This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, September 18, to midnight on Friday, September 19 (8pm Eastern Time).
Today in one sentence: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC stations with “remedies” and possible license revocations over Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killing; Disney and ABC responded by suspending Kimmel’s show "indefinitely"; Trump celebrated ABC’s suspension of Kimmel’s show, urged NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, and threatened to strip broadcast licenses from networks critical of him; Obama condemned the Trump administration after pressuring ABC into suspending Jimmy Kimmel, calling it “government coercion"; House Democratic leaders said they would support a Republican resolution honoring Charlie Kirk.
1/ FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC stations with “remedies” and possible license revocations over Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killing, saying “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Carr claimed Kimmel’s monologue – “the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it” – were prohibited “news distortion.” Disney and ABC responded by suspending Kimmel’s show “indefinitely.” Shortly before the announcement, Nexstar Media Group, an operator of 32 ABC stations, and then Sinclair, a conservative-leaning operator of 28 ABC affiliates, said they would drop the show. Both companies are seeking FCC approvals for large mergers. Carr thanked them “for doing the right thing,” while Trump posted “Great News for America” and claimed the show was “CANCELLED.” (NPR / New York Times / Variety / Vanity Fair / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / CNN / CNN / Associated Press / NBC News / Variety / Hollywood Reporter)
Sinclair will replace Friday’s broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel with a Charlie Kirk tribute. The company also demanded that Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family and make “a meaningful personal donation” to them and Turning Point USA. (Variety / Fortune)
The Pentagon is considering a campaign to use Charlie Kirk’s death to boost recruiting, with ideas like “Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors” and Turning Point USA chapters as enlistment centers. Some officials warned it would look like the military was exploiting his assassination. (NBC News)
Trump will designate antifa a “major terrorist organization.” U.S. law has no process for labeling domestic groups this way and the FBI has said antifa is “an ideology, not an organization.” (Bloomberg / Reuters / Associated Press)
2/ Trump celebrated ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show and urged NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, calling them “two total losers.” Trump then threatened to strip broadcast licenses from networks critical of him, saying, “When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump […] that license, they’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.” FCC Chair Brendan Carr, meanwhile, warned that “we’re not done yet” with Kimmel. (Deadline / Axios / New Republic / Politico / Bloomberg / CNBC / Associated Press / Politico / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)
FCC commissioner Anna Gomez said the Trump administration is “weaponizing its licensing authority” and called recent threats against broadcasters “a part of this administration’s campaign of censorship and control.” (Axios)
3/ Obama condemned the Trump administration after pressuring ABC into suspending Jimmy Kimmel, calling it “government coercion.” He wrote, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.” Obama added, “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.” Neither the White House nor the FCC responded. (Axios / Politico)
4/ House Democratic leaders said they would support a Republican resolution honoring Charlie Kirk. The resolution praises Kirk as a “courageous American patriot” who promoted unity and civil discourse, and condemns political violence “in all forms.” While Democratic leaders told members they would support the resolution, they left it up to individual lawmakers to decide how to vote. Separately, Senate and House Democrats introduced the “No Political Enemies Act,” which would expand legal protections for people targeted by government officials over political speech. In addition, Democratic leaders called on FCC chair Brendan Carr to resign for “bullying ABC.” (The Hill / Axios / Associated Press / Axios / New York Times)
⏭️ Notably Next: Congress has 12 days to pass a funding measure to prevent a government shutdown; and the 2026 midterms are in 411 days.
