There’s probably some really clever analogy that can be drawn by examining how media entities like One Piece and Ready Player One represent the cultural dream of finding some magical treasure that makes you king of the world, by means of being a counter-culture Hellion.

Man, One Piece is kinda fun. I think I didn’t quite appreciate it first time around. Rewatching season one and it’s just all sorts of giddy silly goofy daftness.

I don’t think we should go back to twitter levels of toxicity but there’s a lot of confidently stupid turbolib opinions on here that can only exist in a low predator environment.

Asking for a pay rise in the civil service…

Once baked, a model can't "learn" anymore. As soon as an info isn't in its context anymore it's as if it never existed. And it's confusing a lot of people as talks of AI learning are everywhere.

If I ever invent anything, l’ll name it something that rhymes with Orange. Because… it would be funny.

Get 15% off on the Narrative Kaleidoscope today (or all this week? we honestly don't know) with the code NARRATIVE15 www.inklestudios.com/kaleidoscope (Discount on print costs; authors still get full royalties)

Once again reminding all academics in the UK that they really, really, really, really should sign up to @alcs.co.uk Lifetime membership is £36 and they take it out of the money they collect for you so it really is "free money". I'm getting a little over £100 *every year*. Do it!

This is cute, but has unfortunately reminded me of that moronic philosophical maths exercise where the Rabbit travels half the distance the Tortoise moves and thus somehow never passes it, because IT'S STUPID.

Exactly. There are literal THOUSANDS of people on free voiceover sites who would happily provide voices to build showreels, or work for a very small free. What you're saying is, you'd rather use AI than deal with people.

One of the most amazing things in life is the insular hubris of humanity. Never is this more prevalent than with anyone successful in some niche. Every time I hear Tech bros talking about AI or whatever, I remember Fatboy Slim pontificating back in the late 90s that "Guitar Music is dead and gone"

So Israel is blowing up power plants (generally reckoned to be a war crime btw) *before* expiry of Trump’s 48-hr deadline. What does that say about a) the seriousness of the deadline; b) the nature of the US-Israeli coalition? www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

Yon Perfect Days movie about the wee Japanese toilet cleaner isn’t half bad. Thanks MUBI.

This is it, the key point. This is the disconnect between the AI hype bullshittery and the grim meat hook reality of its place in the working world. AI won’t make your job easier. It will make the expected workload output placed on you bigger, while downsizing your team and likely your pay packet.

So it turns out Reform are laundering their donations through crypto, before converting them into cash, hiding the original source of the money. So who is really funding Nigel Farage and Reform UK? observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

What the US is purposefully doing to Cuba should be considered genocide.

Yep. In fact, the real failing of students was when we stopped requiring them to regularly search a library catalogue for their reading and instead produced lists with hyperlinks that students simply had to click. As soon as they have to go off list, they’re lost.

We have to ban second jobs for MPs.

Perfect

Oh this is a really important win. So you know people who use AI generated images and then copy that as a physical painting? This means that as it has no copyright protection (because AI does not), if it's too similar to the existing art AI ripped off, it is easier to fight back legally.

Why am I ill AGAIN? Are we in the midst of a pandemic and no-one told me?

Sadden to report that Chuck Norris has died at the age of 86 after succumbing to his injuries from a brutal fist fight with Fred Rogers.

It’s bizarre going back and re-reading Dune after all these years. It’s both far more complex than I remember it being, but at the same time the writing -particularly the dialogue- is much more facile than I remembered. It’s very blunt, overt and at the same time trying to bury the reader in info.

I’m re-reading Dune. It’s only been… 32 years.

Is there a name for the story cliche that so many games and some movies revolve around where the protagonist is the top cool agent of Big Organisation, but then 2 missions in realises they are bad and then has to go on the run? It happens so often it should have a name.

The Order 1886, feels so… out of date. It feels like a Gears of War TC mod. With dialogue from the book of universal cliches.

I'm realising more and more that as I get older, I have less and less awareness of a lot of fairly inconsequential information. i.e. I had NO idea that season 2 of One Piece had dropped until literally last night when my partner was scrolling through Netflix and made a squee noise.

