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These social mechanics—wherein creative rivalries oscillate between friendly and zero-sum—are universal, and I know them well. I only learned about them in practice when I encountered the Dimes Square scene during the pandemic. The pandemic created just enough squalor and gloom, and lowered rents just enough, for just long enough, for that latest bohemia to emerge. The downtown of the 2020s is centered on...

A coalition representing veterans, public health professionals, teachers and other groups filed a suit today against DOGE, citing the the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), and asking a court to block DOGE's activities until it complies with law. The 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act says that committees of outside government advisers must be "fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented," and...

"Autonomy" is a short scifi/horror story by Meg Elison, published January 2025 in Clarkesworld, that partially takes place in an autonomous vehicle. Elison notes, "Here is my story of bloody revenge, a theme I can't get enough of these days." Content note for sexual assault and gore.

FANFARE THIS WEEK... A special event thread for live commenting on the US inauguration. New movies: apocalypse musical The End; a queer examination of Kevin Smith's 90s romcom in Chasing Chasing Amy; Barry Keoghan and Nykiya Adams in the social realist drama Bird; and a woman becomes romantically entangled with her stepson in French drama Last Summer. In TV, Severance is back, Silo season...

Crys Matthews calls herself the poster child for intersectionality. Her new album released last week,Reclamation (Youtube, Apple,Spotify, Autographed CD, reviews 1 ,2,3,4,5) "is both sonically and ideologically the fullest representation of who I am as an artist and as a human, she says. A preacher's kid, a Black woman, a Butch lesbian, and a proud Southerner who sings social justice music right alongside 'traditional'...

Joe Biden has granted clemency to Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, in one of his last actions as president. Clemency isn't a pardon--the conviction stands--but the 80-year-old Peltier will be released from prison.

Matt Stoller Explains the TikTok Dispute from a Legal Perspective That said, despite the 270 deadline, in the law, there's also a 90 day extension the President is able to offer if he thinks that there is a path to divesting the app... Basically, TikTok said it is subject to a law banning the app, and praised Donald Trump for somehow thwarting that law....

EPIC: The Musical is a musical adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey created by Jorge Rivera-Herrans Per Athena Scalzi, I found out about EPIC, an online musical that's beautifully mind-blowing.(note: all video links are YouTube, not TikTok.) Official concept album recordings playlist here. Songs with animated videos to go with them playlist here. Recap of the first four sagas here. A TikTok Musical That's Truly...

1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom. - Historian Timothy Snyder from On Tyranny with...

My Unsung Hero is an ongoing NPR series where people tell brief stories of the (mostly) strangers they met who changed, and sometimes saved, their lives.How a stranger's kindness taught a mom to be a 'more accepting person' A husband honors the 4 women who protected his injured wife from oncoming traffic Hungry, cold and alone, a woman's life changed from a kind stranger's...

'Ultimately, Invisible Sun is an amazing roleplaying game. Its production design is breathtaking, and many aspects of its gameplay are brilliant and revolutionary. ... All roleplaying games are escapism; it is a testament to Invisible Sun's creative ingenuity that it both foregrounds its own escapist nature and simultaneously provokes meaningful questions about what a better world might look like — because ultimately, we can't...

What have you broken free from? Have you shed an extra obligation or an anxiety that's stalked you for years? Are you finally putting on the weight you want and having to let go of too-tiny clothing? Have you freed a link? Have you freed yourself from Free Willy? Have you freed yourself from "Free Bird?" If free is not free, is it still...

New project aims for every Kimberley (Australia) child to speak their grandparents' language. Maureen Deegan's mum had to relearn her own language, Jaru, which she had not been allowed to speak. Now Maureen is helping others to keep their languages alive.

It's Inauguration Day in the United States, so let's take a look back with various AP reporters. But if this American tradition doesn't interest you this particular year, here's a few other things you can do today: Review the MetaFilter guidelines about political and news posts in this new administration Vanity has recommendations on other things to watch. The American Civil Liberties Union suggests...

Under cool conditions, the up-down arrows nudge each other into alignment — all up, say — while the freewheeling arrows point in random directions. As the temperature rises, one would expect the thermal energy to start flipping all the arrows violently, washing out any alignment. But it doesn't. The free arrows pinwheel around more, stabilizing the magnetic order in the up-down arrows. And this...

Only the last iteration of Chic, the greatest rock, soul and funk band ever in its final performance live at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in 1996. The band died the next day with Bernard Edwards, who was suffering from pneumonia.People go on about Nile Rodgers and well they should but Bernard Edwards was the heart and soul of the band. Not only did he...

"By the time I received the invitation from Rolex Geneva to visit its four facilities, I had been to just about every other factory one could imagine – ranging from those who are simply packaging up pre-made movements and strapping them into off the shelf cases and dials, to those who are still doing everything by hand (but only producing a few watches per...

These sacred artefacts were thought lost forever, but one phone call changed everything. When a German researcher arrived in Yuendumu (Australia) in 1972, the Indigenous community gave him rare access to their customs and culture. Half a century later, an emotional reunion has seen some sacred artefacts he was given returned.

From: 'Make it New', The Ezra Pound Society Magazine', "Gordon Sellar started writing his blog on The Cantos in February 2012. He remembered having read a few in a postgraduate seminar: being a writer himself, with sci-fi and occult leanings, he intended to make Pound the protagonist of a novel. Blogging The Cantos, one at a time, a canto a week, had to be...

Trump has just delivered a masterclass in the ability of a president to turn power into wealth. [Axios; ungated]

Between 1996 and 2002, VH1 had a show called Pop Up Video which paired music videos with trivia and jokes that "popped up" on screen, mostly without controversy. Most of it is unavailable today, but the Internet Archive has a number of episodes taped off televion. Here is a list:Episodes 1, 2 & 3, featuring these videos: Tina Turner, "Missing You"; Sheryl Crow, "Leaving...

Journalist Robert Evans, best known for his sharp, sardonic perspective in everything from Cracked to Bellingcat to Behind the Bastards, live-skeeted his experience of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the annual showcase of the latest tech coming your way (whether you like it or not). Lowlights of the bacchanalia can be found in a series of increasingly pointed episodes of...