Hephaestus

@thinkingsideways.bsky.social

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Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. A storyteller fascinated by the art of storytelling.

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Every act of the right is all about causing suffering. You will never see them take a compassionate step. This doesn't stop them from claiming to be on the side of justice.

The governors of a dozen Republican-led states — AL, AK, FL, GA, IA, MS, OK, SC, SD, TX, UT, WY — opted out of a new federal food assistance program, leaving about 9.5 million students without the aid this summer

Republican-led states are blocking summer food benefits for hungry familieswww.usatoday.com Money for food is especially tight for families in a dozen states where Republican lawmakers declined to accept federal food assistance.

Each of my grandmothers had more cool in their left earlobe than this.

Am I cooler than the least cool thing imaginable? Yeah, probably.

That paint scheme looks terrific on a Super Seven, but the dash is .

There's a long tradition of cars taking their design and construction cues from aircraft. It's nice to see British manufacturer Caterham continuing with that and for such a great cause. More detail and lots of photos in their press release, linked below. | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🚁 📰

Flight-Weight: RAF Seven 360 Unveiled at British F1blufly.media Collaboration between the Royal Air Force, Caterham, Mission Motorsport and Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund aims to raise more than £100,000.

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Hephaestus

In October 1941, Admiral Somerville, CO of Force H, was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire. He was already a Knight Commander of the Bath, and when his counterpart in the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Cunningham heard the news, he signalled Somerville: "What, twice a knight at your age?"

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Hephaestus

Closed captioning got stuck on the TV so it looks like a weird tagline for peacock lol

I found this interesting. A very short look at how US government agencies historically dealt with queerness.

Michael Waters's piece for LitHub about finding "queerness" in American bureaucracy is charming and fascinating: lithub.com/moments-of-r...

Moments of Recognition: On Locating Queerness in Bureaucratic Recordslithub.com In 1932, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott began living together in an apartment in Los Angeles. Both were aspiring actors looking to save on rent. They found a house in Beverly Hills, and then, eventu…

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Hephaestus

HEY...remember I said I was making a new project announcement soon? Here it is, & you can read it NOW! It's HEART ACRES, a brand new ongoing Webtoon that just went live, by me, @colleencoover.bsky.social, & @ghostgreen.bsky.social! Ghost gal romance! Click & READ! www.webtoons.com/en/romance/h...

Heart Acreswww.webtoons.com Ben Crews has been kicked around by life one too many times. So when his grandmother offers him a place at her fancy estate, Heart Acres, he jumps on the opportunity to live a life of luxury. Imagine ...

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Hephaestus

Star Wars convention art from 2007 by Adam Hughes. Mucha-infused Space Princess.

I think that mere existence of this explains so much about the condition of the world today.

I can’t think of a clever caption for this. It just breaks my fucking heart.

Because soccer on a perfect night deserves fireworks, we can see a Falcon 9 launch out of Vandenberg from the stadium.

Pride Night at the San Diego Wave FC game

Now Martin Mull. It's like 2016 all over again. If anyone in charge is listening, I have a list of candidates to fill out the rest of the year's roster without whom we all be better off. variety.com/2024/film/ne...

Martin Mull, Comic Actor in ‘Fernwood 2 Night,’ ‘Clue,’ ‘Arrested Development,’ Dies at 80variety.com Martin Mull, the actor who started with 1970s TV series “Fernwood 2 Night” and went on to appear in "Arrested Development," and "Clue" died Thursday.

I guess that my new reference point for my age will be that I can remember when "Max Headroom" was a spoof and not a documentary. arstechnica.com/information-...

AI-generated Al Michaels to provide daily recaps during 2024 Summer Olympicsarstechnica.com AI voice clone will narrate daily Olympics video recaps; critics call it a "code-generated ghoul."

The people who ask "why didn't you sell it" are the kind of idiots who would use AI to create a new Cezanne for their living room. www.npr.org/2024/06/21/n...

