Daytime TV’s Ted Kaczynski is retiring.
Dr. Phil to cease playing pretend TV doctor this spring
Dr. Phil, the long-running daytime television show in which a guy without a medical license yells at vulnerable people seeking help until he determines they’re cured, is coming to an end. This spring, the series will wrap its 21 seasons on CBS, opening the door for another one of Oprah’s grifter buddies to come in and fill the void.
Phil McGraw, who stopped renewing his medical license in 2006, will continue to play pretend doctor on television in all likelihood. As Variety notes, he plans on announcing a “strategic primetime partnership” that will allow him “increase his impact on television and viewers” because he’s “compelled to engage with a broader audience.” McGraw says he has “grave concerns for the American family,” which means he presumably wants more teens on his television show to yell at and diagnose.
The sexual auto–da–fé is going to become more popular as we go. It’s horrible. FREE THE HOG!
Twitch’s AI ‘Porn’ Controversy Is a Creepy Sign of Things to Come
On Monday, popular Twitch streamer Brandon Ewing, who goes by Atrioc, streamed himself crying profusely, tearfully apologizing for creating and consuming “deepfake porn” of fellow streamers—all women. The apology came after earlier in the day, he’d accidentally revealed tabs in his browser that revealed that he was looking at artificially generated porn of popular female Twitch streamers. In his apology, Ewing claimed that he’d come across a website offering AI-created porn while browsing Pornhub, and, out of “morbid curiosity,” paid for a subscription to view the pictures.
This type of porn is neither new nor, unfortunately, especially rare. With AI, people can create pornographic images of friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even strangers they meet in passing, and alarmingly enough, they can easily do so without the consent or knowledge of the person whose image and likeness they’re using.
Monthly, like a transwoman’s tomato paste period…
49 New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books to Sweeten Your February
Meru by S.B. Divya
In a far future in which humans dwell on Earth while posthuman “alloys” handle all the space exploration, the discovery of an Earthlike planet has the potential to better the future for everyone.
Mid
The Bite by Z.W. Taylor
A women fleeing an abusive relationship ends up in the wilds of Alaska—where her quest to start a new life takes a strange turn when she’s bitten by an unusual wolf.
Werewolves as feminist empowerment. No one’s done that before. [rolls eyes, they fall out, hit the floor, covered in dust, can’t get them back in]
The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror From Fodder to Oscar by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris
Written by two of the experts behind the excellent documentary Horror Noire, this nonfiction book takes a look at how Black characters and creators have fared throughout history, from the earliest movies to recent releases like Get Out and Candyman.
Interesting. I like research into horror film. Library check out.
Cradle of Ice by James Rollins
The Moonfall series that began with The Starless Crown continues, as a soldier, a thief, a lost prince, and a girl continue their dangerous quest to stop the apocalypse.
Just no.
Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi
In this YA fantasy inspired by West African culture, “an elite female fighter must reenter the competition to protect her found family of younger sisters.”
Nope.
Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
In this sequel to the author’s acclaimed horror novel My Heart Is a Chainsaw, slasher movie fanatic—and now, an actual slasher survivor—Jade Daniels returns to Indian Lake at the same time an escaped serial killer begins terrorizing the area.
I like his books, definite read.
Heroes of an Unknown World by Ayize Jama-Everett
In this fourth and final novel in the Liminals series, “a found family of Black superheroes has one last chance to save the world
No.
Hultichia by Marshall Ryan Maresca
The author returns to the magical city of Maradaine for this new novella about a deacon sent on a strange and dangerous mission that tests his faith.
Nope
Not Your Ex’s Hexes by April Asher
“A one-night-stand between a willful witch and a broody half-demon conjures an adventure that wouldn’t be complete without several magical mishaps.”
I just… fuck.
Pod by Laline Paull
The author of The Bees returns with another thriller set in the natural world. This time, a hearing-impaired dolphin is the main character; when she leaves her family in order to protect them, she must undertake a dangerous adventure across the unknown ocean
Startide Rising, the Disney+ series.
Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb
In this dark fantasy, a young woman investigates her father’s murder in a city run by corrupt, all-powerful saints and their disciples, with the help of a security captain who’s starting to have serious doubts about those he’s been serving.
I’d have to know more.
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder
The sequel to Sleeping Beauty riff The Bone Spindle finds Fi, Shane, and Briar Rose facing new adventures on their quest to defeat the Spindle Witch.
Argh! Fairy Tales! Motherfuckers!
The Spite House by Johnny Compton
A father on the run with his two daughters takes on an ominous but potentially lucrative new gig: the caretaker for one of the most haunted houses in Texas.
I mean, maybe. As long as it isn’t The Shining with armadillos.
Stardust in Their Veins by Laura Sebastian
This sequel to Castles in Their Bones finds the Ash Princesses struggling with their mother’s covert plot to bring down rival kingdoms by strategically marrying them off. With one sister now dead for defying the family plan, the remaining sisters must decide what to do next.
This shit.
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
The story of Medusa gets a sympathetic new twist in this retelling of the classic myth. (February 7)
Wicked but Medusa. Fucking tired shit.
