N A
@niftylinks.bsky.social
I like to share things and learn things. Hence Nifty Links.
Mostly on [Mastodon](https://federated.press/@NiftyLinks), bridging back and forth between here and there.
Mostly on [Mastodon](https://federated.press/@NiftyLinks), bridging back and forth between here and there.
Reposted by N A
This is an excellent summary of how "the author getting paid" works for traditional publishing! To which I'll add: it is super common for books (especially genre fiction) to not "earn out" the advance, so a lot of writers learn to not count on royalty money ever happening.
I'm going to do a little thread on how the money from books works for traditionally published authors because people have questions, and this is always useful info to share IMO. First, a big disclaimer that every contract is different, and there are a million factors that can change things. 1/
November 27, 2025 at 3:24 AM
This is an excellent summary of how "the author getting paid" works for traditional publishing! To which I'll add: it is super common for books (especially genre fiction) to not "earn out" the advance, so a lot of writers learn to not count on royalty money ever happening.
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Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved, but you must absolutely avoid being *hated.*
So many forget that last part.
So many forget that last part.
It is a bit alarming, when rereading Machiavelli's The Prince, that it lands as reportage rather than political theory. However, I find great comfort in the fact that they are really effing it up.
November 26, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved, but you must absolutely avoid being *hated.*
So many forget that last part.
So many forget that last part.
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tldr Poverty line is calculated as 3x a year’s food budget b/c the calculation dates to the 60s when food was 1/3 of spending. Food is now 1/16 of spending due to other costs rising hugely, so the official US poverty line for a family of 4 is $35,000 but updating the logic it should be $140,000!
We have a “poverty trap” and it’s driving the destruction of social cohesion.
The “poverty line” is’t 35,000, it’s $150,000, and making more than one, and less than the other is worse than being “poor”.
Which is why the rage.
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
The “poverty line” is’t 35,000, it’s $150,000, and making more than one, and less than the other is worse than being “poor”.
Which is why the rage.
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:22 PM
tldr Poverty line is calculated as 3x a year’s food budget b/c the calculation dates to the 60s when food was 1/3 of spending. Food is now 1/16 of spending due to other costs rising hugely, so the official US poverty line for a family of 4 is $35,000 but updating the logic it should be $140,000!
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Collective, racist punishment.
November 27, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Collective, racist punishment.
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With DC shooter now identified as an Afghan national not the antifa secret agent White House hoped for a good time to remember the Trump admin has gutted domestic anti-terrorism capacity and reassigned many to finding grandmothers to arrest at immigration hearings.
November 27, 2025 at 4:06 AM
With DC shooter now identified as an Afghan national not the antifa secret agent White House hoped for a good time to remember the Trump admin has gutted domestic anti-terrorism capacity and reassigned many to finding grandmothers to arrest at immigration hearings.
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A study came out today in the Tennessean that said the income needed to be “comfortable” in Nashville is $111K
We have a “poverty trap” and it’s driving the destruction of social cohesion.
The “poverty line” is’t 35,000, it’s $150,000, and making more than one, and less than the other is worse than being “poor”.
Which is why the rage.
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
The “poverty line” is’t 35,000, it’s $150,000, and making more than one, and less than the other is worse than being “poor”.
Which is why the rage.
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:48 AM
A study came out today in the Tennessean that said the income needed to be “comfortable” in Nashville is $111K
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To summarize. According to Lizza, Nuzzi, in addition to fucking multiple subjects without disclosure:
1) outed a confidential source
2) fed source information to RFK
3) damaged other people’s reputation through anonymous posts on Reddit
4) advised RFK and repeatedly acted on his behalf
1) outed a confidential source
2) fed source information to RFK
3) damaged other people’s reputation through anonymous posts on Reddit
4) advised RFK and repeatedly acted on his behalf
this was bad before, but these are the most troubling and serious allegations you can make about a journalist. if they’re true, i genuinely can’t think of a worse scandal in the history of political journalism. devastating to our industry, to public trust as a whole, and to everyone in its orbit
November 27, 2025 at 3:52 AM
To summarize. According to Lizza, Nuzzi, in addition to fucking multiple subjects without disclosure:
1) outed a confidential source
2) fed source information to RFK
3) damaged other people’s reputation through anonymous posts on Reddit
4) advised RFK and repeatedly acted on his behalf
1) outed a confidential source
2) fed source information to RFK
3) damaged other people’s reputation through anonymous posts on Reddit
4) advised RFK and repeatedly acted on his behalf
Reposted by N A
The Telegraph: Marburg outbreak worsens in Ethiopia as death toll rises
Experts warn that the outbreak’s proximity to borders with Kenya and South Sudan means that – if not contained – it could spread rapidly […]
Experts warn that the outbreak’s proximity to borders with Kenya and South Sudan means that – if not contained – it could spread rapidly […]
Original post on ai6yr.org
m.ai6yr.org
November 27, 2025 at 3:26 AM
The Telegraph: Marburg outbreak worsens in Ethiopia as death toll rises
Experts warn that the outbreak’s proximity to borders with Kenya and South Sudan means that – if not contained – it could spread rapidly […]
Experts warn that the outbreak’s proximity to borders with Kenya and South Sudan means that – if not contained – it could spread rapidly […]
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Scrolling through November 1863 newspapers looking at reactions to Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation and what’s notable is how whiny the conservative Dem papers are about how Thanksgiving proclamations should be the state prerogative and not the federal government’s
plus ça change, I guess
plus ça change, I guess
November 26, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Scrolling through November 1863 newspapers looking at reactions to Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation and what’s notable is how whiny the conservative Dem papers are about how Thanksgiving proclamations should be the state prerogative and not the federal government’s
plus ça change, I guess
plus ça change, I guess
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Imagine going through life like this
November 26, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Imagine going through life like this
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So many men go through life like that. You can play poker because it's right-coded, you can't enjoy fruity alcoholic drinks because they're women-coded, you can't lick an ice cream cone because it's gay-coded. All day, every day, choosing and judging things based on coding for narrow norms.
