Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
today marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the most destructive, most devastating war in history. may it remain so.
Giant queer trans sf/game writer who is NOT AMERICAN, typewriter guardian, mind poisoner. Nebula winner, Aurora winner! Assistant Editor at Escape Pod, CW '19. Hamilton, Ontario. Header by @shargrave.bsky.social. She/her. www.phoebebartonsf.com
4,941 followers 397 following 15,087 posts
view profile on Bluesky Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
today marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the most destructive, most devastating war in history. may it remain so.
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
this fucking province, I swear
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
it's always the future knowledge that's the most game-changing part. @birmo.bsky.social sent an entire fleet back to 1942 and that was still the case
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
i can't help but imagine how infuriated every other African country would be given that Wakanda *could* have fought off the colonial powers from the very beginning, but it just didn't feel like it
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
that's something I thought about a lot at the end of the anime Zipang. sure, this JMSDF destroyer from the 21st century is now working with the IJN. but it only has so many missiles. the US has effectively infinite war capacity. quantity is a quality all its own.
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
though the real interesting thing is to read, say, issues of Life Magazine from December 1941 to June 1942, since they're on Google Books, and see how absolutely terrified the US homefront was they were worried about Japanese battleships that didn't even exist
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
whereas Japan's last chance would've been "discover the Daqing Oil Field 25 years early, and also never start a war against the US"
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I've seen that speculated a bunch as being the last chance Germany had a chance to "win," in that with the annihilation of the BEF it could've forced peace with the UK and focused entirely on the USSR
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
if not for Star Control 2, I still wouldn't know the Japanese word for "cabbage"
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
๐๐๐
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
consider: the Battle of Tsushima, with this as the soundtrack
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
consider: a tattoo that says ็งใฎๅบ้
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
also, bomber jackets are cool
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
It was last time I was there, about a year ago; I rescued a Futura 800 and a KMM from there
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
in fact, seeing as how the airport is owned by the city of #HamOnt, maybe I should write a letter to my councillor with my typewriter, even it would be a good change from writing politicians to yell at them
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
reviewing photos I took with my grandfather's '70s Hanimex 35SE reminds me of why I started buying SLRs in the first place so that I could actually see what the camera was seeing and didn't have to guess
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
there's even a relevant quote by him. "A working actor can live anywhere as long as you have a phone, a fax, and know where the airport is."
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
proposal: rename Hamilton International Airport after Graham Greene. he had strong ties to the area, too much stuff is named after politicians already, and nobody gives a fuck who John C. Munro was
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
and flights of dynamite blast thee to thy rest
Iron Spike (@ironspike.bsky.social) reposted
Real talk, though, this is what can happen when Europeans surrender their actual identities to partake in the social and political advantages of "whiteness." Their "heritage" becomes corporate logos.
Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow (@tomtomorrow.bsky.social) reposted
big tech hasn't come up with anything paradigm-shifting and useful since the smartphone in 2008 and I'm tired of all the shit they keep shoving down our throats trying to recapture that high
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
dang, it must have been freezing that early. dedication!
Darcie Little Badger (@littlebadger.bsky.social) reposted
Debbie Reese, one of the most prominent reviewers of Native childrenโs literature, just spread incorrect information about Indigenous people in Texas. She wrote, โBut, the state of Texas does not extend state recognition to anyone.โ This lieโs been used to erase Lipan people fighting for recognition
d. mansfield (@cepheusradio.bsky.social) reposted
youtu.be/Pz_l_0oioxQ?...
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
and a chorus of dynamite blast him to his rest
Daniel Fienberg (@thefienprint.bsky.social) reposted
Graham Greene was one of those actors whose presence was absolutely, 100% guaranteed to make whatever movie or TV show he was in better. He added instant gravitas and authority, reliable stealthy humor and depth beyond whatever was on the page. Should've been Emmy nominated for "Reservation Dogs."
Kelly McKernan ๐ NYCC J-23 (@kellymckernan.bsky.social) reposted
โ๏ธ Happy Labor Day! ๐๏ธ Did you know that AI โartโ is labor theft? Hi. Iโm a professional traditional artist of over 15 years & I was able to make a decent living until 3 years ago. In May 2023, over 50 of my paintings had been scraped without my consent to fuel AI image generators like Midjourney.
Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com) reposted
Americans Astronomers watching watching US politics Betelgeuse ๐ค โIt could happen at any timeโ
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
๐๐๐๐๐
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
one day YYYY-MM-DD will stand victorious
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
what a deal!
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
god, York Region, augh
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
ai "artists" started as lying grifters, and lying grifters they remain
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
sure, it was 35 years ago, but it still bugs me that GURPS Supers' stock Japanese superhero called himself "Mount Fuji" like, open a dictionary! "Ichi-Man" is right there and invites a catchphrase! "with the strength of ten thousand, it's Ichi-Man!"
K.B. Spangler (@kbspangler.com) reposted
So my North Carolina-born husband has tipped me to the Durham version of Storrowing, with a website, webcam, and convenient "Historic Videos" section. 11foot8.com
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
...any plans to sell Onion-branded pencils?
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
this still bugs me and i shall whine about it. i have won and been finalisted for multiple awards (something specifically flagged as meeting notability), but because people in general do not give a shit about short stories or trans people, it's entirely uphill
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
mood!
๐ณ๏ธโโง๏ธ Perfidious Josephine Riesman (@josie.zone) reposted
God bless @theonion.com and @kartoonistkelly.bsky.social
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
plants are so needy
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
"what? take this authoritarian president into custody and subject him to war crimes trials as in Nuremberg? that's for crybaby cowards. let's just extrajudicially murder him."
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
makes sense. the Marvel "world outside your window" stuff always bugged me, too. like why do I care about any of this if the entire intention is for it to *not* affect the world it's set in
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
sounds like we should engineer some plants that aren't complaining whiners, then
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
an argument could potentially be made that Civil War does end up saying a couple of things without intending to, such as "war crimes are no big deal, actually" though mostly because most writers apparently don't understand or give a fuck about war crimes
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I wonder if this is down to how cramped the setting is Because it *feels* small to me Compared to, say, Star Trek, which has a ton of characters and decades of story but also you do not generally need encyclopedic knowledge of one series to watch episodes from any of the others
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I used to have a pull list before covid, but that was also back when I was specifically on the lookout for issue 1s and generally non-DC/Marvel ones
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
truly, what the market really wants is endless floating-timeline stories about characters so old they were competing against gangster comics, with backstories so complicated they need entire wikis until they're reset
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
even better: that could thrive in tundra
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
...I wonder how difficult it would be to produce genetically-engineered agricultural crops that could thrive in subarctic climates
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
not with that attitude! let's start building arcologies in Antarctica!
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
there's a job for Carmen Sandiego: stealing England's cultural heritage of art thievery
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
though I wouldn't be surprised to see fortress-staters eventually start to advocate for the construction of arcologies as literal fortress cities
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I could understand this kind of packaging on stuff that's explicitly meant for export, for an obvious "hey! you! this stuff came from the UK!" advertising angle, but for domestic consumption? barf
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
goes in line with my hypothesis that the unwritten thesis statement of the modern UK is "better things aren't possible"
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
Ah, I hadn't seen that one who'd have thought a planetary environment would be so complicated
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
real "some genocides are better than others" energy
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I was wondering about that - I started looking around after your original post and it sounds like the current predictions for full-on collapse are a 24th to 26th century thing
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
the predominant feeling I get from those images is "extreme insecurity"
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
canada only being 60% unfavourable? we gotta pump those numbers up. those are rookie numbers.
๐ณ๏ธโโง๏ธ Perfidious Josephine Riesman (@josie.zone) reposted
Ryan Estrada (@ryanestrada.com) reposted
Who's the worst cartoon character? I vote Henry, the dad from Dennis the Menace. He's a mask deliberately invented to whitewash the identity of his creator, Hank Ketcham, one of the worst men to ever make comics. It's gonna take a thread.
