Mark Godin
@haldbeg.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Godin
In this week’s @strangehorizons.bsky.social, one of my favourite pieces I’ve edited this year — on orientalism from Star Trek to Game of Thrones.
Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence,” by Tanvir Ahmed —
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence,” by Tanvir Ahmed —
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence
Dragon fire on white bodies is sad. Dragon fire on not-Muslim bodies is cheered on the screen. We ache when the scimitar prows of not-Muslim ships cleave through a white human captain’s ship. But b…
strangehorizons.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:24 AM
In this week’s @strangehorizons.bsky.social, one of my favourite pieces I’ve edited this year — on orientalism from Star Trek to Game of Thrones.
Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence,” by Tanvir Ahmed —
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence,” by Tanvir Ahmed —
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
Reposted by Mark Godin
November 28, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Very interesting article on the deaf community, language and power.
I will not fight with people on Threads about Makaton. I will not fight with people on Threads about Makaton. I will not thebaffler.com/outbursts/si...
Signed Away | Sara Nović
The hearing world continues to pillage and caricature the deaf community—most recently with the proprietary, sign-based system Makaton.
thebaffler.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Very interesting article on the deaf community, language and power.
Reposted by Mark Godin
What is our responsibility as SFF writers in the face of genocide and anti-Muslim violence?
Read Tanvir Ahmed's excellent essay in @strangehorizons.bsky.social
&
Listen to our chat with him this week on @justkeepwriting.bsky.social for some thoughts
www.justkeepwriting.org/podcast/epis...
Read Tanvir Ahmed's excellent essay in @strangehorizons.bsky.social
&
Listen to our chat with him this week on @justkeepwriting.bsky.social for some thoughts
www.justkeepwriting.org/podcast/epis...
A Letter Dispatched from the Hills of Afghulistan and the Ramparts of Tarouz
Language blasts through the malicious intentions and blows them to ash. Language rises triumphant over fangs and claws. Language, in other words, is presented as something more than a medium for co…
strangehorizons.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:48 PM
What is our responsibility as SFF writers in the face of genocide and anti-Muslim violence?
Read Tanvir Ahmed's excellent essay in @strangehorizons.bsky.social
&
Listen to our chat with him this week on @justkeepwriting.bsky.social for some thoughts
www.justkeepwriting.org/podcast/epis...
Read Tanvir Ahmed's excellent essay in @strangehorizons.bsky.social
&
Listen to our chat with him this week on @justkeepwriting.bsky.social for some thoughts
www.justkeepwriting.org/podcast/epis...
When I fly back to Canada from my residence in Sweden to visit my parents, the hardest part of the trip is figuring out how I will get from Pearson International to Cambridge without a car.
Never forget, car dependency is the opposite of freedom.
What’s more “free” than cars, you ask?
Choices.
What’s more “free” than cars, you ask?
Choices.
November 14, 2025 at 6:01 AM
When I fly back to Canada from my residence in Sweden to visit my parents, the hardest part of the trip is figuring out how I will get from Pearson International to Cambridge without a car.
Reposted by Mark Godin
Why I Will Not Be Using AI to Write My Sermons: An encouragement to resist using AI for any part of your sermon writing process https://www.reyes-chow.com/an-ai-sermon-is-just-that-artifical/
Why I Will Not Be Using AI to Write My Sermons
An encouragement to resist using AI for any part of your sermon writing process
www.reyes-chow.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Why I Will Not Be Using AI to Write My Sermons: An encouragement to resist using AI for any part of your sermon writing process https://www.reyes-chow.com/an-ai-sermon-is-just-that-artifical/
Reposted by Mark Godin
I regret to inform everyone that my pedantic brain couldn’t let me live until I knew whether or not dodger blue and blue jays blue are the same blue. They are ONE PANTONE NUMBER APART.
October 29, 2025 at 2:18 AM
I regret to inform everyone that my pedantic brain couldn’t let me live until I knew whether or not dodger blue and blue jays blue are the same blue. They are ONE PANTONE NUMBER APART.
