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An American sickness

Posted by PZ Myers

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/28/an-american-sickness/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=77568

We have a chain restaurant that advertises with intimidatingly large flags

I don’t have any flags flying from my house, which makes me an exceptional American. OK, maybe not too exceptional — most houses don’t have flagpoles and aren’t waving their patriotism in everyone’s faces, but having been to Europe and Australia and Asia, I know that in comparison we tend to be a flag-happy nation. But really, the only places, other than official places like the county courthouse and schools, that display a flag also tend to be draped with MAGA nonsense, with pickup trucks covered in ugly political bumper stickers parked in front of them.

That’s fine, I appreciate seeing another visible signifier. But then, I was sent this tweet from Eric Daugherty, a Florida Republican nobody, who has somehow earned the approval of Twitter to send out mass notifications. He is shocked, shocked, shocked that some Americans might see no problem with other country’s flags.

WTF? A liberal white woman has been spotted handing out several MEXICAN flags outside the ICE facility near Chicago. pic.twitter.com/lr9KL2LBa8

Someone is paying for all of this.

Several of the agitators also had shields and other items CONFISCATED.

Who's buying their…

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 28, 2025

How strange and peculiarly American. Mexico is an ally, and Mexicans are our friends, so she is showing support for an allied nation. We are not enemies, although MAGA seems to think so. It does not diminish us to exhibit solidarity with Mexicans and residents of Mexican descent, especially when an American regime is in power and trying to oppress them.

As for the cost, you can buy a pack of 25 small Mexican flags for less than $20 on Amazon. You don’t need to be George Soros to afford that. Also, people voluntarily attend these kinds of protests without demanding payment — I was at a couple of them earlier this summer. If I ever get out to another protest, maybe I’ll sink some pocket change into getting a few flags-onna-stick to hand out.

If I want to be daring, maybe I should get a bunch of Canadian flags, too.

Anything to counter this weird “patriotic” obsession with the American flag. Did all those years in school pledging allegiance to a stupid flag poison our brains?

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/28/an-american-sickness/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=77568

Today’s aesthetic: when a video shows a super-close-up view of some everyday object and it&hel

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795925790905729024

Today’s aesthetic: when a video shows a super-close-up view of some everyday object and it inexplicably has the sound of creaking wood dubbed over it.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795925790905729024

I find that my irritation at people being obtuse about what media they’re talking about is dir

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795907736266244096

I find that my irritation at people being obtuse about what media they’re talking about is directly proportionate to how popular that media is. Talking about a popular TV show or AAA game, but referring to it only by an indecipherable initialism and exclusively calling all of the characters fandom-assigned nicknames which appear nowhere in the text? Go directly to hell. Doing exactly the same thing, but it’s a hyper-niche visual novel about gay robots that has exactly six reviews on Steam, four of which are the lead developer’s Bluesky mutuals? Well, at least you’re having fun!

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795907736266244096

You Don't Panic

Posted by Jon Winokur

https://advicetowriters.com/advice/you-dont-panic-1

The only thing I've got better at as the years have gone by is I've grown more resigned to the fact that it comes hard. You realize that hesitation and frustration and waiting are part of the process, and you don't panic. I get a lot better at not panicking. I get up every morning early if it's a writing day and I will do nothing else but write that day. But the secret is not to panic if it doesn't come.

CLIVE JAMES

https://advicetowriters.com/advice/you-dont-panic-1

kerfuffle

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/kerfuffle-2025-09-28

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 28, 2025 is:

kerfuffle • \ker-FUFF-ul\ • noun

Kerfuffle is an informal word that refers to a disturbance or fuss typically caused by a dispute or conflict.

// The reclassification of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet caused quite a kerfuffle among astronomy lovers.

See the entry >

Examples:

“I find it fascinating that the media landscape and the world of storytelling has so many examples of Tony Sopranos and Walter Whites and Don Drapers, and I am hard pressed to think of as many characters who are women who are given the opportunity to be ... terrible people and to still get their story told. I think that because people are unaccustomed to that, it’s a little bit more shocking, and it’s clearly having an impact on the fandom. I’ve taken a step back from Reddit and social media, but enough of it gets through to me that I am at least aware that there is some kerfuffle happening on this front.” — Ashley Lyle, quoted in Teen Vogue, 11 Apr. 2025

Did you know?

