🧵 1/9 The history of Hollywood's Golden Age is linked with the story of Europeans fleeing the rise of fascism in the 1930s. This is especially true for some of the film composers of that era. None more so than the great Franz Waxman, whose birthday we celebrate today (1906-1967). #filmsky #musicsky

Is Andor the best science fiction show ever made? On Starship Alexandria, @aptshadow.bsky.social makes the case to @emmanewman.bsky.social starshipalexandria.com/day-24-2025-...

Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google. My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence! go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT

Festival View: The Ugly Chickens @johnnyeponymous.bsky.social takes a look at the short film based on the Waldrop story www.nerds-feather.com/2025/12/fest...

It's #podcast time, y'all! Cringe radio, angry ghosts, and cute Superman, oh my! @shaunduke.net @pematson.bsky.social + R.E. Junker join forces to talk about 2005's The Fog, cute sweaters, radio shenanigans, and more! Audio/Video here: skiffyandfanty.com/u...

FORTUNATELY, I found a copy of the censored 60 Minutes report on CECOT; COME AND GET IT HERE: archive.org/details/60mi...

This thread, especially if read past the end, is, as the British say, brilliant!

Ask your friendly academic librarian about all the times we tried to tell you that what we do is important and you should fund it. You get the services you pay for, friends.

If you're obstructing it by recording that it happened, it's not justice.

You don't have to be a member to tell SFWA how you feel about AI.

Oh dang that's a cool shot. Tethys is one of several Saturn moons with a whopping huge crater. If whatever hit it had been much bigger or faster the moon would've been blown apart. That's why you don't usually see bigger craters (with respect the moon diameter) on these objects.

The Black Hole (1979) “He said, ‘Would you like to meet with Peter Ellenshaw, our production designer and head of the matte department? He’s done some renderings of some of the spaceships and things like that,’” said Nelson. “I met with Peter, and he took me up to his office and showed me..."

For years, people have lodged complaints about Tesla’s doors. With no official statistics, Bloomberg did its own analysis on the number of fatal crashes in the US in which door functionality played a role. Read more: bloom.bg/49tm0fF 📷️: Getty Images

This could be a game-changer: Fusobacterium infection of the endometrium might contribute to endometriosis. In a study of 79 human patients Fusobacterium was more frequent in patients with endometriosis (64·3%) than in controls. In mice, antibiotic treatment appeared to be effective.

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

It's the last few days before Christmas. Buy safe gifts for kids!

I think if you drive a huge, shiny pickup truck with a bed that is incapable of holding a standard 2x4 with the tailgate closed, you should have to pay a fine

TODAY ONLY (12/21), The Mask of Mirrors ebook is discounted to $2.99 on Kindle as an "Editor's Pick Goldbox" deal! (US customers only; my apologies to the rest of the world.) Affiliate link: www.amazon.com/Mask-Mirrors...

The shorteste daye The longest nighte Welcome, sun Welcome, lighte

Those with the right library card can also borrow this holiday gem from Hoopla Digital (ad-free, but SD resolution). www.hoopladigital.com/movie/tokyo-...

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

All of this thread. I understand the self interest that AI salesmen have to push their product, but the grasping way they’re doing it — the internet version of a traveling salesmen putting his foot in the door so you can’t close it — is only going to drive more people away.

Please share this widely. There have been 13 peer-reviewed critiques of the Cass Review, to the extent that academia regards it as pseudoscience, but so far all have been subject to organised censorship by mainstream media. This is the first time one has broken through. Oz Guardian only still.

A big part of being a historian is being a detective! Who did this? Why? Where? Why does it matter in the grand scheme of things? You have to learn how to probe, how to uncover, how to read against the grain, how to find unusual sources, how to interpret those sources. How to piece together a puzzle

Happy National Cross Word Puzzle day from the #EFA!

