Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her)

But "sicko fan" is actually better

Weird yet true.

Thank God there were people filming. This administration would have said Alex Pretti pulled a handgun, a package of fentanyl, and a signed copy of the Communist Manifesto if they could.

A dedication page to a book. The page says "To my family. Please don't read this."

my bluesky

The best summary of what genAI apologists who think there's a way to make it something worth using are actually doing.

😂😂😂

Just had to look up what they are!

The pockets are where she keeps the stuff they sucked out of her face to stop her looking normal.

Christ alive. Evidently being rich is about using money to look as inhuman as possible.

Feels like ICE is trying to use Ye Old 20th Century Death Squad techniques, except they totally failed to account for the fact that social media is ubiquitous now and the regime still has basically 0 effective control over "bystanders posting constant video online of death squad movements."

There's a video of protesters outside a Hilton last night, and some ICE goons point rifles at them, and the protesters don't move. You can almost see the goons bluescreen in that moment, like, they have zero plan for what to do next, when people are not 'properly' cowed and submissive to them.

😭 dear lord. Who knew they were being prepared not simply to face radicalized lone wolves but for taking on their own government?

The MAGA regime also really obviously doesn't know what to do with the fact that each time ICE murders somebody, the people they're trying to scare merely get more angry and more motivated to fight back.

I'm about halfway through at the mo (yes, it's started to get real!) so I defer to those who have finished it.

🤣 I read it over the winter break - shortest days and all; definitely got scary at dusk. But apple season gave way to pear and blood orange so I'll probably have forgotten about the creepiness by August.

Also Colson Whitehead's novels! The more recent ones are not as heavy going as, say, THE NICKEL BOYS or UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

And Emily St John Wilson's wonderful speculative fiction!

Or is he into nonfiction? I loved David Grann's THE WAGER. For horror (very few horrifying paras and you notice them coming), Daniel Kraus's PAY THE PIPER and Chuck Wendig's BLACK RIVER ORCHARD are fabulous.

I'd suggest going more contemporary (as in written more recently). Rebecca Kuang's The Poppy War? Speculative fantasy version of pre-modern China with battles and a boarding school for warriors and whatnot. Or her Babel?

Horrible. There should be (laughs mirthlessly) checks and balances to prevent things getting this bad. But my former small state university in the NE had a president who got the university in an equally large mess - not caught and dealt with while it was a smaller mess.

I can't remember whether I ever made an account, and if so in which country. That suggests that I wrote hardly any reviews, and I assume there's no lasting binding arbitration issue if I never open Yelp again (barely think of it from one year to the next, anyway).

Yelp is dead to me.

Not only has it altered its terms of service to require binding arbitration in the event of ANY dispute, it now asserts an irrevocable right to use ALL posted reviews for AI training.

I'm halfway through deleting the 100 reviews I have posted, after which I'm nuking my account.

😂 Brilliant!

The Gales of November <em>NEW YORK TIMES </em>BESTSELLER<br /> <em>Smithsonian</em> • 10 Best History Books of 2025<br /> <em>Bookpage</em> • Best Books of 2025<br /><br /> 'A work of spectral beauty destined to be a cla...

" “We don’t need the perfect rule on XYZ. We don’t even need a very good rule on XYZ,We want good enough.” Zerzan added, “We’re flooding the zone.” "

Skimpy/erroneous regulations is one reason why preventable transportation tragedies happen. Here's one example:

2/2

wwnorton.com/books/978132...

Safety regulations MUST NOT be drafted by a vomit machine.

"[Dept of Transport general counsel] Zerzan appeared interested mainly in the quantity of regulations that AI could produce, not their quality."

1/2

Holy hell.

Campaigning costs money. But I'm remembering the one-sentence election speech of a candidate for university-wide year rep for my BA (Cambridge).

"I'm not from Trinity."

One-sentence guy won. (He was at the newest college. Most of the rest were at Trinity).

Sometimes just telling the truth works.

So happy to do it!

The 2029 Pretti Good Act will establish a commission to identify all agents, create a detailed accounting of all acts, and hold criminally liable as necessary. Agents who voluntarily and truthfully disclose will be granted some leniency, provided their crimes did not include murder or torture.

@brookenewman.bsky.social: "The receiver general, an officer charged with managing payments on behalf of the crown, offered the enslaved Africans to the highest bidders in the king’s name."
💙📚 🗃 #earlymodern #18thC #VastEarlyAmerica
1/

Donate to Help Kythera keep her home (and cats), organized by Kythera of Anevern Hello world! My name is Kythera. I’m a super geeky nerd; I draw stuff, I … Kythera of Anevern needs your support for Help Kythera keep her home (and cats)

My friend @kythera.bsky.social has been applying for jobs as a technical writer for over a year. She's queer, disabled, and neurodivergent - all of which, in America, may be working against her. Please help keep her afloat so she doesn't lose her home or her cats: shorturl.at/OpOL6