These Infinite Threads by Tahereh Mafi
In the sequel to This Woven Kingdom, two royal heirs—one a Jinn, once a human—fall in love, and must figure out how to be together while battling chaos between and within their respective kingdoms.
Barf
VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
On the verge of being evicted from her home, a young Métis woman discovers a magical spoon that connects her into a witch network across America—and soon picks up a witch-hunter in pursuit.
A magic spoon. But much virtue points for Native Canadian inclusion.
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
In the 14th century, a young girl unwittingly becomes the vessel for a goddess—and is tasked with creating a great city where women rule, a process that becomes more complex as the city grows and changes over the centuries that follow.
Even Rushdie must bow before The Cult of the Girlboss.
Wild Massive by Scotto Moore
In the Building, “an infinitely tall skyscraper in the center of the multiverse,” a woman is forced to leave her favorite spot—the elevator—after it’s threatened by a shapeshifter, and plunges into the Building’s network of incredible yet terrifying theme parks.
Sounds original. Will try.
Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood
A young tour guide who uses her magic to protect travelers from jungle monsters starts to question her devotion to the company she works for when she’s unfairly passed over for a promotion.
HR onboarding film, yay.
The Beauty Trials by Dhonielle Clayton
Set in the world of the author’s Belles series, this fantasy tale follows rebellious Edel Beauregard as she enters the magical, dangerous contest to crown the next Queen of Orléans
This shit.
The Cage of Dark Hours by Marina Lostetter
The Five Penalties epic fantasy series continues as Krona and her Regulators pick up the pieces after defeating an undead serial killer—or try to, while battling the corruption in their city and battling the monsters that lurk just beyond it.
Middle of a series nope.
Frontier by Grace Curtis
This queer sci-fi love story takes place on an Earth mostly abandoned after humankind fled to new planets, with a cruel High Sheriff in charge. When an escape pod crash-lands, the first visitor in hundreds of years must deal with a hostile planet where life evokes the long-ago Wild West.
No, no, no. Also, it’s a holodeck episode.
Hopeland by Ian McDonald
An aspiring electromancer meets an otherworldly being amid a riot in London, setting in motion a time-travel adventure that will reshape the universe.
I’ve liked what little I’ve read of Ian McDonald so it goes on the maybe list.
Jewel Box: Stories by E. Lily Yu
Short stories from the speculative fiction author of On Fragile Waves.
“Speculative fiction” Nope
The Last City by H.J. Nelson
In this sequel to The Last She, Ara, Kaden, and Sam navigate the post-apocalypse, hoping to discover the last city standing while learning hard lessons about not trusting anyone they meet.
Note how few people write books for adults now. Chasing that Hunger Games clout.
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
When a man who loves fairy tales marries a woman with a magical, mysterious past, he becomes drawn into a strange fantasy world when the couple visits her childhood home for the first time.
FAIRY TALE NO
The Scarlet Circus by Jane Yolen
The third volume in the author’s short-story series features tales that explore romance through the lens of classic fantasy: “A rakish fairy meets the real Juliet behind Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. A jewelry artist travels to the past to meet a successful silver-smith. The addled crew of a ship at sea discovers a mysterious merman.”
Blah.
The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo
In an alternate version of 2008 in which the U.S. is a second-rate nation ruled by emotion-altering chemicals dubbed “psychopigments,” a small-time cop chasing small-time crooks stumbles upon the case of a lifetime.
“In my nightmarish future, Obama NEVER BECOMES PRESDIENT!” [distant wailing]
Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror by Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko Smith
This collection gathers personal essays from Asian horror writers “exploring themes of otherness, identity, expectation, duty, and loss, and leading, ultimately, to understanding and empowerment.”
[eye roll, ouch]
World Running Down by Al Hess
“A transgender salvager on the outskirts of a dystopian Utah gets the chance to earn the ultimate score and maybe even a dash of romance.”
Bloody fucking hell.
Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth
The classic myth of Antigone gets a sci-fi twist in the latest from the author of the Divergent series.
Is “the author of the Divergent series” supposed to be a positive?
The Bridge to Magic by Alex Thornbury
“Magic and its guardians have been banished to the deadlands and the Blight threatens mankind’s survival. Terren, the last remaining city, stands alone against its relentless advance. Ever closer draws the choice they all must make: face the deadly Blight or cross the Bridge to Magic.”
[deep sigh]
The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Atticus, Montrose, Hippolyta, Letitia, Ruby, and other characters from Lovecraft Country—including Caleb Braithwaite and the ghost of Hiram Winthrop—return in this new supernatural adventure set in 1957 Chicago and North Carolina.
Will read. Lovecraft Country was much better than the exceedingly meh TV series.
Harmony of Lies by Brian Feehan
The Alice & Owen paranormal romance series continues as Alice tries to mend her relationship with her parents without divulging her magical secrets. Meanwhile, Owen and his musical friends set out on a dangerous journey.
Paranormal Romance series nope. Also “his musical friends” sounds like bards. I hate bards.
