"I have a very positive view of humanity, and I’m an optimistic guy. I think humanity is way cooler than we give ourselves credit for." Julien Crockett interviews Andy Weir on the pleasures of research: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/andy-weir-project-hail-mary-novel-film-interview/

This week, I talked with James Ortiz – the puppeteer of Rocky in Project Hail Mary. We discuss how he built his team of puppeteers or "Rocketeers," and why it was so challenging to control a five-legged puppet while doing improv with Ryan Gosling.

"My opinion is that ... these molecules ... unlock perception that enables us to not only see, but to actually perceive in different ways, and often a different perspective on life and death itself." Excellent @atomseden.bsky.social (Luminous) interview with Usona Institute co-founder Bill Linton

"It's not just that something is happening at the receptor level... It's that something that's happening is enabling a reconfiguration of all of the synapses that are relevant to the trauma." Incredibly insightful @radiolab.bsky.social interview with Gül Dölen on #psychedelics and critical periods

BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT 2026-03-07 @ Hi-Dive, Denver @hidive-denver.bsky.social #livemusic #Denver #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex #psychrock

"In the 1950s and 1960s, these three women treated thousands of people, usually with LSD, and revolutionized the way psychedelics were administered. Yet their names have been largely forgotten." Important #psychedelics history via The Microdose & @scipsychedelics.bsky.social @zoedubus.bsky.social

"But his caution misses something crucial. Computing began as a scientific revolution, to be sure, but these days it is primarily, exhaustingly, an economic one, wrapped in an aura of utopian mysticism." On @michaelpollan.bsky.social's new book, #consciousness, and #AI via @theatlantic.com

"The miracle of holding a galaxy of details in one single brain, to see meaning, entanglement, and instruction knitted across that vastness..." Remembering the inimitable Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt with 🙏 @kcrw.com @nplusonemag.com #booksky #literature #reading #bookworm

ALL THEM WITCHES 2026-02-28 @ Boulder Theater “Let it ring through the arch of my skull Let it breathe through the teeth of all these people” #livemusic #Boulder #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex #psychrock

"It’s nice to know that the wariness and fear around AI may be galvanizing into something like a collective immune response to AI slop. ... The challenge ahead is to make the repudiation of the AI aesthetic more pointed, precise, and far-reaching." #artificialintelligence #AI via @thenation.com

New signs warning of radioactive materials settle one Rocky Flats controversy — for now

PALEHORSE PALERIDER 2026-02-12 @ Hi-Dive, Denver @palehorsepalerider.bsky.social @hidive-denver.bsky.social #livemusic #Denver #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex

“Knowledge becomes data; teaching becomes delivery. What disappears are precious human capacities—curiosity, discernment, presence. The result isn’t augmented intelligence but simulated learning: a paint-by-numbers approach...” #artificialintelligence #AI #highered via @currentaffairs.bsky.social

"In Pynchon’s detective books, the form becomes a kind of laboratory for testing what is left to us when information has replaced knowledge and where the logic of detection, the very idea of a solvable mystery, has itself decayed." #Pynchon #booksky #literature #reading via @literaryhub.bsky.social

"Small-press publishers are the spirit that animates our literature. ... They are vital for the literary ecosystem in that they take risks on books that larger publishers would not..." #booksky #literature #reading #AI #smallpress via @thebookseller.com @lucymercer.bsky.social

"All this em-dash shaming has been upsetting. Because I, a professional writer, love—love—love—an em dash." #booksky #literature #reading #writing #artificialintelligence #AI via @wsj.com

"The idea that we’re low on male novelists (and indeed, that women writers are cruelly sucking the oxygen from the few male novelists we do have) started floating around at the start of the decade." #booksky #literature #reading #writing thx @literaryhub.bsky.social

"I think AI in general and police AI in specific really thrives in the shadows, and is most successful when people don't know that it's being used," says Matthew Guariglia of @eff.org #artificialintelligence #AI via @npr.org

There’s something for everyone in here, from installing Signal to filing a privacy request from a data broker. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

“Turn me out and I'll wander baby Stumblin' in the neon groves…” Mnemonic postcards ~ 4 from rainy LA #losangeles #hipstamatic #retinaflex

"What matters to tech companies financially is not that you want to be reading what you’re reading, or that you love what you listen to or what you’re looking at, only that you are unwilling or unable to pull yourself away." #artificialintelligence #AI #technology #cognition via @theguardian.com

"With scammy rewrites and digitally fabricated authors entering the market, [AI] has made searching for human-made content more difficult, causing independent authors to combat what some are calling an AI-generated 'witch hunt.'" #booksky #writing #artificialintelligence #AI via @wired.com

"He’s written things down that seemed unsayable, impossible, and in taking this freedom for himself, intentionally or not, passed the freedom down.” --Zadie Smith #booksky #literature #reading via @literaryhub.bsky.social

"The brothers’ persistent appeal for almost a century comes from their bewitching blend of rectitude and glamour." Long live the #HardyBoys #booksky #literature #reading via @smithsonianmag.bsky.social

“It will be a Mindfulness City, encompassing conscious and sustainable businesses, inspired by Buddhist spiritual heritage, and distinguished by the uniqueness of the Bhutanese identity." --King Khesar #buddhism #dharma #bhutan via @thediplomat.com