Was following the baseball game using MLB’s live online tracker. There is something incredibly sad at the end of the 18th (!!!) inning, watching those tiny sigils, CF and 1B and C and all, wandering desultorily off the little green diamond, like a dejected alphabet wiped from a board.
October 28, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Was following the baseball game using MLB’s live online tracker. There is something incredibly sad at the end of the 18th (!!!) inning, watching those tiny sigils, CF and 1B and C and all, wandering desultorily off the little green diamond, like a dejected alphabet wiped from a board.
Reposted by Mark Godin
My article on the use of “Render unto Caesar” to support secularism and exclude Islam is published in Critical Research on Religion (open access): doi.org/10.1177/2050...
Rendering unto Caesar: Receptions of the Bible as a source for secularism - Hannah M Strømmen, 2025
In this article, I identify a key trend for demarcating the “secular” as a Western, Christian achievement. I analyze how the New Testament story often known as ...
doi.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:38 PM
My article on the use of “Render unto Caesar” to support secularism and exclude Islam is published in Critical Research on Religion (open access): doi.org/10.1177/2050...
Reposted by Mark Godin
9. As a species, we have figured out war to an astonishing degree. We are still working on the ability to hold peace.
Real peace requires self-determination and justice. It requires trusting that differences do not make us enemies.
Real peace requires self-determination and justice. It requires trusting that differences do not make us enemies.
October 14, 2025 at 4:11 PM
9. As a species, we have figured out war to an astonishing degree. We are still working on the ability to hold peace.
Real peace requires self-determination and justice. It requires trusting that differences do not make us enemies.
Real peace requires self-determination and justice. It requires trusting that differences do not make us enemies.
Ruin a book with a car:
The Lada of the Rings
The Lada of the Rings
Ruin a book with a car:
Are You There God? It’s Me, Mazda
Are You There God? It’s Me, Mazda
Ruin a book with a car:
Pride and Peugeot
Pride and Peugeot
September 25, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Ruin a book with a car:
The Lada of the Rings
The Lada of the Rings
Reposted by Mark Godin
thought the worst thing would be going about daily life while everyone just ignores the collapse of society but it turns out the actual worst thing is having 27 conversations per day that go “did you see the news alert? yeah, bleak times we live in. anyway, can you get this to me by Friday?”
September 19, 2025 at 11:53 PM
thought the worst thing would be going about daily life while everyone just ignores the collapse of society but it turns out the actual worst thing is having 27 conversations per day that go “did you see the news alert? yeah, bleak times we live in. anyway, can you get this to me by Friday?”
Ruin a song by adding the word “literally” to the title:
New Orleans is Literally Sinking
New Orleans is Literally Sinking
Ruin a song by adding the word “literally” to the title:
Literally like a virgin
Literally like a virgin
September 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Ruin a song by adding the word “literally” to the title:
New Orleans is Literally Sinking
New Orleans is Literally Sinking
Dessert mode: ACTIVATE!
Best pie: Shoofly
Best ice cream: Chocolate star anise
Best doughnut: the kind my mom used to make by deep frying sometimes
Best bar: salt caramel brownies
Best cake: Pistachio rose
Best other: maple butter tarts
Best pie: Shoofly
Best ice cream: Chocolate star anise
Best doughnut: the kind my mom used to make by deep frying sometimes
Best bar: salt caramel brownies
Best cake: Pistachio rose
Best other: maple butter tarts
Dessert mode: ACTIVATE!