✏️ Notables.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked CDC panel of vaccine skeptics voted to stop recommending the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella shot for children under 4. Instead, the panel said children should get two separate vaccines. The committee then voted to keep Vaccines for Children coverage for both options despite the new guidance. The panel delayed a vote on proposed changes to the hepatitis B birth-dose recommendation until Friday. The recommendations aren’t final until reviewed and approved by CDC leadership. Public-health leaders noted that universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination drove pediatric cases down to “fewer than 20” a year and that infants without the birth dose are less likely to complete the series. (Wall Street Journal / CBS News / Bloomberg / CNN / Associated Press / Washington Post / The Hill / NPR)
California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii issued joint vaccine guidelines in defiance of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s CDC panel. The new West Coast Health Alliance said it acted because of the “destruction of the U.S. CDC’s credibility and scientific integrity.” Their guidance continues to recommend COVID-19, flu, and RSV vaccines for broad groups, aligning with major medical organizations. (New York Times / ABC News)
Sen. Markwayne Mullin accused former CDC director Susan Monarez of lying about a meeting with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claiming it had been recorded. He later admitted no recording existed, after other senators demanded it be released if real. Monarez testified she was fired for refusing to preapprove Kennedy’s vaccine panel decisions. (New York Times / PBS News / Talking Points Memo)
The Education Department announced a “patriotic education” coalition led by the America First Policy Institute and more than 40 conservative groups. The coalition will run a 50-state college speaker tour, student history competitions, and teacher summits, while excluding nonpartisan civics organizations. The department also plans to steer grants toward programs that present U.S. history in a “unifying and uplifting” way. (NPR / USA Today / Washington Post)
Trump asked the Supreme Court to let him fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, even though two lower courts ruled the move unlawful. The White House accused Cook of mortgage fraud by appearing to claim two properties as primary residences, even though the loan documents described one condo as a “vacation home” and “2nd home.” (Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / Associated Press / New York Times)
Republicans confirmed 48 Trump nominees in a single vote after changing the Senate rules. The list included Kimberly Guilfoyle for Greece and Callista Gingrich for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, along with dozens of lower-level posts. Democrats called them “historically bad nominees.” (NBC News)
Trump complained that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “fucking me” after Israel bombed Hamas negotiators in Qatar without U.S. approval. Despite the strike undermining his push for a ceasefire, Trump imposed no conditions on U.S. military or political support for Israel. (Wall Street Journal)
Trump told UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that Putin had “really let me down,” saying “he’s killing many people.” Trump said he thought it would be easy to negotiate a truce between Russia and Ukraine “because of my relationship with President Putin […] but he’s let me down, he’s really let me down.” Trump then insisted that U.S. allies stop buying Russian oil. (Bloomberg / The Guardian)
These questions were originally suggested by polypolyglot.
1. Do you believe you can have more than one soulmate in life?
2. Are you with that soulmate now?
3. If not, how long did your relationship with your soulmate last?
4. Do you still think about your soulmate, if you are not together?
5. If you're not together, do you think your soulmate still thinks about you?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
My PhD student had a paper published in AAMAS on Uncertain Machine Ethics Planning. This is a good conference which, for my sins, I'm currently joint Programme Chair for (this means I'm currently in the process of trying to find 1,300 potential referees in the hopes of ending up with 650). Anyhoo... AAMAS rewards pretty theory heavy papers and this was no exception, but the bottom line is that he's developed a technique in which a system can reason across several potential plans of action, using different moral theories in order to work out which plan of action is least unacceptable across all the moral theories (I hope this makes sense, we keep running into double negatives in the theory). It's grounded in a philosophical concept called hypothetical retrospection - in which even if something turns out badly you can argue it was still the correct choice because at the time you made the choice the chance of it turning out badly was low. There are some details such as ranking outcomes so, in the situation where you can get an apple (for sure) or gamble with a low chance on getting an all expenses paid holiday (yes I know this isn't a moral choice), no number of apples can outweigh the small chance of getting the holiday - I guess the moral equivalent might be no number of people made a little bit happier can be outweighed by killing someone.
Moral theories can be big theoretical juggernauts like utilitarianism or kantian morality - or more subtle distinction around which values are preferred (though this doesn't really come out in the paper if you can wade through all the formalism).
Learned something important about Obsidian. If one tires dragging a file into the program to make a link to the file, it kinda looks like it worked. However, what has happened is that one has made a copy of that file, in the folder that the other Obsidian files live in. This can cause problems later if you edit that file, and then later open the original file and wonder what happened to the data. It turns out that to get a true link to the original file and not a copy one needs to hold down Cntrl whislt dragging the file into the Obsidian note. I am unlikely to forget this.
After work we started some wintersing of the yard, including putting the canoe up on its stand, up against the side of the house, taking down the modern sunshade that we have had up since being given it this spring, and which I never got around to using because we weren't home much this summer. He also mowed some of the lawn. It might be the last time those parts need doing this year.
I do not believe it’s a minor thing that Greg “let’s reclaim the word Nazi” Gutfield is repurposing Hitler’s “Jewish hypnotism” libel against trans people to transfer guilt from a cis white boy from a conservative family:
“[The shooter] was a patsy. He was under the hypnotic spell of a direct to consumer nihilism – the trans cult.”
There are plenty of other full-on-fascist declarations in this rant, too, not the least of which being the open declaration that they “don’t care” about “what-abouts,” which is to say, the overwhelming share of violence being from the right, or, in this case, the literal assassination of two Democratic state officials earlier this summer by a MAGA supporter with an extended list of targets. Those don’t count, because Democrats. Only MAGA are people, only MAGA have rights, only Trump can be king.
But it’s still important, and the one I think people may miss. This is, again, literally Hitler libel from a many who proposed “reclaiming” the word “Nazi” this summer.