She thrifted this vase for $4. It turned out to be an ancient Mayan artifactwww.npr.org A thrift shopper from picked up the vase at a store near her home in Washington, D.C. It wasn't until she went to Mexico that she realized she might have a piece of history sitting on her shelf.

The events are unfortunate, but what I don't understand is why the article doesn't use the word "drowning" and instead adopts the euphemism "distressed swimmers". They're drowning, people, you're not going to hurt their feelings by saying so. apnews.com/article/beac...

3 Alabama men die after becoming distressed while swimming at Florida beachapnews.com Authorities say three Alabama men are dead from likely drowning after becoming distressed while swimming at a Florida Panhandle beach.

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Reply to

Benjamin Dreyer

Related: selection from the copy editor's comments and author's responses on T.E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom"

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Hephaestus

This isn’t a movie, it’s a screensaver bgr.com/tech/movies-...

Movies may soon use AI to change the story each time you rewatchbgr.com Filmmakers are experimenting with a new type of filmmaking called generative film, which uses AI to change the film each time it's watched.

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Hephaestus

Today the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, being led by the nose by President Eli Capilouto, finalized the dissolution of the University Senate, putting the final nail in the coffin of shared governance.

I have no idea of why my teen self feel madly in love with her. 🥺

Françoise Hardy photographed by François Gragnon on the set of Grand Prix

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Hephaestus

I made this Pride flag using only NASA images and our team thought it would be cool to share on social (I work on the NASA heliophysics communications team), but it's getting all sorts of hate on the bird app and Fbook. Thought y'all might be more appreciative of it here. ☺️🏳️‍🌈💖

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Hephaestus

Reminder: if you'd like to commission Muppet-ized movie art of your very own, PM me or write [email protected] for details! Right now, I'm looking at completion dates in October for new requests.

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Hephaestus

Remember all those 2022 predictions that getting inflation down would require years of very high unemployment? Here’s where we are now (using the Cleveland Fed nowcast for May)

Most of the time, you can categorize kitschy bad music into kinda wrong, definitely wrong, or seriously wrong. This blows right through that scale and keeps on going. Without having heard it, I don't know where to place it precisely, but I'm guessing somewhere between unspeakable and abomination.

Whut?

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Hephaestus

I interviewed booking agents, tour managers, and other experts about the Black Keys debacle and why some high-profile arena tours are struggling to sell tickets right now. New piece for Stereogum:

The Curious Case Of The Underselling Arena Tourswww.stereogum.com It's not just the Black Keys. Why are so many big tours selling poorly?

I feel this vibe. That's part of the reason why I'm here. There are times when I have no freaking clue what you are talking about. That's okay. I'll figure it out or I'll ask. I have no shame. I ask amazingly stupid questions. At the end of a good day, I've learned something and learning is fun.

Food for thought, peeps.

If you're not subscribed to Ed Zitron's newsletter, you're missing out on great analysis and the opportunity for moments like this. And yes, his demolition of Sam Altman is utterly spectacular.

Another satisfied customer

I was trying to figure out if I had a body part that looked remotely feminine, so that I could make a joke about it being woke, when I realized that because I have the general shape of Yogi Bear, I am COMPLETELY WOKE! I'm more bear than human. Live in fear of my wokeness, wingnuts!

the "woke chin"

Reskeet how old you are, using a vauge proxy: When I was born Jack and Bobby hadn't yet met Lee and Sirhan.

When my I was conceived Elvis was still sexy.

Windows just popped up a full-screen notice to tell me that my laptop can't run Windows 11, but they'll be glad to wait while I rush out and buy a new one that can run all of their AI garbage. There was not a "Go away and never bother me again" option on that pop-up.

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We may or may not do so before they realise the jig is up www.wheresyoured.at/rotcombubble/

It feels like we live in a time where pretty much all the software we interact with reached its peak at some point in the past and nothing is being improved, and we're all just hoping not to lose the things we now depend on and have given up hope on anything being improved.