Breaking: Marion County agrees to pay out $3M for newspaper raid, express regret kansasreflector.com/2025/11/11/m...

One of the biggest moments of my career: USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!

A few more quotes here: gen-ai-lies.org/2025/12/22/l...

More hallucitations: “AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don’t Exist — and They’re Being Cited in Real Journals” (Link to Rolling Stone article.) gen-ai-lies.org/2025/12/21/m...

Excellent long (spoilerful) thread by Claire Willett about _Wake Up Dead Man_. I finally saw the movie and came back to read this thread, and there are at least five posts here that shed new and fascinating light on various aspects of the movie for me. Good stuff.

I’ve seen some excitement about some polls showing Trump’s approval rating dipping below 40%. So I feel like it’s worth noting that throughout Trump’s first term, his approval rating (according to 538’s poll averages) was almost always between 37% and 43%. web.archive.org/web/20200901...

“‘An Overwhelmingly Negative And Demoralizing Force’: What It’s Like Working For A [Game] Company That’s Forcing AI On Its Developers” 1/

Worth re-upping this video about a similar vulnerability exposed in one of Flock's major competitors, Motorola Solutions. The many problems with Flock are common throughout the industry. Flock isn't the problem, surveillance is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dUn...

Responsible researchers have the privilege to unhitch themselves from the "AI" brand at any time. Are you studying wildfire smoke or deforestation using satellite imagery? That used to be "remote sensing" and you can call it that again. Signal processing, image segmentation, structure-from-motion.

started / going

Oral-B has an “oral care waste“ recycling-by-mail program: “COLLECT: Gather all your used oral care waste [as long as it’s branded as Crest, Oral-B, or Fixodent], including spent toothbrushes, floss containers and toothpaste tubes and pack them into any size box.​” 1/

“As the Trump administration ordered agencies to eradicate ‘illegal’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, we identified more than 1,000 nonprofits that removed such language from the mission statements in their tax filings.” www.propublica.org/article/dele...

“Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks” “The format credited with making books more accessible via low prices and widespread availability will all but vanish from the publishing scene in a few weeks” (Article from Dec. 12.) www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Disney “has announced a landmark deal and $1 billion investment with OpenAI to bring hundreds of Disney characters to its generative AI platforms.” (Article from Dec. 11.) gizmodo.com/disney-opena...

Deep breath Ok I'm going to try and stay calm But I'll point out that AI translation is literally causing translators to be fired (see the whole Harlequin line in France) (1/?)

“Teensy Animals for Your Viewing Pleasure” Photos of tiny snake, chameleon, spider, skunk, koala, tortoise, bunny, & ducklings. (Posted in 2015—before generative AI but after Photoshop. I don’t know for sure that all of these are real, but I have no reason to doubt it.) imgur.com/gallery/teen...

my name is cow and wen its nite and when a star is shiyning brite and three wise men give me the nod i walk up close I lik the God

Study in Helsinki indicating benefits of portable air cleaners on lowering infection risk in daycare centers, less absences & parent absences from work in intervention vs. reference (no air cleaner) groups. Cleaning indoor air is not difficult and it works. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fam heads up on a call for submissions: please share with a Black Horror writer who you know would eat this up. Look at that dream editing duo: @mauricebroaddus.bsky.social and @chesyaburke.bsky.social 🔥🔥🔥 Deadline January 14th, 2026...! blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-goth...

"your trauma made you stronger". no, my trauma made me traumatized. it made me weak, it gave me memory loss, and it gave me feelings i've never wanted. i made myself stronger by dragging myself out of a dark place and dealing with consequences that weren’t my fault.

Fake blobfish, et al: “Deep Sea Social Media is Flooded by AI Slop” www.southernfriedscience.com/thats-not-a-...

