"Why is science fiction so bad at predicting the future, even as we continue to use science fiction terms to describe reality?"

Author @kenliu.author tracks a brief history of human innovation and science fiction as myth-making:

reactormag.com/why-science-fic…

#RogueMoviesChat

Here's 7 to 12 (of the 12) vampire movies, in alphabetical order.

10. Shadow of the Vampire
The alphabet places these nicely. Go from 1922 to 2000. Willem Dafoe places the actor who plays Nosferatu, John Malkovich plays the director, and Cary Elwes plays the cinematographer. Excellent historical, breaking the fourth wall blend. Ah, and Nicolas Cage was one of the producers, which leads to...

youtube.com/watch?v=_B15iesNMa…


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Question for geopolitical nerds and tech nerds.

If you have a stock android phone, it's almost impossible to use it without a Google account. If your nation becomes what is essentially at war with the US, or is under sanction. Does the whole country get their Google accounts blocked, thus rendering their phone almost unusable (without rooting it or reflashing the os etc?).

#RogueMoviesChat

Here's 7 to 12 (of the 12) vampire movies, in alphabetical order.

9. Nosferatu
And the only reason Bela' Dracula isn't on this is because I haven't been able to get a proper DVD copy of it... but anyway, Nosferatu was made with only the slightest variations to avoid copyright issues back in 1922. The DVD copy that I have of it... uh, while it fits, Type O Negative's music was used as the score. It was an official DVD release.

youtube.com/watch?v=ZxlJxDr26m…


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#RogueMoviesChat

Here's 7 to 12 (of the 12) vampire movies, in alphabetical order. Next will be 8 vampire movies I ain't gots on DVD yet, which I plan to get.

8. Near Dark
Also from 1987, with a lot of the cast from the second Alien movie (Aliens), and also the same dickhead (his character) who was in River's Edge, an equal nasty young dickhead in this (his character)... this is a nice take on vampires. Ah, and the actress played the groupie in Pink Floyd's The Wall.

youtube.com/watch?v=VllIQYnC20…


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I remember designer Mary Keen at a Snowdrop Study day where we were both speakers saying that among the best snowdrops for naturalising are ordinary Galanthus nivalis. She's right! These are from just a handful of bulbs and this is just part of the display along our drive, They've even 'hopped' over to the other side. A real mood-lifter in these gloomy days - both the weather and the news.

#galanthus #snowdrops #gardens #gardening #plants #cotswolds

@pluralistic
"Your friends are a problem for Mark Zuckerberg to solve, and (to his undying chagrin), you and your friends stubbornly refuse to organize your relationships around Zuck's financial imperatives. You just wanna hang out in the rhythms that are part of any friendship – sometimes intense, sometimes casual, often sporadic.
I mean, honestly, if you're going to insist on just having normal friendships, how the hell can Mark Zuckerberg post the kind of growth his shareholders expect?"
pluralistic.net/2026/01/19/bil…

#RogueMoviesChat

Here's 7 to 12 (of the 12) vampire movies, in alphabetical order. Next will be 8 vampire movies I ain't gots on DVD yet, which I plan to get.

7. Lost Boys
Yeah, I know... the Cory's are in it. Eh... but fine for what they are in it. Nice Doors cover, and the ending with the grandpa (that actor was also in Tron) just makes this one. Kiefer and his vampire buddies are great, as is Max. And if this is too puff, you got the next one, also from '87.

youtube.com/watch?v=Q786UsnOcs…


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Episode two of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy explores Academy classes (and unfortunate roommate situations) while drawing from Lower Decks and Prodigy. Let's discuss "Beta Test"!

reactormag.com/tv-review-star-…

France 24: What is the EU anti-coercion 'bazooka' it could use against the US over Greenland?
france24.com/en/europe/2026011…

Let there be light! 💡

I've been trying (and failing) to learn how to create lighting from nothing. You know, a good hobby to keep me off the streets stealing candy from children. It's much more difficult than I had anticipated (at least for my dumb ass) and I commend all editors out there! 👏🏻 So, here is my first attempt that I just finished that I don't completely hate!
(All edits were done in Snapseed, I'll post the original photo in the comments)

#photography #amateurphotography #stairs #urban #city #urbanphotography #streetphotography #moody #atmosphere #night #nightphotography #bologna #cityscape #lighting #photoediting #italia #citta #urbanarchitecture #europe

_The Darkest Nudge_

FTA: January 15, 2026. Tore Says monitors document simultaneous Zoom calls across every major activist network in the United States. Sunrise Movement. Federal employee resistance groups. Military reservist networks. Senior Executive Service officials. Antifa organizers. Ideologically opposed groups, different platforms, never having worked together publicly.

Jake broadcasts intent to burn a Quran to provoke the left.

Pink broadcasts alerts about an “anti-Muslim rally” to mobilize the Left.

They both specify the exact time. They both name the location.

On the surface, they are enemies. In the intelligence chatter, they are the same network. One operative amplifies the threat. The other provides the violence. Two hands of the same foreign-funded clock.

Every Zoom call Tore documented discussed the same objective: create sufficient unrest that the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

Upper-level conversations revealed specific instructions.

Stage provocations at mosques.

Arm counter-protesters.

Ensure cameras capture everything.

Coordinate media amplification across all platforms.

Then further instructions surfaced:

Promote the Insurrection Act subversively through conservative outlets. Embed in right-wing media. Make supporters demand the mechanism that will remove Trump.
The Left creates chaos to force federal crackdown.