Fuffle is an old Scottish verb that means “to muss” or “to throw into disarray”—in other words, to (literally) ruffle someone’s (figurative) feathers. The addition of car-, possibly from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning “wrong” or “awkward,” didn’t change its meaning much. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, which in the 20th century was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle, referring to a more figurative feather-ruffling. There is some kerfuffle among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by onomatopoeic words like kerplunk that imitate the sound of a falling object hitting a surface.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/kerfuffle-2025-09-28

Since the kickstarter for Eat God is in pre-launch I decided to roll another character. Meet Master&

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795889025674264576

kiragecko:

ALT
Since the kickstarter for Eat God is in pre-launch I decided to roll another character. Meet Master Bolly-vary!
They& are very smart and telepathic and pop out tiny Bolly-varys from their& fanny pack! Eating god is a METAPHOR, you see, which they& would LOVE to discuss with you at length! If you aren’t interested, they& are happy to discuss it with them&selves, though.
Also, I now know a lot more about how muppets robots look, and I am very happy to have gained that knowledge.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795889025674264576

An example of a pre-filled character sheet for Eat God we’re working up for the Kickstarter pa

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795877813192441856

A pre-filled character sheet for "Eat God", with a large, horned, bird-like humanoid with a fat, pear-shaped body and fluffy green feathers playing a lute in the portrait box. The filled-in stats show Facets of Ethos 5, Pathos 7, and Logos 3; Forms of Striking Stature (Bulky), Masterful Mimic, and Prismatic Pelt; and mastery of the Art of Exposition.

An example of a pre-filled character sheet for Eat God we’re working up for the Kickstarter page, if you’re terribly curious what a designed rather than randomly generated character might look like.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795877813192441856

I’m still just working play examples of Eat God in my head (alas), but I keep tripping over the soli

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795875389281075200

(With reference to this post there.)

Mechanically, those situations aren't as distinct as this breakdown would suggest. A test to resist Stress can count its "overflow" toward a relevant goal if your Result exceeds the Threat you're facing, and a test to accomplish a goal can result in you getting hurt or humiliated regardless of its Result if the GM imposes suitable complications. In practice, the third scenario is usually going to be represented as a test to accomplish a goal with a very unfavourable Calamity Threshold.

It sounds like the point of friction you're having is that you're looking for a way to model a D&D style binary pass/fail skill check where either you succeed with flying colours and face no consequences, or you fail and eat dirt, with no middle ground. Eat God doesn't model that possibility as a deliberate design decision. Owing to the way that the dice are read, you can both blow your objective out of the water and get squashed flat in the process, or accomplish something productive by accident while defending yourself; this is intentional.

(Of course, there's a third scenario where you're testing to resist Stress against a Threat that's higher than your relevant Facet, which means you're not going to accomplish anything regardless of your Result; this comes closest to your scenario #2, above. That's not going to be terribly common in practice, though; your average Threat is in the 3–4 range, while you're almost always going to be able to bring a Facet of 5–7 into play unless you're running a 7/4/4 build.)

prokopetz:

gement:
"you can both blow your objective out of the water and get squashed flat in the process, or accomplish something productive by accident while defending yourself; this is intentional."
And that's a much better framing than my clumsy attempt, so, sure, Either/Or is deliberately excluded to make things more interesting, and the choices for Accomplish A Goal are Yay (Success), Boo (Calamity), Both, or Neither. Both can included "get squashed flat"... but what you accrue is Calamity, not Stress? How is getting squashed flat not stress? That's where I'm hung up, mechanically.
When a test incurs Calamity Points, the GM can bank them toward the Calamity Clock or spend them on complications. Two of the available complications are "inflict Stress on someone" and "disable someone's Trait"; these could both model getting squashed flat, depending on how exactly you're picturing what just happened.
(Note that this means a test to accomplish a goal is typically going to be less fraught than a test to resist Stress, since each Calamity Point the GM allocates to complications only deals Stress equal to half the relevant Threat, rounded up. Of course, you might incur multiple Calamity Points on a single test!)