Best pie: Dutch Apple
Best Ice Cream: Stewart's Chocolate Caramel Tornado
Best Doughnut: Marble Frosted
Best Bar: A package of Reese's
Best Cake: Ice Cream Cake
Best Other: Black and White Cookie
Best pie: Dutch Apple
Best Ice Cream: Stewart's Chocolate Caramel Tornado
Best Doughnut: Marble Frosted
Best Bar: A package of Reese's
Best Cake: Ice Cream Cake
Best Other: Black and White Cookie
Dessert mode ACTIVATE:
Best pie: New York Cheesecake
Best Ice cream: Mint Chocolate Chip (no green dye!)
best donut: Bavarian cream
Best Bar: Fig Newton
Best Cake: Boston Cream Pie
Best Other: Black and white cookie
Best pie: New York Cheesecake
Best Ice cream: Mint Chocolate Chip (no green dye!)
best donut: Bavarian cream
Best Bar: Fig Newton
Best Cake: Boston Cream Pie
Best Other: Black and white cookie
September 14, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Dessert mode: ACTIVATE!
Best pie: Shoofly
Best ice cream: Chocolate star anise
Best doughnut: the kind my mom used to make by deep frying sometimes
Best bar: salt caramel brownies
Best cake: Pistachio rose
Best other: maple butter tarts
Best pie: Shoofly
Best ice cream: Chocolate star anise
Best doughnut: the kind my mom used to make by deep frying sometimes
Best bar: salt caramel brownies
Best cake: Pistachio rose
Best other: maple butter tarts
vajra.me/2025/08/31/p...
“We are at home in the body, but that homeliness makes us parochial. What is required of us is a practice of empathy that is deeply inhuman and unheimlich: to care about every one of us as if they were someone we loved.”
“We are at home in the body, but that homeliness makes us parochial. What is required of us is a practice of empathy that is deeply inhuman and unheimlich: to care about every one of us as if they were someone we loved.”
Persons of Story
A review of KATHAPURUSHAN (1995), and some thoughts on personhood, of story and otherwise.
vajra.me
September 8, 2025 at 6:42 AM
vajra.me/2025/08/31/p...
“We are at home in the body, but that homeliness makes us parochial. What is required of us is a practice of empathy that is deeply inhuman and unheimlich: to care about every one of us as if they were someone we loved.”
“We are at home in the body, but that homeliness makes us parochial. What is required of us is a practice of empathy that is deeply inhuman and unheimlich: to care about every one of us as if they were someone we loved.”
For the second time this week, a magpie has flown to the sill outside my study window and knocked with its beak, then paced noisily before leaving. What story am I being invited/dragged into?
September 5, 2025 at 12:08 PM
For the second time this week, a magpie has flown to the sill outside my study window and knocked with its beak, then paced noisily before leaving. What story am I being invited/dragged into?
“It’s not overly dramatic to say that we risk losing the capacity for cultures to understand one another better if we’re all simply feeding output into each other’s automated translation systems.”
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-killed-...
By @bcmerchant.bsky.social
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-killed-...
By @bcmerchant.bsky.social
AI Killed My Job: Translators
Few industries have been hit by AI as hard as translation. Rates are plummeting. Work is drying up. Translators are considering abandoning the field, or bankruptcy. These are their stories.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
August 22, 2025 at 5:26 AM
“It’s not overly dramatic to say that we risk losing the capacity for cultures to understand one another better if we’re all simply feeding output into each other’s automated translation systems.”
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-killed-...
By @bcmerchant.bsky.social
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-killed-...
By @bcmerchant.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Godin
Many translators paint a picture of how, despite there being no revolutionary advance in automating translation, the floor began to fall out from the industry around 2023. OpenAI, it seemed, made 'good enough' translations acceptable, and demand for quality work evaporated.
August 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Many translators paint a picture of how, despite there being no revolutionary advance in automating translation, the floor began to fall out from the industry around 2023. OpenAI, it seemed, made 'good enough' translations acceptable, and demand for quality work evaporated.
