Carter Kalchik

Trump saying shit is cheaper today than when he took office is a tailor-made background for ads showing how actual working people are struggling to afford their bills. As out of touch-seeming as GHWB in the grocery store (and yes I know the lore on that one)

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Snow from a balcony

tongue.in.cheek.books on Instagram: "Please exercise care and caution while discussing this topic. Thank you. #bookstagram #mmromanceView all 7 comments" Please exercise care and caution while discussing this topic. Thank you. #bookstagram #mmromance

Haven’t really used Bluesky for MM romance discussions much, but I’m looking for some community conversation so throwing this out there. How do you feel about the use of the F-slur in MM romance books?

www.instagram.com/reel/DVGVpRr...

Kurt Vonnegut stop being so applicable to all time periods of American life, you can’t do that Kurt Vonnegut, your insights are too evergreen Kurt Vonnegut

YouTube video by Olympics Alysa Liu wins the Olympic gold medal for the United States

I urge you to stop what you're doing and watch Alysa Liu's free skate from yesterday. I have never seen anything like this. I understand why sports writers are born now. I have never seen anyone as free from the burdens of this world as this pierced Oakland girl spinning to Donna Summers.

They just think it’s REALLY important, Claudia!! 😅

Article: The political effects of X’s feed algorithm Abstract: Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects1. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk’s platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users’ feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X’s algorithm has persistent effects on users’ current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

Figure 2. ITT estimates of feed-setting changes on engagement and political attitudes. ITT effect estimates of switching the algorithm on and off (in s.d.). Left, effect of moving from the chronological to the algorithmic feed for users initially on the chronological feed. Right, effect of moving in the opposite direction for users initially on the algorithmic feed. For each outcome, the results of two specifications are reported. Blue, unconditional estimates with robust s.e., controlling only for the initial feed setting and, where applicable, pre-treatment outcome levels. Orange: conditional estimates, controlling for pre-treatment covariates using GRFs; 90% and 95% CIs are reported. Numerical effect sizes and P values correspond to the conditional estimates (all tests are two-sided). The unit of observation is respondent. From top to bottom, sample sizes are n = 4,965, n = 3,337, n = 4,965, n = 4,965, n = 4,596, n = 4,596 and n = 4,850. Tests are described in Methods. Supplementary Information Table 2.16 reports the exact numerical point estimates, s.e., CIs and sample sizes for every specification. All outcomes are standardized. Additional results are presented in Supplementary Information section 2. PCA, first principal component from principal component analysis.

X's algorithm is in fact doing what you think it's doing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New #Union numbers were released this morning by BLS, showing that in 2025, 16.5 million workers in the United States were represented by a union, an increase of 463,000 from 2024 and the highest number of unionized workers in the U.S. in 16 years. 1/

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Hahahaha

Nope, none of the authors were able to sell anything (apparently not even merch). Indies were able to ship books to the booksellers to sell at the central book tables, so there was an opportunity to get them, but that makes the logistics more complicated than it has to be.

I had about a dozen conversations with attendees and authors who said they don’t think they’ll come back because of these reasons. I hope LYBF will take this feedback in the spirit in which it’s given: constructively and with hope for the future. This wasn’t a great event but I believe it can be. 💙

Fifth: multiple gay men (myself included, TWICE) had attendees assume we were straight male counterparts of women attending the event. I’m not angry at the people who did this, but LYBF could do more from a leadership prescriptive to communicate how to have an inclusive space.

I was told that some organizers seemed to pay more attention to the “famous” trad pub authors and only interacted with the more indie-focused authors when they had long signing lines. Every author at an event like this deserves equal dignity and respect, not just the “big names”.

This was a BIG miss and there was some hurt feelings among indie (and hybrid indie/trad) authors who felt a disdain and a weird hierarchy with the traditionally published authors. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

They did a good job of getting authors from diverse backgrounds and having panels focused on diversity. But they can live this value much better by being more open to indie and self-pub authors who, frankly, are often bigger influences on the genre than trad pub authors.

Not being able to sell books unfairly impacts indie authors, who are more likely to come from marginalized backgrounds. At least one told me they probably lost money coming despite having a long line. And that leads to my fourth critique: LYBF is too focused on traditionally published authors.

The layout wasn’t the only issue with the booksellers. I’m sure everyone was acting in good faith, but the bookseller partnerships: 1) prevented authors from selling their own books (and even merch) and 2) did not include any of the Atlanta-area romance bookstores, which felt very odd.

Lines were constantly intersecting, people needing to get in and out to side rooms, and every line snaking around the third major issue: the central bookseller space. The venue isn’t huge and taking up so much space with bookseller partners made it much more difficult to navigate.

It was an accessibility nightmare and just generally chaotic and stressful to be in. That speaks to my second issue which is a general lack of organization, particularly for lines. Volunteers and staff did their best to wrangle, but needed different tools for this number of people and sized space.

First, the space is frankly dangerously too small for the number of tickets they sold. The Courtyard Marriott in Decatur may have served this con a few years ago, but it’s outgrown it. I know finding venues for events is hard, but LYBF either needs to cap attendance or find a lager space.

However, if this event is going to continue and uphold those values, they need to listen to critical feedback and consider making some changes.

Romance books are serious and deserve to be treated seriously. But they’re also fun and joyful and I have no doubt that the Love Y’all organizers share those values. I also had a great time talking with friends (old and new) and attending some of the panels.

Some critical thoughts about last weekend’s Love Y’all Book Fest (LYBF) 2026. I’ve talked about this on my Insta story and in a coffee chat posted in my Discord, but this is important enough to have somewhere a bit more public and permanent. To begin: I love romance books and the community.

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

the minute the fb algorithm clocks you as a straight man it immediately sets about trying to destroy your life & endanger those around you

I have this 30 Rock thing where if I experience something strange or incredulous, I’ll eventually say “that’s nuts,” immediately followed by “Nuts to you, McGillicuddy,” which in my life no one has ever gotten, but I still do just for me.

Babylon 5 Is Now Free to Watch On YouTube | Cord Cutters News In a move that has delighted fans of classic science fiction, Warner Bros. Discovery has begun uploading full episodes of the iconic series Babylon 5 to YouTube, providing free access to the show just...

ME AND WHO ME AND WHO ME AND WHOOOOO cordcuttersnews.com/babylon-5-is...

They do that because they want you to think that only they love you. Its cult tactics