Jeff Bernstone

Violence and the Sacred | Ryan Ruby Violence may not be the totality of life, but it is closer to the core than humanists would have us believe.

Pierre Guyotat’s rendition of the genocidal savagery of one colonial war arrives in English as we confront another. His account of atrocity is unblinking and his books remind us to see clearly when everything else tells us to look away.

Manual Labor | Andrew Leland How deaf artists and writers are grappling with a second Trump administration keen on dismantling the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Culturally deaf activists and thinkers tend to describe being deaf as distinct from disability; to them, deaf people are a linguistic minority like Arabic or Vietnamese speakers in the United States; the disadvantage is structural rather than intrinsic.”

person crouched, they are wearing a grostsque mask

William Mortensen, "The Incubus" or "Masks from the West of Zanzibar" 1928.

Here’s the latest company planning for gene-edited babies Entrepreneurs say it’s time to safety-test designer baby technology.

New eugenics startup just dropped.

New TV series highlights ICIJ reporting on disgraced Legion of Christ priest - ICIJ Documents from the Paradise and Pandora Papers leaks showed the "full extent" of the hidden financial schemes set up by Marcial Maciel, a priest found to have molested at least 60 children.

In 2021, the Pandora Papers revealed that the Legion of Christ organization stashed nearly $300 million overseas in the wake of a Vatican investigation into sexual abuse allegations.

Check out the latest HBO series, "Marcial Maciel: the Wolf of God":

Happy 82nd Birthday to 🇫🇷French actress and film producer #CatherineDeneuve born #OnThisDay in Paris

Remembering Raphael Ravenscroft 🎷, who died today 19th October 2014

Played the saxophone break on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" for which he was reputed paid £27.50.

#photooftheday #ClassicRock #MusicSky #music

📸 Roy Anderson

There was a dream I had once where an Italian actress who shall not be named taught me everything I needed to know about punctuation rules and editing. Namely, that they're arbitrary and inherently totalitarian. And she was right. That's why I'm so rich. Timothy Dexter, thou art avenged.

EFF and Other Organizations: Keep Key Intelligence Positions Senate In a joint letter to the ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, EFF has joined with 20 other organizations, including the ACLU, Brennan Center, CDT, Asian Americans

The Senate Intelligence Authorization Act contains a major change that would allow the CIA’s top lawyer to avoid the Senate confirmation process. In an era of creeping authoritarianism this could hasten the Intelligence Community’s use as a tool of political espionage. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Nine members of the Canadian Supreme Court sitting for a photo. They are dressed in red robes trimmed in white.

i had no idea this is how canada's supreme court dresses

That OpenAI has a naive presumption that "creators" are inherently noble and acting in good faith isn't just laughable. It's as crippling as cancer. But AMD shareholder value gon' shoot up up uppity up up and at the end of the day, that's all you noncified greedheads seem to give a fuck about.

Cedric Lodge and his GRIM-R license plate

Grim Reaper comes back to haunt #Harvard Medical School as court reinstates suit over the way its morgue manager sliced off and sold body parts
www.universalhub.com/2025/grim-re...
#lawsuits

“.. His conclusion is very stark: not just that an economy already at stall speed will fall into recession as both the data-center and wealth effects plateau, but that they’ll reverse, just as in the dot-com bubble did ..”

@marketwatch.com
www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai...

Black-and-white flyer for WHUS 91.7 FM radio in Storrs, Connecticut. At the top, bold handwritten text reads: “SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” Below, a stylized illustration shows a strong figure with a raised fist, standing in front of a broadcast tower emitting signals. The WHUS logo is centered prominently, with “91.7 FM WHUS” written across the figure’s chest and arm. At the bottom, text reads “STORRS, CONNECTICUT.”

This #CollegeRadioDay, stations worldwide are celebrating student radio’s past & future. Discover 9,000+ artifacts—station flyers, playlists & more—in the College Radio Collection, part of the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications at Internet Archive. 📻 ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/10/03/h...

