Hell of a thing to put next to a statue of Joan of Arc. (h/t David Pilling)

You Are Here: Nine More Stories—my collection of SF/fantasy shorts, some prev pubbed at Strange Horizons, BCS, etc & also a new novella abt growing up & queer devotion—plus witches, spaceships, romcoms, all you need. KJ Charles called it "absolutely outstanding" www.generalist.org.uk/iona/books-a...

I think mine might be: i have never seen a single episode of Seinfeld

One of the things that sucks about this era is having to think about the racists all the time, because they’re so boring. They have like, three tools in their toolkit, so we get to say things like “oh look, they’re using the hammer again”

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

The bees have discovered Brutalism

Today has been a root canal and then work, and i am quite mad that that doesnt mean I can just curl up and do nothing for the rest of the evening

About to watch the NT Live show of Inter/Alia and literally every middle aged queer woman in the city seems to be here. Any who aren't, I presume just didnt get a ticket before they ran out

10% of profits from this special edition will be donated to Mermaids, a charity that works to support trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse young people in the UK. I'm very happy and excited about this one!

Omg the people replying with their genuinely identical photos are just such proof of what genius Spaced was

Phenomenal. In my 10 year update of A Brief History, I make the point that in the first edition, not one disease had been successfully treated using gene therapy. Today that number is at least 7.

i confirm this book is CUTE AS ANYTHING and anyone who is into cute f/f should preorder it right now!

i may be very tired and generally useless today, but i did just manage to fix my magical smart thermostat so i can warm up my house without standing up, and that makes me basically god

Eleanor Morton gets it

I had never really thought about the fact that The Lord of the Rings is the 500,000+ word version of “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” but here’s the explanation.

This was quick and easy to do!

From yesterday; me telling the story of Arjuna, Brihannala, and Krishna, a queer tale from the Mahabharata

Eventually you have to accept that no matter how many different notebooks you buy, they won’t make you a better writer. For that, you need to spend a lot of money on the right pen.

With World Suicide Prevention Day coming up on Wednesday, a note that a lot of companies have popped up selling hoodies etc with heartwarming messages & claim to be working in suicide prevention - please look closely before ordering. If they're not naming charity partners, don't trust them!

The European Convention on Human Rights entered into force on this day in 1953. The convention has improved people’s lives, in many different ways, across the continent. Here are more than 200 examples: www.coe.int/ECHR There are thousands more. #ECHR #OurRightsAndFreedoms

“It’s time to resist the right’s narrative of immigration as aberration. Nations thrive on it – and they always have done” Gaia Vince historically fact checks the far right grievance peddlers who blame immigrants for our national decline when in truth it’s those immigrants that’s hold it together.

so I finished the @barristersecret.bsky.social novel today and CAN I TELL YOU that it is FANTASTIC. truly gripping, really well structured in a super emotionally engaging way. plus, the characters from my home city actually did talk like it. (a rare gift!) buy it.

In addition to being one of history's most successful musicians, Taylor Swift has also successfully used a fire extinguisher.

I'm so excited to have a book in the @narratess.com Indie Book Sale for the first time! My F/F fantasy romance novella A Duet for Invisible Strings is in the sale alongside a ton of other fantastic books: indiebook.sale

If the AI bubble really is bursting, please take this lesson from it: Nothing marketed to you this relentlessly is ever worth it. If it was, they wouldn’t need to beg you.

tired of typing "-ai" at the end of every search in google? this is a quick way to get rid of that bullshit

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE ALL-TIME BANGER THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD m.youtube.com/watch?v=2X-A...

Growing up, my dad worked for a dairy processing plant. He tested milk as it came in and sometimes did farm inspections. My best friend's family got raw milk from a local farmer. I was five years old when he first sat me down and made me promise to never drink raw milk.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree Challenging dimorphic binaries

this is where i'm at mentally these days

God, what have you done, you're white polka boy and you sing at the club

this movie needs a UK release!!

It's true, can confirm. Last time I was there a guy said he was Brad Pitt. Turns out he wasn't.

Change is possible, it just doesn't always look like how people think it will

Truly one of the better things manchester has done and we're really pretty cool when you get to know us

LeGuin wrote about the desire for 'unassailable safety' as one of the deep roots of evil, and I think about that a lot.

Happy World Rain Day! It’s raining… – Cats and dogs (English) – Old ladies and sticks (Welsh) – Like a pissing cow (French) – As from Esteri’s ass (Finnish) – Penguins headfirst (Uruguayan Spanish) – Pilot whales (Faroese) – Chair legs (Greek) – Wheelbarrows (Czech) – Men (hallelujah)

Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them. tomlehrersongs.com

It absolutely makes sense that men are using AI more and seeing more job benefits, because confidently spouting nonsense in the shape of information (what LLMs are programmed to do) has always been much more of a pathway for career advancement for men than for others.

Also come on, universe, this is what happens EVERY TIME someone runs a UBI trial!!

Just got a call claiming to be from tiktok's promotions department, bwahahah what

Can I physically make myself take donations to a third charity shop and do a run to the tip? I guess we're gonna find out

I looooove books, love love love books, but annoyingly my dad may have been right when he suggested I should go through them and give some away more than, y'know, basically never

Sometimes I think about Wikipedia, and what they're trying to do, and what they could be, and compare their budget with the funding for LLM slop machines, and it drives me a little insane. We tried to build a library of Alexandria that would not burn, then tried a library of babel for profit.

UK water companies had no debt when they were privatised. They've not invested in a single new reservoir in 40 years yet have acquired truly crippling debts by borrowing money to pay out huge dividends. Let them go bankrupt and nationalise the assets not the debts.

ART, ART, ART (i am so delighted that this show is good, i had Concerns but turns out it is a delight.)

I think £36/week is good value for a lot of my time (small group teaching guaranteed), access to a range of academic materials and feedback on two assignments - but if you’re in receipt of benefits or a full-time student you may qualify for 50% off. 🩷 Contact me with any questions!

Pleased to say @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social have commissioned a new live online course from me for summer 2026 onward! Medieval Chivalry for 10 weeks! Chat with me weekly! lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/medi... Please share.

Here is a little story about the #earlymodern emoticon "<3" and the complex symbolic meaning of this typographical entity that I posted yesterday. Follow me, for catholic symbolism and some #bookhistory, dear #skystorians of the blue skies. Here we go...