Tootfinder

"participating artists will have “full control” over how their likeness and music are used, though it doesn’t share how."
Sure.
https://www.theverge.com/news/829189/warner-music-group-suno-ai-licensing-deal

Russia begins to fall apart: massive blackouts hit rear cities: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/26/russia-begins-to-fall-apart.html

Day 30: Elizabeth Moon
This last spot (somehow 32 days after my last post, but oh well) was a tough decision, but Moon brings us full circle back to fantasy/sci-fi, and also back to books I enjoyed as a teenager. Her politics don't really match up to Le Guin or Jemisin, but her military experience make for books that are much more interesting than standard fantasy fare in terms of their battles & outcomes (something "A Song of Ice and Fire" achieved by cribbing from history but couldn't extrapolate nearly as well). I liked (and still mostly like) her (unironically) strong female protagonists, even if her (especially more recent) forays into "good king" territory leave something to be desired. Still, in Paksenarion the way we get to see the world from a foot-soldier's perspective before transitioning into something more is pretty special and very rare in fantasy (I love the elven ruins scene as Paks travels over the mountains as an inflection point). Battles are won or lost on tactics, shifting politics, and logistics moreso than some epic magical gimmick, which is a wonderful departure from the fantasy norm.
Her work does come with a content warning for rape, although she addresses it with more nuance and respect than any male SF/F author of her generation. Ex-evangelicals might also find her stuff hard to read, as while she's against conservative Christianity, she's very much still a Christian and that makes its way into her writing. Even if her (not bad but not radical enough) politics lead her writing into less-satisfying places at times, part of my respect for her comes from following her on Twitter for a while, where she was a pretty decent human being...
Overall, Paksenarrion is my favorite of her works, although I've enjoyed some of her sci-fi too and read the follow-up series. While it inherits some of Tolkien's baggage, Moon's ability to deeply humanize her hero and depict a believable balance between magic being real but not the answer to all problems is great.
I've reached 30 at this point, and while I've got more authors on my shortlist, I think I'll end things out tomorrow with a dump of also-rans rather than continuing to write up one per day. I may even include a man or two in that group (probably with at least non-{white cishet} perspective). Honestly, doing this challenge I first thought that sexism might have made it difficult, but here at the end I'm realizing that ironically, the misogyny that holds non-man authors to a higher standard means that (given plenty have still made it through) it's hard to think of male authors who compare with this group.
Looking back on the mostly-male authors of SF/F in my teenage years, for example, I'm now struggling to think of a single one whose work I'd recommend to my kids (having cheated and checked one of my old lists, Pratchett, Jaques, and Asimov qualify but they're outnumbered by those I'm now actively ashamed to admit I enjoyed). If I were given a choice between reading only non-men or non-woman authors for the rest of my life (yes I'm giving myself enby authors as a freebie; they're generally great) I'd very easily choose non-men. I think the only place where (to my knowledge) not enough non-men authors have been allowed through to outshine the fields of male mediocrity yet is in videogames sadly. I have a very long list of beloved games and did include some game designers here, but I'm hard-pressed to think of many other non-man game designers I'd include in the genuinely respect column (I'll include at least two tomorrow but might cheat a bit).
TL;DR: this was fun and you should do it too.
#30AuthorsNoMen

Living in a capitalist society makes me simultaneously hate and understand some things.
Back when the Sunday shopping ban was set in Poland by one of the right-wing parties (with some exceptions for petty capitalists, of course), I was outraged. Why are they forcing their religious customs on me?! But nowadays, I do realize that in a capitalist society, where employment laws are full of loopholes and employers explicitly punish employees for taking a day off, an obligatory no-business day is the only way.
On top of that, after living next to a supermarket for a few years… this is literally the only way to have a quiet day, without cars driving, and car doors slamming all the time. And of course night time deliveries, because you obviously can't lose day's business over such things.
And what I hate even more are these multi-day holidays and long weekends, where suddenly all my routine falls apart, and I can't really enjoy holidays while the train timetable is randomly punctuated. But then, I do realize that obligatory multi-day holidays are the only way for many people to simultaneously have a day off and be able to meet their families and friends.
I'm not really compatible with the world I'm living in.
#AntiCapitalism #ActuallyAutistic

#macOS Finder users might not need dual-panel file managers. Or they might.
I've been using superfile in the terminal.
And I just discovered https://github.com/mikekazakov/nimble-commander

Internal Slack message: Sam Altman tells OpenAI staff that "What's happening with ICE is going too far" and he hopes President Trump "will rise to this moment" (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/business/dealbook/altm…

OpenAI’s Altman and More C.E.O.s Weigh In on Minnesota
Business leaders continue to feel pressure to speak out about the immigration crackdown and the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens.

FWIW, when people go on about “sportsball”, to me that sounds snotty and condescending and, well, a bit rude: “I ostentatiously don’t care about a thing you do and wish it didn’t exist.”
Not saying you’re not within your rights to feel that and say that. I have exactly those feelings about certain forms of music and religion and politics.
Just be aware that sometimes it doesn’t land well.
#LifeOnline

NFL Insider Issues Brutal Message to Tom Brady Over Raiders https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/mike-florio-message-tom-brady/?adt_ei=[email]

Russia extends fuel export restrictions through February 2026 amid refinery attacks and shortages: https://benborges.xyz/2025/12/27/russia-extends-fuel-export-restrictions.html

Customize what happens when you start R: #rstats #environment