The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry
When her magician guardian goes missing, a young woman leaves her enchanted island for the first time since she was a baby to try and find him—while avoiding his super-powered enemies and discovering her own gifts.
Another children’s book. Get it and a dildo at your local public library.
Nocturne by Alyssa Wees
In this fantasy tale, a talented dancer overcomes her hardscrabble background to become a prima ballerina—but her new life is not without troubles, especially when a mysterious patron takes an interest in her.
“In this fantasy tale, a talented dancer”nope
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy Snyder
“A visceral story set in the aftermath of our planet’s disastrous transformation and told through the eyes of three women trying to survive the nightmare.”
The Witcher, Season 3
The Sky Vault by Benjamin Percy
The Comet Cycle continues in Fairbanks, Alaska, where an airplane lands after flying through an interstellar dust cloud—attracting government agents and a newfound interest in a top-secret, World War II-era lab hidden nearby.
A maybe.
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
A new trilogy from the author of The City of Brass begins with this tale of a former pirate who’s pulled out of retirement for a rescue mission that comes with a reward she just can’t refuse.
Nope
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
This retelling of Japanese folk tale “The Crane Wife” sets the scene in the Midwest, where a 15-year-old must decide what to do when her single mother, a talented artist, brings home “a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air” who demands she create a masterpiece.
“See, it’s not The Crane Wife, it’s The Crane Husband. Ha! I subverted your expectations. I updated it for modern audience. I am so smart.”
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
This standalone prequel to fantasy tale The Priory of the Orange Tree explores the lives of four women who helped shape and protect the course of history.
“This standalone prequel” Nope
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
After a rough breakup, a young woman who can see dead people decides to spend the summer in the isolated mansion her mother’s just inherited—but the experience is anything but rejuvenating. Years later, her own daughter launches a ghost-hunting investigation into her mother’s experiences.
-_-
The Foreign Exchange by Veronica G. Henry
“A Vodou priestess turned amateur sleuth investigating a ritual murder is embroiled in an insidious case of corruption that reaches beyond the shadows of New Orleans.”
Oh, look, it’s Fallen Angel by William Hjortsberg which was turned into the 1987 movie, Angel Heart.
Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong
Characters from the author’s These Violent Delights Duet return in a pair of novellas packaged together in this set: A Foul Thing and This Foul Murder.
Nope
Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong
In a world where women are not allowed to use magic, four girls with undeniable powers are kept hidden until they realize they’re being used as political pawns—and that there are other girls in the world, also being kept hidden, who share their gifts.
“In a world where women are not allowed to use magic” nope
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
In this gothic mystery, a woman visits her estranged father in Vietnam only to realize the colonial house he’s restoring has a strange power over her.
Sounds interesting.
The Sun and Its Shade by Piper CJ
The Night and Its Moon series continues as the newly reunited Nox and Amaris are suddenly separated again. Can they use their magic to finally be together?
They’ve been separated again?!? Oh, nope.
The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa
“El Diablo is in the details in this Latinx pirate fantasy starring a transmasculine nonbinary teen with a mission of revenge, redemption, and revolution.”
This is just a straight up “go fuck yourself.”
Bauhaus
“Dark Entries”
In the Flat Field (1980)
Caressing bent up to the jug again
With sheaths and pills
Invading all those stills
In a hovel of a bed
I will scream in vain
Oh please, Miss Lane
Leave me with some pain
Went walking through this city’s neon lights
In fear of disguising my warping seething
Pressure lines and confidant heirs
Intangible of price
Trying so hard to find what was right
I came upon your room, it stuck into my head
We leapt into the bed degrading even lice
You took delight in taking down
My shielded pride
Until exposed became my darker side
Puckering up and down those avenue of sin
Too cheap to ride they’re worth a try
If only for the old times, cold times
Don’t go waving your pretentious love
He’s soliciting on his tan brown brogues (dark entries…)
Girating through some lonesome devils row (dark entries…)
Pinpointing well meaning upper class prey (dark entries…)
Of walking money checks possessing holes (dark entries…)
He often sleekly offers his services (dark entries…)
Exploitation of his finer years (dark entries…)
Work with loosely woven fabrics (dark entries…)
Of lonely office clerks (dark entries…)
Any lay suffices his dollar green eye (dark entries…)
I came upon your room it stuck into my head
We leapt into the bed degrading even lice
You took delight in taking down
My shielded pride
Until exposed became my darker side
Puckering up and down those avenue of sin
Too cheap to ride they’re worth a try
If only for the old times, cold times
Don’t go waving your pretentious love
Dark entries
Dark entries
Dark entries
Dark entries
Fuck him, never aired the Blaire White episode.
“In his apology, Ewing claimed that he’d come across a website offering AI-created porn while browsing Pornhub, and, out of “morbid curiosity,” paid for a subscription to view the pictures.”
He should be sorry for paying for porn.
I know, weird right? Who does that?
I picked up what you are laying down…
And honestly, you could achieve the same thing with minimal Photo Shop skills, or even with scissors and glue if you wanted to go old school.
