Kriatyrr

Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.

Results are in for Iowa City’s two-year pilot of free public transit…

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...

I WANT TO HOST ONE OF THESE

steam is apparently allowing "this game had AI in it that it didn't disclose" as a valid return statement, so if you or anyone you know actually paid $70 for slop, get that money back

Reposting because, and I say this with love, some of you are going to see this and go “oh shit, I need to check my bottle” and then immediately forget about it so if this could affect you, go check right now before you even scroll to the next post, I mean it.

Your ability to eat should not depend on your productivity

Your ability to get healthcare should not depend on your productivity

Your ability to get housing should not depend on your productivity

Saying “be more productive!” To those who are struggling devalues human life.

It aids fascism.

The original Far Side Cow Tools Cartoon by Gary Larson. A cow stands on its hind legs behind a table, staring blankly at the viewer from behind its heavy brow ridge. On the table are four crudely made tools: a lump, a lump with an offset crooked handle, a long stick with hooked prongs at the end, and a crude handsaw with irregular teeth. In the background a barn sits on a hill. Caption reads, "Cow tools."

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.

Quick cultural lecture time, from Sigrid Ellis:

As we are in Spooky Season, why do so many horror movies of the 80s and early 90s feature extremely creepy homeless people?

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Possibly one of my favorite sentences in a story: "That is horrifying and I want to go hone,"I said, although I pronounced it, "Ah, I see." Thank you @tkingfisher.com for What Stalks the Deep!

“We are told by leaders that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.”

Incredible speech by Violet Affleck who warned about the ongoing dangers of COVID & Long Covid, & advocated for masks and clean air at the UN today!

OLIVER: “In Russia, when Putin rose to power, TV satirists were among his first targets… Putin was driven to madness by how he was mocked on a puppet show… the lesson is it’s not safe to let one show slide because there are currently others.”

I’m not sharing this to scare people—though it’s fucking terrifying. I’m sharing it because we all need to be on guard.

We won’t be getting reliable data from the CDC anymore. Worse, the guidance could be harmful.

RFK Jr. has no medical training, no scientific background…

Landscape. A the gnarled branches of a long dead tree in the foreground. Lots of forest. A ferry is crossing the fjord, and there are more mountains on the other side.

I'm attempting a trip up the mountain. Every time the beginning is like this; harder than I remember it. I think it's because all the trips in my memory were completed. This one has barely started. I know very well that it's just a matter of one step after the other. Times 18 000 or so.

A lot of 12 year olds are going to learn the phrase "op sec" in the next few years.

"Are those burner shoes?"
"I didn't think --"
"You're not SUPPOSED to fucking THINK, Skylar, you're supposed to follow FUCKING PROTOCOL."

"There are three kinds of magic," said Wizzler, handing us each a balloon. "You can control tigers, you can shoot tornadoes from your fingers, or you can fly by holding your breath. The color of confetti inside your balloon will reveal which kind of power you have." I felt the panic rising in me. What if my confetti turned yellow, indicating that I was a Tiger-Talker? My family, a long line of proud Tornado-Fingers, would disown me. Could I ever return home, bearing such shame? I tried to calm myself as I readied the ceremonial safety pin. Green, I thought, willing my hopes into reality. Please be green. I popped the balloon, involuntarily shutting my eyes. When I opened them, would I see the green I hoped for? The yellow I feared? What if, gods forbid, the confetti were blue? I opened my eyes, seeing shock on the faces of my classmates. Wizzler himself stared at me, wide-eye. Looking down, I saw myself covered in confetti... purple confetti.

“I don’t understand,” I growled, my body trembling with pain. “I combined eighty percent Earth-elemental mana with twenty percent Fire-elemental mana (Type B), focused through a twenty-four-sided icositetragon made of yellow topaz. This, in conjunction with my blood type, star sign, sense of humor, and nickname, should have produced a blazing column of lightning to vaporize my enemies. Instead, it made a big bubble that smells like fresh laundry. Why?” Skullgrumbler began to laugh. “You fool! You don’t even realize…” he squealed. “You’re facing east!”

