Oh hey, check out @podcastle.org ’s latest episode, out today! podcastle.org/2026/05/19/p... 🎉🥳 “Mail Order Magic” is the most personal story I’ve ever written, so it means a lot to have this audio version narrated by a friend, the amazing @tinaconnolly.bsky.social . ❤️

I GET LOGGED OUT. BUT I LOG IN AGAIN

Some of you may have heard me wondering about the "intrusive of" that started appearing in phrases like "not that big [of] a deal". Now @lynneguist.bsky.social has looked into it at separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2026/05/how-..., and I know a lot more about it!

Oh, *for some things* watching it being done is useful. For some things. For many others it isn't, give us text!

I am once again begging, praying, weeping for lists of written instructions rather than videos. I do not want to watch your two minute video in the hope of catching the two seconds where you whizz past what goddamn menu the thing is under. Write. It. Down.

📢 Introducing my new daily word game, Keywords! "If Only Connect was presented by Mavis Beacon*" Like Wordle? Like Connections? Like stuff? Then there's a vague chance you'll enjoy this. Find the five connected words of increasing length by typing into the boxes. *one for the young'uns there

coding agents are unreliable as hell. you’re right to be suspicious of them so i wrote 2000 words about how we let our brand design lead ship to our next.js app anyway, and it turns out the answer is the same answer we’ve had for 20 years: guardrails, hooks, CI, shift left dev.to/mattstratton...

📢 PyCon UK cancelled for 2026 Sadly we've been unable to find a Conference Director, so there won't be a PyCon UK this year. If you (or someone you know) would be interested in taking on that role for 2027, or if you'd like to know some more about it, please get in touch at [email protected].

we all know I have no life, so:

I wrote a book called Pagans! It was Waterstones SFF Book of the Month this February! It's not available in the US (sorry) and the sequel is planned to come out early next year (2027). www.waterstones.com/book/pagans/...

Just seen this and Pagans is an incredible read. Alt history police procedural in a 21st century UK still split between Saxons and Celts. Enjoyed it a lot.

Launching at Eastercon, Book 5 in Chaz Brenchley's epic Outremer series, this time with added magic carpet! wizardstowerpress.co...

tired of being deceived? click here to voluntarily rickroll yourself: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4...

If you teared-up at the Project Hail Mary movie or felt a surge of wild joy at the launch of Artemis II, then do yourself a fever and get your hands on some science-fiction novels. It’s where the good stuff is.

"He knew his son would outshine him from the beginning, so taught this child the only thing he could: The skill of taking blades and wood, and turning death into something else entirely."

Like a number of other people - more than I would have dreamed possible when I first met Rachel Pollack and the GLF TS/TV/DQ group 55 years ago this September- I'm having my contribution to the community recognised today. #TDOV

This International Trans Day of Visibility, we are asking you to help increase awareness of our free support line, so that no trans+ person feels alone or unsupported. Our trained LGBTQIA+ volunteers are on hand from 10am to 10pm, every day of the year. #InternationalTransDayOfVisibility #TDOV

Make sure to rotate your pronouns periodically, so that if your gender becomes compromised, attackers can only access it for a short period of time.

Oh! Hey! This book I’m on tour for is actually out and available and you can buy it or reserve it at your library BUT ALSO IT IS HORROR AND VERY GROSS so it’s okay if you sit this one out. It’s about botflies! The New York Times called it disgusting! torpublishinggroup.com/wolf-worm/?i...

This (and the linked blog post) is absolutely fucking fascinating

I would also add that if you have a bulleted list of more than four items, spread those points up across several slides. Ideally, have only one point per slide.

Making your conference talk slides? Make the font bigger. Do it again. I know the default font looks ok when you’re looking at it on your laptop but I promise no one can read that from the back If you can’t fit all the words you want on one slide, you have too many words. Make another slide!

Please share this excellent video. It exposes the network of transphobes inbedded in the NHS and other government departments. Systemic transphobia in the UK must be crushed! youtu.be/_S5w18sjYLk?...

NEW PHILOSOPHY TUBE DROPS TONIGHT 18:30 British time Our biggest episode yet, the spiritual sequel to “I Emailed My Doctor 133 Times” A full investigation into conversion therapy in the UK. This video names names and has big implications for the NHS and government. youtu.be/_S5w18sjYLk?...

Thank you to Tom Cardy for succinctly and hilariously summing up my personal reaction to my brain trying to tell me I suck. Now anytime someone asks about my technique I can just send them this video! www.youtube.com/shorts/kVh8T...