“I accidentally paid money for access to this skeezy AI port, and then I accidentally buffed the knob repeatedly to said porn. Mea culpa.”
Also, always sanitize your desktop before any screen sharing, you moron.
Unless it’s tentacle porn research.
“Turgid Curiosity.”
Tumescent Curiosity, if you please.
This type of porn is neither new nor, unfortunately, especially rare. With AI, people can create pornographic images of friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even strangers they meet in passing, and alarmingly enough, they can easily do so without the consent or knowledge of the person whose image and likeness they’re using.
Nancy Pelosi videos could be the cure for porn addiction.
Go on…
Remember when they used to post corrupted songs on file streaming sites on purpose? Maybe something similar for porn. You click on “Hot MILF” and get Nancy.
The beauty of the internet is that no matter what you are into, there are a lot of other people into it as well.
I proposed a show where contestants would go on TV and proclaim their sexual kinks and America would vote for them. The people getting the most votes would have to leave the show. Eventually the show would be winnowed down to some really amazing freaks.
Oh, and they’d have to be amateurs. No ringers like SF allowed.
“a hearing-impaired dolphin”
No.
“With AI, people can create pornographic images of friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even strangers they meet in passing”
Sweet…anyone else up for a lesbian fivesome featuring the gals of The View?
Whoops, misthread.
Definite misthread. You described intelligence-impaired whales. Not hearing-impaired dolphins.
It sucks when you ask AI for some “wet, slippery gals with awesome blowholes” and you end up with deaf dolphins.
Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. You knows, you might really click.
Sonar love.
Radar Love
Remember kids: your phone and computer should never meet.
With AI, people can create pornographic images of friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even strangers they meet in passing, and alarmingly enough, they can easily do so without the consent or knowledge of the person whose image and likeness they’re using.
Not really seeing the problem, as long as it’s for private use. Some college dork using AI to re-create the cute chick from his Chem class for fap material isn’t victimizing anyone, from what I see.
The issue is that it never stays there. It will inevitably end up on the internet.
Pretty sure we are like a decade or more past the point where feminists made it clear that masturbating to someone without their consent was basically rape.
Don’t put that thought out in the universe!
It is well out there. It was a major talking point during The Fappening.
Only, they went further than saying it was just about looking at hacked nudes. Whacking off to the thought of your hot co-worker without their consent was also akin to rape.
I do also recall that it was inappropriate to think about someone else sexually without consent. No touching oneself required.
Basically, modern day puritanism.
Making people slightly uncomfortable is a violent assault.
I would think that good AI deep fakes is exactly what we all need. If the fakes are good, it means you can also blame real photos as being fakes.
So if that snap of you doing something freaky with someone gets out, you can now plausibly say it was a AI deep fake and what are you gonna do? Before the AI, you’d be busted for that and all your friends would laugh.
It would be like if some super easy hack came out where you could push naked pics of girls to someone’s phone. How many husbands would love to have that excuse available to them when their wife found some nudies on their phone? “Honey, I didn’t get that from some floozy at the bar, I was HACKED! I’m a victim here and I’d appreciate a little understanding”
https://youtu.be/6FXr1r9RpmY?t=65
“As long as it isn’t The Shining with armadillos.”
I would watch that. I don’t read books though.
I have a couple of fuel injection manuals calling to me from the shelf.
Did you mean for the review of Meru to consist of the single word “Mid?”
Yes. Mid.
Cryptic.
For the oldsters here.
*shakes cane*
That would beat the record held by the review (for what book I’ve forgotten) that simply said, “This slim volume.”
A women fleeing an abusive relationship ends up in the wilds of Alaska—where her quest to start a new life takes a strange turn when she’s bitten by an unusual wolf.
It would have been better if she were bitten by Jon Krakauer.
Does she end up living in a school bus down by the river?
For a little while.
Ha. Do you think the wolf is like “woah, I just bit an unusual woman.”
Even better would have been Jan-Michael Vincent.
I’m always amused that the characters in Damnation Alley are trying to get to Albany, NY.
Did they take the Thruway?
Nothing to fear but fear itself
Some of the fear seemed genuine to Dodsworth. But not all of it. As she watched Johnson deliver his “fright night” speech, “something seemed ‘off’ and that triggered alarm bells. At a basic level that was hard to pinpoint, it didn’t feel genuine.” Consultations with two mental health experts reinforced her sense that Johnson didn’t quite believe his own words.
There is no way to prove that, of course. Dodsworth brought her own biases to the table, as we all do, and was angling for confirmation. But as the weeks and months rolled by and political leaders throughout the world began flouting their own rules, it became difficult to escape the conclusion that they did not, in fact, view the world outside their homes as a mortal danger.
We all remember the 2020 pandemic hypocrisy parade: Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot getting a haircut in April, when barbers and stylists were shut down; New York then-governor Andrew Cuomo skipping off to Georgia in July, despite strict guidelines to stay close to home; California senator Dianne Feinstein showing up maskless at the airport despite calling for a mask mandate… Rod Phillips, Ontario’s finance minister at the time, not only flew down to the Caribbean during Ontario’s second lockdown, but dropped a series of social media posts insinuating he was spending the time at home.
