In 1983, 90% of U.S. media was owned by 50 companies. By 2012, that number was 6. Today, it's just 5. Decades of media consolidation made it "a lot easier for authoritarian government to exercise control," consumer advocate Gigi Sohn says. Much more in my new piece: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

"Do you remember?" Happy Demi Day to all who celebrate.

Since this whole debate is still happening, and since we are still not listening I will summarize what I understand the argument to be in the Lingua Franca of white nerds: Lord of the Rings analogies.

Technology cannot remove the biases of the people who build it.

Drove past the old Joann location yesterday and saw the Spirit Halloween banner, so I guess it is really and truly dead now. Or undead?

Why are Americans so bad at math? And reading comprehension? And logical reasoning? Sigh.

How soon before NPR is categorized as a "domestic terrorist organization" so they can go after anyone who supports their local public radio stations? 🙄

ICYMI, I'm running a brief Kickstarter campaign for my Etchtober drawing project this year. YOU get to provide a prompt for my Etch-a-Sketch drawing-a-day in October! About half of the prompts are claimed so far, but I'd love to fill out the rest of the list :) www.kickstarter.com/projects/jhl...

it's so funny to see America's health insurance companies be like "look. If there's one thing we love it's denying you care. but we ran the numbers - and we cannot BELIEVE we're saying this - and it's cheaper for us to just pay for the vaccines than deal with you going to the ER."

Happy Pythagorean Triple Square Day to all who celebrate! (Which is mostly Colin Adams, I guess?) www.npr.org/2025/09/16/n...

The Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. 🔗 www.404media.co/doj-deletes-...

Give me a prompt and I'll generate an image ... on an Etch-a-Sketch! Call it EtCH-a-tPGT. Or don't, that's pretty awful. 18 slots left! www.kickstarter.com/projects/jhl...

Red Letter Yellow Letter is a quick party game that may hurt your brain. geekdad.com/2025/09/red-...

"Who controls the past controls the future." - George Orwell Today's stack includes books, a TV show, and a videogame that touch on this concept. geekdad.com/2025/09/stac...

There's this little Star Wars space in the local mall that includes a lightsaber merchant, and I spotted these light-nunchucks. ... I have questions.

A first for me: bought a D&D Player's Handbook. My youngest joined the club at middle school.

Just saw that there's a movie coming next year of The Pout-Pout Fish. We read this board book to my middle kid SO many times when he was little. We probably won't see the movie—he's an adult now. 😆

Got a crowdfunding tabletop roundup for you today! geekdad.com/2025/09/crow...

Well, here we go! www.kickstarter.com/projects/jhl...

WHAT www.science.org/content/arti...

When they say "AI is making me faster than ever" this is the kind of productivity they mean

YES.

I've been getting these spam/phishing messages that say "Warning! You have (23) messages that have been placed on hold due to a security scan" and I'm supposed to click to release them. Ha! Joke's on you—I get way too many emails anyway so that's 23 (imaginary) messages I don't have to deal with.

Crash & Grab from Pull the Pin Games is a little programmed-movement game about UFOs—collect your crew (or steal somebody else's) so you can get off this planet! geekdad.com/2025/09/kick...

Hot Streak is a wacky betting game from @cmyk.games that has been a big hit this summer—I've taught it to so many people and we've had a blast with it. geekdad.com/2025/09/hot-...

Gonna launch this sometime later this week: www.kickstarter.com/projects/jhl...

In the past week I've encountered several references to this George Orwell quote from 1984: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

We took the paywall down on this one. defector.com/how-the-fuck...

Argh, really, Powell's?

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑

Cool cool cool. Senior editor at Marvel just playing around with AI imagery. I guess "Irresponsible" is an appropriate title for this newsletter. On Substack, no less.

Apologies for putting this photo in your feed but the replies in this thread about the mirror are just 🤦. People clearly don't understand how mirrors work. Look, the photo may or may not have been altered, but it's not because the bald guy can't be seen in the mirror. 🙄

everyone who is treating unblur like science really needs to look at "white unblurred obama" again

Today's stack: weird worlds! geekdad.com/2025/09/stac...

I liked this thread celebrating the physical components of tabletop games.

How does anyone still take Elon Musk seriously? Does he do anything at all that doesn’t involve hoping somebody finds him funny? qz.com/elon-musk-ma...

Something very very weird happened during the Hugos award ceremony... It's been on my mind for days, and so I wrote this blog: "When People Giggle at Your Name, or the 2025 Hugo Awards Incident" grigorylukin.com/2025/08/21/w... #Worldcon

It’s time for a fair contract. Our union is fighting to protect what makes @kickstarter.com special, and we need your support. Sign onto our petition to show your solidarity: actionnetwork.org/petitions/ks...

Satchel Quest is a bag-building dungeon delve game designed the @flatoutgames.bsky.social folks, published by @weirdcitygames.bsky.social, with gorgeous artwork by Vincent Dutrait. geekdad.com/2025/08/kick...

This is how we get The Amazing Shrimp-Man.

Finally got my copy of Hyperspace--one of the extremely delayed titles from Petersen Games--and while I'm glad to have gotten *anything* at this point, I'm at flabbergasted at how bad the component quality is.

Today's stack: three excellent books of fiction (a short story collection, and continuing two favorite book series). geekdad.com/2025/08/stac...

Thinking about people developing emotional bonds with chatbots reminded me of this scene from The Good Place. It isn’t real, but it’s designed to feel real. youtu.be/srlwXvJSEJU?...

Today's stack: three comic books that all feature mysteries—not all of which are solved by the end! geekdad.com/2025/08/stac...

Had a conversation the other day that can be best summed up as Boromir thinking he could totally use the Ring against our enemy and bind it to be safe to use and reader my flabber was completely gasted.

I guess some tabletop game publishers heard that my review queue was getting too long, so they've decided to take themselves off the list by publishing offensive or harmful games. Uh, thanks, I guess?

Back in college I made a stop-motion animation film called "Glove Story" that I was (and still am) really proud of. I finally uploaded the whole thing to YouTube so now you can watch it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMc...

I've never seen this particular icon before but it made me laugh. Then I waved the package over the head of my 12-year-old, just out of reach.

wow, the blog post from @codenamesgame.bsky.social about why they created a new Harry Potter edition is so wishy-washy. They acknowledge the controversy but can't even say the name of the franchise out loud, and their post here has both replies and quote reposts turned off.

I like that the "If you see this, post a vampire" thread went from TV and movie vampires to illustrations. #vampires #illustration #etchasketch