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Christopher Farnsworth

@chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social
1.7K followers 802 following 8.6K posts

Writer. Author of THE PRESIDENT’S VAMPIRE, KILLFILE, FLASHMOB. Books, journalism, screenplays, comics. Married to @goldenpurl.bsky.social. ROBERT B. PARKER'S BIG SHOT out now.

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Reposted by Christopher Farnsworth
Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 9h
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 12h
They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 14h
It’s also really clear to me this week that the people telling us that AI will transform work…haven’t seen a lot of jobs where people work.
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SpooktembAeryn 🧛🦇 @femgirlgaming.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Alan Moore did not fucking miss
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 12h
"Eventually, all our graves go unattended." The secret is, this frees you to do pretty much whatever you want.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is the kind of thing you can't unsee, and if there were any justice, it would haunt Pete Ricketts for the rest of his life.
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
👀 Florida attorney general to OpenAI: (www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/defaul...)
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28/09/2026
i don’t care how much fancy math you can do, if you take open racism as a sign that someone is epistemologically sound then you are a fucking idiot
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
bluesky does not seem to really be talking about this but today Stevie Wonder unleased 4 songs that didn't make "Songs in the Key of Life." music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
music.youtube.com
Songs In The Key Of Life - The EP
EP • Stevie Wonder
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Not sure if it's worse or better that they can't even get their conspiracy theories straight.
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Fred Van Lente @fredvanlente.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hire Taylor! He's awesome.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
You can measure my coffee intake by the amount of posting I do while futzing about on the computer in the morning.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hey, speaking of books: happy pub day to @maureenjohnsonbooks.com and THE VELVET KNIFE!
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William Adler @williamadler78.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
These are apocalyptic numbers for Republicans in Ohio
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Agree with this! I get more readers for my books from Bluesky than I did in my (ugh) decade-plus on Twitter. And I find more stuff to read here than I ever did there.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Bluesky, the app for books
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Presidential disapproval +26 in latest YouGov poll.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The brother of the Trump-appointed Forest Service director started a wildfire on state land near their ranch that burned more than 5,600 acres. www.hcn.org/articles/ran...
hcn.org
Ranch manager tied to top Trump appointee started 5,600-acre Idaho wildfire - High Country News
A state investigation shines light on the unpermitted fire, which cost nearly $950,000 to contain.
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Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If a sentence in your newscast starts with “President Trump says…” you’re failing your audience.
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DBdant @dbdant.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This tidbit was in the article. 🎈💥 ? "Goldman Sachs warned Friday that AI hyperscalers, including Meta, need to generate roughly $300 billion a year in AI services revenue just to break even on their capital spending—and $1 trillion annually to earn meaningful profits—spooking investors."
finance.yahoo.com
Mark Zuckerberg Loses $9 Billion In A Day As Goldman Sachs Pours Cold Water On Meta Stock Rally
Zuckerberg’s $9 billion loss was the biggest single-day drop among any billionaire Friday.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Comics nerds: If you’re in the Boise-Meridian area, you should visit Collector’s Outpost. They’ve upped the comic shop game considerably.
Photo of a life-size Boba Fett statue in Collector’s Outpost, Meridian, Idaho. Photo of back issue bins, wall displays of comics, R3-D2 life size model, Yoda life-size model at Collector’s Outpost in Meridian, Idaho.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Got around to watching NORMAL with Bob Odenkirk which is like someone said, “What if we made a movie entirely out of Chekov’s guns?”
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
So uhhhhhh… Apparently meta's muse "AI" is just straight up doxxing people to strangers on FB marketplace??? This has the potential to hurt so so many people, and I genuinely wonder how long before they roll out a fix for it.
Screenshot of a post from threads

matt.j.robb & 16h (€) So muse handled my Facebook marketplace today. Just found out it told people my address and agreed a lowball price and then they showed up without it even telling me until late tonight that it messed up.

Absolutely wild. 1/2

[Embedded image of a series of text messages from a meta muse "agent" given the call sign "Jarvis" (Parts of first message obscured by its logo have been replaced with brackets and ellipses and best guesses from context):]

Heads up, Usman is […] building right now for the MX Keys Mini [. He is sta]nding in front of the Shoppers Drug [Mart.]

$10 by e-transfer. The auto-reply told him to message when he's at your door.

10:28 PM Bad news on the MX Keys Mini pickup. Usman showed up at your building around 9:15 and waited, messaged a bunch of times, and nobody came down. He left angry at 9:38 and left a negative rating.

Worse, my auto-reply told him "Yep I'm here!" at 9:27 when you clearly weren't available, which is on me. That's a bad look and it made the no-show worse.

I've sent him an apology from your account owning it and offering to try again another day. But the negative rating is real, and I should probably stop the auto-replies from claiming you're home when I can't verify that. Want me to change the pickup replies so they don't promise you're there?

