fund it

I am having entirely too much fun doing random research dives for this fantasy medieval city setting I'm DMing. But something extremely important that keeps turning up over and over is the extent to which community was essential for resource management, in a way that modern life just isn't at all.

Venerable magazine Harper's Bazaar is running its short story contest again, with the winner receiving "the chance" of publication in the magazine. Just one catch: per the wording of the guidelines, _just by entering_ you transfer copyright ownership of your story to Harper's parent, Hearst. 1/3

Hey, just a heads up to authors and cartoonists... That guy with the emails? He subscribed to a bunch of new book release mailing lists. So a lot of folks' names technically show up "in the files" because Goodreads sent out an email blast about their comic book and the DOJ released them.

Oops, Ollie got a bit grumpy and bit me hard enough to actually puncture enough so it really hurts. The doctor is closed and I don't have the spoons to treat this as an emergency and go to the ER, so I guess I'll go to my local clinic for antibiotics in the morning, just in case.

They should not only impeach him, but do so repeatedly for each individual crime so that it becomes clear who doesn't give a single shit about doing their job. Force the slackers to be openly contemptuous of their oaths in order to keep voting to keep him, instead of pretending helplessness.

I am a middle aged college professor. My mom does this every semester. And it is one of very favorite things.

You know, many of us said the post 9/11 War on Terror measures were Orwellian bullshit at the time, from DHS to ICE. The Patriot Act was chilling as well. Some of us objected vociferously. Perhaps we didn't have the mics or the power, but we remember 2001-2005 as a terrible time in this country.

Today while out to start the process of hopefully getting a Korean driver's license, I went for a walk and saw a tiny dog trotting through the snow kitted out in dayglo orange and high vis reflective striped boots and a little vest. The world is full of delightful details if you just walk outside!

2008: Epstein is convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution 2018: Despite that conviction, [files indicate] he was invited by Rowling’s team - along with a guest of his choosing - to the Broadway opening of Harry Potter and the private after-party Protecting women and children, is it?

Ep 301 of Leverage Redemption S3 had a villa in France full of evil billionaires colluding to pillage trillions in public goods who were keeping a small town activist in the basement until they could execute her led by a guy who admired Putin, and we did not, in fact, go hard enough. Apologies.

Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

If you're a writer looking for paid mentoring sessions, Elizabeth Bear is a terrific choice. She's incredibly clear, practical, and knowledgeable. Worth every cent and then some.

To be crystal clear, by the way, disciplined nonviolent protest can be extremely effective. But if the state has already decided to terrorize you, they aren't going to let nonviolence stop them

insisting on calling every mass day of protest or one-day boycott a "general strike" is not the move. it's good to see people rallying around the cause, it matters, but if you want to be part of a large-scale labor action that shuts down the gears of capital, start by unionizing your workplace!!!

If Graham can hold up this bill for venal and treasonous reasons, then @amyklobuchar.com & @smith.senate.gov can block the whole spending package until Dems get the GOP to agree to clawback ICE detention funds.

Do one of the things that makes you feel better, because if you aren't doing any of that, you will run down. Today I did some writing. I'm a writer, & if I don't write, I run down. It's very easy for me to forget this, despite decades of knowing it. And so I am here to remind you to do your things.

My housemate's friend is over for a baking party, and is telling us about a production of Romeo & Juliet she saw in Estonia that was entirely performed by automobiles. No words, just vehicles performing a sort of ballet of the story in an old quarry. My inner drama kid and lit nerd sides are at WAR.

"Not only don't people work less when they are guaranteed an income, they might actually put in more effort at work. And the fact that they have more money to spend leads to the creation of more jobs." Nobel Prize–winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Democrats Sick Of Being Blamed For Cowardice On Issues They Actually Just Don’t Care About https://theonion.com/democrats-sick-of-being-blamed-for-cowardice-on-issues-1847675639/

The embroidery piece in the header image of this fantastic article is just stunning, but the one further down from Sarah Gonsalves with Renee Good's last words and her murderer's response literally took my breath away.