Mike Dickison (@adzebill.bsky.social) reposted
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I was thinking about individuals rather than governments specifically, but what you have *produce* wrapped in the English flag? even we only have things like a maple leaf sticker as an indicator (or attempt to fool shoppers into thinking) that the product is from here, rather than the States
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
such a rust on the world
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
hang on effy, did you forget that only Western countries and Japan are capable of committing imperialism
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
ah, I see. the United States going to war with China to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion would be imperialism because everything the United States does is imperialism by definition presumably nothing China does is imperialism, for reasons (this is a comment on something I saw actually said)
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
i'd always had the impression that the only people who display English flags outside the context of football are ultranationalists, white supremacists, or their hangers-on
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
one neat thing about using a camera from 1994 is that it makes the modern world look like 1994
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
oof and before I looked that up I thought it was some geological term describing the nature of the ground
Oregon ๐๐ฒ (@oregonthedm.bsky.social) reposted
Your social circle sapphic needs to be informed of this
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
Shiv Ramdas's American McGee's Alice 2: Curioser and Curioser
airplane ian (he/him) (@airplaneian.com) reposted
trying to imagine firefighters getting dispatched to this house and the absolute nightmare that would be
Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders ๐ณ๏ธโโง (@charliejane.bsky.social) reposted
Q: where does Mr Roark get all of his rooibos and chamomile? A: Fancy Tea Island
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
๐ the pain! the pain!
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
non-exhaustive list of Things To Not Fuck With: - electricity - radiation - garage door springs - Lake Superior - mushrooms
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
but the venus that's a planetwide jungle with dinosaurs and amazons
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
I must be missing something in that the only Nazi iconography I see is in the logo, not the architecture
drilbot (@drilbot.bsky.social) reposted
The 8 genders are 1) Normal 2) Gay 3) Straight 4) Bisexual 5) Genderless 6) Homosexual 7) Asexual 8) Transgender 9) Disabled 10) Pregnant 11) Diabetic 12) Heterosexual 13) Fucked 14) Un
Gwen Snyder is uncivil (@gwensnyder.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Speaking as someone who used to spend time in their chats, SO much of US contemporary fascism is a function of men assuming that the way adulthood worked was, you got a job and in exchange you got a woman to be your mom plus your sex toy. They are ENRAGED that they have a job but no sex mommy.
Roz Loves Food (@rozlovesfood.bsky.social) reposted
In the Highlands area of Edmonton, Alberta Canada, Fiasco (โช @premeemohamed.com 's cat) is still missing. His 'sister', Franca, is home safe. Here are more images of Fiasco. Fiasco is chipped but not collared. He is deeply loved and sorely missed. edmontonacccpets.shelterbuddy.com/animal/anima...
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
any chart that purports to detail "the most lethal animals" is inherently flawed if it does not include humans
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
the population of Toronto is twice that of Manitoba, so
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
what staggers me about that mountain is that when I lived in New Westminster, on a clear day I could see it from my apartment, 92 kilometres away
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
one advantage: it's a lot easier to build that stuff in places where infrastructure already exists as opposed to, say, a completely uninhabited island like Tallurutit
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
dykecember
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
on reflection, should climate change turn the United Kingdom into a dry and unforgiving tundra, building and maintaining arcologies there to sustain a population would be very educational for future, off-Earth habitats
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
though when written they are extremely helpful in that they can help future historians figure out accents
derek van vliet (@derek.bike) reposted
hereโs a version where the POV is blacked out whenever the driver takes their eyes off the road
Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief (@katie.bzky.team) reposted
the thing about LA is that by literally every metric it's a truly miserable and wretched place to live that is antagonistic to the very idea of people, but also a lot of events happen here and that's really cool, so it's impossible to say whether it's good or bad
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
...
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
my cat would absolutely keep going on about how majestic he is
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
"20 Hiroshimas Per Second" would also be a great name for a band
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
this is one of the main reasons I restrict my tramp freighters to the moons of Saturn, where the equivalent of a space shuttle main engine is more than sufficient
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
he is rocking that suit. those lapels!
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
in fairness, I have less understanding of what the other countries of the UK are like, and in my experience defaulting to "it's the fault of the English" leaves you correct 98% of the time
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
oof
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social)
gonna be keeping my eyes open for a shirt that just says ็ง on it
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
๐ฌ
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
actually on further thought I think the problem isn't with the British it's specifically with the English because "what the fuck is wrong with the English" is an eternal question that even I, only one generation removed from England, cannot answer
Phoebe Barton ๐๐บ๐ณ (@phoebebarton.bsky.social) reply parent
clearly, the spaceship was powered by a reactionless drive that converted Newton's angular momentum to thrust