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Kickin' butt in Halo 2! Book club stream this Saturday! Let's hang out: www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

Reminder! Book club/reading stream this Saturday! Special guests: @littleshebear.bsky.social and @scarletrebel.bsky.social ! Sat Oct 10, 4:15pm Eastern (9:15pm UK time) www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd Tell your friends!

Image that says, "Reading/book club stream! Today's topic: Diving deeper...", with Moraine Lake in the background

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Dave Dustin @dustin.nz · 20h

"YOU’RE LISTENING TO SISYPHUS FM, THE HOME OF NON-STOP ROCK"

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Brennan Lee Mulligan @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I am thrilled and proud beyond measure to support the amazing workers who create and design the games I and my loved ones have spent a lifetime playing. I implore everybody to sign the petition and signal boost the campaign as far and wide as we can!

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Feeling low energy tonight; continuing the fight in Halo 2 www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/10/2026

Exactly this. And in fact, many models *have* been created this way, and decades of prior machine learning systems *were* created this way, consensually. These things are choices! People are STILL working this way! It’s not just that a better world is possible — it already EXISTS. We can nurture it.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Really enjoyed The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee! Imagine if post-WWII "Japan" was under the control of two clans, empowered by a mineral that gave them superhuman powers. Imagine a story following a family bound by honour, shaken by death, forged in ruthlessness. Check it out if you can! #booksky

Picture of the books, "Jade City", "Jade War", and "Jade Legacy" by Fonda Lee

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jess m. ☕🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

so the alberta seperatist movement was entirely a false flag op, organized by the US state dept, in exchange for promises for alberta resources I'm thankful today for impartial reporting in my country that is free to discover and publish these things. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

theglobeandmail.com

The elephant in the room

Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Next Saturday, we'll host our 2nd book club stream! Oct 10, 4:15pm Eastern (9:15pm UK time), with special guests @littleshebear.bsky.social and @scarletrebel.bsky.social ! Very excited for this one, come hang out and hear us gush!

static.klipy.com

Kermit the Frog Dancing on Stage

Alt: Kermit the Frog Dancing on Stage

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Today was the first sunny day in 6+ months that I could go for a walk outside without sweating. I welcome the Fall.

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J. L. Westover @mrlovenstein.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

take a look at my new book 🎉 kickstarter.com/projects/mrlovenstein/mr-lovenstein-presents-fun

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Happy Friday! What a week. Starting Halo 2 now! www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

your response to “I was raped” should not be “I was right”

4 panel comic

Panel 1:
A Purple Woman looks distraught, on the verge of breaking down. She says “that man raped me”
Orange Guy standing next to her is absent-mindedly checking his nails. He says “Wellll, I’ve always disliked him and his work.”

Panel 2:
Purple Woman begins to cry. Orange Guy adopts an incredibly smug expression and says “Guess I must just be a good judge of character”

Panel 3:
Purple Woman dissolves into sobs. Orange Guy notices, puts his hand on her shoulder and says “Aw”

Panel 4:
Purple Woman crumples to the floor. Orange Guy, looking bemused, asks “Are you crying because you’re jealous of how smart I am?”

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It feels like it should be the weekend already. Of course, it felt like that on Monday, too.

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Started reading some classic French sci-fi recently, really interesting to see the evolution of the genre. Chatting about it now, while playing Halo for the first time in years www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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Sam Weller @samwellerauthor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is the most remarkable story Ray Bradbury ever shared with me. He told it to me late one night, sitting in his den of antiquities and mementos. Take five minutes to read this. It’s pure magic. #Writing #Living #Creativity #RayBradbury #BookSky

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Played D&D tonight, and to give you a sneak peak of what went down, I'll say this: Tyrannoswordsman Imagine from that, what you will

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy Friday! Blowing off some steam in Halo! www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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But Andrew Hickey Died Ten Years Ago This Very Night @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 24/09/2026

DVDs aren't low-tech. They're just things you can actually own, that won't disappear overnight, that don't require a monthly subscription, that won't suddenly get reedited, that won't start putting adverts in the middle and that won't sell your data to the worst people in the world.

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Continuing our Halo playthrough! Possible special guests in voice chat :) www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Tonight, I'm playing Halo for the first time in years! Diving into the Master Chief Collection! www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So, Destiny is coming back? Mere months after declaring it over and done, no live updates, now the team comes back with a video basically saying "You were right. We lost your trust. We value the team, and we need to win you back." I have hope for the future (intended) but some big problems too. 👇

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Read All Systems Red by Martha Wells recently and enjoyed it! Fun, sarcastic, straightforward sci-fi with a stinging commentary on corporations (a favourite staple of the genre), and an intriguing central concept, I'm curious where Murderbot will go! Check it out for a fun modern read! #booksky

Cover of All Systems Red book by Martha Wells. Featuring a humanoid looking robot in the foreground, strange mechanical creatures in the background.

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Dredgen Sale 🔜 GCX (2027) 🟪⬜️⬛️ @destinythememe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

SWHFTT 2‼️‼️SUNDAY‼️‼️ - 7. Did somebody say LAST CITY??!?!?!???!?!