I am extremely against this

Today marks the Winter Solstice, a day celebrated in various cultures as a time of rebirth, renewal, and the return of light. This can also overlap with Yule celebrations for many. We wish those who are marking this date and the days to come with accompanying traditions a Joyous Winter Solstice!

the way people talk about AI is like it's a stalker you ought to be nicer to

An interesting observation! #CHEESE abcnews.go.com/Health/high-...

genAI is STOLEN WORK. Using genAI in *any* capacity is trafficking in stolen work, supporting the plunder. Period. These facts aren't even denied by the AI companies, they just find ways to make that plunder seem benevolent. Using their product enables that lie. Stop enabling the theft of our work.

Ahahaha my time has come!!! Let's do this!!! I'm a bit pressed for time rn, so I'll probably do a couple now, and the rest over the weekend (G-d willing). A lot of puzzle / thinky games, narrative-focused, queer stuff will follow (not every game is all of these, but some definitely are!)

it is almost Christmas which means it’s Muppet Christmas Carol season and that, in turn, means it is time to revisit this delightful interview with Michael Caine, who loves everything about that movie even more than you do

Since everything is awful and it’s nearly Christmas, who’d like some pictures of ship’s cats? Don’t worry dog lovers, a canine thread’s coming soon! Let’s start with Tiddles, sitting in his favourite spot on the carrier HMS Victorious in 1943 (he liked playing with the bell rope) 📷 IWM A 10646 🧵1/17

Just to remind you that the livestream of the solstice sunrise from Newgrange starts 12 hours from now. heritageireland.ie/visit/newgra...

"Not all AI use is bad, why, scientists are using AI to diagnose cancer more successfully than humans!" Errr... futurism.com/health-medic...

No document will protect you. All they have to do is take it from you and "lose" it; take it from you and say you never gave it to them; claim it's fake ⬇️; make a new rule that you need ANOTHER document. Citizenship is a made-up status that governments decide the rules for. No one is free until all.

If you claim to be an 'academic' or a 'researcher' or similar and your position is that you should not have to read things and/or write things and you would like the plagiarism machine to do that for you then please step aside and let someone who would like to work in the field have your job.

not that the present economic picture is rosy, but i do think that popular culture — and specifically nostalgia bait television — is a big part of the reason that our public memory of the 1970s, 1980s and even 1990s seems to miss the real economic pain that marked each of those decades.

BREAKING: At least 16 files from the Epstein release disappeared from DOJ's webpage, including a photo of Trump, with no explanation.

"Results indicated that LLMs often proposed inferior treatments when patient race was explicitly or implicitly indicated, though diagnostic decisions demonstrated minimal bias."

Saving the Getty Villa from the fire: www.getty.edu/news/getty-v...

would you like to read about these cars that got bricked when the manufacturer went into bankruptcy and now is fundamentally and forever undrivable? doctorow.medium.com/https-plural...

The thing about genAI is it's an amalgamation, a sanding down of many points of view. So even when it's not lying, it's super mid. Writing is about expressing a point of view, and that can be much stronger when you use a specific expert or source.

When LLMs first appeared I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But it quickly became apparent that, in practice, they do absolutely no good in the world whatsoever. They lie, steal, cheat, destroy the environment, fuck up existing tech, make bad art, steal jobs then do them badly.

for me it's not about if AI art is good enough, or useful. I don't have the skills to recognize all the ways it sucks. what matters is 1) they stole the art of artists to create that and it is not okay. 2) people are now trying to put those artists out of work using it, and THAT IS NOT OKAY.

"“AI consumes art and media from across history, but it can’t actually make anything substantially new. It can’t invent new fashion trends or design interesting characters; it just amalgamates stuff it has absorbed with no real intention.”" thisweekinvideogames.com/feature/conc...

The Others in Plur1bus are even worse than an LLM--they can't and aren't creating anything new, artistically. Which makes a scene in the newest episode really hit hard. (also thinking of the mess with SFWA today, obviously)

Lots and lots of money being spent by schools, with very little data showing greater safety as a result. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

ICE Says U.S. Citizen’s Birth Certificate Is Fake After Arresting Her Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was arrested on Sunday. ICE won’t release her despite extensive documentation of her citizenship via @huffpost.com