Pia Long

The light effect in this is beautiful especially.

Myanmar: Facebook’s systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations – new report

It went from “oh, fun, I can keep in touch with my friends all over the world so easily” to “ah, propaganda, racism, clickbait, Brexit, Myanmar…” a bit too starkly & I wish it had never been unleashed www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

Social media

I made a perfume on this theme (an imaginary future after humanity has almost gone extinct and plants have taken over). 😄

Random Fact

In Toothed Whales, their right nasal passage evolved into the mechanism that produces the sonar click they use for echolocation.

Since when has America actually protected children? The “but surely NOW…” thinking is flawed because since school shootings weren’t enough, why should this be. The horror goes deeper that the present regime and can’t be defeated by just trying to return to status quo.

Today!

My perspective on this was challenged when a close friend’s autistic kid relied on HP for comfort a while - at that point the books & films had already been bought and they’d done so well before JKR revealed her true self. It’s one thing to make a private exception, another to be online arguing.

I feel like this is the line for me: does “separating art from the artist” directly enable or fund harm? In Rowling’s case she’s made it a very proudly public yes. So I don’t feel safe around anyone who publicly defends their use of her creations/franchise. Because that is a statement in itself.

Woman with long purplish-pink hair is sipping tea out of a Moomin mug.

Would this be a good time to examine why modern Western fashion ideals are a bit problematic…

I’m going to stop saying MAGA and replace it with “paedofascist vulture capitalism.”

❤️

I mean, feel free to unfollow me if I am insufficiently pure for you. Otherwise, unless one lives in a stick lean-to and drinks naught but pure rainwater, all any of us can do is choose what level of hypocrisy we live at and with. I wrote about this, in fact:

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/03/12/t...

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

The cultural contradictions of techbro capitalism - Lawyers, Guns & Money Andrew Gelman has read Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which sounds like a very interesting book by a New Zealand lawyer who climbed high in the ranks at Facebook, before becoming too disgust...

A nice write up of a book, a couple of good links, and fine thesis statement at the end, I expect no less of one of the last of the great old school blogs.
www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/01/the-...

A multimedia sketch in a sketchbook of a grotesque chimera with two front legs wearing red jester boots, two back legs blue, a butthole that looks like a mouth making an o, a demon tail, a microwilly peeking out and pointing at a cute teddybear on the ground, and a long neck with Trump’s head, mask-like. The monster is infested with cordyceps and one of the fruiting bodies is Putin.

Looks like monsters representing the collapsing illusion of American political power are infesting my brain like the cordyceps of this chimera.

An amateur sketch in a two page spread sketchbook of a blue bunny hat surrounded by a fence and handguns.

An amateur sketch of a horror creature: multi-headed long-necked mouth monster with blood spattered everywhere, about to take a bite of a word PEACE, suspended in mid-air and apparently constructed out of torn intestines.

This year I had a plan: to give myself permission to do bad art, every day, as a form of nervous system regulation and learning. A sketch a day. The underlying lofty aim was to learn techniques that could help me pick up botanical illustration. Well, this is what I’ve sketched recently.

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

If I can do it, anyone can.

Minnesotans are setting one possible pathway to peaceful resistance by their strike and community action, but Trump’s regime keeps executing them.

The official launch was November and out of the 400 copy print run we have 39 copies left. The London book launch is on the 5th of Feb and I have another book tour event in Finland in March. We’ve put in an order for another print run. It’s a niche book, with zero marketing budget.

At this point it doesn’t feel outlandish to conclude that, even though it’s obviously so unhinged.

Serious question: is Trump trying to escalate things until his victims organise and the ongoing American class and race war becomes a civil war?

This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.

One of the most dangerous things about America is Republicans “sanitysplaining” Trump.

A much-liked post by Germany’s satirical newspaper @der-postillon.com with the titles “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student” and the caption “They don’t want to get blamed again“

A joke for the history buffs:

Germany’s satirical newspaper @der-postillon.com titles: “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student — They don’t want to get blamed again“

AI: The Good, The Bad, and The Perfumed AI could become a tool to help humanity but at the moment it mostly seems to help those who can persuade investors to throw money at it

I wrote an opinion piece on AI since it keeps being hyped for perfumery. My position: the mix of human minds and capitalism has given us AI and will, ultimately, also determine its future. Following @edzitron.com on here has been useful, among other things. open.substack.com/pub/perfumer...

There’s a kind of perpetual victimhood and “poor me”-attitude in certain men that seek to blame everyone but themselves for their issues. Socks are the least worst outlet.

The forbidden play bow