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Rika⁷

@commanderrika.blacksky.app

4.2K followers 1.2K following 4.4K posts

Writer+Illustrator. She/Her. 💜 Blackness 💜 Books 💜 BTS 💜 Stories in Lightspeed, FIYAH, Strange Horizons, Fantasy, and Apparitions

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Rika⁷ @commanderrika.blacksky.app · Sep 1

Hi! I have a story out in Small Wonders today! This is a little horny gremlin of a tale and I hope you take a chance on it, if you're into words and whatnot.

Small Wonders @smallwondersmag.com · Sep 1

What takes you out of time? And what is sweet enough to bring you back into it again? Read Marika Bailey's "Gifted and Talented" today and consider what moves you so that you could move others:

Gifted and Talented - Small Wonders

Being beyond time is a revolution against creation most bodies aren’t built to bear. It’ll kill you, that dark matter time.

smallwondersmag.com

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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 3h

people are going to post AI slop...sometimes they just do not realize it at the time and have the good graces to delete it

but if they are told and keep posting it your safest action is just to block them because they will continue to spread it

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Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social · 5h

just randomly looking around and found a place that sells these outfits in multiple sizes, if anyone's interested

www.favounicorn.com/inflatable-f...

Inflatable frog costume in kid and adult sizes, $54

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City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 5h

MMWR was the early alert system that told doctors to be on the lookout for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (and just about every other pandemic/epidemic since the 70s

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 5h

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Alyssa Harad @alyssaharad.bsky.social · 10h

And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 13h

The frogs have landed in Chicago!

Protestor in a frog suit and an anti-Ice sign with what I believe to be a Pokémon character on a street corner in Rogers Park.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 10h

This is true and they are super endangered by poachers who shovel them up by the hundreds and sell them at flea markets and shit. You should not buy the plants and if you happen to kick the poacher in the shins on accident, no one will hear about it from me.

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 13h

still amazing to me the number of movies, games, etc. which have Venus Flytrap-based creatures in some form compared to the actual native range of Venus Flytrap, which is like, the great untamed jungles of a few wet pine savannas in North Carolina

map illustrating the native range of Venus Flytrap plants, just a little half circle around coastal North and South Carolina in USA

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Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 1d

Use only water or fresh air on tear gas or pepper spray.

No milk, vinegar, antacids, urine, etc. and especially not in eye.

Thank me later,

An actual expert

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Remora House DC 🎃 @remorahousedc.bsky.social · 9h

If you are employed & doing pretty fine right now, set aside some money from each paycheck to dedicate to mutual aid asks. Even just $20.

Shit is really bad, the social safety net is being shredded, & truly TRULY all we have is each other right now.

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 8h

DHS default is to lie about every encounter. Which is why they’re trying to criminalize recording them.

CHICAGO (WGN) - A WGN creative services department employee was detained by two
Border Patrol officers and later released after federal agents swarmed a busy intersection on Chicago's North Side Friday morning, at the height of rush hour.
WGN is not naming the employee, as station policy requires blurring faces and not identifying those who have not been charged with a crime.
Witnesses on site who captured the incident on video spoke to WGN about the moments leading up to the staffer's detainment.

Thomas added that when he made his way down to the scene, around 8:30 Friday morning, he realized there was another person already detained inside the minivan being used by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
"I didn't get his name, although I asked for his name," Thomas said. "He didn't speak very good English. They claimed that the WGN employee was obstructing justice, even though she was, like all of us, just standing there, taking video.'
"

Tricia McLaughlin ®
@TriciaOhio
X.com
She was arrested for throwing objects at law enforcement.
Heartland Signal D @HeartlandSignal • 3h
BREAKING: Masked Border Patrol agents aggressively arrested WGN video producer Debbie Brockman in Lincoln Square Friday morning, supposedly for "obstructing justice." (Video via Josh Thomas on Facebook)

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 6h

My first thought was “wow I hope this guy didn’t give out his name because he could absolutely be charged” and yup, he is correct to stay anonymous.

This man’s account is shocking. His neighbors’ situation is shocking. The entire Chicago raid is shocking.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.
"I wasn't planning on letting her stay, but I didn't know what the hell was going on," the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.
"I didn't want them to take her," said the man, who didn't want to be named because he fears he'll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.
"I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her,
'Just stay there. Don't open, don't, shh, just stay quiet," he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

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Slackermom @slackermom.bsky.social · 11h

Was just at a neighborhood school at dismissal. Hundreds of people with whistles surrounding the school and stationed down every block making sure ICE doesn’t snatch anyone. The same is happening at all the schools around here. I love my neighborhood and I love Chicago.

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 11h

I did hear about this and I don’t know that I have TEA but I have THOUGHTS

first of all let us not skip past the symbolic significance of “Leo signed the document on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi”

Julia L @calenmir.bsky.social · 11h

@clairewillett.bsky.social wanted to make sure you hear this (and hear any tea you might have regarding this): www.ncronline.org/pope-leo-bla...

Pope Leo blasts elitism, indifference toward poor in first major document

"I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the church and for society," the pope wrote in Dilexi Te.

www.ncronline.org

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Mel @thegatesofmel.blacksky.app · 12h

Calling these things “mistakes” is disingenuous and lazy. A 45 year old fragrance in a bottle that is scented like the fucking fragrance is not a damn drug and everyone knows that. www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-a...