A Lord of the Rings cover band called Flock of Smeagols

First among equals Best among equals Most among equals Least annoying among equals Furriest among equals Cursed among equals Second among equals Averagest among equals Gloomiest among equals Hearst among equals Pointiest among equals Unequalest among equals Worst among equals #Variations

Quote from the video: “As soon as you humanize the faceless monster, now you got a huge problem. It ceases to become fantasy adventure. Keep monsters monstrous, ’cause you need to have things to kill.” Ugh.

In case anyone ever fears you’re not supporting the author by reading from a library, you absolutely are! And the more people request a book the more copies they buy!

How to apply to be “the artist behind the representative image for the year” for WisCon 2026.

Just to remind you that the livestream of the solstice sunrise from Newgrange starts 12 hours from now. heritageireland.ie/visit/newgra...

Sincerely one of the funniest things the WSJ has ever written or done. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Stunning new revelation: Epstein hung out almost exclusively with guys who had black boxes where their heads should be.

new scam going around where they hire you for a job but pay you less than the value your labor produced

When “AI-enhanced pathology diagnostic systems” were presented with radiology results, they tended to identify demographic information from the images then use those demographics as the basis of diagnosis. Leading to errors in 1/3 of diagnoses for Black patients.

Minnesotans across race and background are coming together to say WE LOVE OUR IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORS! we're marching down Lake Street shopping at immigrant businesses and saying with one loud voice: #ICEOutOfMN @seiu.org

A tow truck driver who towed an ICE SUV that was blocking a driveway while the agents kidnapped Angelanos back in September was just found NOT GUILTY on the only charge against him (theft of government property). THAT'S ANOTHER WIN FOR "FUCK YOU; MAKE ME"

there is a reason librarians very intentionally don't record this information. this is that reason

ICE whistles work.

Update from SFWA about generative AI and the Nebulas: www.sfwa.org/2025/12/19/p...

Do you write about comics? If you do, you should consider applying to the Comics Criticism Mini Grant. All you need are two clips published over the past year. It is a very simple application! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Today I learned that Wikisource has a bunch of useful info about copyright status of old works, and about projects in progress that are digitizing old works. 1/

On January 1, 2026, works published in 1930 will enter the public domain in the US. web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicd... Some examples from that post: Books: * _As I Lay Dying_, by William Faulkner. * _The Maltese Falcon_ (full book version), by Dashiell Hammett. 1/

I would caveat that the exact dividing line can be a little fuzzy; for example, there are generative-AI-adjacent tools (like speech-to-text tools and spellcheckers) that are much less problematic. But I agree that largely-AI-authored works shouldn’t be eligible, even if a human had input.

This is also the anti-sex worker rights movement play, it’s a classic

Sumana on the Python Software Foundation turning down an NSF grant, due to the anti-DEI strings attached.

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Some things that a woman ain’t supposed to see!

It's not just TomboyX, by the way! Trump's FDA has sent these warning letters to 11 companies that sell Binders. - TransGuy Supply - ShapeShifter Apparel - GenderBender - gc2b - TomboyX - FLAVNT Streetwear - Early to Bed - TOMSCOUT - For Them - Fluxion - UNTAG www.fda.gov/inspections-...

....oh, nothing, just me cracking up at the thought that using a wheelchair gets you to skip airport lines. If only. IF ONLY.

Assorted stuff I’ve done this week. www.kith.org/jed/2025/12/...

Today I learned that Safeway bought Andronico’s in 2016. (Hadn’t known, or hadn’t remembered, that there was any connection between them.)

Tis the season when I flog my Nebula-nominated 22 year-old short story about Santa Claus vs. the personification of entropy. Text: strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi... Audio: escapepod.org/2007/12/25/e...

The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality. And trans lives are grounded in reality. We see y'all. No matter what. www.popsci.com/science/tran...

Merriam quits the high-stakes world of lexicography to teach at a college in Springfield, MA…where Webster just became the head librarian. She shows him that ‘love’ isn’t that hard to find…if you know where to look it up. “A Merriam Little Christmas 2: Collegiate Edition.”