The Right demands emergency powers thinking they’ll crush the opposition.

The synthesis advances through the collision. The moment Trump invokes the Act to restore order, the narrative locks. He becomes the strongman they warned about for a decade. Every news chyron, every influencer post, every talking head will say the same thing: You see? He IS the dictator.

The truth is irrelevant. Perception is the verdict. The justification for his removal is written by his own signature.

ekolovesyou.com/p/the-darkest-…

That’s what I’m talking about. Open protocols are where it’s at.
RE: bsky.app/profile/did:plc:esmiu…


This post got thousands of likes on Bluesky despite being published on Mastodon What I mean by that is not that the Mastodon post was copy/pasted to Bluesky, the post you’re seeing and can natively interact with on Bluesky is literally the original Mastodon post The power of open protocols
RE: bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cy6c6…

@pikesley@mastodon.me.uk:

Frodo: I wish so much unbelievably stupid shit had not happened in my time</p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. This is all exceptionally stupid, though



m.youtube.com/watch?v=1rE_fMly…

Fallout 1 and 2 music

Claims it does not follow standard music rules which makes it hard to memorize or describe perfectly and so less boring when heard repetively, resulting in people wanting to listen to it years after the game was made


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🧠 Algorithms learned your habits. You learned to flinch. New research shows resistance is not rage but cognition. Fatigue alone does nothing. Agency comes from literacy, relevance, and digital self control. The smarter the feed, the sharper the filter. The user adapts. The system leaks power.

People do not push back because they are tired, but because they are literate, regulated, and alert to relevance.

#Algorithm mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/8/232

in reply to 𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™

As I like to put it, all the great societies in history have come from empowerment, from people having the power to do what they want. There is no threshold to suffering beyond which this magically occurs, and in fact the more we suffer, the less power we have to bring about social change. When it's more than we can take, we don't rise up and cast off the yoke of our masters. We die.

Portland-based duo Utility performs 9 pm Jan. 22 at John Henry’s as part of a series of shows tied to the vinyl release of their second album, How to Protect What’s Left?

Read more in Eugene Weekly’s What’s Happening Calendar!
eugeneweekly.com/2026/01/15/ut…

Forgot to post last weeks greeknotes! A cold but sunny week in athens featuring a protest in Petralona, the Benaki museum, traversing athens on foot through parts unknown, the acropolis, plaka and exarcheia. Also probably more souvlaki than is healthy.

felix.gripe/blog/athens-greekn…

#greece #greeknotes #weeknotes #athens

_BUSTED: California Ordered to Return $1+ BILLION After Dr. Oz–Led Audit Exposes Federal Healthcare Funds Spent on Illegal Immigrants_

FTA: The Trump administration has dropped the hammer on California and a coalition of deep-blue states after a sweeping federal audit uncovered more than $1.3 billion in misused federal healthcare funds spent on non-emergency medical care for illegal immigrants, a clear violation of federal law.

According to a bombshell report highlighted on Fox News, the administration’s aggressive audits, led by Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz, found that seven states and Washington, D.C., improperly billed the federal government for healthcare services that go far beyond what is legally permitted.

Under federal law, states may only use federal Medicaid funds to cover emergency medical services for illegal immigrants. Routine care, elective procedures, and non-emergency treatments must be paid for by the states themselves.

That did not happen.

Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli wrote on X, “California must return more than $1 billion to the federal government after an audit by Dr. Oz and his team uncovered federal dollars being spent on healthcare for illegal immigrants. We are teaming up to combat healthcare fraud so the money can be used for American citizens who need it!”

Federal auditors identified nearly $1.4 billion owed back to U.S. taxpayers, with California alone accounting for the overwhelming majority:

<continued:> thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/b…

in reply to creaturr :Blobhaj_Hug_Plushie:

LOL you may be taking my pissy work-blogging too seriously, but I can respect that. My job is VERY low stakes so the fact that I ever get a high-importance email is extremely silly.

This is going to vary from org to org. Things that need an immediate or near-immediate response to avert potential social, ethical, moral, physical, psychological, or structural damages are the things that are 'high-importance', to me. Things where the company may collapse, someone is in real danger in the next week or so, or - MAYBE - a big deadline is coming up quickly and work is not on-track.

But with the last one, that's now another one of my pet peeves: How did we fuck up bad enough to get into that situation??? Lol.

But yeah don't read into it too much! My email job just should not, broadly, ever be getting high importance emails. These people are just uppity and/or have their default set to high importance (eyeroll)

This entry was edited (7 minutes ago)

If you develop for #linux please make offline installation possible, for people in countries with restricted internet. Came back home last night and today I want to install Luminance HDR but their only option for linux is via the terminal, and yet, while I can access full internet on my phone using a VPN, I can't access any on my laptop/workstations, so I can't install this program, unless I use Wine. I'm in #Uganda They cut off internet during elections and it has now been partially restored.

Not parody. Fellow Quods, I give you Athika Ahmed, Health Ambassador from Wales.

x.com/grok/status/201359692785…

And again:

"You two ladies from Scotland?"
"It's Wales, you idiot."
"Oh, sorry. Are you two whales from Scotland?"


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Milton Friedman - Illegal Immigration only helps when its Illegal

youtube.com/watch?v=C52TlPCVDi…

So what was Elon Musk saying about doing what Milton Friedman was saying?


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