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
So many men go through life like that. You can play poker because it's right-coded, you can't enjoy fruity alcoholic drinks because they're women-coded, you can't lick an ice cream cone because it's gay-coded. All day, every day, choosing and judging things based on coding for narrow norms.
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I swear this is one of the main reasons it’s tragic Americans don’t travel more. They live in these weird little bubbles and don’t understand that the world is big and multifarious.
November 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
I swear this is one of the main reasons it’s tragic Americans don’t travel more. They live in these weird little bubbles and don’t understand that the world is big and multifarious.
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An underappreciated aspect is that many people *want* to go through life with clearly-defined roles for everything. Much less anxiety-inducing than making choices and running the risk of ridicule.
Liberal individualism is one of the best things to ever happen, but some people feel it as a burden.
Liberal individualism is one of the best things to ever happen, but some people feel it as a burden.
So many men go through life like that. You can play poker because it's right-coded, you can't enjoy fruity alcoholic drinks because they're women-coded, you can't lick an ice cream cone because it's gay-coded. All day, every day, choosing and judging things based on coding for narrow norms.
November 26, 2025 at 4:37 PM
An underappreciated aspect is that many people *want* to go through life with clearly-defined roles for everything. Much less anxiety-inducing than making choices and running the risk of ridicule.
Liberal individualism is one of the best things to ever happen, but some people feel it as a burden.
Liberal individualism is one of the best things to ever happen, but some people feel it as a burden.
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If you're considering a RAM upgrade, your best bet is to hold on tight to whatever you already have and hope that nothing breaks any time soon.
GPU prices are coming to earth just as RAM costs shoot into the stratosphere
Some RAM kits are over three times as expensive as they were three months ago.
arstechnica.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:28 PM
If you're considering a RAM upgrade, your best bet is to hold on tight to whatever you already have and hope that nothing breaks any time soon.
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Everyone except Mets fans can appreciate why Chase Utley should be admitted to the baseball Hall of Fame. Chase was put on this Earth to do two things: kill WW2-era Nazis and get hit by pitches, and Jack Kennedy asked him to stop killing Nazis on account of Operation Paperclip.
November 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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new @fangraphs.com: When he announced his retirement, I fretted that Chase Utley wouldn't get much of a sniff from BBWAA voters due to his short career and lack of awards. As he enters his 3rd year on the ballot, he's in very good shape for eventual election.
JAWS and the 2026 Hall of Fame Ballot: Chase Utley blogs.fangraphs.com/jaws-and-the...
JAWS and the 2026 Hall of Fame Ballot: Chase Utley
Overshadowed by a pair of MVP-winning teammates, the longtime Phillies second baseman was a favorite of scouts and statheads, and may be the one who winds up in Cooperstown.
blogs.fangraphs.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:31 PM
new @fangraphs.com: When he announced his retirement, I fretted that Chase Utley wouldn't get much of a sniff from BBWAA voters due to his short career and lack of awards. As he enters his 3rd year on the ballot, he's in very good shape for eventual election.
