Please enjoy this short clip of Harold Bloom responding to “Wayne,” whose favorite “very short” poem is “real eyes realize real lies.”
www.c-span.org/clip/in-dept...
11.03.2026 04:08
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Please enjoy this short clip of Harold Bloom responding to “Wayne,” whose favorite “very short” poem is “real eyes realize real lies.”
www.c-span.org/clip/in-dept...
Only interested in this feature if it’s Harold Bloom telling me he knows my work is unreadable based on the first three words and he’s not even going to bother with it
Marx would be such a reply guy
I think some of it is regional, too. I live in a city in the South with tight knit neighborhoods. When I rented in an NYC co-op, I saw people more frequently, but I only talked to people in the laundry room, and the email list was mostly transactional.
And you can’t buy the recent three part drama and surprising resolution of various neighbor dogs harassing neighborhood chickens. This is where conflict resolution really happens. Who needs Netflix?
My neighbors winterproofed my taps while I was out of town, text and gossip about each other. and come for little visits on my porch and sometimes for dinner. I love having a thread to ask for something I need, and neighbor dogs to walk! It makes me so much happier and was a relatively low lift!
If I had to describe my gateway political ideology, it would be “know your neighbors!” Being able to rely on people who have little in common beyond proximity is crucial to navigating across difference and building small d democracy. It takes work, but it pays off!
thewalrus.ca/cramped-cond...
I’ve noticed that most voluntary disclosures include depression, anxiety, and IBS as disabilities, which means that basically everyone I know would qualify as disabled. (if these definitions mean they get accommodations to make their jobs easier, great! Everyone should be supported at work.)
Sedgwick’s prescription is “reparative reading,” a theory of more flexible sense-making that can hold truth and provide an antidote to the overwhelming paranoia of our times. While the conventional wisdom states, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you don’t have enemies,” Sedgwick turns this formula on its head: “Just because you have enemies doesn’t mean you have to be paranoid.” Or to put it another way, having a direct understanding of systemic oppression (the healthcare system, police violence, the fascist state) does not condemn a person to a categorically paranoid point of view. To practice a worldview more expansive and more open to possibilities than paranoia does not mean you have to deny the reality or gravity of oppression.
Feeling paranoid about stochastic violence and weaponized media? Me too. That's why I can't stop thinking about this incredibly helpful essay by @littlewow.online in @flaminghydra.com about the idea of "reparative reading" as a corrective to the "paranoid style." flaminghydra.com/issue-511/
Awww thank you Annalee for the kind words!
Interested in the history of dairy cooperatives, but that’s just me!
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FUCK AI All my homies use Public library
hello Buncombe County, NC
(found on Reddit)
Platform based licensing is like printing money for big publishers and intermediaries – why charge once when you can charge again and again?
TODAY: @littlewow.online on "paranoid reading" and its remedies. "To practice a worldview more expansive and more open to possibilities than paranoia does not mean you have to deny the reality or gravity of oppression." flaminghydra.com/issue-511/#a...
What I can't tell is if "Claude Gov" is just generally for governments or if they have a special contract with the DoD. It sounds like the latter, but if it's the first, that makes more sense.
Very confused here: why would Anthropic build a special product for the DoD if they don’t want their models used to build defense weapons? This is a core part of what the DoD does? (This is a real, non snarky question! I actually don’t get it.)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/u...
A row of parked Mister Softee trucks covered in snow
inordinately charmed by the hibernating mister softees
My favorite part of the New Yorker Anthropic think piece was when they repeatedly say they’re not involved with EA despite hiring Amanda Askill, pointing to its principles in every ethics doc, and literally walking around in EA tshirts around the office
One of the best essays I’ve read on AI from @rusty.todayintabs.com yesterday. “I’ve watched all three of my children learn what a cat is, and in each case the number of pictures of a cat they needed to see was not ‘all of them.’”
www.todayintabs.com/p/a-i-isn-t-...
Someone helpfully commented that this job is mostly (mostly) identifying potential chemical explosive threats and bomb recipes on the platform. They still can’t give consistently accurate recipes for most other cooking projects, so….
But thanks for your helpful comment, honestly! It is complicated and I was just being snarky about it based only on the job title
That makes sense! I looked back at the job description and it seems like it’s mostly that, but there’s also a bit in there about, well, the other way to read the job title…
Al Policy Manager, Chemical Weapons and High Yield Explosives Anthropic Friendly, MD $245K/yr - $285K/yr Promoted • Be an early applicant
Ah yes, the ethical AI company
Now you can play being a Librarian with Imagine IF: imagineif.libraryfutures.net
A choose-your-own-adventure experience supports public librarians through scenario-based gameplay. Play the role of a librarian as you navigate intellectual freedom issues and interact with patrons and staff.
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Got book challenges? Need informative, interactive, level-headed, and fun advice on how to handle them? We've got you.
Imagine IF: The Game is out now from Library Futures! See where you intellectual freedom adventure takes you!
www.libraryfutures.net/post/library...
Want to experience what it feels like to be a librarian on the front lines of an intellectual freedom challenge? Play Imagine IF, the new game from @libraryfutures.bsky.social, where you can be the helpful library cat, or…. Choose chaos!
imagineif.libraryfutures.net
My friend @brendanballou.bsky.social is in the NYTimes to announce the new @publicintegritylaw.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...
Silence is a Commons Computers are doing to communication what fences did to pastures and cars did to streets. by Ivan Illich Minna-san, gladly I accept the honour of addressing this forum on Science and Man. The theme that Mr. Tsuru proposes, "The Computer-Managed Society," sounds an alarm. Clearly you foresee that machines which ape people are tending to encroach on every aspect of people's lives, and that such machines force people to behave like machines. The new electronic devices do indeed have the power to force people to "communicate" with them and with each other on the terms of the machine. Whatever structurally does not fit the logic of machines is effectively filtered from a culture dominated by their use. The machine-like behaviour of people chained to electronics constitutes a degradation of their well-being and of their dignity which, for most people in the long run, becomes intolerable. Observations of the sickening effect of programmed environments show that people in them become indolent, impotent, narcissistic and apolitical. The political process breaks down, because people cease to be able to govern themselves; they demand to be managed.
From Ivan Illich “Silence is a Commons,” 1982.
“The machine-like behaviour of people chained to electronics constitutes a degradation of their well-being and of their dignity… The political process breaks down, because people cease to be able to govern themselves; they demand to be managed.”
No, your coworkers don't want to grab a drink — they want to hit the cold plunge By Juliana Kaplan and Ana Altchek Feb 12, 2026, 5:07 AM ET Save Saved Corporate bonding has left the bar and headed straight for the yoga mat. Remote work and a wellness-obsessed culture are driving alternative ways for coworker to socialize. People who don't want to drink with coworkers may make surprising connections at the sauna instead. At companywide conferences, Bethany Mascena's firm used to have what was called "lobby social club": Colleagues would convene at the end of the day to drink and hang out.
There is literally no world in which I would ever "hit the sauna" or take an exercise class with my colleagues and I am a sober spin instructor. These are free time activities!