If he wants the word so much, let’s apply it to him.
Apologies for the post title -- I am very bad at coming up with titles for entries.
This topic arose out of a discussion on Bluesky and I thought it would be interesting to post it here. The premise is that before streaming, scripted television had to react to its own reality. What I mean is, shows that had to pump out 20+ episode seasons *every year* had to deal with actual real life things and work them into the script. For example, a character becomes pregnant because the actor gets pregnant, or a lead role had to "go missing" for part of a season because the actor was off doing a movie or dealing with a real life issue, or a character had to end up in a cast or otherwise accommodated because the actor injured themselves in real life, or the "filler episodes" that exist because of budget concerns, or the finales that were written because they didn't know if they'd be renewed for another season, etc.
With streaming, because the wait between seasons is so long, we no longer get these (admittedly sometimes rather demented) workarounds anymore. Or as one person on Bluesky put it: "If you can just tell the story you want to tell with the actors you have with whatever running time you want, it's not TV, it's a movie."
Thoughts? Do you miss the imposed responsiveness of pre-streaming TV? Do you have any favourite (or not so favourite) examples of plot lines that came about because of real life events involving the actors or other aspects of the show (e.g. budget issues)?
Fat Bear Flash A fic & art exchange for fat bears of all kinds! - minimums: creator's choice of 300 word fic or a nice sketch
Schedule: Noms & Signups open: now! Noms & Signups close: September 22 Works Due & Revealed: September 30 Creators Revealed: October 5 all deadlines are 11:59PM UTC
I was trying to type the information for an art exhibition into the to-do app on my phone. I had typed "University of," and the three options that autocorrect offered me were "Nature," "Art," and "Style."
Obviously none of these were correct, but they're all universities I would have considered attending if I had known about them earlier in my life. ;)
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Laura Loomer, an important Trump confidante and aide, calls for a Trump dictatorship and mass arrests and prosecution of “leftists” (which for her absolutely includes liberals):
Trump and MAGA are following Putin’s playbook on the media, pushing it either into the hands of ideological compatriots or into silence:
Kimmel is about as controversial as a goldfish here. They aren’t serious about it being a problem; the whole •point• is that it’s obviously •not• a problem.
They are using something extremely benign to test the waters of government repression of speech, to see just how much they can get away with — and ABC caved like 3rd-grade toothpick bridge.
Nexstar Media Group, which is seeking FCC approval for a multi-billion-dollar merger with Tegna, said its ABC affiliates would not air Kimmel’s show before ABC announced its own decision.
Earlier this week, responding to a conservative reporter who said that anti-war protesters near the White House “still have their First Amendment right,” Trump replied, “Yeah, well, I’m not so sure.”
It’s against this backdrop that Politico reported [that] the Justice Department’s No. 2 official said Tuesday that people noisily protesting President Donald Trump could face investigation if they’re part of broader networks organizing such activities.
In the current environment I think it’s fair to say there’s really no reason to believe anything we’re hearing from federal law enforcement, either formally or on background to reporters.
It is not just, for instance, that Kirk held disagreeable views—that he was pro-life, that he believed in public executions, or that he rejected the separation of church and state. It’s that Kirk reveled in open bigotry.
Not the violent rupture of 1861, but something else entirely. Blue states building parallel systems, withholding cooperation, and creating facts on the ground that render federal authority meaningless within their borders.
For some days, I've seen people mention the Martha Wells Humble Bundle offer and gone 'nah, I don't need it, I've got most of the Murderbot stuff, I DON'T NEED IT'.
And then someone posted that it has the short stories, and I nearly caved. And then someone shared it on Tumblr, and I don't remember what was said, and I was like 'it won't hurt to look, right'?
I will tell you that I did not cave because it has a Murderbot book I have either not read or have entirely forgotten reading (and may not, in fact, own). I did not cave because of short stories, for I noticed not the presence of said short stories. I caved because nearly the first thing I saw was The Emilie Adventures, which I know not if I will love, but has been in my wish list many many years (best guess: 2018, which is the copyright date of what I think is the first Murderbot book I read, which was at the time the most recent. The two Emilie stories are copyright 2013 and 2014, but by the time I tried to acquire them, no legal avenues worked).
So now I have 14 ebooks, some of which I have read and some of which are short stories, and I do not have the oomph to put them in the acquired books list (which has a gaping hole in it in which I either bought no books, or did not record them), along with the three that turned up ... yesterday (and one I really wanted is not sodding available and my money has been refunded. I hate this 'warehousing glitch' or whatever the excuse is, it happens so sodding often).
