Notices by John Shirley (johnshirley2024@wandering.shop)

@tchambers by libs is meant libertarian?

@emilygorcenski How many science fiction stories predicted that we'd one day be worshipping "a computer" or some artificial intelligence? Numerous. Were they wrong? Not necessarily. Will an AI become conscious? Nope. But can it appear as if it is? Yep. Will this be exploited for social control? If we allow it.

Daily Kos is being sued by Robert Kennedy Jr?! I did not know this.

"Daily Kos is getting sued by a wealthy anti-vaxxer and now presidential candidate. This suit is getting expensive.

"Daily Kos has been fighting a lawsuit filed by prominent anti-vaxxer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to unmask a user who wrote a story critical of Kennedy's attendance at a rally in Berlin that was organized, promoted and attended by neo-Nazis."

Mysterious woman tells school board that Scholastic book sparked porn addiction

A 20-year-old woman named Lanah Burkhardt appeared before the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas...told the board that, when she was 11, she read a Scholastic book that introduced her to "a single kiss." ...her exposure to this Scholastic book was directly responsible for her addiction to pornography.

https://popular.info/p/mysterious-woman-tells-school-board

@wdlindsy @gnutelephony actually I think what happened in Utah is a lady sued to get it repressed only because she wanted to show how unreasonable book banning was. Basically was saying if you ban these books then you have to ban the bible too, idiots. I don't *think* it was ever banned though. Maybe I'm wrong and missed that development?

@wdlindsy @gnutelephony Ha! Good to know. I guess the woman who started it all made her point.

@wdlindsy @gnutelephony I mean--she made her point to the whole country. It was national news. Not big front page news but it made the papers. Her point was that banning books is stupid. She was against banning them. She was demanding they ban the bible --and there is very disturbing material in it, like Lot's daughters seducing and screwing their father--so that they could see how absurd banning books is.

Good cyberpunk touch for cybermonday. A *free* book pirated by its authors. For many years in print, we decided to allow it to be free online...

The MIRRORSHADES cyberpunk story collection, the original, with stories by William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Greg Bear, Lew Shiner, Marc Laidlaw, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling, Tom Maddox, Paul Di Filippo , James Patrick Kelly, and, yes, me--

https://rudyrucker.com/mirrorshades/

#scifi #sff #ebook #books #ebook #ebooks

Did I mention it's free?

Catholic Hospitals Remove Crucifixes So They Can’t Be Used to Beat Staff

A Catholic health-care system operating hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin says it is doing away with crucifixes in a bid to prevent attacks on staff. The decision, which applies to both wooden and metal crucifixes, comes in response to “the changing healthcare landscape and the general increase in healthcare workers experiencing workplace violence...”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/hospital-sisters-health-system-does-away-with-crucifixes-so-they-cant-be-used-to-beat-staff

The steaks are high: Florida Republican wants to ban lab-grown meat

A lawmaker wants to make it a second-degree misdemeanor to sell or distribute it.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/15/florida-republican-lab-grown-meat-ban-00127447

@Jeramee @MennoWolff @lednabwm

Atheists are not agnostics. They are not merely unconvinced. They're sure there's no deity. Atheists -- every one I've met--have a scientific way of thinking, which would leave out the belief in chi energy, spirits, crystals etc. Unless chi energy etc are shown to have a scientific basis. They haven't been shown to have, and it's improbable they would have. If they say they're atheists but they believe in that sort of thing, they're unclear on atheism.

@MennoWolff @Jeramee @lednabwm I don't believe in anything supernatural at all. If there are higher beings, to use an unsatisfying blurry term, they are a part of the natural cosmos. And there is no unnatural or supernatural or magical cosmos. (Except in the poetic sense.)

@GreenSkyOverMe oh. that's reassuring.

@GreenSkyOverMe @lednabwm mmm-kay.

Jeez. I've always thought of myself as a male feminist but do I have to be in a cage and used as a sperm donor?

@Free_Press If hamas wasn't a terrorist organization before, it sure is now.

@feditips @cmorris yes but do you mean fedi admin blocking it or individuals? if it's individuals it wouldn't be that effective overall.

@feditips @cmorris hopefully it won't be available. it would be abused. not by the likes of Catherine I'm sure but others.

Re this--for the life of me I can't think of a currently known alternative to tires that wouldn't have more or less this same issue. Something has to be invented and fast:

Road Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires

Researchers are beginning to uncover the toxic cocktail of chemicals, microplastics, and heavy metals hidden in car and truck tires. Experts say these tire emissions are a significant source of pollution affecting humans and wildlife.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals

The food industry pays ‘influencer’ dietitians to shape your eating habits

Registered dietitians are being paid to post videos that promote diet soda, sugar and supplements on Instagram and TikTok

free link https://wapo.st/3sTupax

@futurebird I wrote a story, it was collected in The Feverish Stars, about a guy who has to join a "secret lodge" to advance at work and it turns out he has to crawl through a narrow tunnel into a hidden colony of giant ants and telepathically communicate with the queen ant and make arrangements and...I wish I'd been able to ask you more about ants at the time...