A video posted on Christmas Eve found him seated next to his living-room fireplace, a glass of eggnog in hand and a gingerbread house in the background. In fact, he was catching rays in St. Barts on that day and had recorded the video in advance. And the biggest whoopsie of all: in 2022, the so-called Partygate investigation revealed that groups of high-ranking UK government officials, including Boris Johnson himself, had been living it up at 10 Downing Street and elsewhere while public health restrictions prohibited most gatherings.
Every one of the evil bastards responsible for the panicdemic should be clapped in the stocks and whipped with lengths of knotted rope by passers-by. For as long as necessary.
If anyone is in the position to rule over you, they will.
They all had access to the real data coming in, and knew it wasn’t actually that dangerous to them.
I wasn’t scared by the virus; I was scared at the thought of what the government was going to do to us.
I was nervous at first, but I figured we’d all get it sooner or later and que sera sera, I just didn’t want to be one of the first because I hoped they’d figure out how to treat it on other people first. It didn’t stop me from going out though. I enjoyed riding my bike on empty roads even in the first week of lockdowns. I also started making ammo, because I figured people would get antsy if lockdowns continued too long. Then when I saw how the media was manipulating the numbers I just got angry.
California senator Dianne Feinstein showing up maskless at the airport
Finally, there’s something to like about Feinstein.
Yeah, but was she wearing any clothes? At this point, I would be less surprised by that.
In this YA fantasy inspired by West African culture, “an elite female fighter must reenter the competition to protect her found family of younger sisters.”
Jean-Claude Van Damme did it first.
Bloodsport was better!
Does that one involve avenging a sibling too?
Sadly, no. But it is a strangely compelling film and based on a real person.
Dux may be a fabulist, though
Frank Dux is absolutely unquestionably a fabulist.
So he can serve as an esteemed Senator from the great state of Illinois.
A women fleeing an abusive relationship ends up in the wilds of Alaska—where her quest to start a new life takes a strange turn when she’s bitten by an unusual wolf.
Not believable. Now, if she stumbled upon a cabin occupied by a family of bears…
I just want the summary writer to be bit by a were-editor.
Their preferred article is “a”.
Catch him outside?
How bout ‘dat?
“A one-night-stand between a willful witch and a broody half-demon conjures an adventure that wouldn’t be complete without several magical mishaps.”
Mojeaux wrote it first.
Well, probably two dozen people wrote it before Mojeaux, and two dozen people between Mojeaux and this writer.
It screamed Piers Xanth-ony to me…. probably not nearly as many puns, though.
Yeah, I was going to say that I wouldn’t buy this author, but if it was collaboration between SF and Moj I would probably read it.
Shit, I’d buy an advance copy, regardless of plot or genre. That’d be epic.
I would have read that if it weren’t BBW. There’s only a certain amount of “me” I want to see in print. Mormon, libertarian, martial arts, money, sure. Fat and poor, no.
On the verge of being evicted from her home, a young Métis woman discovers a magical spoon
Uri Geller discovered it first.
She’ll end up Ticked off, most like.
Does she end up taking the fork in the road?
None of these reviews inform me of the pronouns of any of the protagonists.
Also, we need a recommendation on a good book about a non-binary transgendered vegan Necromancer-Druid with an allergy to nuts and glutens that cooks only with sweet rice flour and artesian water who is pursued relentlessly by a octogenarian politician wanting to sniff clean hair.
De rigeur reply Simpsons did it.
darn it. Late again.
Now that is how you MadLibs your way into a book contract. Even more than the examples above.
That’s in nonfiction.
Off-topic.
Now that rates are higher still, can we get some lower housing prices? I’m tired of looking at million dollar fixer-uppers.
Come to Iowa.
I’ve looked and I’m yet to find what I want – pretty much at all let alone at my price point.
One of the unfortunate side effects of high rates is that they stop also stop building as many houses.
Well, unfortunate in this case, when much of the country still has a housing shortage.
^This right here.
I listened and to Tom Woods talk with Gene Epstein about a Mike Cernovich tweet about young people being screwed over by the current labor market and price. Epstein claimed this isn’t the case and young people are just as well off or better than their parents at their age.
My experience tells me different. My parents bought two
houses while I was growing up in the 90’s, both under 100k. I’d have to spend two or three times that 25 years later for the same house an I probably only make 10-15k more than my dad did back then.
Something doesn’t add up.
So, Crowder did an analysis of this. There’s not just inflation in prices, but in what is considered “average” or normal.
https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes-decade-by-decade.html
However, there has been a CPI-adjusted increase in the cost of homes over the past 30 years.
Here is that link, which I forgot I don’t have the power to multi-link:
https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/
From that same link, the affordability numbers look much better, right up to 2022:
https://dqydj.com/historical-home-affordability/
Looks about right. When I graduated and moved to Phoenix, 1800 sq ft was pretty typical for a three bedroom ranch.