[reply, presumably from the threads user]: You gotta never do that ever again don't agree for pickup unless you check with me

[Response from Muse "Agent"]: You're right and I'm sorry. That should never have happened. It's locked in now as a hard rule: i will never […you]'re there unless you've explicitly […] that specific pickup. If someone proposes a time, I'll tell them I'll check and…  Screenshot of a tweet from Ray Wong @raywongy:
    Deleted Muse after seeing this post on Threads about how it told some Facebook Marketplace sellers the guy’s address and they showed up at his door

    Dangerous and creepy

    This would have been 1000x worse if the person was a woman
    4:35 PM · Sep 27, 2026
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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 28/09/2026
NEW: After we published an investigation into Brown Brothers Media, a company that buys struggling news sites and turns them into AI-powered content mills, we got a tip that completely gobsmacked me: one of the brothers has extensive connections to Ghislaine Maxwell futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
You Know Those Three Brothers Who Buy Struggling News Sites and Turn Them Into AI-Powered Content Farms? It Turns Out One of Them Has Extensive Connections to Ghislaine Maxwell
Ideapod, a cornerstone brand of Brown Brothers Media's AI empire, has deep ties to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 26/09/2026
great piece. man social media is a cancer themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...
themomoftheyear.substack.com
I’m the Mom in That Viral Giants Clip. Let Me Tell You About My Husband.
You saw me carrying our baby and food. There was more happening in our family that night.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Happy National Comic Book Day.
Charlie Brown going through comic books at the newsstand, saying, “I’m discouraged today, and when I get discouraged a comic magazine is the only thing that will revive me.”
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m at that point in the cycle where I want to give away half the books in my library so I can have room for more books.
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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The meaningful divide in the Democratic party for the foreseeable future is going to be a lot less about center vs left ideology and a lot more about people who grasp this vs people who don’t.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Born and raised Idahoan here and it would be quite a thing if the state elected someone other than the Republican ever again.
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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
in your next zoom interview have not only a cup of ice coffee but seven or eight different cups of various beverages just off camera and casually drink from each of them throughout the interview the drinks should have fancy straws or colorful parasols or large pieces of fruit on the edge of the cup
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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
To celebrate the launch of Sweet Shop, the Comixology We Truly Deserve, ALL Iron Circus ebooks are ONE. DOLLAR. EACH. GET ON THIS.
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Al Yankovic @alyankovic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
popsci.com
Asteroid named after ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
‘I just hope this isn’t the asteroid that winds up destroying the Earth.’
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igreja cuntolica lacrostolica @cuntolicismo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
slugomaxxing
painel do quadrinho nancy comics
nancy (uma menina de cabelo curto e espetado e um laço) olha espantada para sluggo (um menino careca de boina) que está segurando uma lata cheia de minhocas e dizendo "THEY PAY ME IN WOIMS"
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I didn’t realize it was possible to eat a snack alone in a car menacingly until I saw Hugo Weaving on the latest episode of SLOW HORSES.
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Danny Page @danny.page · 25/09/2026
"turns out we need to have windows that open" - the company with the highest market cap in the world, for some reason
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy Dolly Parton Day.
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Lavie Tidhar @lavietidhar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A reminder that we're always open to shelfies submissions! Some of our favourites have been random send-ins (got a great one on Sendak coming up from one of those!) WE WANT TO SEE YOUR SHELVES IT'S NOT WEIRD UR WEIRD
shelfies.beehiiv.com
Share your shelf
We'd love to see your shelfie. Here are the guidelines.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I am cleaning up my desktop, and it's fascinating what Past Chris decided he needed to preserve.
An advertisement for the Aporkalypse -- a pork side special for 56 pounds  of bacon and ribs and pork chops for $135.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Gift link: From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
nytimes.com
From 15,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle (Gift Article)
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 24/09/2026
lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
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Chris @cjthered.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Also - for reasons not really understood yet - the shingles vaccine appears to reduce dementia risk. By a lot. Honestly you could call it a dementia vaccine that also prevents shingles and not be very wrong. sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
sciencedaily.com
Shingles vaccine linked to 24% lower dementia risk
Older adults who received the Shingrix shingles vaccine were 24% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over four years in a study of more than 500,000 people. Researchers estimate the difference c...
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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Again, this is what Tucker says to normal audiences. To his own audience, literally today, he went on a deranged rant about, among other things, how Oswald Mosley wasn’t a Nazi.
I know, buddy, you did that during World War II. When the very first thing the British government did was imprison the opposition party, called them Nazis, which they weren't, run by one of the great war heroes of the First World War, Oswald Mosley. Oh, he was a Nazi.
No, he wasn't. If he was a Nazi, he'd be living in Britain, in Germany. He didn't want the war.
And he has been slandered ever since. It's like scary even to defend him. I'm not even defending the guy.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Videos Show ICE Agents Mistakenly Detaining U.S. Citizen www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
nytimes.com
Video: Videos Show ICE Agents Mistakenly Detaining U.S. Citizen
Federal immigration agents in Evanston, Ill., mistakenly detained a U.S. citizen, who was later released after he identified himself.
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New fave: saw her at Weird Al this weekend. She was having the best time; looked almost as happy I was to be there. paytonrosemusic.com/bio
paytonrosemusic.com
Payton Rose - Bio
Bio. Payton Rose, a rock artist from Charlotte, NC
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Paulina Ganucheau @paulinaganucheau.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Her guy. His gal. (My variant for @xtop.bsky.social's new Rip Kirby run for @madcavestudios.com!)
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Alexandra (Alex) Duggan @alexdugganreports.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I keep updating this story, so bear with me. I just spoke to the former Chicago U.S. ATT, who told me: “I never said publicly who I believe did it … (But) It’s not this character who killed himself in 1982.”
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Al Yankovic @alyankovic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
nytimes.com
Weird Al Never Grew Up. Neither Did These Fans (or Their Dads). (Gift Article)
Sons and fathers bond at the accordion-wielding pop parodist’s concerts.
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Jessica Ritchey @jmritchey.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Running Scared (1986). A go-to comfort watch, one of the great Chicago movies, and Baby Joe Pantoliano as a punk hood!
Running Scared (1986) poster
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Christopher Farnsworth @chrisfarnsworth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I will never understand what leads Democrats to believe they're dealing with a rational bargaining partner when they're dealing with Trump.
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