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10/10, no notes
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 7:23 PM
10/10, no notes
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![Comic. Panels up to the 10-year point are grayed out. New panels since the Ten Years comic, which chronicles the first ten years of PERSON 1's journey with cancer: (1) [two people in bed] PERSON 1 (woman): One more chapter? PERSON 2 (man): Don’t we both have to get up early? PERSON 1: Nnnnnggggh PERSON 2: Sure, good point. (2) [many people wearing masks, walking while looking at graphs on their phones] (3) [birds landing on people] PERSON 2 in beanie and scarf: Hah! They like *my* seeds best. PERSON 1 in scarf holding phone with a bird sitting on it: Wait, how do I take a picture of this one? (4) [two people rowing boats with tree landscape] (5) [Person 1 carries overflowing stack of things to Person 2 in bed] PERSON 1: I brought you honey lemon tea, more pillows, a cinnamon roll, Tylenol, another blanket, a– PERSON 2: It was just Appendicitis, I’m really– PERSON 1: *It is my turn to take care of you and I am going to do it right!* (6) [Two people in car] (7) [still in car) PERSON 1: Oh my god. PERSON 2: Oh my god. (8) [car driving] PERSON 1: Pull over! PERSON 2: I am! (9) [both people get out of car] (10) [Large colored panel of aurora borealis over water with both people looking on] (11) [Person 1 sits against tree while Person 2 lies on the ground] PERSON 1: Fifteen years. No sign of the cancer. (12) I *am* having some weird symptoms. Joint pain. Fatigue. I think I’m losing my close-up vision. PERSON 2: Yeah. Me too. (13) PERSON 2: I think we’re getting old. (14) PERSON 1: I guess that’s okay. PERSON 2: It’s all I wanted.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreihwhjblp5lyiwp63ouar7ocfea7evmckytoeo7rkfuoo4gw5rnrra@jpeg)
November 26, 2025 at 10:32 PM
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We’re out till December. I am so grateful to the folks who do this work with us, and to all y’all who read and pass it on ❤️❤️❤️
Unbreaking will be taking some downtime for the rest of November, so you’ll see our next briefing in December. In the meantime, you can catch up on our Data Security, Immigration, Medical Research, and Equality at Work work: unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...
This week at Unbreaking, November 20 — Unbreaking
This week's update covers what the immigration crackdown is doing to our communities, the ongoing exploitation of our personal data, and what's going on with federal workers and medical research fundi...
unbreaking.org
November 26, 2025 at 10:36 PM
We’re out till December. I am so grateful to the folks who do this work with us, and to all y’all who read and pass it on ❤️❤️❤️
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I know most of the focus is on RFK Jr.'s weird horny texts, but the news that he used to spam Bill Nye with anti-vax weirdness and Bill was like, "Dude, you're you're confusing correlation for causation" is the only RFK text-message news I will ever need.
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 AM
I know most of the focus is on RFK Jr.'s weird horny texts, but the news that he used to spam Bill Nye with anti-vax weirdness and Bill was like, "Dude, you're you're confusing correlation for causation" is the only RFK text-message news I will ever need.
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Yeah, this is the “USian” logic in a nutshell.
But NLians is the term I use for baseball players who only recently adopted the designated hitter rule
But NLians is the term I use for baseball players who only recently adopted the designated hitter rule
I've decided I don't like the word "Dutch", so I'm gonna start calling people from the Netherlands NLians. If they don't accept that and immediately adopt it, they're ignorant, arrogant, and also poopy heads.
November 27, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Yeah, this is the “USian” logic in a nutshell.
But NLians is the term I use for baseball players who only recently adopted the designated hitter rule
But NLians is the term I use for baseball players who only recently adopted the designated hitter rule
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This is what I spent most of last week working on with other people who cannot leave this stuff alone. Gotta put the facts in order in a stable place and then see what meaning emerges.
The fight against authoritarianism has many fronts. At Unbreaking, we choose to work against information overload and for collective understanding. On our Immigration timeline, we track major and representative events from across the US—now filterable by legal case:
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
unbreaking.org/issues/immig...
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
This is what I spent most of last week working on with other people who cannot leave this stuff alone. Gotta put the facts in order in a stable place and then see what meaning emerges.
Reposted by N A
Source: https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Median US households (income $80K) are in poverty if the same calculations as in 1963 are used to rebase the poverty line threshold.
Median US households (income $80K) are in poverty if the same calculations as in 1963 are used to rebase the poverty line threshold.
Why the USA is stressed: in 1963, poverty was defined as family income < 3x food budget. But costs have exploded since 1963, and food is now 5-7% of a budget including health, college, childcare, housing, etc—a realistic food budget multiplier for poverty is 16x, so families under $130K are poor.
November 25, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Source: https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Median US households (income $80K) are in poverty if the same calculations as in 1963 are used to rebase the poverty line threshold.
Median US households (income $80K) are in poverty if the same calculations as in 1963 are used to rebase the poverty line threshold.
Reposted by N A
Why the USA is stressed: in 1963, poverty was defined as family income < 3x food budget. But costs have exploded since 1963, and food is now 5-7% of a budget including health, college, childcare, housing, etc—a realistic food budget multiplier for poverty is 16x, so families under $130K are poor.
November 25, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Why the USA is stressed: in 1963, poverty was defined as family income < 3x food budget. But costs have exploded since 1963, and food is now 5-7% of a budget including health, college, childcare, housing, etc—a realistic food budget multiplier for poverty is 16x, so families under $130K are poor.
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Lying to the Supreme Court... which will still probably rule in its favor
This is the same playbook the Trump administration ran in Portland, where DHS officials falsely accused local police of failing to help them (or not arriving quickly enough). Strikes me as a problem that the government lies so freely to the Supreme Court now. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...
November 25, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Lying to the Supreme Court... which will still probably rule in its favor