cast in Blood's release day >.<

Overambitious Man Wants To Get 2 Things Done Today https://theonion.com/overambitious-man-wants-to-get-2-things-done-today/

Article explaining why it's easy to believe that the thwarted shooting at the WH Correspondents' dinner on Saturday was staged (because everying seems like kayfabe when so much of what we see is) — and why that "staged" belief is almost certain wrong: www.thedailybeast.com/i-get-why-pe...

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden, Brookeville MD. Peak bloom this week.

I do think tech companies are underestimating the amount of - new account fatigue - new app fatigue - useless upgrade fatigue - terms of service fatigue

Ἐρευνάτω τοὺς ἐπίκουρους. - Ἅγιος Φρειδερίκος πρὸς Γείτονες 1:43 (Greek) Quaerete adiuatores - Sanctus Fridericus Ad Proximes 1:43 (Vulgate) Seek ye the helpers - Saint Frederick, Epistle to the Neighbors 1:43 (KJV)

GOOD NEWS! Researchers have made a HUGE breakthrough towards a UNIVERSAL antiviral. By targeting sugar molecules found on the surface of many viruses that SHARE structural similarities, they identified FOUR compounds that successfully BLOCKED infections from SEVEN different viruses.

Spending a lot of time ripping out crab grass by hand so my clover can take root out back, and it has me meditating a lot on what it means to take out fascists. We always used to say it was whack-a-mole, it wasn't. Successful antifascism in a democracy is a practice of weeding

@TKingfisher If you must manifest something, I have a long list of things I would rather see, beginning with the Temple of the White Rat.