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Testing? Is this thing on? I've been gone for a month, now I'm live. Where have I been? www.twitch.tv/kaz_phd

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Sara Cress @saracress.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You, too, can get a Flock camera taken down by knowing too much about public infrastructure and doing something about it.

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daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Today is the 60th anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek! Happy anniversary to the show that kindled a love for exploration, science, presented progressive perspectives, and showed me that humanity is truly a mix of emotion and logic. It is a core part of my life and I'm so happy about that!

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Finished reading Christie's "Cat among the pigeons". It was alright. Hardly felt like a Poirot tale. Too brief, too easy. It's not bad, but it reads like Christie was ready to move on to other characters. Enjoyable, breezy reading, but lower on my list of favoured Christie stories. #booksky

Book cover for Agatha Christie's "Cat among the pigeons" featuring a set of lacrosse rackets, crossed with a skull between them

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romulus - 🛸METROID RAVENOUS🍽️ @romulusofficial.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

it must be so difficult to act with a character who you can’t even see. thankfully, Foghorn is just that talented

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Micah @rincewind.run · 05/09/2026

the intro to Batman: The Animated Series is one of the single best bits of storytelling ever done in any medium, an absolute masterpiece of character and atmospheric development achieved in a single minute with no dialogue

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Considering you can yaw your eyes (look left and right), and pitch them (up and down), the only thing you *can't* do is roll your eyes!

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Tomokocchi @tomokocchi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Too many people aren't looking at the big picture with Coyote vs. Acme because it hasn't made 10x it's budget at the box office or whatever. The point is IT'S OUT. You can see it. You'll be able to buy it on Bluray. It will no longer be lost media. It was saved. We won.

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

75% through "Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Thief", in French, and finding it a slog. It's interesting, it's well-written, but my ability to read it in French isn't as good as normal (older terms, cheeky writing), and it feels quite chore-like. I don't want to quit, but I don't want to just rush either.

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jess m. ☕🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

...the only real thing that can enforce this, though, is law. so please vote for people who hate AI. take heart though that AI will eventually kill itself by becoming so bloated that it collapses under its own weight. I daresay it already has. Once the whales withdraw their funding, it's over.

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I don't care if there's sex in books, but I do have a problem with moralizing censorship. Recent book news raises a few interesting (read: troubling) points. Digital books can be changed later. They can be removed, deleted, etc. We know this about other media, but it still hurts.

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KAZ PhD @kazphd.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

At some point, every dad receives something that looks like this for Father's Day

A picture of a drain in a parking lot. It looks like a face, two holes for eyes, a button in the centre for the nose, and the dirt on the lower half looks like a beard

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Daniel Weber @danielfs2002.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Optimus Prime Rest in Peace Peter Cullen

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Little She-Bear @littleshebear.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Elend: Obviously, we can't defeat the Lord Ruler but we can try to make things a little better for the people of the Final Empire. Kelsier: Brb, I'm gonna fist-fight God. #Mistborn

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Dr. Cara Berg Powers @clbergpowers.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Things you could do this week to honor the impact Dolly has had: *Donate to the Imagination Library or a local kids reading initiative *Read with a kid you care about *Support and protect LGBTQIA kids *Support a Black owned business *Schedule your vaccine appointments *Show up authentically as you

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Alex Zalben @azalben.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Here's the official announcement of Parton's passing from her reps, along with the request that in lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at www.imaginationlibrary.com

NASHVILLE, TN (August 25, 2026) – Global icon and humanitarian, Dolly Parton, known to the world as a beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright, and author died peacefully today in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 80 years old.

Dolly is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 59 years Carl Thomas Dean (1942 – 2025), her mother Avie Lee Caroline Owens (1923 – 2003), and father, Robert Lee Parton, Sr. (1921 – 2000).

A rhinestone life that shone bright enough for the world to see, Dolly will forever stand as an inspiration not only through her timeless music and prolific songwriting, but also her wit, warmth, and kindness that made us all feel like family. Dolly Parton’s legacy is one of love, compassion, and resilience. With a seven-decade career, she inspired multiple generations of artists and fans with her music and an unwavering commitment to making the world a better place. Her songs will continue to resonate with people of all ages, and her philanthropic work will have a lasting impact.

At Dolly’s request, a small, private service will be held for immediate family. Dolly’s fans and friends from around the world are encouraged to pay tribute to Dolly on social media by tagging @DollyParton or by leaving a message at www.dollyparton.com.

In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at www.imaginationlibrary.com.

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JL Kaufmann @jlkaufmann.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

She was everything that is wonderful about the USA - shiny and brash and pretty and gloriously tarty like a peony in full bloom, and so kind and brave and talented and sweet and funny and loving and extroverted and thoughtful and protective and nurturing and gracious and generous above all else.

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JL Kaufmann @jlkaufmann.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly Parton has left us. Her memory be for a blessing. And her whole life was indeed a blessing to this sad sour tired world. We didn't deserve her.

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly Parton rose from poverty to stardom. She gave $500 to every student in her hometown who finished high school; she built hospitals & bald eagle preserves; her Imagination Library has gifted 300 million books to children. Roger Ebert met her and came away thinking she was a literal angel. RIP.

“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”

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