This is, incidentally, one of the release valves that affords the GM fine-grained control over how quickly the Calamity Clock ticks up; even if you have no clever ideas for complications, you can always just convert Calamity Points to Stress against some pertinent party.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795875389281075200

I’m still just working play examples of Eat God in my head (alas), but I keep tripping over the soli

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795875269203394560

(With reference to this post there.)

gement:

"you can both blow your objective out of the water and get squashed flat in the process, or accomplish something productive by accident while defending yourself; this is intentional."
And that's a much better framing than my clumsy attempt, so, sure, Either/Or is deliberately excluded to make things more interesting, and the choices for Accomplish A Goal are Yay (Success), Boo (Calamity), Both, or Neither. Both can included "get squashed flat"... but what you accrue is Calamity, not Stress? How is getting squashed flat not stress? That's where I'm hung up, mechanically.

When a test incurs Calamity Points, the GM can bank them toward the Calamity Clock or spend them on complications. Two of the available complications are "inflict Stress on someone" and "disable someone's Trait"; these could both model getting squashed flat, depending on how exactly you're picturing what just happened.

(Note that this means a test to accomplish a goal is typically going to be less fraught than a test to resist Stress, since each Calamity Point the GM allocates to complications only deals Stress equal to half the relevant Threat, rounded up. Of course, you might incur multiple Calamity Points on a single test!)

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795875269203394560

The Final Tour Event

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/27/the-final-tour-event/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57489

Here in Winston-Salem, NC, where I, Annalee Newitz, Nghi Vo and Maddie Martinez talked about the state of science fiction and fantasy for an hour in front of this very lovely crowd. And then I signed books! And now I’m back in my hotel room! And tomorrow, I go home. Which I am very much looking forward to. This tour has been delightful. But I’m ready be with my spouse and pets.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/27/the-final-tour-event/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57489

Entry tags:

Teleportation phenomenon slang term needed

I need to think of a good slang term for something in the witch world. The something in question is... how to explain this... when shadow-walking¹ (teleportation), what the magic is doing is you hide your body so the magic can force your whole body into a macroscopic quantum superposition, so it's technically quantum teleportation on a macro scale; the concealment is to prevent the observer effect from interfering.² And in very rare instances, sometimes the superposition collapses in a way that the person ceases to exist. I haven't decided yet if that's an actual thing or just exceptionally rare, but either way it's something some witches use to excuse why they don't shadow-walk... they don't want to cease to exist or end up somewhere they can't get back from. That phenomenon, real or not in-world, is what I need a slang term for.

Or at least that's what their best scientists think the magic is doing. Whether they're right or not... I dunno. But I treat it as though it's accurate until I decide otherwise.

The assumption with the phenomenon I need a term for is that either the shadow-walking person couldn't muster enough Will to reappear at their destination while still mustering enough to vanish, or that something else sees them in the stream and snatches them away in the middle of the trip. Which, given the existence in-universe of Shadow People, that isn't an impossibility.

The truth is that, whether it happens at all or not, it would be exceptionally rare regardless, because it takes a LOT of magic to cause something to go into the superposition state to begin with, and the matter "wants" to exist; whether it exists in point A or point B is irrelevant... if the process is interrupted, there's a LOT of weight to existence, so any chance of the matter not existing is so tiny that for all practical purposes, it's zero. But the phenomenon still needs a name because some people are scared of it and so they would still call it something.

The only real evidence for it being real in-world, and not just an urban legend, is the fact that if your thoughts wander when you shadow-walk, there's a possibility you can end up somewhere other than your destination. In the chapter I'm working on, Vedya experiences this first-hand by reappearing near Dalia instead of where she was trying to go, because she had been thinking about Dalia at the last second.

