haylie swenson
@hayliebswenson.bsky.social
Loves rats, pigeons, cockroaches, public libraries and pools, and DC, the 51st state. REALLY hates GenAI. A novelist with a day job and two cats, recently three. RIP Creature, I will love you forever. Repped by Heather Carr (Friedrich Agency)
I will never get over how mad I was when I found out The Brutalist used AI after I already saw it. I'm cautiously optimistic about The Testament of Ann Lee but disappointed that the creators still don't seem to understand why using AI 'creatively' sucks and is bad! www.vulture.com/article/brut...
The Brutalist Duo’s Next Film Has ‘Zero AI’
Mona Fastvold says it “was not required for” The Testament of Ann Lee after previously fielding backlash.
www.vulture.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
I will never get over how mad I was when I found out The Brutalist used AI after I already saw it. I'm cautiously optimistic about The Testament of Ann Lee but disappointed that the creators still don't seem to understand why using AI 'creatively' sucks and is bad! www.vulture.com/article/brut...
I enjoyed this article before, but now that I’ve actually seen Wicked this feels like Important Journalism™️ www.vulture.com/article/im-b...
I’m Being Driven Insane by Wicked: For Good’s Sex Cardigan
Help.
www.vulture.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:06 AM
I enjoyed this article before, but now that I’ve actually seen Wicked this feels like Important Journalism™️ www.vulture.com/article/im-b...
Reposted by haylie swenson
if your significant other ever catches you looking at them and says "what?", replying "A Cat May Look Upon a King" is an excellent rejoinder
Sir Anthony Weldon, A Cat May Look Upon a King (printed for William Roybould, at the Unicorn in Pauls Church-yard, 1652)
November 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
if your significant other ever catches you looking at them and says "what?", replying "A Cat May Look Upon a King" is an excellent rejoinder
Reposted by haylie swenson
I really think this kind of thing is a bad idea, because who wants to start a relationship *with a doctor’s office* by realizing the first thing that happened in that relationship is that they tried to trick you?
I went to make a doctor’s appointment today and got transferred to an AI “person” and I can’t overstate my revulsion when it fooled me for the first ten seconds, so that I was trying to be friendly and pleasant, and I realized it I was trying to be polite to a machine.
November 20, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I really think this kind of thing is a bad idea, because who wants to start a relationship *with a doctor’s office* by realizing the first thing that happened in that relationship is that they tried to trick you?
Also never not thinking about Wolf Hall
I'm basically never not thinking about Wolf Hall so when I saw the Holbein portrait of Thomas Cromwell it was like worlds colliding defector.com/the-eyes-hav...
The Eyes Have It | Defector
The eyes got me. Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger isn’t the brightest, or the largest painting in its room—it might be the smallest—but it’s easily the most striking. It called to me from t...
defector.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Also never not thinking about Wolf Hall
Reposted by haylie swenson
The backstory to the Tom Holland lip sync is such a repudiation of slop. So much human effort and skill and *rights clearing* went into creating something so many people love.
www.businessinsider.com/tom-holland-...
www.businessinsider.com/tom-holland-...
An oral history of Tom Holland's sensational 'Lip Sync Battle' performance
The producers, choreographers, and dancers behind the "Umbrella" and "Singin' in the Rain" mashup explain how it came to be.
www.businessinsider.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The backstory to the Tom Holland lip sync is such a repudiation of slop. So much human effort and skill and *rights clearing* went into creating something so many people love.
www.businessinsider.com/tom-holland-...
www.businessinsider.com/tom-holland-...
Reposted by haylie swenson
I edited out everything but the bamboo paragraphs.
November 18, 2025 at 3:32 AM
I edited out everything but the bamboo paragraphs.
Reposted by haylie swenson
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
www.yahoo.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Reposted by haylie swenson
your dead AI mother loves you so much ❤️
November 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM
your dead AI mother loves you so much ❤️
Reposted by haylie swenson
Reposted by haylie swenson
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
November 14, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
The joy of finally finding the right paint after months of sample hell versus the mortifying ordeal of it having a goofy name
November 14, 2025 at 3:11 PM
The joy of finally finding the right paint after months of sample hell versus the mortifying ordeal of it having a goofy name
Reposted by haylie swenson
A lot of people are going to walk away from the Ghislaine Maxwell coverage with the impression that our prison system isn’t punitive enough but I’d say it highlights how most everyone else is treated with *deliberate* cruelty.
November 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
A lot of people are going to walk away from the Ghislaine Maxwell coverage with the impression that our prison system isn’t punitive enough but I’d say it highlights how most everyone else is treated with *deliberate* cruelty.
Reposted by haylie swenson
don't get distracted, every time Epstein comes up this ends up happening "well what about Democrats?" "oh let me expand at length about how much I'd enjoy hypothetical Democrats being destroyed for being dirty pervs!"
the real answer is "well the Republican President IS in the files"
the real answer is "well the Republican President IS in the files"
"This could take down Democrats, too."
