J.T. Greathouse

Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk say human population not nearly big enough: ‘If we had a trillion humans, we would have at any given time a thousand Mozarts’ “I think in a lot of these endeavors we're very like-minded,” Bezos said of himself and Musk regarding getting humans into space.

I don’t know why this incenses me as much as it does, but it does:

we very likely have a thousand plus Mozarts *right now*. But they make non-Western art in economically destitute conditions so they have to do other work to pay bills; if you cared, UBI’d be more important to you than going to space

man you don't see East/West political maps like this any more

New ARC day! Always excited for more @richardswanauthor.bsky.social

Frankly we could probably save America if we could get all of our elected leaders and corporate leaders and journalists to join a massive national book club where we read exactly one book: The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans.

AMA Today! Throw questions at me over on Reddit: bit.ly/3UlMmca

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Serve your country! Defend your culture!

Just in case it’s not already clear that ICE is a white supremacist thug army, Homeland Security is recruiting with a “defend your culture” slogan.

The only article on AI you need to read this week.

TL;DR: "If LLMs as a technology are viable, they’ll still be around when and if I decide they’re useful for me. If not, I’ll have missed out on losing my life’s savings in Beanie Babies, The DotCom bubble, or NFTs."

Hideo Kojima presents Madden 27

there's an episode of The Simpsons where Marge tries to get a violent cartoon pulled from the airwaves, only to discover that the people backing her aren't going to stop at just the art that *she* doesn't like, and that supporting artistic freedom means accepting discomfort.

It aired in 1990.

VANCE: As an ice breaker, let's all name our favorite amendment to the Constitution. Pam?

BONDI: Uh ... the First, I guess?

BLANCHE: Can't represent the Big Guy without the Fifth!

PATEL: #2 on the list, but #1 in my heart. All about the guns, son!

VANCE: So ... no fans of the 25th huh

Book review: Casthen Gain by Essa Hansen is a delectable return to The Graven multiverse It's hard to fight for survival on an empty stomach, but fortunately for the hero of Casthen Gain, the weird and wild physics of The Graven multiverse provide a

Really enjoyed CASTHEN GAIN, a new novella of The Graven from @essahansen.bsky.social & @grimdarkmagazine.bsky.social. It combines cozy foody vibes with brutal sci-fi action, an endearing found family, and wildly imaginative worldbuilding. A welcome return to the multiverse!

Spoiler-free review:

Tim Cook pathetically kisses Trump's ass by pretending him with a "24 karat gold" gift

@DHSgov on X: We’re taking father/son bonding to a whole new level. JOIN.ICE.GOV 06 Aug 25 [Young man and old man in ICE gear]

Wehrschiessen des Deutschen Volkes 1944 [Young man and old man sharing a rifle]

Oh look, ICE is copying literal Nazi recruiting propaganda again. The poster on the right is for the Volkssturm, the Nazi militia of older men and boys established during the final months of World War II.

This certainly looks to me like the aftereffect of Claude Opus 4/Sonnet 4 launching on May 22

Kinda philosophically relevant to a facet of @jeremyteg.bsky.social ‘s new book

Generative AI by definition is conformity. It is an averaging of anything you ask of it - quite literally guessing what the most likely version of a thing might be. It is, by definition, mainstream, as is everything it creates old and deeply ideological, as every model trains on similar data.

We could have had cancer vaccines, and instead the United States will contribute nothing whatsoever to mRNA research, condemning millions of people worldwide to unnecessary illness and death

Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local “youths” and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these “minors” as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14. The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs. Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see. If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore. Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Heckuva time for Trump to declare that 14-year-olds are now adults.

Also worth noting:

They’re killing the media industry *first*.

Techbros have been very clear that their goal is to put as many people out of work as possible.

This is nothing more or less than an attack by the 1% upon the rest of us that, if left unchecked, will crash the global economy.

Just the epilogue and the epigraphs and one scene I skipped halfway through the book to keep it from bogging me down and I'll be done with this draft!

If you're an epic fantasy fan, this book is a can't-miss!
Get it!

The Tower of the Tyrant NetGalley helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies to book advocates and industry professionals. Publishers make digital review copies and audiobooks available for the NetGalley comm...

A reminder that ARCs of THE TOWER OF THE TYRANT are available on NetGalley UK! (and available in other secret and ancient ways, if you lack a NetGalley UK account).

"...an ultimately human story about what it takes for us to grow and change and make ourselves better." - @aahabershaw.bsky.social

LibreOffice, which works very well. Almost indistinguishable, to me, from MS Word, but I didn't use any fancy settings or anything.

Plus, I'm not being constantly badgered by my software to use AI for no reason!

I've been running Linux (Pop_OS) as my daily driver operating system for six months now, and I haven't missed Windows at all.

Gaming can be a slight headache, depending on the game and how well it runs with Proton, but everything else is smooth sailing and way less annoying than Windows 11.

Neo-liberal capitalism is that form that is utterly obsessed with ensuring that it seems that, as Margaret Thatcher so famously declared in the 1980s, “there is no alternative.” In other words, neo-liberalism has largely given up on any serious effort to argue that the current economic order is actually a good order and given up trying to prove it can create a world in which most human beings feel prosperous, safe, and free to spend any significant portion of their life pursuing those things they consider genuinely important. Rather, it is a terrible system, in which even the very richest countries cannot guarantee access to such basic needs as health and education to the majority of their citizens. Yes they say it works badly - but they want you to believe no other system could possibly work at all! - David Graeber

From David Graeber's 'Revolutions in Reverse' (2011).

So glad I got five books out in MMPB before the format died. They are SO good. Small, cheap, easy to shelve, easy to carry. I’ve often passed on new releases because they are in enormous trade paperbacks. I would buy a lot more in MMPB if I still could. A LOT more.

And they are cheap? This is good?

We lost something as a nation when we lost the mass market paperback format.