#scifi #novel querying update: Got one decline and passed the implicit decline deadline for another #agent. My query to the agent who declined was a good exercise, though, because they asked writers to prepare a bunch of things I hadn't yet had to (one-sentence pitch, for example). Now I have […]

https://www.reflectorbital.com/series-a-announcement Dear Venture Capitalists, I have a proposal for you. Give me $20M dollars. I will do whatever the heck I want with it. The money will be just as disappeared to you as your normal investments.

the government should not be able to smash into your home and drag you into the street for no reason. it's kind of a core civil right, perhaps THE core civil right.

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

There we are.

The moment where Hegseth ends his speech and not a single officer claps is the most hopeful thing I have seen in a long time.

#medieval diving suit. Konrad Kyeser, Bellifortis, Bavaria 1459. København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Thott 290 2º, fol. 44r. #medieval #medievalart

/3 The message is that violence is righteous and justified when we — people like us — use it, and unacceptable when anyone else uses it. Violence is always a privilege of the state, but this is enshrining it to a particularly authoritarian degree.

The front door of my house wasn't closing smoothly, so this morning, I took off the strike plate and filed the opening a little wider. Then I went to sit down in my wooden office chair to work and poked my finger on a bent staple on the underside, so I got some pliers and pulled the staple out […]

More of this, please.

A grim reminder: these people will never be satisfied. There’s no point at which they will say “we’ve won, let’s enjoy life.” They will always be looking for someone else to punish, to revile, to dehumanize. They’re empty without that.

A very kind review of A City on Mars: www.the-long-views.com/home/sbqi4p4...

💔 Fred Guttenberg whose daughter died in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

My pulp sci-fi style map of Jezero Crater is coincidentally centered... #Jezero #mars #perseverance #nasa

I agree with this change! I stopped using the term "Department of Defense" to refer to the US military years ago, as "defense" isn't an accurate description of its behavior. "War" is more accurate, AND more morally objectionable. Maybe it'll make it more palatable to the American public to cut […]

Doomers: The 2026 election doesn't matter, Republicans are just going to rig the whole thing anyway Various red state republican incumbents: I'm just going to quit now because if I run in 2026 I'm going to get absolutely killed

If you can't vocally, thoroughly, and unflinchingly condemn the military occupation of U.S. cities, you haven't earned the right to hold power.

This is the kind of choice that leads to a military that tells you you’ll take Kyiv the first day

At the command of the president, red states are sending armed troops to occupy a blue city based on a manufactured crisis, over the objections of that city's leadership and 80 percent of its residents. If this isn't authoritarianism, I'm not sure what is.

Hegseth six months ago: We’re going to turn our military back into the most lethal warfighters on the planet. Vance, Hegseth today: We’re sending the most lethal warfighters on the planet to battle homeless people sleeping in a train station.

In closing: it is not an interesting take to say international law is fake because a bad thing happened. International jurists aren't stupid!

Surprise! My #novel -- though taking place in a distant #scifi galaxy -- has themes tied directly to current events. I think it's time for the Baby Boomers to hand over power to those who must deal with the problems they've created. https://josephshoer.com/blog/2025/08/generational-power-divisions/

Oh, if only I could have fifteen seconds on the phone with that guy. "Can you believe they gave a *Nobel Peace Prize* to Barack _Hussein_ Obama just for *promising* to abolish nuclear weapons? And he didn't even do it! He started spending _trillions_ of dollars to work on more -- Imagine how […]

"We've spent a lot of money on the military and now they have nothing to do so we might as well let the president use it domestically to satisfy his own petty grudges" is precisely why the Founders feared a standing army. I mean, it's pretty much fucking verbatim.

I just called all three of my (Dem) congressional reps' #dc offices to demand they stop authoritarian military deployments against Americans and somehow my calls all got through to staffers. There are not enough calls coming in! #uspol

#silentsunday #rockymountains

Glad the Apollo 13 movie is getting reruns lately. This scene is even more moving today: right, Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell; left, cameo appearance by actual Jim Lovell (1928 Mar 25 - 2025 Aug 7).

Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 mission popularized in Oscar-winning film starring Tom Hanks, dies at 97. @npr has more: https://flip.it/AH6Sek #science #space #nasa #jimlovell #apollo13

Thread from my colleague. ICE is grabbing thousands of persons off the street who look or sound Hispanic but for whom there's no reason to suspect lack of lawful immigration status or any other grounds for detention. Courts have ruled that's illegal under the Constitution.

Thanks everyone looping me in on the Sean Duffy thing. Short response to various questions 1) Nuclear power for the Moon is not new. Look up e.g. Kilopower. 2) None of this clearly would violate international law. 3) It can be done very safely, and I suspect NASA would do it safely.

Do you remember the horrific abduction in Worcester, MA where protestors clashed with ICE as they ripped a woman away from her family? The horror continues. The woman’s 13 and 17 year old daughters were placed in foster care. They are now both missing. 1/ www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/31/m...

There's an optimistic way of looking at today's #uspol gerrymander-planning news: Republicans are afraid. Very afraid. They know their policies are unpopular and that voters will throw them out of office. So, whoever you are out there, whatever you're doing: KEEP IT UP.

Icymi!

Made my #book a splash page! https://josephshoer.com/book/ After all, #querying is all about putting yourself out there... #scifi #novel #writing

Made my #book a splash page! https://josephshoer.com/book/ After all, #querying is all about putting yourself out there... #scifi #novel #writing

Bagpipes drowning out Trump as he’s speaking. Can we make this a thing everywhere he goes

I feel like this is becoming relevant again... https://www.marriedtothesea.com/index.php?date=090507

Immune Full comic here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/lesson #smbc

Two federal budget items, both ~$25B: #nasa. The entire US civil space program, including basic research, humans to the Moon, and robotic telescopes and probes across the Solar System. Massive positive impact to the economy. Congress and the President endlessly argue over the value and funding […]

"Archivists Recreate Pre-Trump #cdc Website, Are Hosting It in Europe." https://www.404media.co/archivists-recreate-pre-trump-cdc-website-are-hosting-it-in-europe/ "A team of volunteer archivists has recreated the Centers for Disease Control website exactly as it was the day Donald Trump was […]

First space mission I participated in in some way

#amquerying update! All the first set of agents I worked for my #scfi #novel have declined. It's progress! On to the next chunk of my list of likely agents. The pitch I'm workshopping is: After a scientist accidentally discovers the ancient force behind her galaxy’s looming disaster, she fights […]

#amquerying update! All the first set of agents I worked for my #scfi #novel have declined. It's progress! On to the next chunk of my list of likely agents. The pitch I'm workshopping is: After a scientist accidentally discovers the ancient force behind her galaxy’s looming disaster, she fights […]

Terrific essay from @mmasnick.bsky.social I wish more of the business community would recognize this https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/prompt #smbc

Breaking: The Supreme Court provides the Trump Administration with a stack of pre-signed, blank orders.

Man NYC is dangerous. I thought I was looking pretty intellectual reading obscure Wodehouse on the subway from Penn Station to Brooklyn, and then I swear to God I look down and there's a middle-aged woman making notes in a copy of Notes from a Dead House by Dostoevsky.