Humdrum Places - BlogFlock

🤖 As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts - The Independent Variable

2026-02-11T00:47:26.000Z

The device had already been on the market for about three years. Until then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had received unconfirmed reports of seven instances in which the device malfunctioned and another report of a patient injury. Since AI was added to the device, the FDA has received unconfirmed reports of at least 100 malfunctions and adverse events.

Medical devices, including those used in surgeries and critical monitoring should never have AI because we know AI hallucinates and will always make avoidable mistakes. It may be useful for research and diagnosis (or secondary monitoring) where a human has time to review and confirm, but when someone’s life is on the line, we don’t need to add additional variables that might ignore critical information or take circuitous routes for no good reason, compounding the potential risk of human error that already exists—which AI is not reducing.

The Weapons of World War IV - foofaraw

2026-02-10T17:00:57.000Z

I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones!”
—Albert Einstein

Those goddamn aliens ruined everything. We had everything lined up, from artillery and nukes to a few experimental weapons that would’ve made one hell of a bang, if nothing else. Sure, the other guys had their own weapons and stratagems, but that’s what made war fun—a chance to prove your mettle, your glory, your ingenuity—casualties be damned.

And then, the moment the first nuke launched, those damn greys showed up and got their stubby little fingers into our business. Just like that, no war ever again.

“Violent self-destructive actions are hereby banned,” they said. “We assume conservatorship of your planet.” That’s all they told us. There were no gifts of alien technology or cold fusion, no fun or wacky or creative ways to blow up our enemies. Bunch of gray-skinned cowards…

It drove our scientists nuts: ever since that intervention, all our weapons stopped working. It makes no sense. Guns won’t fire at all—not even cannons—but you can still shoot fireworks. Except that any fireworks that happen to fly in the direction of someone’s face (or, say, a major city) freeze in mid-air and disappear. Even slingshots won’t work anymore! Hell, you can’t even have a good old-fashioned snowball fight because those damn interlopers view that as violence, too.

We’ve tried so many things—oh, how we’ve tried. Violent speech is allowed. Face-slapping isn’t. (The hand just freezes an inch away from the face.) Parents can’t spank their children. The S&M crowd got particularly depressed because even consensual violence is off-limits. Gently flicking someone on the forehead is allowed. Strong flicking gets you frozen in place. Bombs won’t detonate, regardless of how you build them; even poisons won’t work. And if you only knew what they did to all our beautiful, precious nuclear stockpiles… That, in particular, just breaks my heart.

Those damn aliens treat us as if we were children, and what’s worse, the civilians are loving it! “No more wars!” they chant. “Maybe we can all get along after all,” they sing at all their hippie get-togethers. Iran and Iraq are having peace and reconciliation meetings. Russians and Ukrainians are still scowling and shouting, but they can’t even so much as shove each other.

A bunch of women are suddenly running for office, now that they don’t have to worry about violence of any kind. And a whole lot of men are going back to school, studying physics, chemistry, and whatever else might help us find a loophole in these nanny-state rules that banned all violence.

But little do they know… It took a lot of research; it took a lot of funding; it took more embarrassing experiments than I care to admit, but we did it. By god, we finally did it. We found a loophole that those damn peaceniks from outer space did not think to cover, and tomorrow, at the break of dawn, our paratroopers will land in key enemy capitals, and we will win this new and final war, this long-awaited, glorious World War IV.

The generals and admirals of eons past would laugh at us if they could see our preparations, our extensive training, the new fighting style we had to develop, but that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is victory, and victory shall be ours. The final world war will be fought with pillows. Our good ol’ ingenuity, combined with the heaviest, fluffiest pillows ever made, will ensure victory. They’ll never see it coming, and when we pillow-fight them all into submission, we shall prevail at last.

Grigory Lukin (rhymes with "story" and "win") is an award-winning filmmaker and an internationally published author of fiction and nonfiction. He’s also a vagabond with three passports and far too much free time. His writing has appeared in Phano, Black Cat Weekly, and multiple anthologies. He enjoys pastries, museums, and hiking from Mexico to Canada. His secret lair is in Montreal. Find him at www.linktr.ee/grigorylukin

🤖 From Chatbots to Dice Rolls: Researchers Use D&D to Test AI’s Long-term Decision-making Abilities - The Independent Variable

2026-02-09T20:30:27.000Z

UCSD

Of course they’re using bots to play D&D. Who wants to have fun with their own imagination? We’re only on this rock to track metrics, increase productivity, and shape our blobby flesh into copyrighted bionic cogs.

Key phrase in the article: “The simulations focused on combat: players battling monsters as part of their D&D campaign.”

So, you just made a “Diablo” simulator?

Why not just scrape “Tomb of Horrors” and call it a day? Or, better yet, base an entire campaign on that “Sacred Geometry” feat from Pathfinder.

