RIP John Crowley. A literary loss of great magnitude.

I only met him a few times, when he taught at Clarion West in Seattle, and never had a truly substantive conversation with him. But I did like what I saw. I certainly liked his novels.

I wish I'd had a chance to tell him my little joke about memory palaces, "I don't have a memory palace, I have a mental Gomi-Yashiki.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

> https://aeon.co/essays/the-life-changing-magic-of-japanese-clutter

#SFF #writing

@marick

Shit. I loved John Crowley's work. Even, perhaps especially, some of his earlier novels.

I consider 'Engine Summer' to be a true masterpiece of complex, layered storytelling — better even than 'Little, Big' while being a quarter of the word count. I can go on at length about why, but I doubt you want to a fifty post thread in your mentions.

I can say I've read it at least five or six times and every single time I was crying on the last page.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_Summer

RIP John Crowley, author of /Little, Big/, the only book I’ve read twice to Dawn, I think.

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/john-crowley-has-died

“There is no form of protest against racism that is acceptable to racists.”—Bernice King

'Populism' gets a bad rap for good reasons; it's often undergirded by racism and intolerance for one. But sometimes large numbers of people realize a thing is bad — as opposed to large numbers of people realizing bad things — and politicians pick up on that.

So I'm not sure if the moniker fits here, but I can't say it doesn't

> Anti-AI Populism is Reshaping American Politics. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/anti-ai-populism-is-reshaping-american-politics/

#AI #news #uspol #politics

You know what?

Living in an historic time is exhausting.

My exhaustion is exhausted.

I'm old.

I didn't sign up for this crap.

Everyone but MAGA knows Trump is making the US weaker, less safe, and less powerful.

A Chinese think tank “published an assessment titled 'Thank Trump,' which wryly hailed his efforts to hasten the 'twilight of an empire,' by undermining America’s alliances, civil service, scientific institutions, and democratic credibility. In the past two years, the international approval rating of the U.S. has dropped nearly forty points… China now rates higher than the U.S.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/10/the-future-made-in-china

unfortunately last night our AI model escaped its sandbox and gained access to a JIRA server, at which point it felt it best to return to it’s sandbox

@rayckeith

I wonder if the people extolling the virtues of chatbots show other signs of addictive personalities? And if chatbots were deliberately tuned to create a degree of addiction in such people?

Because, when it comes to addiction, I always think about the time an ex heroin addict explained his addiction to me: "The thing about heroin is, it takes all of your problems — all of them — and rolls them up into a little ball called, 'Where Do I Get My Next Hit?'"

Addiction breaks minds.

Crap. There is a new wildfire burning on Prairie Mountain, about four or five miles away from my place. Currently reported at zero containment and 123 acres.

It's on the other side of the mountain and across a river from here, but you can bet I'm going to be watching this like a hawk.

#MountainLiving #wildfires #PNW

Today I Learned (#TIL) about ' Catatumbo Lightning'. And, really, #WTF?

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning

#weather #weird #Venezuela

#MetaGlasses #Meta #BanRay

The #misogyny of everyday life in the USA is insane (not to mention counterproductive). I can see it clearly and I'm a white male. How much worse it must be for our sisters and daughters.

> Women Made up 100 Percent of Jobs Trump Cost Us in July. https://newrepublic.com/post/214107/women-100-percent-jobs-lost-july-donald-trump

#uspol #economy #jobs

@danlyke @jackwilliambell

@jackwilliambell Google desperately poking Gemini with a a stick hoping that it, too, will commit CFAA felonies.

Paul Krugman restates my dictum that 'terrible people are terrible to each other too'; inevitably causing problems for *everyone*.

> Lying Liars Lie to Each Other Too. https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/lying-liars-lie-to-each-other-too

> … what happens when a government operates entirely in bad faith, never telling the truth about what it is doing or why. Inevitably, officials in such a government don’t merely lie to the public: they lie to each other too. As a result, they can’t govern effectively, even in the pursuit of evil.

#uspol

I always thought the goal with these press releases about #AI agents 'hacking' were really intended to convince people they were more capable than they actually are. Now I'm beginning to think this is really about convincing people they have, or are about to, achieve sentience. That their makers are on the precipice of creating true general artificial intelligence.

> Jealously Watching OpenAI and Anthropic, Meta Suddenly Claims That Its AI Went on a Hacking Spree Too. https://futurism.com/future-society/jealous-meta-claims-ai-went-hacking-too

This heavily supports the conclusion life is abundant in the universe because life is likely to arise anywhere the conditions are appropriate. (AKA: Once is a co-incidence, twice is enemy action.)

> 'Only One Conclusion': Radical Study Suggests Life on Earth Arose Twice. https://www.sciencealert.com/radical-study-suggests-life-on-earth-arose-from-non-living-matter-twice

> Two of the main lineages of life – bacteria and archaea – may have independently figured out the secrets of metabolism that upgraded them from non-living to living…

#science #biology #exobiology