James Enge
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jamesenge.bsky.social
James Enge
@jamesenge.bsky.social
Classics by day; sword-and-sorcery by night. The other way 'round sometimes.

https://jamesenge.com
Reposted by James Enge
One of the reasons i love tolkien is the theme that despair is an enemy

and it makes clear you don’t need to have constant hope, you can get by with grim determination or spite but never despair
You can be as terrified or nonplussed or unperturbed as you like; the sun will still rise tomorrow & the rent will still be due on the 31st. The world has no romantic narratives for its fate except those we invent, because the world does not die. That is our privilege.
I said it elsewhere, but it’s weirdly exhilarating and addictive to be terrified all the time, and the people addicted to it, when they say this, may as well be saying “I can stop at any time, it’s just the world doing this *to* me.”
December 31, 2023 at 3:23 AM
Happy Thanksgiving to my compatriots; happy Thursday to all.

outsideinmusic.bandcamp.com/track/thanks...
Thanksgiving Theme, by Isaiah J. Thompson
from the album A Guaraldi Holiday
outsideinmusic.bandcamp.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by James Enge
won't have em for this weekend, but i've been getting a few more people at my table than I'd like lately asking *very pointedly* if i drew everything myself, so i designed a new sticker this afternoon that will hopefully quell some of those concerns.

#art
November 26, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by James Enge
My thoughts on AI anything, really.
November 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
For a small fee, I will go to your enemy and exact a larger fee for doing something, which I will not do.
For a small fee, I will go to your historian enemy’s seminar presentation and say “I guess I’m just wondering what the “so what” of this paper is?”
November 26, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by James Enge
The plan for 2026 is to be open to submissions these three times:

April 19-25
July 19-25
October 18-24

I’ll be updating Kaleidotrope’s submissions guidelines page accordingly soon.
Do you have a specific date for opening back up for submissions in 2026? If you care to share...
November 26, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by James Enge
Untitled - by Daniela Muttini

www.danielamuttini.com/portraitsand...
November 26, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by James Enge
LAST DAY TO EARLY VOTE!!!!!

Woke up with the energy of 1,000 Dolly Partons 💅🏼✨ A new poll has us just 2 points behind. It’s the LAST day to early vote! COLLEGE KIDS COMING HOME: hug your fam, kiss the dog, then find your polling place at iwillvote.com?utm_so.... Let’s flip TN-07!
November 26, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by James Enge
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by James Enge
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by James Enge
Y'all, It's TOMORROW.

Imani Perry and Tananarive Due discuss a titan of Afrofuturist fiction, Octavie E. Butler, and her masterwork,

"Lilith’s Brood: The Xenogenesis Trilogy". My favorite is"Dawn"

Mon, Nov 24 from 6- 7pm EST
Online, Free

www.eventbrite.com/e/the-radica...

#Lit #OctaviaEButler
November 24, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by James Enge
The English word ‘blue’ is a horse of a different colour.

While ‘blue’ is related to the words in its Germanic sister languages, such as German ‘blau’ and Swedish ‘blå’, it took a different route.

Its Germanic ancestor was loaned to French, where it became ‘bleu’, and then borrowed into English:
November 23, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by James Enge
Happy Harpo Marx day to all who celebrate!

Born on November 23, 1888.
November 23, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Reposted by James Enge
This month's second #ScienceFIction book round-up starts rough, veers into the very funny, and ends (as one might expect) in the sublime. It is worth your attention!

galacticjourney.org/november-20-...
November 23, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Reposted by James Enge
you'd think the forced displacement of 10 million people from one of the oldest centres of civilisation in human history would get a little more news attention than beltway journalists writing essays on how Olivia Nuzzi is a genius because they want to bone her and you'd be wrong
'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain'

#Iran 🇮🇷
Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens
Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has mad...
www.iranintl.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:59 PM
demens est qui fidem praestat errori.

--Seneca, DE BENEFICIIS 4.36.3

"Anyone who's loyal to their mistakes is crazy."
November 22, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Reposted by James Enge
Remarkable: Rep Chrissy Houlahan, one of the Dems that Trump called for executing, tells me her office literally filled out a Capitol Police threat report that listed "the president" as the person making the threat.

It's at 9:20 on our pod. Much more like that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2034...
Trump’s Angry Tirade Calling for “Death” to Dems Just Backfired Badly
As Trump’s call for the execution of “seditious” Dems works against him, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, one of his targets, explains why she and other Dems are warning servicemembers against carrying out ille...
newrepublic.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by James Enge
Whenever this is mentioned, it is obligatory to post xkcd 2381, in which @gretchenmcc.bsky.social shares forbidden linguistic knowledge with the masses.
November 21, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by James Enge
New @dataforprogress.org polling shows a majority of US voters (55%) SUPPORT the phaseout of fossil fuels, including a majority of Dems (74%), voters under 45 (69%), and Independents (57%).

@governor.ca.gov @rokhanna.bsky.social @govpritzker.illinois.gov @chrismurphyct.bsky.social @aoc.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by James Enge
X has changed their policy and now you can see where the accounts are based.

Here’s an “influencer from Texas”
November 21, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by James Enge
new toon in tricorder-friendly format

tinyview.com/this-modern-...
MAGA Trek
TMW cartoon for Nov. 17 2025.
tinyview.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by James Enge
November 21, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by James Enge
This is perfect. A Fox 52 episode podcast about the life of Jesus, apparently built on subterfuge, theft and lies. Many or most of the actors billed as participating had their voices repurposed from other work and didn't even know they were part of it. ew.com/celebrities-...
Kristen Bell, Malcolm McDowell, more had 'no knowledge' their voices would be used in Fox News Jesus podcast
Kristen Bell, Malcolm McDowell, and more stars had 'no knowledge' that their voices would be used in a Fox News podcast about Jesus until this week, as they recorded audio for a separate project 15 ye...
ew.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by James Enge
1/ It should be forgiven. It should be forgotten. If she spoke of it again, the sins would be hers, she was told.

But she could never forget. And neither could the other girls.

This is the story of how her church enabled a child abuser for years 👇

[content warning: sexual abuse]
November 21, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by James Enge
Nobody wants this shit. Nobody.

The hostile reaction has been so pronounced, in fact, that it feels like a company announcing it would never force AI into its products would carve out a pretty good chunk of the market.
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
November 20, 2025 at 8:53 PM