Owen Blacker

Amazing. And well deserved!

We’re delighted to announce that Aliette de Bodard's THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS has been chosen as one of Kobo's Best Books of the Month in Canada! 🏆
www.kobo.com/ca/en/list/b...

Especially powerful because Liu is the biggest name people bring up as an example for what they think Gu should have done.

A. Fuck the ADL

B. The "hate" they're referring to here is, as you might expect from them, opposing genocide

a flock of birds are flying in front of the full moon Alt: a flock of birds are flying in front of the full moon

Gf has been working to entice birds to the garden and it's like a Hitchcock film round here atm

i took psychic damage from reading this so you must too

March 11, 2026 Minneapolis City Council 350 South 5th Street Room 370 Minneapolis, MN 55415 Dear Council President Payne, Council Vice President Osman and Council Members: This letter is to inform you that I have vetoed Ordinance No. 2026-002 to extend the pre-eviction notice for renters to 60 days. I understand the authors’ intent, but the experience from COVID-19 and guidance from shelter and affordable housing providers shows that this strategy has not worked. We have heard over and over again from shelter and affordable housing providers that longer timelines produce worse outcomes for residents. In their words, when rental assistance isn’t available, time is a debt trap that becomes a barrier to securing future housing. I heard a call for more financial assistance, and I believe that is the best path forward. Rental assistance is working and getting to renters quickly – rent collections are better in 2026 than 2025. That’s why I’m proposing to spend $1 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for emergency rental assistance administered through Hennepin County. While a 60-day pre-eviction notice period sounds good, there is no data to show that it does good. Pandemic era eviction moratorium allowed many renters to accumulate huge amounts of debt that they are still paying off today. When property owners carry the losses, the housing system experiences upward pressure on rents to replenish reserves, catch up on missed mortgage, insurance, utility, payroll, and property tax payments, and cover increased costs associated with deferred maintenance. I believe most landlords are working with tenants to develop payment plans and access rental assistance. But for bad actors, I worry that the proposal gives them reasons to report tenants to ICE or use minor lease violationswhich don’t require as much notice and are harder to expunge – to evict tenants. We will continue to monitor the data. If something substantially changes, I am committed to working with the City…

mayor jacob frey has vetoed the pause evictions, save lives bill the minneapolis city coucil approved that would've extended the eviction timeline from 30 days to 60 days temporarily to held families impacted by the ICE invasion catch up paying rent

80s singer Thomas Dolby on raising queer kids: "the eldest is trans, the middle is a lesbian, and the youngest is a drummer"

The 3 genders

Yes, I admit this is a more angry video than I usually publish, but, hey, I am angry. As with removing puberty blockers for trans young people this has nothing to do with preventing medical harm. If it were the bans would be blanket bans. This is about saying trans individuals should not exist.

Sorry but this is so funny

Edinburgh city centre: Future of Princes Street and George Street up for debate Big changes to two of Edinburgh's most famous streets are expected to be the focus of debate at the City Chambers later this year.

Fuck's sake.

Back to planning purgatory for the George Street pedestrianisation that should have been delivered a generation ago

www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/edinbur...

Bleak House serial numbers

hard cover volume of Bleak House

These are the same "book"

What can be done if a single government seeks to paralyse the EU? The ultimate fall-back solution What if the government of one Member State deliberately seeks to block or sabotage the Union?  Some might say that we are already in such a scenario, or close to it, but it could get…

What can be done if a single government seeks to paralyse the EU? The ultimate fall-back solution

I'm getting questions about why there are trans characters in my Fantasy novel.

There's a simple answer: trans people don't need to justify existing.

Glad to clear that up!

People: we want wildlife on some of our money cos it’ll be nice

Incredibly deluded people: wokeness stole our war heroes

It’s amazing that people ask for and get what they want and a small minority shit themselves about it.

Seriously. Give yourself the gift of setting that down.

🎯

Spain accuses Germany of acting like a 'vassal' to United States Friedrich Merz is criticised for betraying values of his Christian Democratic Union after refusing to condemn President Trump's threats to EU ally over lran Oliver Moody Tuesday March 10 2026, 6.05pm GMT, The Times Spain has accused Germany's leader of acting like a "vassal" of the United States after he failed to defend Madrid against criticism from President Trump.

"When I spoke to Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier today, he said he didn't like the war, but he had to go along with it."

Does The New York Times Want to Eradicate Trans People? — Assigned An analysis of its coverage reveals a pattern of misrepresentations, deceptions, distortions, the exclusion of trans voices, and the endorsement of contempt.

The New York Times coverage of trans issues has repeatedly resulted in experts and others complaining that their words were twisted and misrepresented... but only those quoted from on trans supportive side have that complaint.

Coincidence or eliminationism? @billiejsweeney.bsky.social dives in.

Viral 'Quittr' Porn Addiction App Exposed the Masturbation Habits of Hundreds of Thousands of Users A couple of 20-year-old developers make $500,000 a month promising to help men to stop watching porn, but exposed their private porn watching habits.

No clearer example of how the manosphere exploits men suffering under patriarchy by making them hate women and themselves and then abandons them after they've profited from their misery

Worth forever reiterating that most of the "long" novels of the 19th century were not received as long at the time, but generally as subdivided shorter works, sometimes something we would consider more like a comic book than a terrifying doorstop.

Yes, hello, is that God? Yeah, hi. I have a complaint. You gave me this brain that’s designed for finding berries and avoiding lions and now people are ‘just circling back’ to see if we can ‘move the needle’ on ‘key initiatives’? NONE of those things are berries.

Walt Simonson's title card for the ALIEN comics adaptation

Thinking about Walt Simonson's title card for the ALIEN comics adaptation

The Loneliness of Elio: Growing Up Queer in the American Military - Reactor Rewrites and studio pressure may have stripped Elio of its personality, but there are still glimpses of truth throughout...

"The story we received is not the one the original writers intended to tell. It’s garbled, like a scratchy transmission on a ham radio, but I still heard it: You’re not alone."

@dodgyboffin.com on Pixar's Elio as a story on community and coming out sanded down by corporate interests:

The Loneliness of Elio: Growing Up Queer in the American Military - Reactor Rewrites and studio pressure may have stripped Elio of its personality, but there are still glimpses of truth throughout...

Wrote a scary essay

Pentagon bars press photographers over ‘unflattering’ Hegseth photos Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff took issue with photos taken in a rare briefing last week and decided to shut out press photographers from two subsequent news conferences.

The funniest thing about the Trump admin is how all of the "eff your feelings" and "cry harder lib" alpha males turn out to be the whiniest saddest snowflakes, unable to handle a negative picture and walking about in ill-fitting shoes to not upset Trump.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Police in Britain Repeatedly Declined to Investigate Epstein. Why?

Exclusive: The Metropolitan Police interviewed Virginia Giuffre 3 times after her lawyers handed them a dossier of evidence saying that she was trafficked to UK by Epstein and Maxwell, and made her have sex with Prince Andrew

But they did not launch an investigation
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/w...