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Jacob Harris @jacobharr.is · 3d

And also this was just mind-blowing (about the difference between science fiction which ultimately treats the universe like a machine we can learn to master and how magic works in fiction)

scientific worldview, so I would argue that it's a science fiction story even if it is not consistent with the body of facts we currently have.

By contrast, magic implies a different understanding of how the universe works.
Magic is hard to define. A lot of people would say magic definitionally cannot have rules, and that's one popular way of looking at it. But I have a different take—I would say that magic is evidence that the universe knows you're a person. It's not that magic cannot have rules; it's that the rules are more like the patterns of human psychology or of interactions between people. Magic means that the universe is behaving not as a giant machine but as something that is aware of you as a person who is different from other people, and that people are different from things. At some level, the universe responds to your intentions in a way that the laws of physics as we understand them don't.

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Ryan Pitts @ryanpitts.bsky.social · 4d

"The impulse to view everything in terms of efficiency, of reducing costs and maximizing output, is radically overapplied in the modern world."

lareviewofbooks.org/article/life...

Life Is More Than an Engineering Problem | Los Angeles Review of Books

Julien Crockett speaks with Ted Chiang about the search for a perfect language, the state of AI, and the future direction of technology.

lareviewofbooks.org

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sabre toothed lime @sabre-toothed.bsky.social · 6d

gotta be careful with this stuff or else he might be eating that dirt for the next couple decades (from www.theringer.com/2019/09/26/n...)

"And so he dragged me over to the back of Pinto Ron’s Pinto, where he showed me what was left from a gallon of milk he had the day the Bills staged the biggest playoff comeback in NFL history in a win over the Oilers. That was in 1993. What remains does not look like milk, and there certainly isn’t a gallon of it. It’s a brownish liquid. That’s the color Scotty says it changed into over the years because of “chemistry.” There’s maybe a quarter of a gallon left. Siegel said that’s because whatever is in there is now so acidic, it keeps eating through its plastic jug. The gallon container the liquid resides in is not original. Only the liquid is. The plastic container sits inside a metal pan and, when the nightmare fluid eats through a plastic gallon, they just pour it from the metal container into a new gallon and repeat. This process has been going on for 26 years. "

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Brian Floyd @brianmfloyd.bsky.social · 6d

elsewhere in the seattle mariners extended universe a fan is eating small amounts of dirt he collected from the t-mobile infield every day because he wanted to change the vibes after game 1 and since it worked he’s trapped eating dirt every day

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Oakland Review of Books @oaklandreviewofbooks.org · 6d

Tommy Orange got a MacArthur! HELL YEAH!
www.macfound.org/fellows/clas...

Tommy Orange

Illuminating the richness and complexity of contemporary, urban Native Peoples’ lives.

www.macfound.org

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Natalie Zed 🍁 @nataliezed.bsky.social · 7d

Getting to show you all this cover and announce that VILLAIN is officially coming out in May of next year is such a joy and a relief i don't even know how to express it.
www.harpercollins.com/products/vil...

the cover for a book entitled Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots. the cover is a bright magenta with dark blue and teal lettering for the title, and the author's name is in yellow. there is an image of the silhouette of a woman carrying a cane, surrounded by the silhouettes of five superheroes.

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Sarah Weinman @sarahweinman.com · 7d

Distribution is THE under-reported story in book publishing (outside of the trade publications) and losing B&T is going to have untold ripple effects on the industry, small presses, and authors.

Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 7d

seems very bad www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down

At a town hall yesterday, B&T owner and CEO Aman Kochar announced that following the termination of the ReaderLink acquisition deal, he does not see a path to keep the library wholesaler in business.

www.publishersweekly.com

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Lev Grossman @levgrossman.com · 7d

In other scientific literature news, a quantitative linguist published a study comparing the literary output of identical twins. My brother Austin and I were part of the dataset www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YFIRR...

Do Identical Twins Write Identically? Evidence from Authorship Attribution

This study investigates the writing styles of identical twins to determine if their shared genetics result in identical writing. We used computational authorship analysis techniques on writing samp...

www.tandfonline.com

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Nina Metz @ninametz.bsky.social · 9d

“Nearly 30% fewer movies and TV shows with budgets of at least $40 million began shooting in the U.S. in 2024 than in 2022”

Los Angeles is full of transplants who moved here to pursue dreams of working in movies and TV. Few earned millions as stars or A-list directors. They build the sets, operate the cameras, manage the schedules and make sure everything looks and sounds perfect.

The work isn't steady, because film shoots end and TV shows get canceled. But established professionals had rarely gone more than a few months between gigs— until now.

