Was wondering if I should purge some of the Gaiman from my bookshelf, then noticed one was right next to an Asimov (which I've owned for decades despite knowing), and decided it was all futile...

I think I'd have an identity crisis if I suddenly had millions. Spending beyond normal luxury seems wasteful. But I have friends with enough $$ to do some amount of philanthropy, and it sure looks like a stressful amount of work to me. Even giving money away, I'd stress about the *best* use for it.

The WH would have to be run better. There is no way the one we have now would fly in fiction.

The current situation of NIH science is a tragedy. So much was lost in 2025. Many of us are struggling to keep afloat. I only hope that in 2026 more people wake up to the fact that USA science has been deeply damaged. We are resilient, but we are in grave danger of losing ourselves./end

I really loved The Pretender by Jo Harkin, and Isola by Allegra Goodman. On the nonfiction side, I found Richard Wrangham's The Goodness Paradox absolutely fascinating.

Weekend at Bernie's

When I interviewed for US citizenship, one of 3 civics questions that I actually got asked was who does the Bill of Rights apply to? The correct answer was explicitly *not* just US citizens, but everyone in the US (in fact, he seemed to expect it to be a bit of a gotcha question for that reason).

With the caveat that not all votes are counted yet, as of now in all the counties w/ population > 1M yes is leading, but in many smaller counties the nos are winning. apps.npr.org/2025-electio...

They were doing it even earlier than that though. I was mid-80s, and I definitely remember it prior to TMBG's cover.

How distortion becomes reality: