I don't know who needs to hear this but... start living. The days are flying by and all you do is work, pay bills, and stress. Enjoy what you can like walks, sunsets, music, laughter. Joy doesn't have to be expensive. You deserve it.

This man’s Jewish father is gonna guilt trip *ME* into calling *MY* parents.

Jabberwocks are starting to really intrude on the territory of the Snallygaster and crowd them out. Please report when you see them and help preserve our American monsters!

Biologists prefer the term “fearsome critters”, just FYI. They resemble monsters but only due to convergent evolution.

i'm in a group for people who own those 12 foot tall home depot halloween skeletons (i do not own a 12 foot tall home depot skeleton; do not tell on me). the skeleton owners post daily about how they're decorating their skeletons seasonally to circumvent local ordinances about "seasonally appropriate" outdoor décor. they post anonymous fan & hate mail neighbors leave in their mailboxes which appear to be 100% genuine and a number of people are regularly posting updates as they pursue litigation against HOAs and entire cities to defend their rights to keep their 12 foot skeletons standing outside year-round. with lawyers and everything. it's a look into the lives of people who have money to spend on things i can never imagine, but i am compelled by their conviction.

you'd like to imagine the outcome of the bitter legal warfare might have knock-on effects that allow people more freedom in self-expression on their own lawns in general, but mainly it seems to be exclusively about the 12 foot tall home depot skeletons. and what a world.

“the recording is of a blackbird in my garden in the north of scotland. the idea of the piece is that it's a letter home from a migrated bird, telling the family of its new life and making the connection between the migrant and the homeland.” - jennifer cantwell

they're selling anti-ai slogans on sweatshop-produced t-shirts. i don't need to write the poem for you to get it do i

it's Ryland Grace's own damn fault for hearing there was a ship named Hail Mary slated for a one-way trip into space and not immediately clocking that it was gonna be "full of Grace" whether he wanted it or not

A reminder that we still dont support Age Verification bullshit.

Paywall removed here

The AI encyclical doesn't yet have a Latin translation, because even though the Latin version is "official", it takes six to twelve months longer to prepare than all the others, an issue exacerbated by the use of terms that don't already have established neolatin translations. Since the timing is important and they don't want to rush the Latinists, they seem to have decided a few years back to move the Latin versions "off the critical path", even though this adds a layer of absurdity to the whole business. Since the encyclicals are still issued simultaneously in like ten other languages, this leaves it uncertain which version should be considered official -- it's likely that it was first written in Italian or perhaps English, then translated, but when the Latin version finally comes out like a year from now, it will retroactively be considered the official copy, and all the others will be considered vernacular translations of it. Which is already a funny story about where pragmatism meets tradition, but in reading about this I found some commentary from someone formerly of the Vatican's Latin office, who mentioned something even better: that one benefit of this process was that the Vatican got to see the public discourse about the document while translating it, which gave them a chance to tailor it to any controversies or confusion that might arise, so that, for instance, if there were competing readings of a passage based on subtle differences between translations, they could pick which one to favour after the fact. This means that this is sort of like Steam Early Access for papal encyclicals.

We need to conquer space travel for the only reason that zero-g would allow for new never before seen pastries, you know how the top of the muffin is the best part? Well that is because it is exposed to air so it changes the chemistry, in normal earth gravity it is impossible to make a muffin that is all top part because it needs to be placed somewhere which would restrict air flow, however in zero g it would be possible to make a bubble out of muffin dough which gets optimal airflow and becomes an all-top part muffin... This is the dream...