1 = Shadow-walking/light-walking/mist-walking, and also (sort of) with Blinking. Blinking, while it's mistaken for super-fast shadow-walking, is slightly different from shadow-walking, as there's no real concealment. The person literally vanishes in the blink of an eye; the Blinking tattoo speeds up their perception so they can do it at all, and forces observers to blink their eyes when the user is about to vanish.

2 = Yes I am aware that the person teleporting would be an observer, and also it is possible to bring other people along while shadow-walking (but not with Blinking), adding another observer. But the concealment process blinds the observers temporarily. Yes yes, I know, I know, but it works anyway Because Magic.

This was a vent post made on a day when I’d already posted no less than five other things whic

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795871334041321472

addamatic:

prokopetz:
dhavaer:
codasylph:
prokopetz:
prokopetz:
I understand that it’s a bit annoying how hard I’m pushing this pre-launch thing, but you need to understand that the last time I ran a crowdfunding campaign, I posted about it daily for the full month it ran and still had dozens of people who follow me complain that they were completely unaware of it until after it ended.
#i was unaware of this until this specific post so. (via @homosexualtoothbrush)
ALT
What’s that one post go? Tumblr is a website where you see a post from a beloved mutual you haven’t seen post in like 6 months and you’re like “oh, yay! you’re back!” and then you go to their blog and realize that they’ve been been posting regularly for 6 months and the two of you just haven’t been on at the same *time* in that long.
Do people not usually read their entire dash down to the last point they read it?
A lot of folks either follow thousands of active blogs, or follow blogs that post hundreds of times a day – sometimes both! Scrolling all the way back to your “last read” marker is rarely practical in those cases; even I usually don’t make it, and I’m only following like 300 people.
How’re you gonna be making this post and then not even including a link to the campaign!

This was a vent post made on a day when I’d already posted no less than five other things which do contain a link to the campaign, so predictably it ended up being the only post I made that entire day which half of my followers actually saw. Here:

Coming soon: Eat God

If you gave me a hard time about not including the link you have a moral obligation to hit the “notify me” button; it’s not optional.

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795871334041321472

I’m still just working play examples of Eat God in my head (alas), but I keep tripping over the soli

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795869464202772480

(With reference to this post there.)

https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/795869464202772480

Are you looking for an excuse to avoid raking leaves?

Posted by PZ Myers

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/27/are-you-looking-for-an-excuse-to-avoid-raking-leaves/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=77562

Here’s a good one:

GrrlScientist

Another important function here in the north is that leaf litter is an essential refuge for invertebrates during the snowy winter months.

Counterpoint: it’s also a great refuge for harboring ticks. This is something I always think about when I see cartoons of people jumping into leaf piles.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/27/are-you-looking-for-an-excuse-to-avoid-raking-leaves/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=77562

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Hey

Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/hey-4

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I keep trying to make people leave my instagram but they won't STOP.

Today's News:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/hey-4

Entry tags:

holidays

Staging

Staged...waiting for the rain to stop so they can go outside!

We love original artworks, you love original artworks. All of them are one-of-a-kind and handmade on

Posted by parkknife

https://warandpeas.tumblr.com/post/795852691385532416

We love original artworks, you love original artworks. All of them are one-of-a-kind and handmade on archival grade paper.

We all know that. But what is new are these premium frames!

We are not exaggerating when we say that we believe these frames are the best money can buy. The handling is phenomenal and the workmanship is absolutely world class. We can only imagine how people must have felt when they held the first products designed by Dieter Rams in their hands, but it must have been similar.

Original Art

The plexiglas guarantees a timeless, museum-quality presentation and provides perfect UV protection for the image. It is also lightweight, break-resistant and allows the colors of the artwork to shine through unadulterated.

Each frame features a magnetic closure system, multiple hanging points for perfect wall mounting, and protective felt pads.

