One thing that distinguishes @ass.golf's A.I.'s (formerly "anthro-PC's", now pretty much just regular robots) from the slop-purveying software being passed off as "AI" in our neck of the woods of possibility - and I love this about them - is that they're capable of self-doubt. 1/

You really have to read this thread. The genius of Tom Stoppard, the fragility of memory, the magic of theatre — and the glorious stubbornness of a researcher who would not stop.

Behold! You have been blessed by the Capybara shaped chicken tender. Repost to share the blessing.

It's okay for some campaign promises to be about optics rather than policy. "We're going to bulldoze his monument to himself on Day One and rebuild the East Wing" would be a very good one for 2028.

Yellow Submarine

WALL-E. (Also a screwball romance and a partially pantomimed action comedy.)

The only 2025 film I've seen so far is Elio (which I very much enjoyed). Besides Sinners, the 10 new films I'm most interested in seeing are: Bugonia Hamnet It Was Just an Accident KPop Demon Hunters No Other Choice One Battle After Another The Phoenician Scheme The Secret Agent Superman Zootopia 2

Well, this was fewer than I expected, especially given [makes vague gestures at current world situation]. I wonder if some of the swear shortage comes from my tendency to self-censor (e.g. f-ck), and some from creative euphemism and circumlocution.

So I've seen this from other Bluesky accounts, and now I'm curious... @profanity.accountant, how am I doing?

Alt-texting a very good question about Tim Walz along with a very apt answer. [Social media posts from br. stahl - "What is it about Tim Walz that has so triggered the right?" - and gbrockell - "He exposes how easy it would be for a straight white man to be decent."]

50% off Iron Circus comics is a damn steal, and I've used it. You still have time!

I've been pondering a couple of Bluesky posts today, one from @scalzi.com and one from @wickdchiq.bsky.social, that weirdly complement one another. (Thanks also to @robertscotthorton.bsky.social and @jblainefoster.bsky.social for their quoted posts.) A (hopefully short) thread: 1/

Repost with alt-text! Your skyline is different from mine, please repost and flood the zone!! Thanks @mbbrownsf.bsky.social for the tip!

The Smithsonian LP (later CD) box set American Musical Theater: Shows, Songs and Stars contains many vintage recordings of Broadway musical songs, and for years all I knew of "Pins and Needles" was the song "Chain Store Daisy" from this set. This thread taught me a lot more - check it out! 1/

Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen: George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars (1983) The Royal Crescent Mob (1989) Burning Spear (1990) Sun Ra (1990) Bob Dylan (1991)

Anybody who is like “Piracy is activism!”—trust me, supporting your local library is about 1000% more effective activism, and it’s still free for you and authors still get paid!

I think the person who codified the Pond Rules has a kindred spirit in the town of Madrid:

If you see this, post an anime you love.

"Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts, Charlie Brown."

"You'll be visited by three spirits." The three spirits:

You know, I'm not sure I ever really read the Pond Rules at our local nature preserve all that closely before

Breaking: Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old

Are You There, Charlie Brown? It's Me, Margaret

I suspect Donald Trump would not like my notional "Rush Hour: The Next Generation", which would have the grown-up version of the girl who gets kidnapped in the first movie (who was a martial arts pupil of Jackie Chan's character) teaming up with the adult daughter of Chris Tucker's character.

everyone universally agrees that it is worth it to be slightly split up in a couple different dining areas because there isn't one single large dining room table in exchange for having a turkey prepared by a someone who takes the craft of smoking meat with deadly seriousness

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, Charlie Brown.

Absolutely fantastic piece on SE Hinton and the history of the teenager.

"These are young men who love without qualification or care for gender norms—time and again Ponyboy observes and remarks upon his brothers’ and friends’ beauty. It’s not sexual, but can be if that’s how you want to read it."—@alishamgl.bsky.social on S.E. Hinton! www.rogerebert.com/features/rig...

Thinking about what must be going through Mamdani's mind during this meeting with Trump makes me want to pre-order his (Mamdani's) autobiography. I don't care that it's likely to come out when I'm over 85. (A Playboy or Rolling Stone interview covering the meeting would also be acceptable.)

This young man has it exactly right.

Y’all check on your Saturday Night Live writers, because they are tearing up everything they’ve already written for this weekend’s show and they are NOT okay

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features." There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

My justification ya filthy animals 🥰 theplaylist.net/rian-johnson...

If you are as intrigued as I was after reading this, check out the whole epic thread. You will not be disappointed.

I think Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution would make an excellent TV mini-series, provided you could cast people who could convincingly portray Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Rex Harrison, etc., etc.

there are four types of guys online, no exceptions

especially if the rumor that Netflix would get Warner Bros. (the studio) and Comcast would get HBO Max is true. All consolidation is bad, but a right-wing Trump-loving techbro dynasty owning and destroying two of the five remaining major studios is beyond bad.

It's hard to overstate what a catastrophe it would be for moviemaking and moviegoers if the Ellisons are allowed to acquire Warner Brothers and merge it with Paramount. I know that rooting for Comcast and/or Netflix sticks in a lot of throats here but those would be far better alternatives... >

As a Harry Partch fan, I couldn't fail to note the documentary of the premiere performance of his magnum opus, Delusion of the Fury: A Ritual of Dream and Delusion. Wonderful music, but the film is a bit hard to watch and in dire need of restoration, and I hope someone gets on it ASAP. 5/

I may find myself stocking up on a certain brand of [something] that I can only get from [one of these big three merchants] - it's for [an incapacitated relative], not me, I don't buy stuff for myself from these outfits anyhow - but will work at "shopping small" duing this period.

I know it's hardly the top priority, but could is there any way we could add "mandatory headphone jack on every smartphone" to the Woke 2 agenda?

As a chronicle of 1980's AIDS activism, How to Survive a Plague is an important piece of history in its own right, but after a pandemic where the US government flubbed its initial response, it felt unusually timely. (And Dr. Fauci features in this one too!) I've been nominating it since 2022. 4/

It continues to amaze me that people have decided Heinlein was a fascist based on this one book. He also won Hugos for space libertarian polycules rebelling against the prison industrial complex and about the deep power of empathy. His politics were all over the place.

Why are all American military freaks obsessed with 'Starship Troopers' but never with other works by Heinlein such as 'The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag'? Why aspire to be cannon fodder instead of an art critic searching for the meaning of love?

As though RAH didn't already have issues with sketchy people admiring his novels (thinking Stranger in a Strange Land and the Manson "family").

So after learning about the disgraceful, pusillanimous firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, I was going to submit a "woke AF" list of films to suggest for the Library's National Film Registry, but in light of the Library's resistance to installing a Trumpian apparatchik in her place... 1/

What perfect album came out the year you turned 16? (I slightly prefer Stands for DeciBels, but it was only available as an import in the USA until well into the CD era, which is why I've also included Talk Talk Talk.)

I've long felt we needed "flimflam detection" as a part of education for democracy, to resist being lead in wrong directions. But it's dumbfounding to realize "elites" don't get taught this crucial skill either; you'd think rich folk would want their heirs to know when someone is trying to con them.

Today we announce the next SFWA Grand Master, beginning with a discussion with Grand Masters Lois McMaster Bujold and Nicola Griffith! So excited for today. @nicolaz.bsky.social @sfwa.org