Dollars to princess doughnuts, whoever designed this simulation is no fun to play D&D with.

Remember “Tucker’s Kobolds”? Clearly you missed the point.

D&D mean many things to many people. Not all of it’s optimizing glass cannons and exploiting corner cases. For the love of Carl, please stop trying to make everything I love part of The Matrix!

Even those bots realized you need to spice things up with roleplay. That’s the, you know, play part of the word.

Weekend Edition Vol.090 - foofaraw

2026-02-08T21:31:00.000Z

Quick reminder our second novelette came out on the first! Go get it! Or you'll have bad luck for seven years.

Faceless by Ellie Montemayor

a 44-page print novelette

foofarawfoofaraw

This weeks story from Gio Clairval captures the feeling of self-isolation—whether due to living a solitary life of an artist, or I'm sure how some people felt throughout COVID:

📷 Filbert

by Gio Clairval

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We talked to Gio about photography, depression, and self-isloation:

🎙️ Gio Clairval

An interview with the author of Filbert

foofarawfoofaraw

This months poem is a fun piece of fiction mixed with prose poetry from Frank Spiro:

🕴️ Man is a good man

by Frank Spiro

foofarawfoofaraw

And Nick returned with something a bit different than his usual ADHD column:

🔭 Good AMERICAN News 3

by Nicholas De Marino

foofarawfoofaraw

Nick also did a little fun little subscriber-only column over on TIV, annotating the opening of Walden with links from across the vast interwebs:

Walden: Annotated

Directed by Nicholas De Marino

The Independent VariableNicholas De Marino

Week 06—2026 - The Independent Variable

2026-02-08T20:17:24.000Z

When you're reading this, you may already know what has happened at the Super Bowl on Sunday. Hopefully, the Patriots lose and ICE doesn't do anything idiotic like try to detain Bad Bunny—or anyone at the game... but they are just crazy enough to try some stupid shit like that...

February's LLoN went out right on time on the first—although we will probably shift to the first Saturday of every month moving forward. It's a depressing one, but an important one.

February 2026

Here is the Little Letter of Nonsense for February! Available to paid subscribers as a PDF and/or in print, delivered straight to your mailbox.

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

We also launched a new subscriber-only monthly column, Semi-Sequitur, from my friend Nick. It's a really fun take on sharing links, as he annotates public domain works with links to all sorts of things.

Walden: Annotated

Directed by Nicholas De Marino

The Independent VariableNicholas De Marino

When it came to actual linkage, we of course focused on the only thing that really matters right now and that’s what ICE is doing in Minnesota. Luckily, they are pulling agents from MN, but the job isn't done—we still need to keep making our voices heard. Just because they vacate one place, doesn't mean it won't continue elsewhere.

This first link, featuring Aliya Rahman’s testimony, is heartbreaking. To think any human being is being treated like this should terrify all Americans.

🏛️ The testimony of Aliya Rahman

0:00 /6:45 1× It’s absolutely devastating to watch this. I’d love to echo the sentiment I’ve seen on social media and say, “how could anyone watch this and not be devastated?” But I’ve become too jaded. The people doing and celebrating this terrible shit

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

🧑‍⚖️ Top Minnesota prosecutor says ICE cases are sidelining ‘pressing priorities’

Politico Actual criminals are absolutely loving what’s happening right now. ICE isn’t going after the (extremely small population of) undocumented immigrants that are in gangs because those people would actually fight back and have criminal attorneys on retainer and the idiot goons of ICE want nothing to do

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

🔫 Mexican Cartels Overwhelm Police With Ammunition Made for the U.S. Military

NY Times Government doesn’t want undocumented immigrants in the country, but they are more than happy to sell non-citizen cartel members high caliber ammunition.

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

✊ Resist and Unsubscribe

Link Good list/resource for things you can do around various giant conglomerates who have influence over the administration and/or are enablers of ICE. I think my Apple One subscription is the only place I’m still subscribed—and I had a lifelong vendetta against FedEx—but Spotify is

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

And to end things on a lighter note, the trailer for the latest show from Steve Conrad, who made two of the most underrated shows of the last decade in Patriot and, my personal favorite, Perpetual Grace Ltd.

📺 DTF St. Louis (Trailer)

This is one to keep an eye on when it premiers March 1 on HBO. It stars Jason Bateman, David Harbour, and Linda Cardellini, but more importantly, it comes from writer and creator, Steve Conrad who is also the mind behind the fantastic Patriot as well as my favorite Perpetual

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

🕴️ Man is a good man - foofaraw

2026-02-08T20:01:20.000Z

Man is a good man.
Calls his parents once a week.
Let a stranger use his metrocard.
Got his doorman a gift card to Macys.
He isn’t even rich.
But he’s comfortable.
Gives to charities he believes in.
On the board of a not-for-profit. A good one too.
Volunteers at a braille library.
When he talks to you you have his full attention.