“It’s whatever you want,” explained Magemaster Grampledog. “Magic is just whatever you want.” I knew he was speaking in riddles, but I couldn’t grasp his hidden meaning. “So the rules are…” Grampledog lit a sliver of smokereed. “No rules. You say some words and you wave a stick and whatever you want just happens. You don’t even need the stick.” His wisdom still eluded me. I stared into his face, trying to decipher what he was really saying. “No, listen.” Grampledog snapped his fingers and his desk turned into a pile of chicken nuggets. “I didn’t even know that would happen.” His hat then came alive and began to yodel. “It’s pandemonium,” he explained. “It’s complete nonsense.”

In my experience there are three kinds of fantasy magic novels:

Three vinyl stickers of the game changer loop-de-loop in progress pride, trans, and non-binary colours respectively. The stickers also have the words "we've been here the whole time"

Game Changer pride stickers are out now 🎉 (with massive thanks to @samreich.bsky.social for giving me permission to sell them!)

UK: canopyrobin.sumupstore.com/product/game...

International: canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/4333...

It's always this stupid. Always.

My doctor changed my diagnosis to "Endocrine Disorder" in November without me asking--because he saw the writing on the wall.

Ask your doctors to do the same--Just to protect your access to life-saving medication.

So before I go back to Denmark and my spouse who needs me, I'm going to have to bring her back to my cabin again. Which means the next time I try to put her in the carrier, she'll struggle even more. This trip has been extremely stressful to her. To me too, if I'm being honest. Expensive as well.

There's still the problem that we only have the apartment until the end of the month (and we're trying to vacate it earlier as a courtesy to our landlord, as he's not been a bad one), and Xiomara's rabies vaccine isn't considered valid until June 4th.

Thankfully I don't have to do it all by myself. My mom and sister are coming by on Tuesday to help. My sister is orders of magnitude better than me at cleaning.

Update: she is still hiding all day, but coming out to eat, drink, use the litterbox, and cuddle - at night. And she meows frequently, preventing me from falling asleep. I am not doing well here. I've taken out some trash, but there's still so much left. I'll never make it on time.

Awesome!

Bonus: I've lived in this apartment for about a year and a half. She's been here two days.
She's upset about me bringing her here (and to the vet yesterday). Fair enough. But I'm worried about her because she's barely touched food or water since getting here.

YOU WOULD THINK that in an apartment that has mostly been moved out of, there would not be a lot of places for a cat to hide. I can't find her. I know she is here because I have not opened any windows, and I watch the door very carefully when I exit or enter.

Because now we get chronic conditions instead of DYING OUTRIGHT. This is actually fantastic! It means we get eczema and arthritis at 65 because we didn’t die in childbirth at 25!

In the dragon's lair 🐉

Futurism Training Season May 9, 11:56 AM EDT by Maggie Harrison Dupré SoundCloud Quietly Updated Their Terms to Let AI Feast on Artists' Music Artists are furious at the platform's sneaky tactics. Artificial Intelligence/ Ai Training/ Data/ Music

NEW: The music distribution platform SoundCloud updated its terms of service to allow it to use artists' uploaded music to train AI.

The change quietly went into effect last year. It looks like a lot of SoundCloud users were caught off guard.

futurism.com/soundcloud-a...

About seven years ago, Nick and I wrote a Black Mirror spec where people had a personal AI device called ChooseU that helped you make the best decisions for yourself, gradually transforming you into a complete narcissistic sociopath who’d do anything to get what you want.

Anyway, they’ve made that.

I don't have a lot of regrets, but a big one is not having some self-indulgent boudoir photoshoot in my twenties when I was weightlifting and looked incredible.

If you are currently in your 20s and looking incredible, I advise doing so. One day, you will be old, and stunned you were ever so hot.