Some people keep calling for a general strike. That's going to be hard to organize and take resources. But a local action like this can happen (and apparently is going to).

This is a stunning resource, beautifully presented - congratulations to Ros Smith Kathy Acheson and their team emwmlibrary.com

In a new video game, players can join a heist crew — consisting of hackers, acrobats, a museum insider, and even a grandma — to infiltrate museums and take back looted African artifacts.

In case you are unaware that digital images are also being manipulated to depict women and children as victims of physical violence. It's not just about bikinis.

OpenAI is now rolling out "ChatGPT for Healthcare" - using a service well-known to nonsensically hallucinate, which OpenAI itself acknowledges. (Both these screenshots are from the OpenAI website.) This seems ridiculously dangerous? Meanwhile... 1/

Have you ever thought to yourself, 'I wish I had a bibliography with 50 carefully arranged references, each one showing a different way AI is making everything worse, perhaps with selected quotations from each reference'? Do I have good news for you" sharonkabel.com/genai-fraud

Spotted today (New Orleans, Esplanade and Claiborne, headed toward City Park. Look right at the stoplight before the overpass)

something beautiful

The judge ordered the restoration of nearly $12 million in funding to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including money for rural health care and the identification of disabilities in children. n.pr/4jEOjMz

The French Broad River

....speaking of free places to find speculative poetry: Uncanny Magazine: www.uncannymagazine.com/type/poetry/ Strange Horizons: strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po... Reckoning: reckoning.press/category/for...

We’re proud to partner with Mattel to help create the first-ever autistic Barbie! Autism looks lots of different ways - we're glad to have the chance to represent some of them, and to highlight some of those that are underrepresented in toys.

A thing you can do to improve your life is to select the "hide this post for me" function every time someone brings a post over from Truth social. There is nothing posted there you need to read. Ever. You can just disappear it.

It's worth your time to call Hilton to cancel your account with them. 1-800-446-6677. Here's why: They asked me if it was because of the ICE thing. I said it was. Then they suggested I wait a couple days to see if they were going to change course. The pressure is getting to them. Let's keep it up.

SUBMISSION CALL COMING! Wednesday, 1/14, 10 AM (MT) / 12 PM (ET) / 6 PM (CET) Subs will be capped at 150, so be quick. The nitty-gritty: 750 words for prose (or 2 micro pieces of equal combined length) 1-2 poems & hybrid pieces (each no longer than 2 pages) guest ed: @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social

Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of “60 massive granite monoliths, set directly onto the bedrock in pairs at regular intervals”. The wall is 30 feet underwater and was built 7000+ years ago. [bigthink.com]

If you're in North America, check this out! It's an incredible lineup:

Hi folks, I'm seeing a lot of "Eyes on Minneapolis" & "We support Minnesota" sentiment. Here's a tangible way you can help: Trump just suspended federal funding for SNAP benefits to Minnesota. Second Harvest Heartland is an MN-based hunger-relief org. Please donate what you can. www.2harvest.org

people, please primary this fucking cowards

If you loved the gay hockey series, you might also enjoy every other book by queer and trans authors that's received zero marketing push. Especially books by queer BIPOC authors who were told, "sorry we already have a book like yours on our list."

ESPECIALLY NOW in a world completely drowning in propaganda and misinformation and disinformation it is SO IMPORTANT to cite our sources and ask people to do so as well. We HAVE to know where information comes from and we have to always be firm about asking.

The Cardiff Lions do an annual Drag Rugby charity match for children’s charities and it’s as beautiful as you imagined

People, I have seen/heard/experienced some amazing sessions here at NOA 2026, but none more filled with fun and great ideas than Marc Callahan and Rose Freeman's presentation on how they directed Hildegard's Ordo Virtutum. Fantastic 15/10

My 2020 Macbok Pro (with the dreaded and now-always-flashing touchbar) needs to be replaced. Folks who have used Macbooks Pro and Macbooks Air, what do you prefer? I need to support 2 monitors and external drives, and both models do that. I'd love to know what you like and dislike.