My house, built in 2004/2005 has 1800 sq ft above grade with about another 1000 sq ft of finish floor space in the walk out basement.
This must be newly-built home sizes.
Youngsters buying today can’t live without granite countertops, brand new appliances, double vanity sink in en suite bathroom, office space, three car garage, a pool, and fenced in 1/2 acre yard for the dog and kids, within walking distance of top rated school, and tons of restaurants, bars and shops selling artisanal crap.
Creech nails it.
This.
Laminate counter tops that look like granite
The appliances were new when we built. Stove and microwave have been replaced once already.
Single sink in the master suite.
Dedicated office for me; wife is using one spare bedroom as an office.
No pool.
1+ acres without about 1/3rd acre enclosed for the dogs.
Out in the county. The bus comes by for the kids. There are two decent small-town eateries a few miles away. Otherwise, it’s a 30 minute drive into town.
I was 48 when I moved into the only house that I had ever owned.
Parents’ ranch home built in 1971:
3 bedroom, 2 bath. (One had a tub, the master bath was tiny with a stand-up shower and a single sink)
2-car garage (which was surprisingly a good size)
Formica countertops
Linoleum kitchen and bath floors
No central air
Unfinished basement (eventually 1/2 finished)
Gravel driveway (eventually paved)
Landscaping was 2 sets of hedges out front.
Plain hollow doors (no six-or-four panel shit)
Basic wood trim
No fireplace
No patio (they eventually put in a slab and a deck that later became a 4-seasons-type room)
👆 Can’t have a college degree and live like those blue collar assholes.
Or quite often, at a lower standard because plumbers make bank.
Prices have been dropping for five months. I’ve certainly seen it in my area.
Can’t believe Dr. Phil has been on that long. I remember Letterman showing short clips of him yelling things like “YOU’RE A LOSER AND NOBODY LIKES YOU.”
Scripted bullshit sells, particularly when it encourages the public to look down on and judge people they can consider lesser than themselves.
I’m tired of looking at million dollar fixer-uppers.
Zillow has a price filter, you know.
Once I add in my minimum 5 acres and such, I’ll get a blank screen.
A house on a quarter acre lot with public water and no real fireplace is no way to go into the apocalypse.
Yeah it is tough out there. I was just looking around Greensboro since a job opened up out there. Comes with a 27K moving bonus, so its tempting.
Greensboro or Greenville?
Greensboro is probably a better buyer’s market.
Greensboro. Word is my counterpart in Grrensville should be retiring but no guarantees that I have seen
There is a fair amount of nice country north of Greensboro, before you get up to the Virginia line. If you aren’t looking suburban that is.
I can’t believe how few small houses are available. Fuck, it’s easier to find 4K square feet than 1500.
That must be area dependent. Those are pretty common in my neck of the woods (most of which are 1950’s houses).
Florida has a lot of houses from 850-1500. Texas and OK, more like you describe.
Looking in my area, it’s damned hard to find 4,000 sq. ft. houses. Most are in the 1,250 – 1,750 range (with a handful of layouts per neighborhood).
Edmonton, like most Canadian cities, has boatloads of houses around 1,500 sq. ft. or less; the problem is most are above $500K these days.
Tampa is the same, well, more like 350k-450k, which is still stupid for a <1500 sqft. home. Hell, it was stupid when I bought my significantly larger home, with a lower interest rate than today.
I’ll have to settle for 2 1/2 acres of land with a well, septic and a wood stove.
“Settle”
You have a whole giant empty state.
That’s one of the reasons we’re here. Something like 100k acres of borough land within walking distance.
In the sequel to This Woven Kingdom, two royal heirs—one a Jinn, once a human—fall in love, and must figure out how to be together while battling chaos between and within their respective kingdoms.
Get a copy of The Adventures of Prince Achmed instead.
where an airplane lands after flying through an interstellar dust cloud
If an airplane is flying through an interstellar dust cloud, so is the rest of the planet.
It was flying very high. Like Ozzy.
A Crazy Plane?
That’s how it goes.
Astral plane.
Would it be a dusty plane after it flew through the cloud?
Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein.
Who are the modern equivalents?
Sugarfree, Animal and UCS?
Sugarfree ==> Heinlein
Animal ?
UCS ?
Hard to make a like-for-like comparison. Maybe on a list would be Asher, McDevitt, Gibson?
meh, not Gibson
Maybe Alistair Reynolds, but his stuff went over the top as time progressed.
“‘He was NOT a threat’: Ex-wife of knife-wielding double amputee shot dead by cops says he was ‘helpless’ and ‘couldn’t do anything’ when he jumped off his wheelchair and tried to flee on his stumps”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11701733/Ex-wife-double-amputee-shot-dead-cops-Huntington-Park-says-not-threat.html
WTF?
Cotton Hill?
The guy from Peripheral?
They actually shot him instead of laughing? I guess that’s less ablest.
That went around on my hockey team chat. General consensus was nobody had a problem with it because he tried to throw a knife at the cops, and if you do that you should get shot just like an able bodied person.
Sounds equitable.