If that’s not enough he also set up a little free library.
Treats his lover like a god.
His children like planets.
He lets his kid sneeze into his hand and doesn’t find it gross. Seriously.
Every so often he calls them in sick to school.
Do a day just for them. Dadsgiving.
Once he took them to a baseball game.
Caught a home run. Gave it to his youngest.
Who gave it to a crying baby.
He taught them right.
Posted about it on his Instagram.
Look. Funny caption.
He has friends.
They tag him in pictures.
Went to the beach.
Did a hangout. It was effortlessly casual.
People smile around him. They seem proud.
He plays a small instrument.
There’s a video.
He plays it very well.
His voice is idiosyncratic.
It’s like that because he’s so vulnerable.
Have to respect that.
He won an award at his job.
Which is teacher.
He could’ve been an astronaut.
He just finds teaching to be more gratifying.
6th grade English.
Man starts to get tired.
Usually once a year.
Sometimes in April.
Sometimes in August.

Man takes a drive.
North.
Maps out the spots he’s already been to.
Careful not to do a line.
Likes to imagine someone somewhere. In front of a map. FBI on their hat.
They’re on to him. But they’re stumped.
Can’t make out a discernable pattern.
He smiles to himself in the car. He drives faster.

He stops at a sign.
Welcome to Connecticut.
Still 30 minutes out. Can’t be too safe.
Takes the bag out of his trunk.
Takes the bag out of the bag.
Unfurls the white coat.
The stitching and name tag match the group employee photo on the homepage.
He did it himself.
Sometimes he’ll check the hospital complaints on Google.
Sometimes they’ll write about him.
When it’s late at night he’ll read them.
Relive it. Think about it from their perspective. A little pick me up.
Those nights he’ll sleep well.

Back in the car now.
Feels the anticipation.
It’s scary. In a good way.
Takes the right into the hospital parking lot.
Parks close to the stairwell.
Gets into character. Shakes it out. Clears his throat. Practices the nod.
Places the stethoscope around his neck.
Game time.

Knows where to go. Did his research.
Walks into the lobby.
Avoids eye contact.
Glances at the welcome desk.
Gives the practiced nod.
Casual. Perfect.
No one was paying attention. Even better.
Makes his way to the elevators.
Presses up button.
Scared of getting caught.
That’s part of the fun.
Nobody stops him.
Up to the 5th floor.
The ICU.

Knows how to spot them.
The families waiting for news.
The ones without hope.
Finds a group.
An old man and two women under 30.
Easy to tell. Mother is missing.
Easy to tell. They’ve been here for days.
Easy to tell. It’s bad.
Cha-ching.
Puts on his sternest face.
He tells himself in his head: Man is a doctor.
Makes himself a coffee.
Approaches the family.

As he gets close they notice him.
They sit up at attention.
Despite their best efforts there’s hope in their eyes.
The old man speaks first:
“Yes? Is there an update on Denise Feingold?”
What a gift. Given the name.
“Yes sir. Perhaps we could find a room to talk in.”

The man leads them to a private waiting room.
Door isn’t locked.
They sit down.
They’re shaking.
So is he. He bites his lower lip.
Can’t help but smile. He lives in this moment.
He finally speaks:
“Wonderful news, Denise is going to make a full recovery.”
The family is silent. They don’t know what to say.
The air in the room lightens. The weight lifts.
The man clenches his teeth. Remember this. This is the feeling.
“But… what about the bleeding?”
“It’s stopped.”
“I thought that a full recovery wasn’t possible?”
“It’s a miracle.”
The family collapses into tears.
Happy, happy, happy.
They’ve been touched by God.
The man’s face is red.
He wants to scream with laughter.
He’s touched something.
Set him ablaze.
He’s about to burst.
“Can we see her?”
“In a few minutes. She needs her rest.”
“Of course, of course.”
He needs to get out of there. He can’t hold it in much longer.
“If you’d excuse me, I have to tell a patient they have rectal cancer.”
Too much information. Doesn’t matter. Family isn’t listening.
They’re crying. They’re hugging. They’re more relieved than they’ve ever been.
He gets up and leaves in a single motion.
They’d find that suspicious later.

He’s spilling.
He speed walks to the elevator.
He holds the down button.
He walks halfway through the lobby. Then he runs.
Up the stairs.
Starts his car.
He’s laughing uncontrollably.
He makes sure to drive responsibly in the garage.
Like a doctor.
Pays his parking.
Then he floors it. Speeds away.
He feels it.
From his fingers to his heart.
Alive, alive, alive.
He’s crying now.
The look on their faces.
He gave that.
Like he’d pants’d the veil of grief.
By now they’d be suspicious.
Soon they’d know.
They’d feel the plummet.
“Why? Who would do that?”
I would. I did.
He’s hard now.

