OpenAI wants to convert from a charity with a for-profit subsidiary into just an ordinary commercial company. That subsidiary is the part that’s taken billions of dollars from investors and set those billions on fire. And the investors want a pay day at last.

Elon Musk — one of OpenAI’s original founders — is suing OpenAI to stop this conversion from happening. Musk still seems to believe the artificial superintelligence singularity is imminent — and OpenAI was founded to stop it, not to cash in on it.

Last Tuesday, Musk failed to get an injunction to block OpenAI from restructuring. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found that none of Musk’s claims were good enough to block the move right now. [order, PDF; case docket]

That doesn’t mean the judge is happy with OpenAI. You can’t just turn a charity into a company. A nonprofit can usually only change its purpose when the original purpose is obsolete. That’s not the case for OpenAI as long as the singularity hasn’t happened yet. [Obsolete]

Judge Rogers ruled that Musk lacked standing to sue OpenAI on this issue — but she said:

if a trust was created, the balance of equities would certainly tip towards plaintiffs in the context of a breach.

Delaware and California are the states where OpenAI’s entities are incorporated. They’ve both been looking into OpenAI’s plan already. Rogers said:

The Court takes plaintiffs’ point that to the extent a transfer to a for-profit structure risks any of these endeavors, the public would benefit from an injunction.

This looks a lot like loudly inviting Delaware and California to step in — because they definitely have standing to sue.

Rogers says “the Court finds that the case would benefit from an expedited trial on the claim.” Rogers expects the rest of the case to take until 2027 or 2028, but she wants a trial by autumn 2025 on whether OpenAI can convert into a for-profit company at all.

The investors may be very unhappy. OpenAI will be even unhappier — it might have to give back money it’s already set on fire.

• Video version

Beauty and nature’s resilience are at the core of Vasilisa Romanenko’s work. The Connecticut-based artist paints faithful depictions of common yet dignified birds amid clusters of fruits and flowers, exploring the power of opulence in times of upheaval.

A stately crow poses amid rust-colored roses, a great blue heron poses amid clusters of tangerines and lilies, and a small warbler perches amid pink poppies. Referencing the defiantly decorative works of English textile designer William Morris (1834–1896), Romanenko embraces the entrancing nature of decadent patterns.

“I want my work to feel like an escape from everyday life, like taking a moment to be still and appreciate nature,” she says about her solo exhibition, BIRDS & BLOOMS, at Arch Enemy Arts. Enveloped by flora at full bloom, the winged subjects exude a sense of calm and strength as they perch and prepare for their next flight.

BIRDS & BLOOMS is on view through March 30 in Philadelphia. Find more from Romanenko on her website and Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Vasilisa Romanenko’s Lush Portraits Wrap Common Birds in Decadent Patterns appeared first on Colossal.

Nur die Grünen konnten den ersten Angriffskrieg in der deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte starten.

Nur die SPD konnte den Sozialstaat zerstören.

Nur die CDU kann die Schuldenbremse aufheben.

Nur Genosse Krasnov konnte die drei Milliardäre um über 200 Milliarden Dollar ärmer machen.

Die drei, die bei seiner Amtseinführung waren, wissenschon. Zum Arschkriechen. Bezos, Zuckerberg und Musk.

Der Artikel ist hinter einer Paywall, aber die Überschrift und das Foto reichen ja.

Today's links

• Daniel Pinkwater's "Jules, Penny and the Rooster": Klong! We are ALL pickles.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: 2010, 2015, 2020, 2024
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

Daniel Pinkwater's "Jules, Penny and the Rooster" (permalink)

"Cult author" is a maddeningly imprecise term – it might mean, "writer whose readers are a small but devoted band," or it might mean "writer whose readers are transformed forever by their work, so that they never see the world in the same way again."

That latter sense is what I mean when I call Daniel Pinkwater a "cult author." Pinkwater has written more than 100 books and has reached a vast audience, and those books are so singular, so utterly fantastic that when one Pinkwater fan meets another, they immediately launch into ecstatic raptures about these extraordinary works.