Reality beats my imagination again.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term the Slauson Cutoff.
When I first started playing hockey in Chicago, there was a guy on the team who had been paralyzed in a gang shooting. Eventually they caught up with him and killed him. They found him dead on the sidewalk, and the shooters had stolen his wheelchair.
Couldn’t they have borrowed one of the poles from animal control?
Nah, they were busy chatting up the Slovak girls from HR.
(´。＿。｀)
“Philadelphia Eagles’ 6’6″ tall 325 lb offensive lineman Josh Sills is indicted for ‘kidnapping and forcibly restraining a women’ just days before the Super Bowl
Ohio prosecutors said on Wednesday that Sills ‘forcibly restrained and raped a woman’ in December 2019, prompting the Guernsey County’s Sheriff Office to launch a probe into the incident.
Following the investigation a grand jury indicted 25-year-old Sills on one felony count of rape and one felony count of kidnapping, he’s expected in court Feb 16.
On the Eagles’ depth chart, he is listed as second-choice at right guard, and had a good chance of getting some game-time in the Super Bowl on February 12.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-11701757/Josh-Sills-Philadelphia-Eagles-NFL-player-indicted-rape-kidnapping-charges-ahead-Super-Bowl.html
Three years? That is some — methodical — police work.
Prosecutor and Sheriff must be Chiefs fans. Now if only someone in the NFL could plant some steroids on A.J. Brown…
I wonder how many of these “athlete raped me” accusations are real? Way back when, one of the company salesmen I worked with used to play for the St. Louis Cardinals Football team. He maintained any athlete could get laid every night if they so desired because groupies were always willing and eager. So why any need to kidnap and rape?
Because rape is a power trip not a sex trip.
Making false accusations against a celebrity and getting tons of attention and sympathy is also a power trip. Obviously I have no idea if that’s what happened here, I’m just saying.
As ever with these late accusations, I wonder if it really happened.
I see there is no clear answer to the important question: Will he suit up for the Super Bowl?
He is a back-up undrafted free agent rookie guard. He’s going to be cut. I’m shocked it hasn’t happened already.
I love lists of books I can skip.
And I love Bauhaus.
It’s sunny and warm and the snow is going away. All in all, a pleasant afternoon.
Deepfake
Hilarious! They put a horse’s head on a chihuahua’s body.
Hump day Zoom for the needy, the drunk, the repellent dregs of society
https://glibertarians.com/humpdayzoom
Auto-starts at 8pm ET. Must be logged into Zoom. Terms and conditions apply. Use as directed. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
You know how that summons me.
That bit about consuming porn – how exactly does one consume it? Lickity spilt?
Drink it in with your eyes?
The unit of measure is a 55 gallon drum of lube.
Swallow, not spit.
“Jade Daniels returns to Indian Lake at the same time an escaped serial killer begins terrorizing the area”
I hate when that happens.
“… a soldier, a thief, a lost prince, and a girl …”
Walk into a bar. Seriously it sounds like a bad bar joke.
I’m just surprised the reviewers aren’t screaming: “What?! Like a girl can’t be a soldier or a thief? And are you assuming the gender of a lost prince, you MAN! REEEEE!”
But I’m probably just too damned cynical about the stupidity of the twitterati literati these days.
No, that sounds about right. Those are the same assholes who see a cute picture of a dog in a sweater and then concern troll about dogs asphyxiating in costumes.
Are you saying we need to get asphyxiating costumes for YA authors and their fan community? Do you have a link where I can contribute to the cause?
“Choke Out Young Authors Before They Write Again”
I love it.
“face the deadly Blight or cross the Bridge to Magic.”
Uh, cross the Bridge to Magic?
Now you’re just making shit up.
I just figured some dipshit wearing a towel for a cap got bitch-slapped on the bus.
Sometimes a Minnesoda Public Radio story is great because they are just too genteel to understand why all the subhumanoids start snickering. This story is a good example.
The other fun part of that story was the tidbit about how Mayor Frey’s pledge to End Homelessness in 5 years failed starting last November.
I wonder how the failure to deliver on that will affect Minneapolis’ deadlines for climate change?
Where in MN are people being housed for less than $14,000 per year?
A single wide in the sticks?
Not a single word about drugs. Seems like a pretty glaring omission.
Pffffft. It’s pronounced differently abled.
I’ll bet the write watched the Schwetty Balls skit on SNL and thought it was a documentary.
There was a guy one summer who was climbing through open windows in Minneapolis and assaulting women. Not funny at all.
The gal reporter breathlessly saying on a live standup “Police say one woman beat him off with a stick”? That makes it very funny.
It’s an incredible bubble they live in.
Have we discussed this yet?
https://notthebee.com/article/a-virginia-school-district-just-fired-three-basketball-coaches-after-one-of-them-impersonated-a-13-year-old-girl-during-a-matchup
What were they thinking?
It’s Portsmouth, or rather P-Town.
They don’t think much there.
I identify as #55 on the white team in that first clip. Same build, same level of hustle. I don’t have the good hair though.
If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.
What’s an auto-da-fe’?