I know. And I frankly wouldn't give even an itty bitty damn if it implicated every Democratic man in Congress, every Democratic hopeful for 2028 and every Democrat who has even thought about running for office.
Down with the sex predators, wherever they are.
I know. And I frankly wouldn't give even an itty bitty damn if it implicated every Democratic man in Congress, every Democratic hopeful for 2028 and every Democrat who has even thought about running for office.
Down with the sex predators, wherever they are.
November 13, 2025 at 3:03 AM
don't get distracted, every time Epstein comes up this ends up happening "well what about Democrats?" "oh let me expand at length about how much I'd enjoy hypothetical Democrats being destroyed for being dirty pervs!"
the real answer is "well the Republican President IS in the files"
the real answer is "well the Republican President IS in the files"
Reposted by haylie swenson
My family has been without half our income for 40 days. It has been.. very hard.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
November 10, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My family has been without half our income for 40 days. It has been.. very hard.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
Reposted by haylie swenson
How about we shut down the government for this very popular and specific goal and then, hear me out, we hold out for like a month and a half and then, ok this part is important, after a watershed election where we ran the table, ONLY THEN, fold and don't get the one thing we said we wanted.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 AM
How about we shut down the government for this very popular and specific goal and then, hear me out, we hold out for like a month and a half and then, ok this part is important, after a watershed election where we ran the table, ONLY THEN, fold and don't get the one thing we said we wanted.
Reposted by haylie swenson
Schumer (NY) 202 224-6542
Booker (NJ) 202 224-3224
King (ME) 202 224-5344
Hassan (NH) 202 224-3324
Durbin (IL) 202 224-2152
Ossoff (GA) 202 224-3521
Shaheen (NH) 202 224-2841
Gillibrand (NY) 202 224-4451
Masto (NV) 202 224-3542
Warner (VA) 202 224-2023
Booker (NJ) 202 224-3224
King (ME) 202 224-5344
Hassan (NH) 202 224-3324
Durbin (IL) 202 224-2152
Ossoff (GA) 202 224-3521
Shaheen (NH) 202 224-2841
Gillibrand (NY) 202 224-4451
Masto (NV) 202 224-3542
Warner (VA) 202 224-2023
November 9, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Schumer (NY) 202 224-6542
Booker (NJ) 202 224-3224
King (ME) 202 224-5344
Hassan (NH) 202 224-3324
Durbin (IL) 202 224-2152
Ossoff (GA) 202 224-3521
Shaheen (NH) 202 224-2841
Gillibrand (NY) 202 224-4451
Masto (NV) 202 224-3542
Warner (VA) 202 224-2023
Booker (NJ) 202 224-3224
King (ME) 202 224-5344
Hassan (NH) 202 224-3324
Durbin (IL) 202 224-2152
Ossoff (GA) 202 224-3521
Shaheen (NH) 202 224-2841
Gillibrand (NY) 202 224-4451
Masto (NV) 202 224-3542
Warner (VA) 202 224-2023
Reposted by haylie swenson
I support Plur1bus’s mission of giving an X-Files writer what appears to be a billion dollars.
November 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I support Plur1bus’s mission of giving an X-Files writer what appears to be a billion dollars.
Imagine if you gave every person on Earth $122,000. Then imagine them, every single living human, lining up to hand that wad of cash over to Elon Musk. That’s how much a trillion dollars is.
November 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Imagine if you gave every person on Earth $122,000. Then imagine them, every single living human, lining up to hand that wad of cash over to Elon Musk. That’s how much a trillion dollars is.
Reposted by haylie swenson
You only argue that kids should be exposed to this because you believe the children matter less than the tech
November 7, 2025 at 10:56 PM
You only argue that kids should be exposed to this because you believe the children matter less than the tech
Reposted by haylie swenson
If you have a trillion dollars, and you are earning 5% annual dividends (10% is more realistic minimum) you are passively bringing in $135,000,000 per day.
Equivalent to an hourly wage of $25,000,000 per hour.
Equivalent to an hourly wage of $25,000,000 per hour.
November 7, 2025 at 8:24 PM
If you have a trillion dollars, and you are earning 5% annual dividends (10% is more realistic minimum) you are passively bringing in $135,000,000 per day.
Equivalent to an hourly wage of $25,000,000 per hour.
Equivalent to an hourly wage of $25,000,000 per hour.
Reposted by haylie swenson
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
November 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
Reposted by haylie swenson
Tangentially related, but I read this Calvin & Hobbes comic to my 7yo last night. Celebrate inefficiency!
November 7, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Tangentially related, but I read this Calvin & Hobbes comic to my 7yo last night. Celebrate inefficiency!