Friends and followers, porters and preppers: The Autumn Death Stranding essay is real and it is a history of America's apocalyptic zeitgeist. Literal years of writing and research channeled into this one. Very excited to say it's getting written and you just have to wait!

An entire generation of pundits and contrarians made this their pet issue and now that it is happening at a level never seen before, it’s just:

Post a horse from any game as a reply and I'll tell you my opinion about it as a professional horse game consultant and certified video game horse expert also repost this so much that I'll regret posting it, I need an excuse not to do any other work today

Yup - this weird treatment of people as utilities seems not ideal to me. I assure you there are reasons - many, many reasons - the details outlined in this article have not led to a massive American expatriate community in Tbilisi.

Excited to see how much of this article is “living abroad they can get servants without paying even minimum wage”

I am delighted to have been invited to give a talk this weekend at the conference ‘What Is Testimony For?’ at Yale University, which explores cultures of remembrance of the Second World War in digital games. macmillan.yale.edu/gsp/events/2... #HolocaustStudies #GameStudies

WOMEN & NON-BINARY GAME DEVS! As part of my PhD, I will be looking to interview lots of game devs and I want to talk to YOU! If you are a woman and/or non-binary game dev, or know of anyone & would be willing to have a chat about your work and yourself, please reach out!

This week I talk about Animal Crossing and why I think it's an interesting key to understanding a popular vision of Japanese history that spans the twentieth century. I presented on this at PCA a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. In the process of working towards a chapter. youtu.be/T78s3zHnDjQ

john wick feeling apprehensive about what hes doing to the backdrop of the music at this ska club

michael stipe, singing 'it's the end of the world as we know it', karaoke revolution (score: 10,964), ps2 (2003) archive.org/details/offi...

🧵 The arguments behind landmark Supreme Court rulings have never been freely available… until now. More than 125,000 #SCOTUS records & briefs (1830–2019) are now open on the Internet Archive. Full announcement ⤵️ blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/u... @wolflawlibrary.bsky.social

He's a liar and a killer. I don't know what else to tell people, he's a rich eugenicist, he wants as many poor people as possible to die in the name of 'health.' He's a genuinely and uniquely malign figure in American life and his appointment was an act of violence

Would it kill the next journalist planning a “STEM majors make millions, humanities majors work at McDonalds” article to find out if it’s actually, you know, true?

"These are the artists, illustrators, character designers, environment designers and other technical specialists responsible for the look of Marvel’s film and television productions. Many had been with Marvel for a decade or more." Short term vision, as usual. 🤷

still the most fun I've ever had at work www.vice.com/en/article/a...

BLOOB FOR THE BLOOB GOD!

That Palantir manifesto was essentially, "Boromir should have been given the ring and allowed to use the n-word."

Trump’s “complicated relationship with the Bible” is a lot like my complicated relationship with Charlize Theron

Dilley is evil and must be closed. It's a goddamn concentration camp. A moral abomination. People are going to Hell over this.

incredible that this movie doesn't already exist. Statham as a ticket-puncher on the Long Island Railroad who gets embroiled in a terrorist plot and also inexplicably has an English accent

we need Teenjus now more than ever.

I have zero time for Catholics who diss the Pope. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the religion, in my opinion.

Okay so I'm actually thinking about this. "Dad Games" exist both thematically and mechanically, right? Thematically they're about guiding someone into adulthood, mechanically they're escort missions

I had a great time at PCA 2026, and @whitakeralmanac.bsky.social was there to talk video games! youtu.be/ry6AI_HeDY4

The point of the university as a concept is that it's been here for a thousand years and meant to be here another thousand. Turning education over to producing what the market needed five years ago is never going to work well.

I had a great time at PCA 2026, and @whitakeralmanac.bsky.social was there to talk video games! youtu.be/ry6AI_HeDY4

1. A lot of people are focused on the apparent contradiction/absurdity of Trump blockading the Strait if he wants to open it. And yes, that is a real issue. But the even more immediate concern is what the U.S. Navy must do to actually put this plan into effect.

It's a great example of the "both things can be true" phenomenon.

I'm sure it's the case that Orban would have lost without JD Vance's help but I still think we can chalk that up as another big L for JD

Well let's see. 1. Half-Life 2 (and chapters) 2. Disco Elysium 3. Baldur's Gate 3 4. Planescape: Torment 5. Grim Fandango 6. Breath of the Wild 7. Ghost of Tsushima 8. Death Stranding 10. Factorio/Satisfactory

Top ten as of right now, but would probably change if I thought about it for another 5 mins. 1. Super Mario Galaxy 2. Star Wars: TIE Fighter 3. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 4. Pilotwings 5. Metroid Prime 6. Half-Life 7. Goldeneye 007 8. Teardown 9. Firewatch 10. Ghost of Tsushima

My top ten games of all time, as of the morning of April 12th, 2026: 1. Super Mario Bros. 3 2. Crusader Kings 2 3. Half-Life 2 4. The Last of Us Part Two 5. Animal Crossing 6. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 7. Spelunky 8. Space Quest II 9. Destiny 2 (um, not its current iteration) 10. Halo 3

There were no video games before 1998. It's a fact. Also, there are no comedies in games. Not even one.

For those interested in seeing what old British kids TV was like, heres an awesome one to check out.

1995 Title Screen

On consideration, I think if the deal stands along the lines that have been reported, with Iran continuing to extract its tolls and without making any other concessions, I'd say this is probably the worst the United States has ever lost a war. Truly a shocking outcome, if it holds.

Sharing this posting which could be a dream PhD for many: www.uni.lu/en/jobs/doct...

“I never thought Elon would muffle *my* legitimate news sources” says guy who uses the “Elon muffles legitimate news sources” app.

Great piece by Crusades historian @lollardfish.bsky.social about Hegseth et al’s misuse of medieval history. www.startribune.com/iran-war-isl...

One of my favorite “history fun facts” I often share in class is that Notre Dame is called “the fighting Irish” because in 1924, UND students beat the shit out of a local Klan that tried to harass them for being Catholic. stories.nd.edu/stories/a-cl...

Free Friday newsletter. Let’s draw wild conclusions from tiny sample sizes like the responsible baseball fans we are! open.substack.com/pub/mollykni...

It would behoove Americans to remember that having a stable reliable civil-military relationship is not the historical default - it is unusual, especially in republics. They have forgotten what all those constitutional provisions were for: they might get to be reminded soon enough.

This sucks. I've been following this guy's running videos on Instagram. His "run every street" project was so cool, and he genuinely loves this city.

Disturbingly, Trump appears to be handling the Iran War he started the same way he handled COVID: by pretending everything is fine and wishing all the bad things away. This seems like a dangerous policy.

"Apparently the case he intends to make here is, 'look, don't blame me. Blame the UK. You know, if they'd come in—it's their oil. We were only there to kind of help out.' Notwithstanding the fact that we started the war!" Andrew Egger on Trump's plans for the Strait of Hormuz.

It’s actually possible to write headlines that don’t obscure who did what. Thanks, AP.

We are almost halfway funded for our Oz anthology, Omniboz: Tales from the Land of Oz, featuring sci-fi, fantasy, and horror authors! Help us reach our goal: www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/... @starsandsabers.bsky.social #books

NYTimes has spent years breathlessly repeating claims that objecting to the treatment of Palestinians is antisemitic, but when right-wingers say they're “J-pilled,” NYTimes calls this "slang for skepticism of Israeli influence." Where's the "J" in "Israel"? Might that "J" mean something else?

Some nuanced and well spoken commentary here by @jimtrinca.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7i5...