I read Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot by Alexis Hall

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on kittens Proportional Representation and Universal Basic Income for citizens A new deal for renters A country without a King These are a few of my favourite things

Eleven years since you crossed the black sands. I wish I could say that the world is better than you left it (although it will always be better for having had you in it) but at least there is a new Young Sam to help carry on the Pratchett name and ethos. Love you always ❤️

In clear detail, how the Labour government and NHS are deliberately deceiving the British public in order to ban the existence of trans people under 18 And yes, banning existence is genocide 🧵 👇

This is an attack Gillick Competence, and without a doubt the beginnings of an assault on the supply of birth control to young people. I was 17 when I started taking HRT. If you’re over 16, then by English law you can legally consent to your own healthcare.

Medical transition for trans kids is now banned for new referrals on the NHS. Trans kids in the UK can still go private or DIY (for now). This means the new clinics that replaced GIDS are close to useless at best, conversion therapy at worst. 1/5

Labour’s healthcare bans are shameful and have already harmed British kids. Wes Streeting’s normalisation of conversion therapy is a stain on the country. Every NHS doctor and admin who went along with this has undermined public confidence in the profession. 2/5 nebula.tv/videos/philo...

If you’re a Labour MP who doesn’t want to be called transphobic or be tarred with the bigoted stench this Labour government’s policies leave behind? Leave Trans kids alone you absolute freaks.

We're excited to announce our Berlin 2026 conference! Write the Docs Berlin 2026 will be on September 6-8, 2026. We’ll be back at bUm for another year, with great talks, lots of networking, and awesome community building. This year, with a Writing Day too 🇩🇪 🎉 buff.ly/EYsRNfF

Are you a fan yet? Chaz Brenchley's Crater School books are a perfect recreation of the classic girls' boarding school tales such as the Chalet School series. There's just one twist: the school is on Mars! The first book in the series is Three Twins at the Crater School. wizardstowerpress.co...

Dear Shabana, Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

Now you may ask why Great Britain doesn't rule the world (still) in light of all the ska bands. ANSWER: That was survival ska. That's the amount of ske required to survive postwar malaise, collapse of empire, and Thatcher. They're only in as good a shape as they are today because of ska.

Vote in EuroPython 2026's Community Voting! If you registered (2022–2025) or submitted a 2026 proposal, your voice shapes the programme. Pick sessions, explore talks, and get a digital badge. Vote by Mar 5: europython.eu/voting #europython #conference #europython2026 #python #opensource

40 years ago, I yearned to find love, find a satisfying job, find friends, travel, and do a lot of cycling. I have fulfilled these dreams, and no one has been genocided even once by my doing so. Yearn for wholeness and dream of joy, not like this guy.

Abolish the legal gender marker entirely. No government can be trusted to have a database of which people have changed theirs, no government has any business tracking what your gender is "supposed" to be in the first place.

Since we are losing review space left, right and centre, and Goodreads is making that worse, I'm now going to be doing regular romance review roundups on my blog. Get recs here! Share your own! kjcharleswriter.com/2026/02/25/r...

Happy 25th anniversary to the PSF! 🎉 That's a quarter century of the PSF supporting #Python and its community to grow, build, & change the world. Thank you to our community for making it all possible, we're grateful to be in community with each and every one of you- for the next 25 years & beyond!

What Andrew was, and was not, arrested for is an interesting application of the Al Capone Theory (qz.com/1043588/the-...). As depressingly usual, it's easier to arrest a powerful man for pretty much any kind of crime than a sex crime.

I got given The Big Book of Cyberpunk Vol. 2 (www.penguin.co.uk/books/460847...)  for my birthday, and it’s both huge and excellent (it starts off with Delany’s wonderful “Time considered as a helix of semi-precious stones” and manages to wend its way through to “Cat pictures please”!).

Oh, the grand old duke of york He ██████████████████ He ██████████████████ And he ██████████████████

The High Court has made clear that the draft Code of Practice is wrong about the law. Make sure your MP tells the Minister it now has to be rejected 👇

The pronoun labeler, which was by far the most useful labeler on the site, was deleted by its creator. But thanks to @ripperoni.com there’s a new one available. I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to share your pronouns or see someone else’s pronouns at a glance. bsky.app/profile/pron...

Transphobes get fucked forever

⚡️ Lightning: Mapping the International PyData Community featuring Web Scraping and Data Wrangling - @hevansdev.bsky.social Hugh loves maps! But Meetup’s map of PyData events is not great. So he made a better one: circle size for group and green for newly scheduled meet-ups.