Indian immigrant fights deportation after police mistake perfume labeled 'Opium' for the narcotic

Kapil Raghu, 28, was arrested in May after an officer in central Arkansas spotted the rollerball perfume bottle in his car during a routine traffic stop.

www.nbcnews.com

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John Joseph Adams @johnjosephadams.com · 14h

Since it's Black Speculative Fiction Month, I thought I'd share a story I love by a Black author each day. Since I'm starting 10 days in, I'll post a bunch to catch up. I'm going to do 15 from the Top 80 of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and 15 from Lightspeed/Nightmare.

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Dave @akadave.bsky.social · 11h

Final order cutoff for Harley and Ivy is THIS MONDAY (the 13th) so be sure to request it from your local shop before then!

Dave @akadave.bsky.social · 17h

At NYCC? Come see Erica (@ericafails.bsky.social) talk about her new book "Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes" at the DC Comics: Gotham City panel!

TODAY at 12:30 PM, Room 409!

HARLEY and IVY hits stores November 5th!

Two-page spread from Erica's upcoming comic "Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes" showing the title characters SMOOCHING

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That BG Dork @thatbgdork.bsky.social · 19h

Ahh. The reactionary mindset in a nutshell "secretly, everyone is afraid to agree with me that this selfish thing is Good Actually™️™️™️, so I'm going to just do it bc then I'm actually doing what everyone is doing & am not REALLY selfish".

it's why the RW tilts at "voter fraud" windmills so much.

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 1d

there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually

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Tiricohairline @trejames.bsky.social · 13h

I used to always tell white people that one of the biggest indicators of white privilege is how their problems are presented.

Jenn Q. @jennqueen.bsky.social · 13h

It’s wild how words change depending on who’s affected.

When drugs hit Black communities, it was a “crack epidemic.”

When drugs hit white communities, it became a “health crisis.”

That’s what we call a dog whistle. The language changes when the skin color does.

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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 16h

Oh those NYC buses crammed to the gills with Rockefellers, their diamond stickpins poking one another, their monocles tangled

Nick @sregorn.bsky.social · 16h

great post sir, keep saying shit like this

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peri-apocalyptic glitch @periapocalipticdad.bsky.social · 15h

"this thing that will materially erode society is a good business decision" is a big part of why we are where we are.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 15h

“Another former OpenAI employee who also was not authorized to speak publicly argued that releasing a deepfake AI social media platform was the right business decision, even if it contributes to the collapse of everyone's shared sense of reality.” 💀

Sora gives deepfakes 'a publicist and a distribution deal.' It could change the internet

OpenAI's new hit app has unleashed a new wave of AI slop across the internet. But what happens when there are no rules over hyper-realistic synthetic videos?

www.npr.org

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 15h

I don't know what adult fantasy fiction you're reading, but over here in marginalized voices land, fantasy is doing incredible things. Stunning narrative styles and structures, intriguing characters, powerful themes. This feels like a you problem than anything indicative of the genre as a whole.

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Jenny Hamilton @readingtheend.bsky.social · 15h

This whole thread!!! when I talk about YA authors getting picked up to write romantasy, it's overwhelmingly white authors writing het romance. but that represents just a fraction of what's actually happening in the YA space.

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 15h

There are real conversations to be had about thematic issues with romantasy, what publishers are buying vs what they're rejecting, YA being colonized by NA, etc. But what ends up getting the most marketing, into celebrity book clubs, and on bestsellers lists isn't representative of the whole genre.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 18h

“You just gonna let her do this to me?????”

Tortie kitten jimmi pickles tackling orange creamsicle kitty eggsy, who is three times her size

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lacey @byelacey.bsky.social · 18h

it's that time of year, it's time to get your flu and covid booster shot unless you're from massachusetts then it's time for your flu and covid borcester shot

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Rika⁷ @commanderrika.blacksky.app · 16h

Far too many people seem to think the point of having someone who shares their oppressions in a position of power...is to allow them the ability to act as badly as their oppressors do.

Celeste Pewter @celestepewter.bsky.social · 18h

Okay, I really don’t want to keep talking about this, since frankly - I hate KP. She’s an example of toxic management, and I saw what she did to my friends.

But I’m really disturbed by the number of women, specifically white women on Threads and on here, justifying her cursing at staff.

Celeste Pewter @celestepewter.bsky.social · 1d

Going to be honest: Threads going to bat for Katie Porter is one of the most 🫠 things I've seen today...

And really speaks to my ongoing belief we shouldn't stan politicians. At all.

Fellow Dems, hold politicians accountable for their work, not for who you THINK they are only on camera.

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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 18h

like there's discussion to be had about adults reading YA, who the age level is marketed to, and about adult publishing leaning into more commercial genre fiction, but just being like "everything that is shallow or commercial we are going to call YA" is ill-informed and lazy

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 17h

Makes sense because Musk has no idea what it takes to produce anything, and Weiss doesn't understand what it takes to produce journalism.

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 17h

News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."

One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."

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