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Ben Fritz @benfritz.bsky.social · 12d

The most important human story in the entertainment industry right now is the severe downturn in film and TV production in LA and how it's affecting middle-class crew workers. I spoke to dozens of them for this story about the depressed Hollywood economy. www.wsj.com/business/med...

L.A.’s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie

Work is evaporating, businesses are closing, longtime residents are leaving, and Los Angeles’s creative middle class is hanging on by a thread.

www.wsj.com

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Ben Fritz @benfritz.bsky.social · 12d

And I have to say I was truly humbled at how honest and vulnerable so many people were with me about the pain they're experiencing as their livelihoods evaporate. I've never seen so many people cry in interviews with me before.

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giri nathan @girinathan.bsky.social · 11d

hilariously unlikely assortment of fellas - @davidjroth.bsky.social, @pjsauer.bsky.social, and me - in a Today Show segment this morning. also @michaelkosta.bsky.social but that's way less unlikely

How This Sports Book Chat Series Helps People Find Community

Squawkin’ Sports is a book chat series created and hosted by Patrick Sauer and David J. Roth that is helping people find community. NBC’s Sam Brock sits down with Sauer and Roth to talk about their mi...

www.today.com

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ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · 11d

In memoriam...

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the ghost of pony pony huckabuck @spindlypete.bsky.social · 13d

this went incredibly badly btw lol! my larger son set off the fire alarm by attempting to go through an emergency exit which, to his credit, didn't used to be an emergency exit, and in the ensuing chaos, my other, smaller son decided it was Time to Disrobe

the ghost of pony pony huckabuck @spindlypete.bsky.social · 14d

letting the lads stay up very slightly past their bedtime tomorrow for the dorkiest possible reason- no we're not taking them to a party or a rock concert- we're taking them to offer testimony about the proposed pathway resurfacing in the disused park behind the library

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🫘 👻 Spooky BEAN YEAR soup 🥣 season🎃 @billhookunion.beanyear.com · 13d

When I worked at the chocolate factory I pushed to have hot cocoa or “drinking chocolate” trucks by popular Christmas light streets but they never did it

It was @spindlypete.bsky.social ‘s idea

STABITHA🔪🔪🔪 @crabitha.slutmo.de · 13d

there should be dessert trucks that just prowl the neighborhoods in the evening hours, playing light jazz and offering an array of pies and tiramisus for a reasonable price

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STABITHA🔪🔪🔪 @crabitha.slutmo.de · 13d

there should be dessert trucks that just prowl the neighborhoods in the evening hours, playing light jazz and offering an array of pies and tiramisus for a reasonable price

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Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 14d

It’s sad when the caterpillars get eaten but i try to think about how happy a bird or lizard was to find a plant basically covered in free Vienna sausages

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Elizabeth McCracken @elizmccrack.bsky.social · 16d

Hello! I am teaching a course for the splendid American Short Fiction MFA for All, on physicality in fiction. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. Kevin Wlson & Tommy Orange are also teaching! Deadline to sign up for my class is 10/5.

americanshortfiction.org/mfa-for-all/

MFA for All - American Short Fiction

MFA for ALL MFA for All was born from our desire to create a space where MFA-quality instruction is widely accessible to writers no matter their age, background, location, or financial situation. MFA ...

americanshortfiction.org

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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 18d

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus

Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

thewalrus.ca

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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 22d

lovely article about 🤌 the movies 🤌 www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The Exacting Magic of Film Restoration

Each year, at a festival in Bologna, movies that were once lost or damaged come back to life.

www.newyorker.com

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Clive Thompson @clivethompson.bsky.social · Sep 13

Behold a lovely stamp sheet by Chris Ware ...

... where each stamp shows a moment in the day of a postwoman

apparently it's the first time anyone has tried to tell a story with a stamp sheet

item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

sheet of stamps in a 5 by 4 grid. Each shows a female postal deliverer walking her route and delivering mail, through the grid of a small town's streets. Each panel includes her interacting with different residents of the town, including children on the way to school, people shopping, and more. Different parts of the town show each of the four seasons

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Katie Cook @katiecandraw.bsky.social · 24d

Seeing the Bill Watterson originals full of pencil lines of stuff that didn’t work, scuffs the eraser didn’t pick up, white out galore and more was something I needed to see to remind myself that nothing is perfect the first go and tweaks need to be made and you’re allowed to try again.

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Monett @monett.bsky.social · 26d

#UnJourUnePhoto
#photographie
19 septembre
Livre

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Liquoricelino Printmaking @liquoricelino.bsky.social · 26d

Bejumpered birds lino prints

#birds #art #linocut #linoprint #printmaking

liquoricelino.etsy.com

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this should be a movie @thisshouldbeamovie.bsky.social · 27d

or work a cold case, or cook in a kitted out kitchen, or show us how to fix a dead car, so many things