I for one welcome our new robot .... oh maybe not.

thing about autism is if you work really hard for many years, you can learn through trial-and-error how to navigate social situations and interpersonal connections SO effectively that people don't really believe you're autistic anymore and resent you for not being perfect at nonverbal communication

Last Thursday's show - an hour of music about insects and then an hour of music inspired by Lou Reed's Transformer. chroniclesofdrrock.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/e... Emperor Yes – Wire – Broadcast – Tim Buckley – Between the Buried and Me – Memphis Minnie – Misfits - Ivor Cutler and much more

There _should_ be a word for this. My vote goes to "nonomatopoeia"

Drop something BLACK & WHITE.

I missed last Tuesday's blogging. So here it is a bit late. markchilds.org/2025/11/14/o...

on ttns.uk in 55 mins - want to hear an hour of songs about insects? #thursdaynightshow is where the buzz is at.

I have a feeling we've seen this coming for a long time www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnas...

22 authors in a new OA peer-reviewed article in Soc of Sport Journal: Israel is committing *athleticide* in Gaza, "an indispensable component of the overall genocidal campaign enforced by the Israeli settler colonial regime and bankrolled by the US." journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

Tim makes a good point here - the logging in to just search for stuff is censorship and opens a whole bag of concerns about surveillance - but - that was entirely the point www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

This is an excellent piece about how education needs to reform peterhyman21.substack.com/p/make-educa... I found it via an article about what actually teenagers' views are, which is a long way from what the moral panics about influencers would have us believe.

Hang on, when did reading become so performative?

If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.

So - my MA is taking me down some unusual routes. Looking at transhumanism discovered that The Chase (ST-TNG 6: 20) was based on some actual science - the paper "Is Bacteriophage ~X174 DNA a Message from an Extraterrestrial Intelligence?" 1978 Yokoo and Oshima. they chose a phage found in the colon

www.comicsbeat.com/the-first-ev... Well congrats on Miss Piggy getting a movie deal but ... "the first American TV show to be legally simulcast in the Soviet Union". First AMERICAN TV show? WTAF? The Muppets were one of the most successful appropriations of American culture by a BRITISH TV company..

I don't remember if Follow Friday is a thing here - but follow Postcard from the Past - the juxtaposition of often bland imagery but intriguing snapshots of lives from just one sentence is hauntology at its purest. Or is that surrealism?

@tavoer8.bsky.social Hey just read your chapter in Outdoor Learning :-) loved it - I've been looking at ways to integrate ESD in the curriculum and this will be really useful. For everyone else - check out www.routledge.com/Outdoor-Lear...

gizmodo.com/reality-is-t... "Study" doing a lot of overtime in that headline - whole thing hinges on this idea: “Any simulation is inherently algorithmic—it must follow programmed rules, ... 1/3

The latest in my occasional series of "Today's Winner of the Internet"

Strange Tales 72, 1959. Art by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

Thoughts and prayers.

Nothing really new to say this week for my blog - so here's an extract of my philosophy writings - my thoughts on Leibniz and how much I miss christmas cake markchilds.org/2025/11/04/a...

Most played in October according to #Musicolet. Mixture of sets I'm putting together for ttns.uk about different types of Man, different types of Insects and last month's Hitch-Hiker's set for #ALTC

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Ditko!

Regardless of what you've been up to as a student, chatgpt/cheating/busting ass or no, your life is bigger and more important than a grade and if you are feeling like the pressure is getting to you, seek support. Live!

Hairdresser Klingons: "Today is a good day to dye"

Just seen a job advertised in the Guardian for someone to do psychometric testing at a recruitment agency. 😱 People do know psychometric testing is just palm reading for HR people don't they? Shocking that a "proper" newspaper is promoting the post-truth environment we're all in now.

Big picture stuff ... how do we make sense of the meaning of what we do? Is there - ultimately speaking - any point? markchilds.org/2025/10/29/w...

I think what's so shocking about this is that it reveals that there are such vast swathes of people who seem to completely understand what's going on around them that when they don't it throws them into a panic. Whereas I just go, "yep" and add it to the huge pile of things that make no sense.

this is how pretty much how every plague-based or uplift-based apocalypse story starts. My guess is they're not only very sick, they're also very very smart - I mean do we know what species caused the crash?

If you wait for the right time to do something difficult, you may be waiting forever. Worse, you may deceive yourself with excuses to wait. Avoid being reckless, but do not wait for another day when today is waiting for you.

This reminds me of a comment Douglas Adams made about working with Hollywood producers, ordering tonnes of chocolate chip ice cream, then complaining because it's got chocolate chips in it news.sky.com/story/britis... I might have the details wrong.

Apparently some folks are playing real dumb about skull symbols so let’s play a little game I like to call “Nazi skull or not a Nazi skull” First up, the Jolly Roger. This is a pirate skull, not a Nazi skull. It means you might get robbed, but prolly not genocided. With me so far? 1/x

Shiniest and oldest of the Tarot decks to survive, this recreation is a work of art - I blog about them here. tarot117.wordpress.com/2025/10/19/v...

The last hour of my contribution to #ALTC this year, an hour compilation of two Pedagodzilla episodes back-to-back. In 5 mins on ttns.uk This is possibly the best way to hear them, they're two halves of the same discussion. With Claire Hill, @mikecollins.bsky.social and @lizisabella.bsky.social

In 30 mins - listen to my chat with @cocolibrarian.bsky.social for #ALTC where we talk about information science, and play the music that influenced her. All at ttns.uk

Any Hitch-Hikers guide to the galaxy fans out there - tune in for a special 42nd show at ttns.uk in 50 mins

Studying posthumanism for my degree. Need to add a reference to the time when Brainiac got a robot body so he could twerk more erotically.

Wow - these humourless fucks are annoying www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10... "“The Avalon puppet depicts the Paddington character with a frightening demeanour,” maybe look up the word 'parody' in an encyclopedia?

listening in on the audio feed for this - loved the reaction in the room when this came up on the screen #altc25

If you're online in 45 mins and are _really_ into virtual reality and / or the Odyssey, tune into ttns.uk where you can hear the full 1 hr 55 mins of me, @dompates.bsky.social and @r3beccaf.bsky.social go through every part of Homer's epic and relate it to VR.

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.

A shorter one this week because I'm off out - but here's some thoughts on AI in education markchilds.org/2025/10/21/l...

#ALTC online conference schedule - the first post of four. Just tune into ttns.uk to hear it. and click on the discord link to take part in the chat.

Three high schoolers founded a book club that reads some of the country's most frequently banned books after a state law removing books with sexual content was signed in 2023. Two years later, many of the books have been reshelved and parts of the law can't be enforced.

Discworld QOTD, from Interesting Times

#NoKings Miami!