Pinkwater writes all kinds of books: memoir, picture books, middle-grades titles, young adult novels, extremely adult novels that appear to be young adult novels, and one of the classic works on dog-training (which I read, even though I don't own a dog and never plan on owning a dog) (it was great):

https://pinkwater.com/book/superpuppy-how-to-choose-raise-and-train-the-best-possible-dog-for-you/

Pinkwater has a new book out. It's great. Of course it's great. It's called Jules, Penny and the Rooster and it's nominally a middle-grades book, and while it will certainly delight the kids in your life, I ate it up:

https://tachyonpublications.com/product/jules-penny-the-rooster/

Jules and her family have just moved to a suburb called Bayberry Acres in the sleepy dormitory city of Turtle Neck and now she's having a pretty rotten summer. She misses all her friends back in the city, her grumpy bassoon-obsessed sister broke her finger and it staying home all summer watching old movies and hogging the TV instead of going to bassoon camp, and all the other kids in Bayberry Acres are literal babies, which may pay off in babysitting gigs, but makes for a lonely existence for Jules.

Worst of all: Jules's parents always promised that she could get a dog when they eventually moved out of their little apartment and bought a house with a yard in the suburbs, and now that this has come to pass, they're reneging. They say that all they promised was that they would "talk about getting a dog" after moving, and that "no, we're not getting a dog" constitutes "talking about it," and that settles the matter. Jules knows that what's really going on is that her parents have bought all new furniture and rugs and they're worried the dog will mess or chew on these. Jules loves her parents, but when she gets her own place, she's a) definitely getting a dog, and b) not allowing her parents to visit, because they might mess or chew on her furniture.

All that changes when Jules enters an essay contest in the local newspaper to win a collie (a contest she enters without telling her parents, natch) and wins – coming home from a visit to see her beloved aunt back in the old neighborhood to find her finger-nursing, oboe-obsessed big sister in possession of her new dog. After Jules and her sister do some fast talking to bring their parents around, Jules's summer – and her life in the suburbs – are rescued from a summer of lonely doldrums.

Jules names the collie Penny, and they go for long rambles in the mysterious woods that Bayberry Acres were carved out of. It's on one of these walks that they meet the rooster, a handsome, proud, friendly fellow who lures Penny over the stone wall that demarcates the property line ringing the spooky, abandoned mansion/castle at the center of the woods. Jules chases Penny over the wall, and that's when everything changes.

On the other side of that wall is a faun, and little leprechaun-looking guys, and a witch (who turns out to be a high-school chum of her city-dwelling, super-cool aunt), and there's a beast in a hidden dilapidated castle. After Jules sternly informs the beast that she's far too young to be anyone's girlfriend – not even a potentially enchanted prince living as a beast in a hidden castle – he disabuses her of this notion and tells her that she is definitely the long-prophesied savior of the woods, whose magic has been leaking out over years. Jules is pretty sure she's not the savior of anything, but the beast and the witch are very persuasive, and besides, the prophecy predicts that the girl who saves the woods will be in company of a magic wolf (Penny's no wolf, but close enough?) and a rooster. So maybe she is the savior?

This is where Pinkwater really whips the old weird/delightful plotting into gear, introducing a series of great, funny, quirky characters who all seem to know each other (a surprising number were in the same high-school as Jules's aunt), along with some spectacular, mouth-watering meals, beautifully drawn animal-human friendships, and more magical beings than you can shake a stick at.

The story of how Jules recovers the lost artifact that will save the woods' magic is just a perfect, delicious ice-cream cone of narrative, with sprinkles, that you want to share with a friend (rarely have I more keenly regretted that my kid is now a teen and past our old bedtime story ritual). As I wrote in my blurb:

"The purest expression of Pinkwater's unique ability to blend the absurd and the human and make the fantastic normal and the normal fantastic. I laughed long and hard, and turned the final page with that unmissable Pinkwatertovian sense of satisfied wonder."

I am so happy to be a fully subscribed member to the Pinkwater Cult (I've got the Martian space potato to prove it).

Hey look at this (permalink)

• Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/firmware-update-bricks-hp-printers-makes-them-unable-to-use-hp-cartridges/

• Unsettled Times: A Conversation with NYT Bestselling Author Cory Doctorow on Tech, Labor, and Activism https://rvamag.com/opinion-editorial/unsettled-times-a-conversation-with-nyt-bestselling-author-cory-doctorow-on-tech-labor-and-activism.html

Object permanence (permalink)

#15yrsago Leaked UK record industry memo sets out plans for breaking copyright https://memex.craphound.com/2010/03/12/leaked-uk-record-industry-memo-sets-out-plans-for-breaking-copyright/

#15yrsago US census infographics from 1870 http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?9thcensus

#10yrsago RIP, Terry Pratchett https://memex.craphound.com/2015/03/12/rip-terry-pratchett/

#10yrsago How Harper’s “anti-terror” bill ends privacy in Canada https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2015/03/why-the-anti-terrorism-bill-is-really-an-anti-privacy-bill-bill-c-51s-evisceration-of-government-privacy/

#10yrsago Laptop killing booby-trapped USB drive https://hub.paper-checker.com/blog/usb-killers-how-they-work-and-how-to-protect-your-devices/

#5yrsago How to run a virtual classroom https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#sosh

#5yrsago The EU's new Right to Repair rules finally come for electronics https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#eur2r

#5yrsago Senate Republicans kill emergency sick leave during pandemic https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#gopandemic

#5yrsago Boeing is even worse at financial engineering than they are at aircraft engineering https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#boeing

#5yrsago Ars Technica's Covid-19 explainer is the best resource on the pandemic https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#bethmole

#5yrsago A former top Cigna exec rebuts Joe Biden's healthcare FUD https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#wendellpotter

#5yrsago Akil Augustine on Radicalized https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#go-akil

#5yrsago TSA boss doubles down on taking away health care from part-time screeners https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#sick-system

#1yrago Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Burbank: Picks and Shovels with Wil Wheaton, Mar 13
  https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3257/Thu%2C_Mar_13th_6_pm%3A_Pick_%26_Shovel%3A_A_Martin_Hench_Novel_HB.html#/

• Europa Park: Cloudfest, Mar 17-20
  https://cloudfest.link/

• San Diego: Picks and Shovels at Mysterious Galaxy, Mar 24
  https://www.mystgalaxy.com/32425Doctorow

• Virtual: Picks and Shovels at Imagine! Belfast, Mar 24
  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctorow-in-conversation-with-alan-meban-tickets-1106421399189

• Chicago: Picks and Shovels with Peter Sagal, Apr 2
  https://exileinbookville.com/events/44853

• Chicago: ABA Techshow, Apr 3
  https://www.techshow.com/

• Bloomington: Picks and Shovels at Morgenstern, Apr 4
  https://morgensternbooks.com/event/2025-04-04/author-event-cory-doctorow

• Pittsburgh: PyCon, May 16
  https://us.pycon.org/2025/schedule/

• PDX: Teardown 2025, Jun 20-22
  https://www.crowdsupply.com/teardown/portland-2025

• PDX: Picks and Shovels at Barnes and Noble, Jun 20
  https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

• New Orleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
  http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

Recent appearances (permalink)

• CBC Bookends
  https://www.cbc.ca/books/bookends/cory-doctorow-writes-science-fiction-to-come-to-terms-with-his-tech-anxiety-1.7477457

• The Futurists
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko0BdEm-Uw4

• Make It Make Sense
  https://open.spotify.com/episode/6XccT3wp6udfiuooYa8jcb

Latest books (permalink)

• • Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).
• The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

• "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

• "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

• "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

• "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books (permalink)

• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

• Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• The Memex Method, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: second pass edit underway (readaloud)

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

• Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025

Latest podcast: With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It https://craphound.com/news/2025/02/26/with-great-power-came-no-responsibility-how-enshittification-conquered-the-21st-century-and-how-we-can-overthrow-it/

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

ISSN: 3066-764X

As the saying goes, if one knows very little about something, their knowledge could fit on the back of a postage stamp. But for tattoo artist Ash Aurich, the minuscule format provides a readymade canvas and frame ripe for experimentation, intrigue, and beauty.

Using a fine line technique with delicate shading, Aurich outlines the unmistakable scalloped edges of the ubiquitous, tiny adhesives, filling rectangular compositions with Renaissance-inspired romantic and religious figures.

A deep appreciation for iconic artworks inspired Aurich to create tiny odes to art history. “I wanted to be able to capture the essence of these masterpieces in a unique and engaging way,” she tells Colossal. “Having the opportunity to tattoo these designs on others who appreciate art is a rewarding experience.”

Aurich’s preferred subject matter is people, especially the dramatic and often symbolic figures in art historical masterworks by the likes of Johannes Vermeer or Caravaggio. “The attention to detail, use of light and shadow, and mastery of human anatomy create stunning, lifelike representations that translate beautifully into tattoos,” the artist says. She shares that it’s important for the emotions and narratives of each portrait to resonate with the wearer, especially at their small scale.

Currently in residency at Atelier Eva, Aurich has opened her books for March and April in New York City. The tattoos seen here are all flash designs, but she creates custom compositions, too. See more on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Intricate Postage Stamp Tattoos by Ash Aurich Are an Ode to Art History appeared first on Colossal.

Is it a machine for living or a living gallery? A feat of engineering or fine art? Montréal-based Atelier Échelle resolves this line of inquiry with their design for a Lakeside Gallery Residence situated on the west banks of Lake Memphremagog in rural Québec. The home is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional barn volume typical of vernacular in Magog, Canada, repeating the prototypical structure, which is parsed into four distinct programs, stitched together by cedar roofs, brick walls, and glass bridges. The exterior materiality acts as a neutral canvas to capture natural patination while the interior design is in service of the residents’ art collection.

Repeat

The crux of the concept, or parti, is its form. “It’s like the Canadian barn. And we liked the appeal of that, because it was rudimentary as a shed for art and a shed for living,” say, co-founders and principal architects of the atelier. “And then to create the same shed, but with different intentions by giving it completely different programs, was something that also the client really enjoyed.”

Each of the four lengthy forms are oriented to maximize waterfront views while breaking up the sprawling 15,000-square-foot ground floor plan into manageable spaces to be used as needed: outdoor kitchen, dining, lounge, and water feature; indoor kitchen, dining, living, and music lounge; main quarters with en suite primary bedroom, adjacent office, and powder room; and guest quarters with four en suite bedrooms.

And each comes with its own nuances. The summer terrace celebrates life on the lake al fresco with an all-encompassing 100-foot-long shelter. The fully enclosed winter home showcases a breathtaking open plan unobstructed by traditional mullions in the windows. The main living house is punctuated by clerestory windows to provide plenty of light and informal thresholds between each structure. Even the guest quarters are equipped with access to a private garage.

Notable elements tucked neatly into the otherwise liminal spaces include a walk-in pantry and specialized wine storage modeled after a traditional wine cellar – housing an excess of 1,200 bottles, specifically crafted according to the unique shape of a Bourgogne bottle and modeled after French caverns with the gravel on the floor. The basement comprises a smattering of secondary spaces including a private gym and guest lounge lined in a deep blue velvet corduroy curtain.

While seemingly simple, this robust solution makes every volume its own microcosm within a larger system where independent dwellings are relatively autonomous and occupants have the agency to come and go as they please without disturbing their adjacencies.

(Re)Frame

The architecture is articulate in communicating art’s value to those who visit, and the ethos of homeowners who appreciate personal expression as much as they love to entertain. Its ability to reflect those intangibles is matched by its ability to inflect aesthetic concepts and function.

The first viewport is established upon entry where guests are greeted by an 11-foot-tall wood door that opens into the main gallery while also hinting at scenes to come. Reinforced concrete, steel structuring, and brick walls create multiple frameworks for viewing the landscape, and in one condition secure a custom motorized glass system spanning 55 feet of unadulterated grooves of any kind. A shift from enclosed rooms to generous glazing marks the home’s transition from focusing on the clients’ private collection to featuring the vista as the programming approaches the lake.

Reveal

The residence serves as the medium mitigating a shift in desire from expansive views to intimate moments with art. Strategically positioned surfaces pace movement through site, scale, and space. A series of gallery walls and in situ installations are seamlessly integrated into circulation and hallways with floor-to-ceiling windows elsewhere conspire to become viewports of the surrounding landscape and artful exterior.

Interventions like niches between each of the four pseudo-dwellings break up architecture with the arts, or perhaps marry the two. “When you build a house in brick, very often you almost don’t see it from the inside,” the designers say. “You don’t really look at the house when you’re inside. So this way was also compelling to be able to see those very nice brick walls.”

Created by Simon Hughes, the powder room is fully lined with a custom mural depicting the four seasons and playful collages abstracting events plucked from the owners’ lives. An oil rubbed bronze vanity and lavatory stand in the center, lightly reflecting jewel tones cast off the walls. A second, more conceptual installation by the same artist graces the outdoor water feature, which depicts floating iceberg mosaics.

Life Arts On

Site, space, surface, and scale. Few residential projects carefully consider these intricate complexities so deeply, or find themselves responsible for such a multiplicity of functions including cultural repository and dynamic domestic space.

“We designed the home with art – most art has a place. But there were also some instances where the homeowner said, ‘I know I want a sculpture here, but I don’t know what it is yet.’ So there’s this evolution with the house now that we’ve left,” the designers add. “The idea is that the house has… It gets a life of its own even after we’ve gone, which I really like that the clients can make it their own.”

To see more of the studio’s work, visit atelierechelle.com.

Photography by Maxime Brouillet.