AI book publishing efforts are absolutely going to be successful if they focus on the new adult/YA types of fiction, fantasy, and romance that make Amazon millions by way of people using their self-publishing platform.

Without @archive.org there is so much research I couldn't do. But more importantly, I would have never gotten to see the creepy Mickey Mouse balloon at the 1934 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (skip to 48:15 in the video): archive.org/details/0362...

I am still haunted by the fact that JFK's sister Rosemary was lobotomized by their father while their mother was out of town because she had an intellectual disability and started struggling to pass in Kennedy social circles.

In light of the current political moment, I thought we could use a revised translation of the Gospel reading appointed for today (Jesus' temptation by Satan in the wilderness):

Friends, I very highly recommend these accessible, concise lessons from @carlbergstrom.com and Jevin D. West if you need to explain to anyone what LLMs/AI are, what their pitfalls are, and why they cannot be said to "think." Read it yourself even to be ready for these convos thebullshitmachines.com

A post somewhere reminded me to withdraw my critique of Parker Posey's southern accent in White Lotus. I was taken aback by her first few lines, but she kind of settled in a good place.

I am currently working to lose weight and I have been considering for months whether to start a GLP-1 RA. I have been shocked by some of the things I am seeing on r/Ozempic. Recently we have some confused thinking that almost views these drugs as moral agents acting on the body.

Nerd question: Star Wars isn't really my thing, but is there, in canon or former canon, discussion of how the Jedi handle ex-Jedi or other people strong in the force who are not governed by Jedi discipline? It seems like this might be a concern, sort of like it was for the Aes Sedai in Wheel of Time

Many will forecast and celebrate a cultural reversal in reaction to recent survey data, but it is just as likely that the decline will continue after this pause, due to the effects of generational replacement. www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...

Didn't expect to be texting my mother at the age of 36 to just double check she stuck to the US vaccine schedule (I know she did) because a mostly eradicated childhood disease has reached San Antonio and is moving up the I-35 corridor, but here we are.

Preliminary good news for churches in regard to ICE raids. This suit is similar to the one filed in DC by the Episcopal Church and many others www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/u...

One thing I’m seeing *a lot* more is this attempt, I think largely by people on the left, to try to keep Christians who oppose Christian nationalism and Christofascism from being able to decouple those movements from Christianity. This is… frustrating.

Just starting White Lotus season 3, and already I see it is going to attempt takes on religion, religious studies, and southerners (really Parker Posey, that's the accent?). God help me.

My wife has an unhealthy relationship with the original 1950s green tile in our rectory bathroom and shower. They have to gut it today because of water damage, and she has been grieving. Just now she claimed a tile from the demolition to keep.

Alright, the Trump appointed interim head of NIH has said clinical trials can continue www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

What a great foreign policy idea to push the majority of the American continents into the arms of China. I guess the move is consistent with the rest of his foreign policy so far.

If you are a pastor, there is almost no way to avoid seeming political when preaching the Gospel. 20 years ago, my dad once had a family walk out when he preached that God has provided enough for humanity's material needs in Creation, we just need to make sure to spread it around to everyone.

Tom Holland on Christianity and the Nazis: "As in Italy so in Germany, fascism worked to combine the glamour and the violence of antiquity with that of the modern world. There was no place in this vision of the future for the mewling feebleness of Christianity."

For anyone thinking about how to articulate why making blanket statements about Christians not being reliable members of progressive coalitions seem misguided, I highly recommend Tom Holland's Dominion: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominio...

A bakery in a Dallas, TX suburb baked Bishop Budde cookies and sold out of all 12 dozen by 2pm yesterday. www.statesman.com/story/news/s...

Just as he said he would be back in December, Trump and his administration have revoked the rule that kept immigration enforcement from raiding churches, schools, and hospitals. apnews.com/article/immi...

Saw Bishop Michael Curry preach at the installation of the new dean at Seminary of the Southwest. His sermon was based on the spiritual-cum-union/civil rights organizing song "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize."

Judging from the replies to the eve6 post about TEC, our denomination is viewed favorably by a lot of people who don't want to go to any church including ours.

