JSA Lowe

Brain Rot, AI Slop, and the Enshittification of the Internet: A Symposium (Virtual) - ARU Join us online on 5 December for a symposium investigating the recent phenomena of Brain Rot, AI Slop, and the so-called 'great Internet let down'.

Brain Rot, AI Slop, and the Enshittification of the Internet: A Symposium (Virtual) 5 December 2025, 10:30 - 16:15

www.aru.ac.uk/events/brain...

Join us for our first event of 25-26! A discussion of Fandom for Us, by Us by @alfredmartin.bsky.social, on Friday, Nov. 14 on Zoom. More info and registration: tinyurl.com/fandomforus

four by jean valentine [via sean singer]

"Your Majesty, when we compare the present life of man on earth with that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you are sitting at dinner on a winter’s day with your thegns and counsellors. In the midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall; outside, the storms of winter rain or snow are raging. The sparrow flies swiftly in through one door of the hall, and out through another. While he is inside, he is safe from the winter storms; but after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so, man appears on earth for a little while, but of what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing." Bede, Eccelesiastical History of the English People

Quentin Tarantino’s ‘KILL BILL’ movies will be released in theaters as one complete movie on December 5.

• Will include a never-before-seen 7-minute animated sequence

• Select presentations will be in 70mm and 35mm

if you're thinking about coming to do a #fanstudies PhD with me, here's your chance to learn more.

The Golden Boy: 11 of Our Favorite Robert Redford Performances | Features | Roger Ebert The staff picks some of our favorite performances from the late screen legend, from "Barefoot in the Park" to "All the President's Men."

Here's a diversion for you all: contributors to @ebertvoices.bsky.social wrote about 11 of the late, great Robert Redford's performances. My pick is Sneakers. Everybody else's entries are fantastic, and there are some surprises. www.rogerebert.com/features/the...

you are a treasure 💎

If professors can be fired for discussing topics not explicitly mentioned in the course description and/or not toeing the ideological line of elected political leaders, there is no academic freedom in Texas.

(social media retirement)

kahlo's one surviving letter to o'keeffe, currently housed at the beinecke. o'keeffe was having a quote nervous breakdown, and kahlo writes, "i can't write in english all i would like to tell, especially to you." according to one of rivera's assistants they went out at night in nyc and got drunk and wound up singing to each other in a ladies' toilet???? WHAT????

on page 2 of the letter, kahlo adds, "I thought of you a lot and never forget your wonderful hands and the color of your eyes.…i like you very much Georgia." she visited her in bermuda (?) and later told a friend they couldn't have sex bc o'keeffe was too weak??? and o'keeffe visited her in méxico later??? why am i ALWAYS the last to learn about these things???

was anyone going to TELL ME that kahlo and o'keeffe partied together in new york, visited each other afterwards, and kahlo at least seems to have had a pretty intense crush on o'keeffe, or did i really have to find that out myself today via A FB POST

does anyone know what to do

he should have dickie on sometime in the next 10 months and just roast everyone together. just DRAG them.

honestly thought it would be kimmel but in the end stephen was much more dangerous. poets and comedians are the canaries down the mine shaft, pay attention to who is next

Colbert's cancellation is a dark warning CBS's decision marks a dangerous new stage for the culture at large.

Why Colbert's cancellation marks a dangerous new stage for the culture at large

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

I don't think there should be any question that Colbert is the most brilliant man ever to sit behind a desk at a late night talk show.

Seriously, watch this clip. As an extemporaneous speaker, he can't be beat. And the depth of his intellect is undeniable.

(jsyk i have NOT forgotten about this—am just fighting multiple fires of the aging-parent-on-a-rural-dairy-farm variety)

so few perfect things in the world but Blue is one

Happy Pride Month! We got y'all a gift. It's Issue 20 & you'll love it. 🌈

www.screendoorreview.com/issue-20/

whoa, i'm in here too! honestly kinda sorta hyped about it bc these are three new poems i thought no one would love, but these nice queer southern folks did. they're my favorite, give them some love? 🏳️‍🌈 💕 🌈 (thank u screen door i love y'all)

120 million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR budget reconciliation package The bill mandates disposal of over 2 million acres of BLM and National Forest lands; public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 120 million acres, including local recreation areas, wild...

This would be the largest public lands sell-off in modern U.S. history and it's happening with no hearings, no debate, and no public input.

See what public lands would be available for sale:
www.wilderness.org/articles/med...

G-D, IF ONLY THAT EXISTED [sobs, hides under large basket]

Another shoe drops.

I thought your approbation Fame – and it's withdrawal Infamy.

[E. Dickinson to T.W. Higginson, 1877]

The New York Times has announced an agreement with Amazon that allows the company to use the newspaper's content to develop its artificial intelligence models. Until now, the newspaper has consistently refused to allow its content to be used for generative AI.

A Funny One for a Friend at the Banquet, poem in English translation by Chloe Garcia Roberts.

Li Shangyin 李商隱

my brain is throwing up inside my skull now kevin

Not that I am losing my grip; I am just tired of summer. You reach for a shirt in a drawer and the day is wasted. If only winter were here for snow to smother all these streets, these humans; but first, the blasted green. I would sleep in my clothes or just pluck a borrowed book, while what’s left of the year’s slack rhythm, like a dog abandoning its blind owner, crosses the road at the usual zebra. Freedom is when you forget the spelling of the tyrant’s name and your mouth’s saliva is sweeter than Persian pie, and though your brain is wrung tight as the horn of a ram nothing drops from your pale-blue eye.

(Brodsky's own translation, which is arguably worse; he and Weissbort fought bitterly about these matters)

Brodsky's translation of his own poem: Not that I am losing my grip; I am just tired of summer. You reach for a shirt in a drawer and the day is wasted. If only winter were here for snow to smother all these streets, these humans; but first, the blasted green. I would sleep in my clothes or just pluck a borrowed book, while what’s left of the year’s slack rhythm, like a dog abandoning its blind owner, crosses the road at the usual zebra. Freedom is when you forget the spelling of the tyrant’s name and your mouth’s saliva is sweeter than Persian pie, and though your brain is wrung tight as the horn of a ram nothing drops from your pale-blue eye.

"Freedom is when you forget the tyrant's middle name,"

[Joseph Brodsky, from the end of "Part of Speech," Poetry Magazine, March 1978]