It’s what you oughtn’t to do but you do anyway!
https://youtu.be/LnF1OtP2Svk?t=235
Genius.
I never fail to laugh or snort at that bit.
I have gotten a shit-ton done today that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do, but I had to make up for spending most of yesterday in the ER awaiting docs who were all, “Weeeeellllllll, if you WAAAAAAANNNNNT us to do an ultrasound on your gallbladder, I GUEEEEEESSSSS we CAAAAAAANNNNNN. If you really WAAAAAAAAANNNNNT to since we’re not SUUUUUUURRRRREEEE why you’re having pain, but we THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK it’s your gallbladder.”
Yes, fuck you, we want an ultrasound. WTF didn’t you just order it to begin with. I don’t see a whole lot of hustle and bustle going on to warrant a 7-hour stay.
Poor husband bore the brunt of my hangry rantings on the way home. “No, honey, it’s not you.”
Hospitals suck.
Hope you’re feel better.
Not me. Husband has had side pain coming on and getting worse for the past month. He tried to get in to see his regular doc, but as he’s considered a “new” patient, their appointments are 6 months out, so no go. No reason to call up a general surgeon (that we knew of) at that point, so we went to go to the ER to get an answer and a slot in the not-far future. So he has an appointment next Wednesday. In the meantime, he’s got good drugs. Oh, also, we found out a couple other things, so there’s that. I did not rant at the hospital. I said maybe 10 words.
For whatever reason, we always go to the ER with each other. The unsick person drives. If it happens at night, we call it “date night” because we have Taco Bell while we wait for our scrips to be filled. I can’t count how many times we’ve done that in the last 20 years.
“we have Taco Bell”
So you can go back to the ER again?
“For whatever reason, we always go to the ER with each other.”
I haven’t been to the ED since college, and that was minor.
I think Mrs. Dean has been to the ED twice in her life – once with a busted nose (workout injury) and once with a bad cut on her thumb that needed stitches (shoulda gone to urgent care). For extra lulz, she was in my ED, but I was in board meetings so I my phone was off and I didn’t even know she was trying to text me from across the building.
The idea of semi-regular trips to the ED is foreign to me. For which I am grateful.
At lot of the staff at work dont carry employer-provided insurance, and use the ER as their family doc. Then bitch when they see a bill for $1800 for a check-up and some aspirin. I dont get it.
For most of that 20 years, we’ve had kids, who get injured, so…
One time XY was running through the garage and snagged his calf on a screw he had left sticking out of whatever he was trying to assemble. 20 stitches, in layers. I hovered over the doc doing the sewing, totally squeeing over how cool that was, and XY couldn’t even look at it.
“Dr. Phil to cease playing pretend TV doctor this spring”
Is he pretend just because he doesn’t have a government permission slip anymore, or because he sucks AND blows?
Gawker has died a second time.
If a bad web site dies for the second time, and no one gives a fuck, does a bear shit in the woods?
He isn’t wrong.
https://nypost.com/2023/01/31/2-crooks-commit-6-gunpoint-robberies-across-nyc-in-early-morning-spree/?dicbo=v2-578d55db1b7ef5dfdccd2fba99111cd9
Factcheck: True
Brain trust.
Love the droopy drawers.
Update: the Tamarind minkeys stolen from the Dallas Zoo were found. The dumbass who stole them has yet to be named.
https://www.tmz.com/2023/01/31/dallas-zoo-missing-monkeys-found/
The man who found them:
https://i.dawn.com/primary/2018/12/5c0c881c34c0b.jpg
Damnit. I was expecting Tarzan.
I think it was this guy
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/1372482381369-UENWHS9GC6AP9F0NWDEZ/paimai.jpeg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg
Good, but that fucking zoo needs to drop some money on security.
Also, what the fuck? Steal two monkeys, put them in a closet and then what? Criminals are getting weirder.
Dallas Zoo is not a pleasant place. I never liked it. Bad ugly cages, no staff anywhere, smelly. Fort Worth Zoo is far superior.
Fort Worth Zoo should just be all the types of cattle that exist and steakhouses where you can sample them.
Jesucristo, that picture. I thought for a minute that these were some kind of horrible tentacled monkey-squid hybrid.
who says it isn’t?
“Wild Massive by Scotto Moore
In the Building, “an infinitely tall skyscraper in the center of the multiverse,” a woman is forced to leave her favorite spot—the elevator—after it’s threatened by a shapeshifter, and plunges into the Building’s network of incredible yet terrifying theme parks.”
For some reason, this is making me think of Jeffery A. Carver’s Strange Attractors, one of the best and most underrated sci-fi novels out there. I may have to give this one a look.
This has been fun.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/business/adani-share-issue-scrapped/index.html
Hidenberg has been right 60% to 70% of the time. And in its business of going short that’s a good percentage.
The nationalism and graft angle plus nepotism makes for fun.
So the Hindenberg caused Adani to crash and burn?
I need to get better at speaking my mind. damnation.
Monthly, like a transwoman’s tomato paste period…
This slices like a sledgehammer.