Since this seems to be under-reported, you may be unaware that digital images are also being manipulated to depict women and children as victims of physical violence. It's not just about bikinis. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m leaving some flyers and a few scores on the table in the Oval Room if you missed the New Works Expo. Come grab some new music!

If you ever installed Twitter (or X or Grok) on the App Store, you can submit a report of abusive content and ask them to remove the apps from the App Store. Just click the “Report a Problem” link on the app’s page in the App Store.

It takes 5 mins to fill this out. If enough people do it, maybe it can slow down the enshittification of discord for a bit.

Anybody at National Opera Association, I have free scores in the Oval Room until noon!

boosting the signal

Unsolicited advice for anyone on Bluesky who wants to fight fascism in 2026 - don't stress about following big national accounts. Instead, follow LOCAL groups and people who are doing actual work on the ground. Join them and do stuff right in your community. THAT'S where the real action is. ❤️💪

1. Yes, this is real footage from Poland's Wrocław Zoo 2. The deer, a male muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi, aka "barking deer"), is hopped up on testosterone because its mate is in heat 3. Muntjac males weigh up to ~40 lbs (18 kg). Maruśka, the rhino, weighs 1.7 tons www.thesun.co.uk/news/3786348...

Just over three weeks left to submit your SFF short story or poem to our second unthemed issue of 2026! Don't overthink it, smash that send button 👇🏿 fiyahlitmag.com/submissions/

Been thinking about this a lot this week

something beautiful

I am not particularly influential here, but I will not: --share Substack posts --share X posts --share images without alt text

🧵 Here's a thing you can do, RIGHT NOW, to combat Musk's nonconsensual-porn-and-desecration-of-the-dead machine: bsky.app/profile/greg... I called my state's AG yesterday and then sent an email; that email + the template I used to guide me, next.

I try not to say "I can't believe people are still on X" thing because people have different reasons for things that I don't know but "by using this application you may completely incidentally encounter CSAM in a way that you are technically criminally liable for" feels like a big Moment to Consider

Just heard an AI ethicist talk about how important it is that we say ‘MEN are using Grok to undress images of babies, children and women’ not ‘Grok is….’. Grok isn’t responsible for the action, the men enabling & using it for this repulsive purpose are. Small but important bit of linguistic accuracy

Wonderful dinner with my NOA co-panelists Andrea Chenoweth Wells and John Lindsey. Our panel on Trauma-informed Tools for Ethical Opera Practice is at 2 tomorrow—come join us and bring questions!

We love you, but yeah. For your own safety.

I love conservation cemeteries; this is a great read on how cemeteries are becoming sites of natural renewal in Iowa, which is a great way to honor the dead IMO.

We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.

Hey, a quick hint for anyone trying to follow the news in Minneapolis from out of state: if you add ?utm_source=gift to any Star Tribune URL, it'll let you read it. Also, some reliable local outlets that are both better and free: www.mprnews.org www.minnpost.com sahanjournal.com

The NOA's new chamber opera finals last night were seriously problematic. All three operas/scenes were full of toxic masculinity and women as victims/healers of the men. Apparently the judges neither see these issues nor reject them. This is not the way forward for contemporary opera.

If you still post on X, the site for Nazis and pedophiles, I am absolutely judging you.

OTOH, my vegetarian meal for the hotel-catered lunch was a 5X5x5 cube of cauliflower with cheese sauce. <eye roll> I guess it's better than the time I just got offered bread.

And I ran into two alumnae of the Guerilla Opera Writing Collective program, which was awesome!

Excellent NOA session on dramaturgy this morning, and good speeches at lunch, calling for the return of standing up for DEI (as though we ever quit doing so?) and the idea of making doors for yourself instead of waiting for them to open (co-sign x 1000).

Just came out of a horrifying pro-AI session at NOA. Some people really do not get it, and it’s so frustrating.