Original Art

https://warandpeas.tumblr.com/post/795852691385532416

You buy a piece of jewelry at an antique store, just on an impulse. That night, you have the…

https://daily-prompts.tumblr.com/post/795845385044328448

You buy a piece of jewelry at an antique store, just on an impulse. That night, you have the strangest dream.

https://daily-prompts.tumblr.com/post/795845385044328448

Megyn Kelly is deeply weird

Posted by PZ Myers

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/27/megyn-kelly-is-deeply-weird/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=77559

Remember when Megyn Kelly was deeply offended at the suggestion that Santa Claus wasn’t white? It’s an imaginary figure, yet she insisted he was white.

Now she’s doing it again. Jezebel commissioned Etsy to put a curse on Charlie Kirk, which is already silly (you know, curses don’t work, right?)

I want to make it clear, I’m not calling on dark forces to cause him harm. I just want him to wake up every morning with an inexplicable zit. I want his podcast microphone to malfunction every time he hits record. I want his blue blazers to suddenly all be one size too small. I want one of his socks to always be sliding down his foot. I want his thumb to grow too big to tweet. To ruin his day with the collective feminist power of the Etsy coven would be my life’s greatest joy.

It’s silly, it’s stupid, it’s a joke. But then Kirk was shot, and the gullible reared back, aghast, certain that this was confirmation that curses actually work. No, it’s not. This is confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias (also confirmatory bias, myside bias, or congeniality bias) is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs.

All it tells us is that the person promoting the idea has a prior belief in the power of curses, and is presenting a random fact as evidence for that belief.

So what does Megyn Kelly believe?

First of all, Christians are opposed to casting spells or contacting the spirit world – not only because they believe there is only one God, but because they acknowledge the existence of the devil and evil spirits. Fr. Mike Schmitz actually talked about this when he joined me back in episode 399.

He basically explained how you are playing with fire with this stuff. There actually are demons in this world. Calling up the spirit world – in particular the devil’s spirit world – can have real-world consequences. It is not something to mess with. This is very dangerous. It is not a game. It is literally evil.

Demons aren’t real. Neither is Santa Claus. It is literally goofy, but Kelly believes in them. But then she goes on to undermine her own beliefs.

Second, and this is what I want the people at Jezebel to know, Erika and Charlie Kirk heard about these curses, and it really rattled Erika in particular. She knew Christian teaching on this subject. She loved Charlie absolutely. She was scared when she heard of the curses Jezebel had culled up. So much so that she and Charlie contacted a friend – who I believe she said was a Catholic priest – and asked him to pray with them and over Charlie… the night before he was murdered.

She eventually worked it through, and so did Charlie, that, as she told me, “weapons will form but not prosper,” that “satan and those witches have no power.” Of course, God’s will is the one that matters, and his blessing over Charlie was real and palpable. All you had to do was spend time with him to know that.

OK, if I took this at all seriously, the Kirks brought in a priest to officially negate a curse to give him a zit, and instead Charlie got shot in the neck. Following Kelly’s logic, does that mean that the Catholic church is less powerful than a coven of Etsy witches? Is this confirmation that Etsy curses are real and powerful?

As usual, these weird fantasies vanish in a puff of contradictions. Megyn Kelly doesn’t care, though, all she wants to do is rationalize hating the people she disagrees with. They’re evil, don’t you know. It also gives her an opportunity to engage in melodramatic theatrics.

Watch on YouTube

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/27/megyn-kelly-is-deeply-weird/

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/?p=77559

Avoidance

Posted by Jon Winokur

https://advicetowriters.com/advice/avoidance-1

I think there is a tremendous amount of avoidance that goes on while writing. People used to ask me if I got writers block and I’d always say, “no” because I have never had that thing where you just sit and stare at the blank page and nothing comes. But then I realized that I did have writer’s block, it just didn’t take that form. The form was this incredible avoidance and I could think of so many things to do, and they were all totally legitimate things. I mean your taxes have to be done, right? All the things that interfere in life. I once made an experiment, if I quit writing would I have a lot of spare time? And after three weeks I realized that I could just quit and never notice. The time would just vanish like throwing a stone into the water, it would leave no trace. So unless I was willing to just carve out this time for writing, I was never going to get anything done. It is a dilemma that I think everyone faces.

CONNIE WILLIS

https://advicetowriters.com/advice/avoidance-1