Ooft.

The moment Israel targeted British journalist Steve Sweeney in southern Lebanon.

Brilliant news. The Lords backed amendments to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales, end police investigations, to pardon women who had previously been prosecuted, and fought off anti-abortion amendments designed to limit choice and access. 🧵 humanists.uk/2026/03/19/l...

I saw a jigsaw piece on the pavement in the street. An icon of someone’s future disappointment and frustration, writ in irregularly cut dense cardboard.

I saw the trailer for the new Spiderman movie and... it looks like... an Amazing Spiderman movie. Honestly if you subbed in Andrew Garfield into this back when he was still Spidey then... I wouldn't have blinked. Literally... zero interest in seeing it, not even for the Punisher.

The UK government has today published a Copyright and Artificial Intelligence report outlining that it is moving away from the proposed copyright exception for AI training, widely rejected by the creative industries. Read more 👇

“This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data,”

Took a wander into the local village and found a copy of The Order:1886 for £5 in a charity shop. I forgot that game even existed. I remember thinking it looks INSANE when the PS4 came out and it annoyed me greatly that it was a PS exclusive, since I was Xbox only back then.

How to utterly misunderstand a problem and the solution. Text pop-ups in games are an infuriating way to get info across. Although there is a whole argument about how to implement text into games effectively (which often comes down to UI and font choice) But the idea that no-one reads is bunkum.

Reminder that this excellent collection of new articles on game writing and narrative design by writers from across the games industry is now available. (also now in Ebook!) I contributed a piece on the nature of writing disposable enemies in games, and how to do it, and if you should even try.

That moment when you realise you haven't been to the gym in days and haven't even been out for a PROPER walk either and that's probably why you've slept badly and have a sore head.

Josh is a great writer, with a tonne of hands-on experience of bark writing that we delve into in detail. (Also, a real passion for indie games!)

Rant incoming. You know what really bugs me? A pair of oft-repeated "common knowledge" ideas about storytelling, especially in franchise properties that get bandied about as if they are unshakeable truths without a bit of actual introspection. 1/11

Fantastic news in the UK today - the government has apparently ditched its plan to force creatives to 'opt out' if they don't want AI companies training on their life's work. www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog... 🧵 1/4

The only way Reform UK could win a general election is through our first-past-the-post system. If we had proportional representation, the threat would evaporate. We don't have PR because Starmer has blocked it. This allows him to say: vote Labour or you get Farage. Because it's all he has left.

Can I say that I have zero interest in the Firefly cartoon. Honestly. Why do people thirst for this franchise so bad? Genuine question.

UPDATE ON THE HORMUZ COALITION (Mon, March 16): 🇫🇷 France: REJECTED 🇬🇧 UK: REJECTED 🇮🇹 Italy: REJECTED 🇪🇸 Spain: REJECTED 🇯🇵 Japan: REJECTED 🇳🇴 Norway: REJECTED 🇨🇦 Canada: REJECTED 🇦🇺 Australia: REJECTED 🇩🇪 Germany: REJECTED 🇨🇳 China: NO RESPONSE 🇳🇱 Netherlands: NO RESPONSE 🇰🇷 South Korea: NO CONFIRMATION

Kind of surprised that the Game Narrative Kaleidoscope hasn't been reviewed by any Gaming sites or game dev blogs. I wonder if it's a bit too "inside football" for a lot of casual places, or if literally everywhere that would, has at least one staffer contributing?

Spoke to the Guardian about the idea of quitting LLMs for climate: -“I see this all as very much part of the tactic of trying to embed these systems into society and instil dependency in a fashion similar to the growth of single-use plastics in the 1970s.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Honestly. I’m glad they’re not rebooting Buffy. Let things go. Please God… the firefly thing isn’t a reboot. Find new things.

Palantir has no place in our NHS. The Labour government must get this Mandelson and Trump backed company out now. Listen to what health workers are saying. news.sky.com/story/nhs-ho...