Hey, kids, let's check the calendar! It's getting closer to October and Halloween in the year 2025 -- or maybe 1936. In either case, it's a good time to talk about antifascist horror. 

Antifascism themes are common in fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. Try to find a fictional dystopia that doesn't code as fascist. But antifascist horror is much more rare. Science fiction and fantasy often feature brave heroes whose triumphant victories lead their worlds to freedom, justice, equality, and new prosperity. Horror is less optimistic about the future, about human goodness, about our ability or willingness to oppose evil. 

Nevertheless, antifascist horror exists, so let's have a quick overview of the subgenre. 

It's easiest to find examples in film, and part of that is because director Guillermo del Toro really, really hates fascists. Both "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth" are set in the Spanish Civil War and feature Franco's fascist goons as the chief

Odd Week, That

So apparently, Anthropic's AI used my collection, Live Nude Aliens and Other Stories, to train itself. Granted, it falls among a lot of texts, but it's an odd sort of compliment and an affront. In an American lawsuit, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion in damages to authors whose books they scraped from pirating sites for the purpose of training their generative. The settlement only applies to American authors, but a Canadian lawsuit may follow.

Coffee for the love of coffee.

"coffee is not about caffeine"
—longwinter

I'm totally down with the sentiment of this title. My first coffee these days is a pourover at around 0700, partly for the wake-up-juice and partly the ritual. The very process is making my coffee is a pleasure; the smell of the beans grinding, the artistry in setting up the brewer, even folding the filter is a vital part of the