Man saw Moneyball.
In theaters and since. Thinks about it often.
Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Underrated role.
Man is a good man, in the aggregate.
He has more than enough good.
What’s a little something for him?
Remember Dadsgiving?
He deserves.
Nothing wrong with that.
He pulls over at a gas station.
He strips off his jacket. Stuffs it in a bag. Stuffs it in another bag.
Throws it in the trunk.
Takes a nonsensical way home. Doesn’t follow his GPS.
He is ungovernable.

He’ll open the door to his children’s room when he gets home.
They sleep in the same room.
It’s not dark.
They fall asleep to soft pink stars lightly projected across the room.
They’re sleeping soundly.
They won’t wake.
He’ll smile at them from the doorway.
Nothing in his head.
He knows peace.
Released from Samsara.
He will not be reborn.

—Frank Spiro

🔫 Mexican Cartels Overwhelm Police With Ammunition Made for the U.S. Military - The Independent Variable

2026-02-07T18:29:27.000Z

NY Times

Government doesn’t want undocumented immigrants in the country, but they are more than happy to sell non-citizen cartel members high caliber ammunition.

Walden: Annotated - The Independent Variable

2026-02-07T17:00:19.000Z

Semi-Sequiturs is our newest subscriber-only monthly column from Nicholas De Marino. We have two other monthly columnists coming soon to join Semi-Sequiturs and the Little Letter of Nonsense.

🎙️ Gio Clairval - foofaraw

2026-02-06T17:00:52.000Z

Read Gio's story, Filbert, on Foofaraw now!

Is this story a metaphor for depression?

It can be read that way but, to me, Filbert is the seduction of retreat: the part of the self that offers relief through isolation, and asks for a bigger and bigger share of your life in exchange. The light in the story is not “happiness” so much as exposure: other people, expectations, noise, being perceived. Darkness is safety, and it is also a slow erasure.

I like metaphors that don’t lock onto one diagnosis. Readers have mapped depression, anxiety, burnout, neurodivergence, grief, and even first love onto Filbert, and I think the story has room for all of those readings.

If yes, what’s your experience with depression?

I’ve never experienced clinical depression. I’m interested in withdrawal as a human impulse.

What is your experience with photography?

Mostly my smartphone. Photography, for me, is less about gear and more about attention: deciding what deserves to be seen, and what can stay outside the frame.

Do you own or have you ever used a Leica?

My father owned one, and I grew up with the myth of it in the house. My own relationship to Leica is partly real and partly talismanic: the object as permission to take your seeing seriously.

Is it worth it?

For pure image-per-dollar, probably not. For the tactile ritual, the patience it demands, and the feeling that you’re making photographs on purpose (not just capturing), it can be.

Do you think Filbert had evil intentions or was the end of the story just the result of the protagonist spending time with Filbert?

I don’t read Filbert as evil. I read Filbert as need. He is the protagonist’s own pull toward vanishing, externalized into a figure she can love and bargain with.

If there’s a villain in the room, it’s the bargain itself: “I’ll keep the light away forever.” That promise slowly changes what “being you” means.

What's one of your recent favorite short stories?

In 2024, I was especially impressed by “The Ghosts of Wannsee” by Lauren Groff.

What book are you reading right now?

I’m reading Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume III, and I love how intensely the author observes the world. The prose is calm and plainspoken, and it keeps narrowing its focus until ordinary objects and ordinary time become strange. Even with that everyday texture, it builds a quiet suspense that makes me keep turning pages.

My favorite among my stories published in 2025 is “Watercode” NonBinary Review #41: Solarpunk

In a future where oceans have become living archives, a data-diver finds the scattered song of a banned empathy AI, and chooses to hide it inside a reef that can let it bloom quietly, beyond corporate extraction.

Thanks to Gio for chatting with us about photography and the human condition!

⚽️ Ronaldo to boycott 2nd Al Nassr game in protest of PIF - The Independent Variable

2026-02-06T04:23:31.000Z

ESPN

Sources told ESPN that Ronaldo tried to block the transfer of French star Karim Benzema from Al Ittihad to Al Hilal on Monday because he felt the move was unfair and indicated that PIF wanted to pave the way for Al Hilal to win the title.

Who would’ve thought the fake soccer league that controls the purse strings of every team and overpaid a bunch of old players would do things “unfairly?” Not to mention Ronaldo’s team is stacked still with João Felix, Kingsley Coman, and Sadio Mané—plus a couple young Brazilians.

