Cheryl O.🥄

We're fundraising for public libraries again! 📚This week, when you donate $15 USD or more to your public library, friends of a library organization, or the @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social, you'll receive a free audiobook credit 💓

Last year, we raised $55,000. How much will we raise this year? ⏬

Buy audiobooks & support local bookstores Libro.fm makes it possible for you to buy audiobooks directly through local bookstores.

My phone carries multiple books (audio- and e-, library loans and ones I have purchased eg thru libro.fm, benefitting @literatibookstore.bsky.social). So I agree we as a society would benefit from all of us reading more, and reject that it has to be in paper-and-ink-technology form.

This just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how to do news. Data helps, but data doesn’t tell a reporter to spend a years-long investigation into child labor or an editor to place staff in a country on the brink of war. What exactly does Bezos think WaPo’s “journalistic mission” is?

Remember: news was subsidized since America’s founding via Media Mail, designed to support sending physical newspapers & magazines. When news went digital that subsidy didn’t apply, so news effectively lost its subsidy w/ the digital change. It never did pay for itself & needs new support to thrive.

A Conversation with Former NFL Pro Chris Kluwe and Sci-Fi Author John Scalzi YouTube video by Ann Arbor District Library

You can see it on recap here
www.youtube.com/live/TBxGoPN...

This was a great time, so glad it all came together!

brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis

There's a lot I'm looking forward to book-wise in 2026, but the standout for me is Daggerbound, the follow up to Swordheart by T. Kingfisher.

This is a quote from the article summing up both studies in Technology Review: "A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party. The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things."

Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...

Ian McKellan as Magneto

I think if Canada wants to have a strong cultural identity we need to go back to doing what we're best at, making the weirdest fucking TV shows you've ever seen

Absolutely WILD that the development of sofrware proceeded with so little heed to record-keeping that 52 year old source code is a major archaeological trove that requires special tools to gain access to, like it's a treasure room in a sealed royal tomb from 3500 years ago.

Timothy Snyder says positive freedom is about being unpredictable. Both he and Cory Doctorow relate freedom to privacy rights. Predictability is augmented by surveillance. Businesses and sometimes governments use it to predict & influence our actions, to make money and exert control. Think. Resist.

Before they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Buy audiobooks & support local bookstores Libro.fm makes it possible for you to buy audiobooks directly through local bookstores.

I want to wholeheartedly endorse everyone read Cory Doctorow's Enshittification. I thought it would be mostly review for me, but I wasn't correct.
Even better if you buy it like I did on Libro.fm and support the indie bookstore of your choice.
Here is a referral link: libro.fm/referral?rf_...

Turing and Turing in the widening gyre
The prompter cannot hear the prompt;
Things fall apart; the algorithm cannot hold;
Ransomware is loosed upon the world,
The capitalism tide is high, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Buy memecoins

How Substack steals your audience and your revenue They're not just bad for humanity. They're bad for business.

"Today, I’m unpacking how exactly Substack is stealing your audience and your revenue. Substack is not just bad for society, they are also bad for your business."

Good idea.
bsky.app/profile/altg...

As of me writing this, the feed is continuing, currently has 40k people viewing. It would be lovely to push those numbers higher

It's about time someone in the senate stands up. I implore my senators @peters.senate.gov and @slotkin.senate.gov to join you!

Arriving at Ann Arbor’s #TeslaTakedown

The GOP Congressman in Michigan’s 10th district is one of many who are refusing to do town hall meetings with voters.

So my friend @maxwellfrost.bsky.social and I are heading there on Saturday to make sure every American has a chance to hear about the Trump and Musk’s corruption.

Statement From Worldcon Chair I am writing this statement in order to share the status of Seattle Worldcon’s current journey through living up to our theme of Building Yesterday's Future—For Everyone. We have received a number...

Please read this statement from the chair of Seattle Worldcon 2025 regarding the convention's response to the current political situation in the U.S. seattlein2025.org?p=3420

YouTube video by Marsh Family "Puppets on a Kremlin String?" - Marsh Family adaptation of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" on Trump/Vance

youtu.be/pvT3aQjLxdE

Here's a 🎶 twist on Coldplay's thumping #VivaLaVida we're calling "Puppets on a Kremlin String?"

It reflects on the grotesque media spectacle hosted by #Trump & #Vance yesterday at the White House. In solidarity with Zelensky & Ukraine.

#SlavaUkraini
#Dontabandonthem

Charles Stross on a panel with John Scalzi, Aliette de Bodard, Abigail Nussbaum, and SJ Groenewegen

“A system may say that it exists to provide homes for stray cats. But if it actually fires nuclear missiles, then the system’s purpose is to fire nuclear missiles.” — @cstross.bsky.social talking about the system as villain at @glasgow2024.bsky.social

The earliest one I remember seeing in a theater is the Disney animated Snow White; it must have been the 1975 re-release. The earliest new movie release I remember seeing in a theater that I'm sure of is Star Wars in 1977.

We played pinochle. My parents taught my sister and I when we were 7 and 6 years old respectively. I learned to count cards and read the signals. To this day I count cards without trying in all kinds of games.

This is just to say

I have fired
the bureaucrats
throughout
your government

Even the ones
that were probably
keeping planes
in the air

Forgive me
I am not very smart
So efficiency
Much savings

A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances

Americans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration, according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian.

WTAF