"...it appears that the real consensus coalescing around these machines is that they’ll end up reinforcing the feedback loop between an impotent civic culture and a tech-enhanced authoritarianism..." #artificialintelligence #AI and #democracy #authoritarianism via @thebaffler.com

"If we don’t want A.I. to become our unelected supreme leader, we must recognize that we have options and refuse to passively allow Big Tech to grow gargantuan and shape society without guardrails or consequences." Bravo @andibartz.bsky.social via @nytimes.com #booksky #artificialintelligence #AI

AUTECHRE 2025-10-01 @ Ogden Theater As is customary, Autechre performed in darkness. This shot is from evening’s end, when the lights came up. An incredible, mind-melting show. #livemusic #Denver #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex

Fight surveillance capitalism in style—and support EFF while you're at it. shop.eff.org/products/sc...

It really does not get more explicit than Trump telling top active-duty military generals that they will need to participate in occupations of large cities run by his political opponents as part of his "war from within"

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 2025-09-28 @ Summit Music Hall I fell in love with the sweet sensation I gave my heart to a simple chord I gave my soul to a new religion Whatever happened to our rock and roll? #livemusic #Denver #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex

Excellent episode from the esteemed @ttbook.bsky.social #podcast on #datatracking #privacy #digitalsurveillance featuring @lowrypressly.bsky.social and others "...privacy is more than just about protecting the personal information you generate; it’s also choosing what to generate at all."

I really dug the 1st season of Slow Learners, a #podcast about big books from @johnsemley3000.bsky.social & Asher Dark, which is devoted to Pynchon's inimitable Gravity's Rainbow. Looks like they're back with a new season. Wait, did y'all ever do Proust? #booksky #Pynchon #literature #books

Phish @phish.com 2025-09-21 @ Hampton Coliseum Conjurers of thunder #Phish #Hampton #RetinaFlex #musicsky #Hipstamatic

Phish @phish.com 2025-09-20 @ Hampton Coliseum Mothership ascending… #Phish #Hampton #RetinaFlex #musicsky

The Phish @phish.com 2025-09-19 @ Hampton Coliseum Virginia is for Lizards #Phish #Hanpton #RetinaFlex #musicsky

(Thee) OSEES 2025-09-10 @ Ogden Theatre “Skin like metal, fold like a river, bend like a reed, yeah” #livemusic #Denver #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex

FU MANCHU 2025-09-06 @ Bluebird Theater Kings of the Road 😎🤘⚡️ #livemusic #Denver #musicthatmoves #musicsky #retinaflex

Your #Denver area upcoming PSYCH (Rock) calendar~ 9/06 - Fu Manchu - Bluebird Theater 9/10 - OSEES with DMBQ - Ogden Theatre 9/28 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Summit 10/01 - Autechre - Ogden Theatre 10/15 - Earthless & Minami Deutsch - Marquis Theater #frontrange #livemusic let 'er rip 😎🤘⚡️

"People don’t like the idea of books being thrown away. We love books. And no one loves books more than librarians. It can be hard for them too." A tale of lowkey library intrigue from @99pi.org featuring novelist Nicholson Baker, and weeding (books). #booksky #literature #library #libraries

"Our work is for the adventurous and independent spirits who thirst for more..." ICYMI, two renowned independent presses have joined forces with the @sevenstories.bsky.social acquisition of @twodollarradio.bsky.social earlier this year. #booksky #literature new via @publisherswkly.bsky.social

Hope to see all you heads out this wkd for the Queen City's finest underground rawk festival.

"Well, the thing to understand is that enshittification is a modification of this idea that if you're not paying for the product, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵." --Cory Doctorow A great conversation from @onthemedia.bsky.social about the trend of how online products and services always get worse over time.

How about that? A victory for people who actually read.

ICYMI my latest #longreads in @kosmosjournal.bsky.social on #psychedelics and the #multiverse, including @julianwalker.bsky.social @robincarhartharris.bsky.social @meowwolf.com and more. Please enjoy! Head's up @atomseden.bsky.social @oshan.bsky.social @rushkoff.com @noemamag.com

www.kosmosjournal.org/2025-3/ From the subatomic to the cellular, resonance appears to be the thread that weaves order into matter. Long before the first cells emerged, quantum resonance guided particles into coherent structures—quarks, protons, atoms, molecules, and eventually, life itself.

The Voting Rights Act was signed thanks to the Civil Rights Movement’s work to give voters of color, especially Black voters, the political power we deserve. The Constitution promises us a government by and for the people — the Voting Rights Act brought us closer to this ideal.

Empire of AI ~ Highly recommend this extended @democracynow.org interview with @karenhao.bsky.social on the accruing political and economic power of AI companies, detrimental social and environmental impacts, and more. An excellent primer on #artificialintelligence #AI #AIalignment

This week, we look at why so many architects believe that a sci-fi utopia is possible if we can imagine it first.

This week, we tour an exhibit in New York celebrating the artwork of Syd Mead. He famously designed the dystopian worlds in Blade Runner, Tron, Aliens, Elysium and other sci-fi films. But his personal vision of the future was more utopian and egalitarian.