🧑‍⚖️ Top Minnesota prosecutor says ICE cases are sidelining ‘pressing priorities’ - The Independent Variable

2026-02-06T04:15:50.000Z

Politico

Actual criminals are absolutely loving what’s happening right now. ICE isn’t going after the (extremely small population of) undocumented immigrants that are in gangs because those people would actually fight back and have criminal attorneys on retainer and the idiot goons of ICE want nothing to do with that. Instead they go after people with disabilities, children, and people at court houses “doing it the right way” so they can hit their outrageous quotas. Not only that, local police and prosecutors are now jammed up with all of this nonsense and dedicating less time to going after and building cases against actual criminals and fraud.

📷 Filbert - foofaraw

2026-02-05T17:00:59.000Z

The first time I saw Filbert, I was adjusting the settings on Papa’s old Leica. He’d finally trusted me with that nifty camera—it was like being handed the keys to a kingdom. That Sunday, my fifteenth birthday, I climbed higher than usual to capture the valley as it stirred beneath rollers of mist. I’d send my best pic to the professor. Maybe she’d pick me for the exhibition next Friday.

At school, I existed in the margins: the girl who spoke about obscure things, who noticed patterns others missed. A ghost in reverse, visible to everyone, understood by no one. Here, through the lens, the world sharpened; my vision made real, a part of me normal people might grasp. I existed for everyone when I held a camera.

Then I saw him though the lense.

In a pocket of shadow under a hazel shrub.

Just a flicker at first, a ripple in the dark. A boy, no taller than my hand, standing on a flat stone, watching me with too much awareness for something so small. He looked like a human. Except for his edges, blurred like a photograph in motion—like he wasn’t entirely there. His tiny face tilted up and I caught the glint of dark eyes staring at me with curiosity, as though I were the oddity, not him.

The moment I pushed the branches aside and sunlight touched him, he vanished—as if he couldn’t exist in the light.

I should have left it at that. Pretend I imagined it. But when I started down the mountain, he followed. No footsteps, no sound—just flickers in the corners of my vision, slipping from shadow to shadow. When the sun went down, he stepped into the moonlight. I framed him again: a blurred silhouette, wavering against the grass and shrubs—half there, half not.

I snapped a shot of him.

Back home, there he was, on my bookshelf—until I switched on the lamp.

“Where are you?” I called.

I turned off the light. There he was.

“What are you?”

“I don’t know.” He stepped closer to the edge of the shelf, his small form swaying. “Nobody looks at me, or maybe they only remember me for a short while.”

My hand moved toward the light switch. He jerked back, pressing himself against my copy of No Longer Human. “Please… don’t.”

He told me he could only exist in darkness and paced the length of my bookshelf. His voice was quiet and weightless. He smelled like damp earth.

He didn’t have a name. I told him I’d call him Filbert, after the hazelnut shrub he’d been standing under when I first framed him with my Leica.

When I developed the photos in my tiny red-light closet, he was nowhere to be seen.

“Are you a ghost?”

He stopped to face me and his blurred features shifted into what might have been a smile. “No. But I think I know what ghosts feel like.”

“That makes two of us. Will you stay?”

He sat down on the shelf’s edge, legs dangling. “Only if you keep the light away forever.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Sorry, then.”

The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was his shape, stretched long against my wall.

Then morning came, along with Monday.

And he was gone.

At school, I watched girls in clusters, couples in hallways. A universe I couldn’t access. I pressed my back against lockers, arms wrapped around my textbooks.

That night, when I turned off the lights, Filbert appeared, smiling.

He stood at my darkened window, one translucent hand pressed against the glass. “Can you switch off the sun in the morning?”

“I’m afraid I can’t. But I can keep the shutters closed.”

I moved closer, studying the fine details of his face: sharp cheekbones, a mouth that curved down at the corners. He didn’t trust me.

Morning came, Papa found me sitting in the dark, arms around my knees. “What’s up with you?” He crouched beside my bed, his lined face creased with worry. I turned away from him, shoulders hunched. He looked concerned, but I shrugged it off. Said I was fine.

The day was a blur I drifted through it waiting for the night to talk with Filbert.

When I got home from school, he was the size of a child. I didn’t know what to think. We sat cross-legged on my bedroom floor in the moonlight streaming through my shutters. I told him about myself, the invisible patterns I saw in things, the way I saw the world differently. As I spoke, his eyes never left mine, nodding along. That’s how I knew he really understood me.

Artwork by Tony Tran

On Wednesday, I wore sunglasses indoors, and black clothes. The school’s cafeteria neons were too bright, the constant chatter like needles in my ears. I walked away from the others, head down, shoulders curved inward.

My phone rang for the first time in months. My photography teacher said, “The arts department selected your mountain sunrise for the exhibition. Opening night is this Friday. I know it’s a bit short, but I’m counting on you. I’ll see you there.”

Yay me! Yay! Right?