Last night a friend got on the bike path by the Lowell St stairs/bridge carrying a trumpet, and one of the valve slides (U-shaped silver metal) fell off as he headed towards Davis. If you find it please let me know and I'll put you in touch with the owner.
Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.
This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)
(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)
So what cool fics/fancrafts/fanvids/podfics/fanart/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.
BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly permeating daily life, reshaping how we manufacture, teach, consult, code, and organize. It’s predicted that generative AI will make many key industries much more productive, displacing an estimated 92 million human jobs by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum. As AI shifts the future of labor and education, it‘s simultaneously being heralded as a tool for climate action.
Artificial intelligence tools with the capacity to enhance data collection and analysis improve energy system management, model climate risks, locate and safeguard carbon sinks, improve agricultural processes, and process environmental information at otherwise unmanageable scales have the potential to drive down greenhouse gas emissions through targeted deployment in high-impact sectors. Beyond improving the management of strategic and environmental data and enabling green transitions, AI is increasingly sought to unlock frontiers once beyond human reach, from decoding animal vocalisations and plant signalling to enabling molecular recycling, ecosystem-level farming, and the tracking of invisible pollutants. Perhaps through these more strategic uses, AI might improve our ability to tackle climate and environmental challenges. Or will it make these challenges worse?
For example, Erin Brockovich-style reporting is finding that in Memphis, Tennessee, Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer, Colossus, is worsening air quality due to its massive use of methane-gas turbines, emitting a smog of nitrogen oxides and toxic formaldehyde. Without disclosing the use of these turbines or gaining proper air permits to release these toxins, Colossus was able to come online in 122 days, the quickest an AI supercomputer has been constructed to date. The area in proximity to the datacenter is historically Black and has disproportionately high rates of cancer and asthma. Under the guise of new investment in the area, government officials are permitting the continued operation and build out of Colossus. Residents are responding, by organizing and demanding protection for the health of their community and the environment.
The situation in Memphis isn’t unique. Despite growing awareness of AI’s environmental impact, most discussions and regulations focus narrowly on electricity demand and energy intensity. Far less attention is paid to carbon emissions and water use, in part because power consumption is the most visible metric. What happens behind the walls of data centers, where water is drained for cooling and carbon quietly accumulates, rarely makes headlines. In fact, the water demands of AI infrastructure present growing concerns, particularly where datacenter facilities are co-located in regions already facing scarcity.
The disreputable and deceitful approach many companies have taken to demonstrate decarbonization remains a persistent, global challenge.
Datacenters rely on water-intensive cooling to keep servers functional, while the power plants that supply their electricity often demand additional freshwater for generation. Drawing on shared water supplies can exacerbate local stress, with consequences that extend beyond ecosystems to wider social and economic systems.
Moreover, the byproducts of manufacturing and operating digital infrastructure can contain contaminants that, if not properly treated, pose risks to water quality and ecosystems. Discharge of polluted water and discarded electronic components into rivers, groundwater supplies, landfills, or unregulated recycling facilities results in the hazardous materials gradually seeping into surrounding soil and water systems. Over time, these substances may infiltrate groundwater, creating serious long-term health concerns, degrading habitats, and endangering communities that rely on those resources. In areas where water availability is limited, competing demands, such as agriculture or community needs, may be constrained, illustrating how AI’s resource footprint can intersect with broader development challenges.
Weekly Newsletter
[contact-form-7]
Globally, the uptake of AI has an impact on climate change mitigation. Training a single AI model can produce up to five times the carbon emissions of an average car over its entire lifetime. The rapid expansion of AI is already creating challenges for major technology companies in meeting net-zero targets, according to The New York Times. Google’s 2024 sustainability report notes a 48 percent increase in emissions since 2019, largely driven by rising energy demands in its datacenters. The company’s growing dependence on AI is transforming its overall energy profile, pushing demand upward and locking in increased infrastructure needs that complicate efforts to bring overall emissions down.
Have we absorbed the lessons of past technological paradoxes? In an effort to normalize the pace of innovation around AI, the technology has been compared to the steam engine, the calculator, and the first-ever computer. The Jevons Paradox reminds us that gains in efficiency often fuel greater overall consumption. In a world where growth is equated with progress, capitalism breathes through expansion, and consumption becomes its oxygen. The drive to consume, innovate, and develop ever more advanced futures proves difficult to resist, leaving critical impacts under-examined and under-regulated. Opportunities to integrate generative AI must be balanced against the environmental costs of the servers themselves, which span the entire hardware life cycle, from manufacturing and operation to disposal, and include significant carbon, energy, and water footprints. The real test is not whether AI can help us fight climate change, but whether it can do so without reproducing the same injustices and excesses that brought us here.
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