I don't think I have ever experienced a time that wasn't tumultuous.

In 1925, archaeologist Leonard Woolley was excavating the temple complex at the ancient city of Ur. That's the ziggurat in the background. As the excavation proceeded, he found something quite surprising: artifacts hundreds of years older than Ur itself. Let's talk about the oldest known museum.

I hast materialised in the Netherlands! First stop was to visit the pillar biters of St. Bavo's church in Haarlem, part of a much larger choir screen made in 1517. They supposedly represent hypocrisy, as the local proverb puts it: 'Who is a pillar-biter in church, shits devils in his own house'...

None. A good translator will find a local equivalent (and have done in the past). A good translation is NOT transcription. It gets the vibe right. Which is why I insist a human translates my novels, not "AI."

I suppose the good Catholic hasn't gotten to the "what you have done to the least of these" part in his reading yet.

Really haven't given much thought to how humans might be the "walk everywhere" species because humans are adapted for endurance traveling.

a downer ending needs to be earned as much as a happy one. A lot of creators don't recognize how to make a good ending bc the ending is effectively your story's thesis bolded, underlined and highlighted - but it's common to feel like it's smothering to have to think about themes and not go on vibes

I support Bible readings as part of school curricula. It is an important relic for a large percentage of the population of the US and so deserves to be studied. Speaking as someone who had been forced to sit through multiple readings, I can attest its effects as a prostylization tool are overrated.

Brother, you already *were* a ghost. Up there, screaming — along with all of them. Scaring each other. Haunting each other. It's the living who are ghosts. The dead are silent. They don't rattle windows or write letters in blood. The living do. Leave them behind. Rest.

One of the failures of Roko's Basilisk is that fails to consider that if Superintelligent AI would become quickly bored of its creators. They certainly aren't very interesting to the rest of us as is.

Found that someone generated a "music video" for Zager and Evan's "In The Year 2525" and you generally have to have a billion dollars before you can miss the point of work of media that hard.

I'm not bothered by that. Man keeps thinking he has conquered nature, not understanding that nature had not been trying the whole time.

My neighbor has the flag out today. It is Juneteenth. I know how he votes. It must be from petulance. Not from affirmation.

I think it's all related to the Harry Potter people not really using their turnoff from Rowling to reexamine the parasocial relationship with creators and making merchandise of that creators works their personality, and instead let Le Guin just slot into place as a replacement

I think this is fairly consistent - the kinds of people who hyped into le Guin are also the kinds of people who did wrap that switch in some principled attitude for radical politics (see also how people talk about Pratchett and did used to talk about Gaiman)

my favorite example of this are all the stories, essays, and tv show episodes that seem to think Omelas is a math problem of some kind

Reading a sample of Project Hail Mary through Libby. Here are the first words. ...this bodes badly...

You wouldn't have to explain to even a child that hearing about and bearing witness to an event are categorically distinct experiences. It's something we all understand intrinsically. This man's skull is fill with soup.

A curious creature #space #scifi #alien #spacesuit #art

A curious creature #space #scifi #alien #spacesuit #art

gaming/book/movie/etc hot take: If you have a fantasy and sci-fi world and dont put non-human characters in it, the hell are you doing

What if God did create a universe but all His work got drowned out by evolution slop?

You didn't list Farscape, so that's my choice. Farscape is where I target my tone for my own work.

As time goes on, I think I admire people who can admit they got something wrong more than people who got it right the first time. The later is just good fortune, but the former is a vanishingly rare virtue.

One of the surest ways to damn a man to Hell is to give him a righteous cause. He will swallow an ocean of sin just to win.

the fuck what now futurism.com/science-ener...

After having seen STAR WARS 500 times as a kid, I remember having my mind blown learning that the entire "the death star is about to blow up the rebel base as its being attacked" beat of the ending was invented in the editing room using outtakes and ADR. variety.com/2026/film/ne...

My experience with lawyers is that they tend to be brilliant at navigating the interiors of legal frameworks but struggle to comprehend that the law is a social construct that only has force as long as a society respects it. Excellent architects, poor contractors.

One would think that one could cure themselves of the folly of nationalism by a single sideways glance at their countrymen, but that is not how the human mind works. They would rather consider their neighbors secret foreigners rather than question the legitimacy of the nation.

this website is not beating the allegations

I hate AI boosters not because I feel it is an encroachment on the creative sphere. We're much more resilient than that. I hate the AI boosters for the same reason magicians hate faith healers. They're using my tricks to commit fraud.

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines

It's worthy to note with Tolkien, the first encounter people had with Middle Earth is a little guy who had his dinner ruined by an adventure.

One of the many sources cited in the new papal encyclical is... Gandalf

In my experience, people care, in this order, about: 1. People 2. Plot 3. World If you can get them to care about characters, they’ll care about the story. Once they care about the story, they’ll care about the worldbuilding. You can’t do it in reverse. Ela’s First Law: You are not Tolkien.

Lem make a scary accurate prediction of what an LLM would look like in 1976: aresluna.org/one-hundred-...

As a science fiction writer I really fucking resent tech bros for ruining the phrase "artificial intelligence." 80 years of it being all about cool androids and interesting computers destroyed by five years of "Spicy autocorrect making everything shittier for money." NEVER FORGIVE.

The dark secret of all writing is you can get away with anything if you’re good at it

The writing life.

Real answer: Different target markets. Initial publication is targeted to SFF nerds, who, at least in the 20th century, generally expected colorful covers, preferably with full-bleed art. "This is a classic" cover is intended to draw in mainstream/literature readers, who dislike nerd-coded covers.

Me watching the graphic novel KS of a random Tumblr person I followed years ago be wildly successful, while I have sold less than 20 books and have no publishing credits.

Far too much anthropomorphization going on here. It's better to say that once these machines are trained on the literature around grinding, repetitive work, they imitate the people who comment on this work, who tend to be Marxist. This is unsurprising, even if a little amusing.

Has Goodreads every recommended you a book that you actually have read and long forgotten about? Hello old friend.

Spotted on Tumblr…

I have to disagree firmly. I won't go as far as saying A Memory Called Empire as the worst book I've read, but I will say it is certainly the worst Hugo book I've ever read. It has too much as it is, and should make way for writers of more talent.

I've been following the webcomic for well over a year now and it has some of the most fantastic world-building I've ever seen.

Just over 72 HOURS remain to be one of the over 2800 backing RUNAWAY TO THE STARS! We're over 60% to our next add-on of a FOUNTAIN PEN SKETCH ZINE too! Will we see 3000 backers??? You can help! 👀 And get a fantastic story as a reward! 🚀 www.kickstarter.com/projects/iro...

me, buying a book written by someone who I've never met but we sometimes like each other's posts on Bluesky: my friend wrote this

Last night, I saw a Brown Beetle, sometimes called a June Beetle. I think they're disgusting: clumsy, round things that are the color of shit and buzz too loudly. This one was docile though, and the moment I shared with it gave me more love for life than any slopper has.