Reposted by Mark Godin
so i personally think healthy gratitude practice is not a denial of the pain on this timeline it is an acknowledgment. it is not an invitation to sit back because everything is just fine, it is a CALL to step up and help when you are in the position to. to CHOOSE kindness and service
July 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
so i personally think healthy gratitude practice is not a denial of the pain on this timeline it is an acknowledgment. it is not an invitation to sit back because everything is just fine, it is a CALL to step up and help when you are in the position to. to CHOOSE kindness and service
This looks like a wonderful resource for gardeners in Canada. If only there were something similar for Sweden…
Do you know your Bird Garden Zone? To help you create a bird-friendly garden, we've developed Bird Garden Zones that cover all of Canada!
To get started, visit birdgardens.ca/find-bird-garden-zone and explore our Interactive Map!
To get started, visit birdgardens.ca/find-bird-garden-zone and explore our Interactive Map!
July 18, 2025 at 5:19 AM
This looks like a wonderful resource for gardeners in Canada. If only there were something similar for Sweden…
Reposted by Mark Godin
'“I don't think that people appreciate how few people are working to keep these collections online, even at huge institutions,” Weinberg told me. “It's usually an incredibly small team, one person, half a person, half a person, plus, like their web person who is sympathetic to what's going on.'
AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums
"This is a moment where that community feels collectively under threat and isn't sure what the process is for solving the problem.”
www.404media.co
June 17, 2025 at 2:14 PM
'“I don't think that people appreciate how few people are working to keep these collections online, even at huge institutions,” Weinberg told me. “It's usually an incredibly small team, one person, half a person, half a person, plus, like their web person who is sympathetic to what's going on.'
Reposted by Mark Godin
Nobody knows how this ends. Nobody knows what’s going to matter and what isn’t, in the end. Nobody’s even going to be able to agree on when the end is. That’s not Living In Unprecedented Times, that’s just living, period.
June 18, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Nobody knows how this ends. Nobody knows what’s going to matter and what isn’t, in the end. Nobody’s even going to be able to agree on when the end is. That’s not Living In Unprecedented Times, that’s just living, period.
Reposted by Mark Godin
You want to see a redemption arc?
Give people room to do the work to redeem themselves.
Then, let them do it.
Don't snooker yourself into doing more work than they'll do themselves to change the story of their life.
And don't write puff pieces about Nazis. It's embarrassing.
Give people room to do the work to redeem themselves.
Then, let them do it.
Don't snooker yourself into doing more work than they'll do themselves to change the story of their life.
And don't write puff pieces about Nazis. It's embarrassing.
June 7, 2025 at 2:02 AM
You want to see a redemption arc?
Give people room to do the work to redeem themselves.
Then, let them do it.
Don't snooker yourself into doing more work than they'll do themselves to change the story of their life.
And don't write puff pieces about Nazis. It's embarrassing.
Give people room to do the work to redeem themselves.
Then, let them do it.
Don't snooker yourself into doing more work than they'll do themselves to change the story of their life.
And don't write puff pieces about Nazis. It's embarrassing.
Reposted by Mark Godin
What takes courage is recognizing that just because someone is terrible doesn't mean we should be terrible TO them. It's honoring their potential to be better by not depriving them of the chance to realize it.
It doesn't mean excusing, explaining, or accepting their bullshit.
It doesn't mean excusing, explaining, or accepting their bullshit.
June 7, 2025 at 1:29 AM
What takes courage is recognizing that just because someone is terrible doesn't mean we should be terrible TO them. It's honoring their potential to be better by not depriving them of the chance to realize it.
It doesn't mean excusing, explaining, or accepting their bullshit.
It doesn't mean excusing, explaining, or accepting their bullshit.
Reposted by Mark Godin
I think it's important to realize nothing - what one editor thinks, what one person who reviews your book thinks, what reader #2 thinks is somehow THE truth about your book, like you have to outsource what you think to someone else for it to be true. You just have to find your real audience.
June 3, 2025 at 11:23 PM
I think it's important to realize nothing - what one editor thinks, what one person who reviews your book thinks, what reader #2 thinks is somehow THE truth about your book, like you have to outsource what you think to someone else for it to be true. You just have to find your real audience.