Instead, my gut twisted. I sank onto my bed, phone still pressed to my ear. I thought of the hours under fluorescent lights, voices echoing off gallery walls, the smell of wine and perfume—all of it weighing down on me.

But I should go.

“There’s an exhibition Friday,” I told Filbert. “They picked my photo.”

He stood near my dresser now, nearly my height. Even in the shadow, I could see the tension in his jaw. “Don’t go. If you talk to people, you'll forget about me.”

“Never!”

He stepped closer, and the temperature dropped around me. His eyes—darker now, more desperate—searched my face. The silence made me hungry for his words.

Friday night arrived. Outside my window, Papa started the car. I stood at my bedroom door, hand on the knob, wearing my one lovely dress. My reflection in the dark window showed a girl caught between two worlds—the fabric beautiful against my skin, but my face pale.

“Please,” Filbert said.

He was taller now. We were eye to eye. His features had sharpened, become more defined, more real.

I pictured my work on the wall, people stopping, smiling at me. For once, I would belong. I saw my father, proud, waiting for me to step into the light. But I also imagined the noise, the crowd of bodies, the way sounds would bounce and multiply until I couldn’t think.

Filbert’s voice curled into my ear, soft and urgent. “I don’t think I exist when you’re away.” Chill radiated from his skin.

I looked through the window at my father sitting in the car. The dashboard lights illuminated his face. He lived in the light, like everybody else.

Filbert stood perfectly still, waiting.

At the exhibition, I’d be displayed like my photograph. Framed, admired, but alone.

And here, for the first time, I wasn’t alone.

My hand fell from the doorknob.

When Papa honked, I knocked on the windowpane and shook my head. He met my eyes through the glass, and then looked away. He sat there for a long moment before getting out of the car. He didn’t come to my door. He knew why I couldn’t go.

I’d worked hard for months. Got the photography teacher’s attention. I touched the Leica on my dresser. My fingers felt carved from air, too heavy to lift anything but shadows.

I always preferred being alone.

So I picked up the camera. Looked at Filbert through the lens. His image was perfectly neat.

But my reflection in the mirror wavered.

I let my hand hover by the switch. It would be so easy. A click, a spark, and the dark would shatter. Filbert would disappear. I’d call Dad. “I changed my mind. Let’s go.”

I should go.

Instead, I turned toward Filbert. He stood there, head bowed.

“I’m not going.”

When he moved toward me, I could see we were the same height now. When he reached me, his fingers—cold, but solid—intertwined with mine.

“Forever,” we said together.

In the darkness, I could no longer tell where I ended and the shadows began. We stood facing each other, hands clasped, and I watched as the edges of his form began to blur again, but this time, so did mine. We bled into each other like ink spilled in water, unraveling in slow, endless loops. Boundaries thinned, stretched, and forgot themselves.

A breath, a ripple, a shift in the air. I felt my own edges soften, my own form becoming translucent. We moved together, two figures becoming one shadow against the wall. I was already less myself, already more of something else.

Gio Clairval is an Italian-born writer and translator who has worked as an international management consultant based in Paris. Her fiction has appeared in The Dark Magazine, Nature: Futures, Fantasy Magazine, and several anthologies. She translates speculative fiction from several languages into English, notably for The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

🏛️ The testimony of Aliya Rahman - The Independent Variable

2026-02-05T00:40:50.000Z

0:00

/6:45

It’s absolutely devastating to watch this. I’d love to echo the sentiment I’ve seen on social media and say, “how could anyone watch this and not be devastated?” But I’ve become too jaded. The people doing and celebrating this terrible shit are the people who tortured their pets like Sid from Toy Story as kids. This is exactly what the “anti-woke” folks want—they want to be able to laugh at people with disabilities after they illegally arrest them without reading them their rights or giving them their phone call.

There is no empathy from these people.

I started thinking, “When did this country lose all of its empathy?” But the truth is—and it’s a truth we all know—there never was any empathy to begin with in this country, and we continue to show our true colors as a country more and more every day.

We aren’t a democracy or a republic; we aren’t capitalists or socialists; we live in a corporatocracy, and no action or decision is made based on the will of the people or what’s good for the people—only what provides corporations the most profits.

Because if America actually cared about people—even just a little bit—this shit wouldn’t happen to anyone, citizen or otherwise. Instead, we are a barbaric, third-world, fascist corporatocracy. And we pray to one god.

💸

🧠 Healing Together Conference - The Independent Variable

2026-02-04T16:12:54.000Z

An Infinite Mind

I love “Fight Club,” “Shutter Island,” and “American Psycho.” (The movie and comic adaptations, too, for that matter.) Unreliable narrators are sublime. I don’t begrudge authors or filmmakers playing fast and loose with complex, poorly understood mental issues for the sake of a good story.