Oracle employees who expressed support for Palestine were "referred to internal mental health resources."

Oracle is about to own TikTok.

The fact that both Sandy Pearlman and Allen Lanier had the bad sense to die before ritually hexing anyone involved in this horseshit in some Massapequa basement is proof positive that karmic justice is a pipe dream.

Books Challenged in MA 2022-24 Books Challenged or Censored in Massachusetts 2022-24 These 46 titles were challenged or removed from shelves in Massachusetts between 2022 and 2024. This list is compiled from data collected by…

Listen, obviously, Massachusetts is pretty awesome, but that doesn't mean we're completely immune to all of the broader cultural forces. 46 titles have been challenged or removed from shelves in Mass from 2022-24. That's exactly 46 too many. Here's a list of all too familiar titles

Absolute shame. I can't be the only one who refers back to it at least monthly only to stumble into both new and familiar rabbit holes. Who needs productivity at work when you have Kliph Nesteroff? @classicshowbiz.bsky.social

Debt Strike! Abolish Corporate Landlords & Build Tenant Power The rent is too damn high — and corporate landlords are to blame! Join the Debt Collective as we make a huge announcement: we’re launching a national Back-Rent Debt Strike against the fifth largest…

Tenants around the nation are being deceived, taken advantage of and abused by their giant, profit-driven corporate landlords.

We've had enough.

Join us on October 1st as we announce a new legal-tech tool that could shift tenant power for the better.
debtcollective.org/event/debt-s...

I would very much like to read an article about who made this, how it came to be in Eric Adams’s possession, and any conversations he had about the decision to wear it for Rosh Hashanah.

Exclusive: Nexstar pushes news viewers to lobby FCC for broadcast deregulation Nexstar is encouraging news viewers to visit a website that includes pre-written comments directed at the FCC that lobby for broadcast ownership deregulation.

Since we're all talking about Nexstar...here's a story we wrote in April:

Nexstar ordered its local TV stations to run news stories that promoted the company's federal deregulation efforts.

Many directed viewers to a website that included pre-written social media posts advocating the same.

Containing 405 alphabet specimens from 164 languages, Edmund Fry's Pantographia (1799) is a treasure chest for the epigraphical imagination: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/pantographia

Was this not… what critical AI researchers have been saying this entire time?

Food safety experts warn cuts, staff shortages could lead to preventable outbreaks Food inspectors face increased workloads and loss of union protection, making it more difficult to notice and report safety violations at food processing plants.

At USDA, attacks on workers’ rights are threatening food safety. The USDA has canceled inspectors’ union contracts, which is likely to lead to more attrition, increase workloads, and compromise inspectors’ ability to raise food safety concerns.
www.wpr.org/news/food-sa...

I boiled my wooden spoons – and what emerged from them will haunt me for ever Adrian Chiles

This guy

Glurpo, the world's only underwater clown, c.1960. 🤡

Photo of a vhs for an episode of the Animorphs tv show that features a boy transforming into a dog. Titles and copy read GOD’S PUNISHMENT NOW YOU EAT DOG SHIT the inner thoughts of the child float around his transformation, they read: What’s happening? Sure could go for some dog shit I eat dog shit now? What did I do? Wish I was eating dog shit right now A promotional graphic proclaims A boy turns into a dog and eats dog shit for lying Part 1 the sins of children series

Wanda Tinasky was innocent, OK.

(And why is it that the only reputable source for the Tinasky letters is an archived hometown.aol page? Truly, god hates us.)

YouTube video by Flipper - Topic First the Heart

25 years ago, it seemed like everyone I knew had a Bruce Loose story or another—even if they were only hearsay. And much like my own life experiences w/ Flipper, they were of questionable taste and legality. It may be unconfirmed, but... RIP. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZXb...

YouTube video by Cid410 Magazine - Shot By Both Sides

"This and that, they must be the same
What is legal is just what's real
What I'm given to understand
Is exactly what I steal"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybUq...