Currently reading Greyhound: A Memoir by Joanna Pocock in which she rides the eponymous bus-lines across the USA, and every page gives the feeling that it is the portrait of a third-world country rapidly circling the drain. Also, how motor-normativity and humanity are antithetical to one another.

Gen A.I. barons want us talkinge alone on our phones to a demon thei created, and not goinge places and being wyth each othir yn art and joy and communitye. Thei want cinemas to shut downe and broadwaye to go darke. Thei want wryteres to stop writinge. Thei want to build hell and have us pay for it.

Top Tip: If you’ve got left over love from yesterday, use it to make a delicious curry.

Fascinating. You don't say. Huh, who could have possibly predicted this outcome. Sigh. You can't spell "bait and switch" without "ai".

I wrote this almost 10 years ago. I haven't stopped, not even for one day, and I just keep reaping the dividends. Small things can add up.

This whole issue of single-use plastics is bloody ridiculous. When are they going to make plastics for those of us who are married? #UseLessPlastic

Duolingo is weird Hindi - The peacock is drinking milk. There are clouds in the sky. German - He eats bratwurst and Käsespätzle. Italian - Where is the pizzeria? This statue is famous. Dutch - She likes cheese. She rides a bicycle. Spanish - I am afraid of my ex. He kicks the dog. He kills the dog.

Roses are red But wilt soon Books are read And last longer Give your Valentine a book, or a book voucher, bought from a real bookseller (not a psychopathic oligarchic megalomaniac). #valentine #read

The Quiet Girl/An Cailín Ciúin is free to watch on ARTE until the 6th of March. #spéirgorm www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyx2...

Screen Time.

"The light was no more than a mean and taunting reminder of what light could be, a rumour of what light there once was" - Kevin Barry, The Heart in Winter So many extraordinary sentences - this one struck me as apposite here at the back of February's cupboard of wet duffle coats

Violence is red Roses have thorns Sugar is toxic And so is capitalism #iloveyouiloveyounot

Pedestrianised, but still with buses, trams, cars, and trucks. Sigh. Also, this idea has been bouncing around for decades. Will it ever see the light of day?

Dear new followers. I've removed the paywall permanently from this piece, which is a chapter from my novel Villager, told entirely in the form of an online village message board. If you like it, you'll probably like the book. If you don't, you won't... www.tom-cox.com/the-village-...

"... oil corporations have realized that repealing the endangerment finding could backfire, leaving them more vulnerable to accountability than ever before." open.substack.com/pub/heated/p...

“Most people are still scrolling because there’s nowhere else to go”: An Interview with Joanna Walsh — Cristina Politano minorliteratures.com/2026/02/10/m...

Frankie hits hard with this one. (Plus, Riz Ahmed!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyUl...

Time to dig out the "porque no los dos" meme. Growing up in Ireland I was schooled in English, but would move seamlessly from Irish class to French class. If there had been other languages on offer I would have tried to learn them too, not instead. #multilingual www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Way out on the edges looking in. Stimmt.

This technology already exists and is widely used. It doesn't involve 'government surveillance' and would not allow ICE or any other government agency to stop individual cars. Just say you think thousands of kids dying every year is worth it so you can speed! www.autoweek.com/news/a615322...

I'm old enough to remember a time when socialist politicians were part of The Left.

Accessible cycling - now available in Paris

I know there are many things I don't know, but what I don't know is how much that limits me or liberates me.

Good thread. Also there are vast relatively sunny areas in the centre of France (la diagonale du vide) with almost no population (fewer than 30 people per sqkm) that would be perfect for mixed solar and wind.

Me - I dream of a world with pedestrian crossings. World - Here you go. Me - Thanks. I dream of a world where people know how pedestrian crossings work and allow pedestrians to use them safely. World - Never fucken happy, are ye?

This is the way.

This is, well, wholesome, but I believe they understand their audience and they make some good points. www.youtube.com/watch?v=q50p...

Sara Baume does it again - this is the book equivalent of a deep life affirming breath and it’s been a joy to read over the last few days. Out in July from @grantabooks.bsky.social

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by @glynedwards.bsky.social. thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/s...

"We have cleared away our natural forests, dug out peatlands, converted hills to conifer plantations, drained wetlands, compacted soil under the weight of millions of farm animals and straightened rivers to create yet more grazing land" by @whittledaway.bsky.social www.thejournal.ie/readme/storm...

The Distance. My entry into the Super Bowl ad mix.

I went to school in Dunshaughlin, which auto-correct changes to "Unlaughing", which is so on the nose in relation to that experience that it has cast me back in time and made me quite upset. #speirgorm

Carney gave a rousing speech at Davos, but he is still in bed with Big Oil. Fossil fuels are almost obsolete. Better, safer alternatives exist. Imagine if every solar panel and wind turbine were incinerated after a few hours use. That's what we do with oil. #keepitintheground #juststopoil

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

"Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness." — Samuel Beckett

The Marketplace by Perumal Murugan, translated by S Mukundan #shortstory granta.com/the-marketpl...

We are delighted to host a second course led by @susannacrossman.bsky.social Through generative exercises, exploring texts from authors like Rebecca Solnit, Joan Didion, Noreen Massud, and Georges Perec we’ll be writing place and time, deciding where we’re standing and making this world alive.

‘When we know someone’s eyes are fixed on us, we cannot function freely, no, we cannot function at all. We want to shoot an arrow into the eye that watches.’ Fiction by Perumal Murugan. granta.com/the-marketpl...

The leader of France's far-right party is on her way to jail. She won't be able to stand for election for 5 years. But it's far from a fatal blow for the far-right, which has never been more popular. Just how popular, next month's municipal elections will tell. www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...

your first draft isn't perfect? what? that's weird. i've never heard of that happening before. maybe you should give up

If Henry David Thoreau was alive today he would be 209 (and he'd still have none of his teeth).

Word of the Day - Metonymy Substituting the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, straight for heterosexual, clown for politician.

What does it mean to create? What is music for? Adam Neely focuses on the use of AI in music. TL;DR, he's not a fan, obvs, because yuck. Slop machines gonna slop. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dc...

“All Moanday, Tearday, Wailsday, Thumpsday, Frightday, Shatterday.” Happy Burstday Jimmy Jay