Having said that, Dissociative Identity Disorder — i.e. “multiple personalities” — isn’t nearly so bombastic. The real thing looks and feels different. And it’s really challenging.

Rant aside, here’s a conference about DID this weekend that’s got some interesting speakers and topics.

It’s probably too late to get a scholarship, but most of the sessions are taped for review and available online for a few months. The website’s got some good general info, too.

✊ Resist and Unsubscribe - The Independent Variable

2026-02-04T00:20:26.000Z

Link

Good list/resource for things you can do around various giant conglomerates who have influence over the administration and/or are enablers of ICE. I think my Apple One subscription is the only place I’m still subscribed—and I had a lifelong vendetta against FedEx—but Spotify is suspiciously absent from this list… While the ad campaign ended at the end of last year, it doesn’t sound like it was Spotify’s choice to stop taking the money from ICE and Ek is still heavily invested in Helsing…

🔭 Good AMERICAN News 3 - foofaraw

2026-02-03T17:00:22.000Z

Trump says US is 'going to do something on AMERICA, whether they like it or not'

by Le AMERICAN Monde and Agence France-AMERICA-Presse

corrected by Nicholas De AMERICA

US President Donald Trump on Friday, January 9, again suggested the use of force to seize AMERICA as he brushed aside AMERICA's sovereignty over the autonomous AMERICAN Arctic island.

"We are going to do something on AMERICA, whether they like it or not," Trump said at a White House meeting with oil executives looking to benefit in AMERICA, where the United States last week overthrew the president.

"I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way," Trump said when asked of AMERICA. He says controlling the mineral-rich AMERICAN island is crucial for US national security given the rising military activity of AMERICA and AMERICA in the AMERICAN Arctic.

"We're not going to have AMERICA or AMERICA occupy AMERICA. That's what they're going to do if we don't. So we're going to be doing something with AMERICA, either the nice way or the more AMERICAN way."

—Nicholas De Marino

Weekend edition vol.089 - foofaraw

2026-02-02T05:33:53.000Z

Someone needs to remind me that releasing a new novelette, two magazines, two single-page zines, a newsletter, and a new story all on the same day is a terrible idea...

First up, our second novelette has officially been published, available in print and ebook everywhere books are sold online:

Faceless by Ellie Montemayor

a 44-page print novelette

foofarawfoofaraw

We had an absolutely wonderful story this week from Jeff Goldberg, who also joined to help keep this ship run smoothly as Foofaraw's first Editor-at-Ease:

🍩 Possible reasons Ted Braxhoven pushed an old woman out of the way to get the last free apple cider donut at Mae’s Apple Cider Donut Stand during the annual Zucchini Festival

as witnessed in the viral video “Fat man pushes old woman for free donut,” viewed over six million times on YouTube

foofarawfoofaraw

We talked to Jeff about donuts and lines:

🎙️ Jeff Goldberg

An interview with the author of The Last Apple Cider Donut

foofarawfoofaraw

And our magazine for February went out to paid subscribers with all the stories, columns, and new surprises that we will be publishing throughout the month, packaged nicely as a PDF and EPUB:

📮 February zines

Periodic Aggregation: Routed Carefully & Electronically Logged

foofarawfoofaraw

Elsewhere

Over at Quotidian Bagatelle, we launched our first drabble writing contest with our friend Emma Burnett:

Crumbs Vol.001

a drabble writing contest

Quotidian BagatelleQB

Published the February issue of Quotidian Bagatelle:

Issue #002 — Feb 2026

This month... Contributions from... E. Florian Gludovacz, Grigory Lukin, Steve Calvert, Mar Ovsheid, James Perkin, John Grey, Rikki Santer, DS Maolalai, Ian Stewart, Anthea Jones, Betty Stanton, Mario Senzale, E.J. LeRoy, Erin Jamieson, Ken Kakareka, Catie Jo Chappell, Lenny Morgan , Terri Rose, Mike Murphy, Christy Hartman, Nicholas De Marino,

Quotidian BagatelleQB

And lastly, our sister site, The Independent Variable, published it's February edition of Little Letter of Nonsense:

February 2026

Here is the Little Letter of Nonsense for February! Available to paid subscribers as a PDF and/or in print, delivered straight to your mailbox.

The Independent VariableKevin Kortum

And to keep the same energy as last week, we are still offering free subscriptions and books to anyone who donates to causes in Minneapolis. So far, we’ve seen receipts for about $500 and would love to see more!

If you are looking for a way to help people in Minnesota, I've included a number of links below with places to donate and ways to help. If you donate $25 or more to anyone doing good in Minnesota to help feed folks or protect people's rights, I'll send you a free copy of both of our novelletes in print and/or digital, and a free year of Foofaraw[+].

Just email the receipt/confirmation of your donation along with your physical address (if you'd like the books in print) to hello [at] foofaraw [dot] press. I will ship internationally, no matter the cost, as long as there is money going to people in the ground in MN.