To my TEC siblings, please be patient with those of us in more politically fraught dioceses. Here in TX our parishioners are most under threat, but our leaders are also navigating more pressure from conservatives in our ranks. I promise many are trying to push for boldness.

Can anyone answer a specific question I have about #asylum #immigration? Do we have any idea whether people in the US with active pending asylum cases will be removed or put in "holding" in the near or longer term?

When the gov't becomes unreliable, institutions like the church become more important than even. Proud of this pastoral letter from Bishop Stevenson of the Diocese of Virginia.

Episcopal priests and lay leaders - are you thinking about what you will do when ICE tries to enter your churches or when your undocumented parishioners reach out to you for help?

I have, at first, been sympathetic to the apologies on here for Dems' bipartisanship rhetoric on practical political grounds, but belligerent obstruction in Congress has actually borne great fruit for Republicans since the Obama years.

"La migra" - what you should shout to warn Spanish speakers that immigration enforcement is on the way/on the premises ("migra" is pronounced like "mee-gra")

I'm going to give you a few of anecdotes and you can help me think about what's going on. At my wife's CT internship church during 2020, there was some sort of Zoom morning prayer. For months someone nobody knew would show up with camera off. Eventually, when asked, the person revealed themselves.

Watching Bernie Sanders grilling Scott Bessent in his Senate confirmation hearing just highlights how much more mentally with-it he seems than that (slightly) younger Biden and Trump.

Just a heads up: 1st ep of a docuseries about Myka Stauffer, a mommy vlogger who made her and her husband's adoption of a Chinese child into monetized content, then "rehomed" him in 2020 at the age of 4 because his autism was too much for them, is now on Max.

I am a collector of 20th c. ephemera as well as toys +material culture from the 90s-v. early 2000s. I was trying to buy a set of Animorphs books on Ebay last night and I was surprised by something I felt when looking at a guy's collection from childhood: pain.

ACAB rat colony in Houston, TX takes a stand against US drug enforcement policy www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Can someone help me understand how so many people I follow can be confident the gofundme links they are sharing are from real Palestinian refugees and not scams? What am I missing?

This is horrible. The Theosophical Society has had a massive influence on spirituality throughout the world. Mahatma Gandhi was deeply influenced by it. Modern astrology was shaped by it. So much that now or has been labeled New Age or metaphysical spirituality has been shaped by it.

I, for one, am glad Mike Johnson has found a prayer from the 1928 BCP so meaningful, because he needs the Lord, and we Episcopalians are ready to help him better learn to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being

It's kind of goofy when people try to use AI being good at advanced computing like designing personalized weightlifting routines as evidence that we should embrace AI "art," "writing," or "psychotherapy"

The Bear always struck me as oddly timed. A show about a chef abandoning the possibility of making awesome beefs to pursue the only valid dream, Michelin star fine dining premieres 6 months before Noma announces it has to close.

Peak Austin is all the one-star reviews of a panderia written up in the NYT being from Latinos saying the bakery is inauthentic and too expensive and a 5-star review from an Anglo woman scolding the bad reviewers for not realizing how elevated it is and better than cheap pastries elsewhere

I have a great-uncle who trolls me on Facebook from time to time. I reposted a meme that came across my feed with a joke about the limits of quantitative empirical investigation and he replies with, "Exactly what I was thinking this morning." Classic Uncle Harry ribbing.

Does anyone know where the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 got their odd translation on "Angels we have heard on high" that no one else seems to use?

The Butlerian Jihad from Frank Herbert's Dune series is not about Skynet-type conquest of humans by machines. It was about what we are beginning to see right now. The "blasphemy" making machines to do things human minds should do.

The 10% uptick in Episcopal Church attendance should probably be contextualized with recent data about the “nones.” Since 2019, they seem to have plateaued, even falling as a percent of people under 30.

Does anyone have recs for good writing on the positives of population decline (beyond a simple “it’s good for the environment”) or how to prepare for decline (beyond trying to stop declining birth rates)?

I have to this year

It seems almost profound that Hal Lindsey, so influential in leading Xians astray about Christ’s return, died the week before Advent, the season when so much of the church turns its focus to the Second (and first) Coming.

Here's yet another shaken-baby conviction that appears to be unraveling. Danyel Smith has been in prison for more than 20 years. www.ajc.com/news/atlanta...