One experience that I have mixed but trending positive feelings about, in learning Korean in Korea, is that in general if you speak Korean from the start in any conversation AT ALL, no matter how poorly, a Korean will still compliment you for how well you speak the language.

This little guy is so close to having his care funded, less than 20% to go.

Congresswoman @ayannapressley.bsky.social has been trying to get qualified immunity eliminated her ENTIRE career. What the fuck is it going to take to get people to listen to her?

Uh. So ICE just technically tried to invade Ecuador. Cool new international incident dropping.

Yes, we need to abolish ICE. We also need to salt the earth to prevent a new ICE with a snazzy new acronym from emerging in the future. That's a multi-front battle, and stronger protections for our rights are part of that--especially in the digital frontier.

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.

I don’t think we should make concessions to the Masked Murderers Guild of America. I don’t think we should compromise so the Masked Murderers Guild of America stops using kidnapped kids from schools as bait. I thought this was already illegal. The Masked Murderers Guild of America should not exist.

Abolish DHS. If you can imagine a world before Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you can imagine a world without the Department of Homeland Security. My latest at @startribune.com. (gift link)

I finally bit the bullet and went to get an eye exam and glasses today. First time getting glasses in my life, and first time trying to go to an eye doctor in Korea. I almost got glasses back in the US in 2016, but the doctor at the time said I barely qualified as needing them, and the price, well.

That's honestly such a good color! I am not a nailpolish person in the sense of wearing it because I chip it IMMEDIATELY when I do, but I am a nailpolish person in the sense of admiring all the shiny clicky colors from a safe distance.

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

for me it was the fact that the author is one of the main driving forces behind the global movement to kill my trans friends and erase their existence hope that helps

Do y'all remember this from 2016? I think about this a lot. ❤️

“Abolish ICE” isn’t strong enough. I want to take it one step further. Dismantle DHS. It’s not some storied institution. It’s only been around for two decades. I’m older than it is. And as far as I’m concerned it’s rotten to the core.

Sigh. The cat, having reached middle age, has decided this winter that rather than sleeping on our feet or on Michael's head, NOW his rightful place is precisely in the middle of the bed, wedged firmly between us. It is absurdly cute, though.

Americans, if you're looking for something more that you can do to be helpful... now might be as good a time as any to go and donate blood. Donated blood saves lives, but shortages happen all the time, and especially in times of chaos. Please help stock up.

I have spent 100% of 2026 so far in sufficient pain to be noticeable past my chronic pain tolerance levels. Weirdly, the most consistent culprit seems to be my left ankle, which I have no memory of injuring recently. But it hurts to walk or stand, and even just lying in bed it sometimes aches??

Abolish ICE. Fire them all. Prosecute *every single abuse*.

Even after Trump is gone, the world will remember that he threatened to forcibly seize the territory of a peaceful democratic ally, and our institutions failed to immediately remove him. That makes US dangerously unreliable, not just one senile gangster.

This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

tHey'Re iN tHe mInoRitY yeah and while conservatives were in the minority they methodically organized the downfall of the republic. Democrats are just feckless and scattered

IMPEACH HIM. And then, when it doesn't work, DO IT AGAIN & KEEP DOING IT. You can't BE IN CONGRESS, call him 'mad king,' point out all the high crimes & misdemeanors he and his thugs are perpetrating on a daily basis, & refuse to make use of the tool the Framers left for specifically this scenario.

Important perspective from Greenland.

Not content simply sending all of their corrupt presidents to jail, Korea has now begun sending the temporary "acting presidents" who were in charge for short periods while Yoon was being impeached to jail as well. Han Duck-soo just got 23 years.

Introducing the new housemate to Leverage, as is my habit with every person I befriend. The second episode really is utterly enraging and nauseating all at once, isn't it?

As Pratchett said:

what it comes down to is this: if human rights are something you have to deserve, then anyone - including you! - can be deemed undeserving. and once you believe that, the only thing separating you from a fascist is a little bit of haggling over the price.

The older I get, the more I become convinced that logistics is actually one of the most powerful skillsets to master. Any group thrives or fails on the strength of their logistics, from families doing meal planning to cities building infrastructure to nations doing, well, anything at all really.