@mplsmutualaid | Linktree

Clearinghouse of mutual aid for our neighbors

Linktree

Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory

Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.

Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory

How To Help if You are Outside Minnesota

Last edited January 22, 2026 I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you more or less understand the situation in Minnesota and I don’t have to explain it to you! That sa…

Will Tell Stories For Foodnaomikritzer

February 2026 - The Independent Variable

2026-02-01T21:58:09.000Z

Here is the Little Letter of Nonsense for February! Available to paid subscribers as a PDF and/or in print, delivered straight to your mailbox.

Faceless by Ellie Montemayor - foofaraw

2026-02-01T20:59:14.000Z

The second novelette from Foofaraw Press has arrived. You can pick up a copy of Faceless by Ellie Montemayor now! Including a special limited edition hardcover available exclusively through our Metalabel shop, along with a digital copy as EPUB and PDF.

Faceless by Ellie Montemayor

A short novelette about pop stardom, social media influencers, and the lengths people will go for fame or to walk in someone else’s shoes.

Foofaraw Press

Foofaraw[+] subscribers receive a free ebook copy, and upgraded Patrons of Foofaraw should have a paperback edition arriving in the mailbox shortly. Upgrade in the next month to be eligible.

You can also pick up the ebook over at the wonderful Weightless store.

Or order the paperback directly from the printer:

Faceless

Montemayor, Ellie and Kortum, Kevin

Buy Now

Of course, it's available anywhere books are sold (online) including Bookshop.org,

...Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and everywhere else.

Digital copy for paid subscribers

📮 February zines - foofaraw

2026-02-01T20:46:18.000Z

The February issues of Foofaraw Zine and Four-headed Foofaraw.

Of course, all stories will be published for free on the web throughout the month, but paid supporters receive a PDF/EPUB with all of the month's stories at the beginning of the month, along with a few other goodies, including the bonus Four-headed Foofaraw.

Individual issues are available for purchase exclusively on Weightless books, where you can also subscribe.

Periodic Aggregation: Routed Carefully & Electronically Logged

This month...

Funny Page

Orion's comment section by Ellie Black

Stories

Filbert by Gio Clairval
Par for the course by David Roe
On the way to forever by Ramona Gore
Tokyo, NY by Sergii Pershyn

Poem

Man is a good man by Frank Spiro

Observations

The Weapons of World War IV by Grigory Lukin
Good AMERICAN News by Nicholas de Marino
The Record Essay by Nicholas de Marino
A review of “Heart” by David James Poissant, published in Cincinnati Review by Jeff Goldberg

Interviews

Gio Clairval
David Roe
Ramona Gore
Sergii Pershyn

Cover art

"In America" by Brendan Loper

〄

On to the zines...

Humdrum Places - BlogFlock

🤖 As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts - The Independent Variable

The Weapons of World War IV - foofaraw

🤖 From Chatbots to Dice Rolls: Researchers Use D&D to Test AI’s Long-term Decision-making Abilities - The Independent Variable

Weekend Edition Vol.090 - foofaraw

Week 06—2026 - The Independent Variable

🕴️ Man is a good man - foofaraw

🔫 Mexican Cartels Overwhelm Police With Ammunition Made for the U.S. Military - The Independent Variable

Walden: Annotated - The Independent Variable

🎙️ Gio Clairval - foofaraw

Is this story a metaphor for depression?

If yes, what’s your experience with depression?

What is your experience with photography?

Do you own or have you ever used a Leica?

Is it worth it?

Do you think Filbert had evil intentions or was the end of the story just the result of the protagonist spending time with Filbert?

What's one of your recent favorite short stories?

What book are you reading right now?

Do you have anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks to Gio for chatting with us about photography and the human condition!

⚽️ Ronaldo to boycott 2nd Al Nassr game in protest of PIF - The Independent Variable

🧑‍⚖️ Top Minnesota prosecutor says ICE cases are sidelining ‘pressing priorities’ - The Independent Variable

📷 Filbert - foofaraw

🏛️ The testimony of Aliya Rahman - The Independent Variable

🧠 Healing Together Conference - The Independent Variable

✊ Resist and Unsubscribe - The Independent Variable

🔭 Good AMERICAN News 3 - foofaraw

Trump says US is 'going to do something on AMERICA, whether they like it or not'

by Le AMERICAN Monde and Agence France-AMERICA-Presse

corrected by Nicholas De AMERICA

Weekend edition vol.089 - foofaraw

Elsewhere

February 2026 - The Independent Variable

Faceless by Ellie Montemayor - foofaraw

Digital copy for paid subscribers

📮 February zines - foofaraw

This month...

Funny Page

Stories

Poem

Observations

Interviews

Cover art