Semiotic paradox alert!

Happy winter solstice from #Musselburgh beach (I have to confess I took this photo a few days ago, today was very cloudy)

London Bridge / Homelessness If you go through London Bridge and sees a red headed man named Christopher (outside Hamleys today) please stop & chat. I bought him some M&S food today & we talked about his situation. I gave him some advice an a hug but he needs more people to acknowledge he’s human.

An East Berlin map “showing” West Berlin, 1988

The 13th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features an image portraying part of a dense cluster of galaxies—a wide variety of shapes, colors, and distances. Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’

Annual reminder to water your Christmas tree poems …

'Leaping lurcher' Fay Godwin, 1972

From double Booker Prize listed author, Graeme Macrae Burnet, the Gorski Trilogy follows Chief Inspector Georges Gorski around the streets and bars of Saint-Louis, investigating disappearances and mysterious strangers. Buy the complete trilogy in paperback for £30. saraband.net/product/the-...

One of my favourite paintings

In memory of one of Britain's most cherished playwrights Tom Stoppard, we're releasing a very memorable Jewish Book Week event on our JLF Video Player - a celebration of the playwright's life and work with Hermione Lee. Watch 'Tom Stoppard: A Life' now: shorturl.at/WmuHK

We need your help. @waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith. Please read on for more information www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908... (1/2)

My attendance record in the European Parliament was the 4th worst out of 751 MEPs, yet I managed to turn up to vote AGAINST plans to tackle Russian misinformation. Thankfully this is of no interest to the media.

The Edinburgh Minute ⏰ Weekend edition: 21 - 23 November 2025 www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburg...

X is in clear + systemic breach of its legal duties in the UK to remove unlawful content from its platform. Proof: when X users abuse + harass others with the racial slur "paki", X reporting system defends the racist abuse in more than 90% of cases reported. A new thread documenting this.

A request on behalf of Gold SF. For the first time, the Nebula Award is honouring poetry. They would like to put forward Jessy Randall's latest collection, The Path of Most Resistance. But it can only be nominated by a member of the SFWA. Would someone like to do so? Email [email protected]

God, how I hate what kind of society we are becoming... Btw, we can stop it, it depends on us: which kind of world we create, which kind of community we foster, which kind of cities we live in. You can help @argonautbooks.bsky.social by sharing wide and far! www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...

Come to Edinburgh on the 21 & 22 November for The Scottish Christmas Book Fair at the New Town Church, George Street! 🎄There will be fabulous publishers! 🎄There will be fabulous books! 🎄There will be fabulous authors! 🎄There will be free mulled wine, mince pies & chocolate!

Elspeth Barker (1940–2022) was born #OTD, 16 Nov – a 🎂🧵 Maggie O’Farrell called Barker’s classic O CALEDONIA “one of those books you proselytize about… I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named [it] as her favourite book” 💙📚 1/4 lithub.com/maggie-ofarr...

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks. You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

First day of my Philosophy of Cosmology class! I'm interpreting "cosmology" pretty broadly. There will be three main topics: 1) Anthropics and the multiverse; 2) The arrow of time; 3) Quantum foundations, especially Many-Worlds. The idea of self-locating uncertainties will be a common thread.

With thanks to @jonathangibbs.bsky.social here are some of my favourite short stories (including a talking olive, a woman made of flowers, a dead muskrat and some musing on the sizes of different animals):

With thanks to @jonathangibbs.bsky.social here are some of my favourite short stories (including a talking olive, a woman made of flowers, a dead muskrat and some musing on the sizes of different animals):

No agent? No problem. The 5th Edition of our Indie Press Guide is available to pre-order! With over 750 editors to choose from, there's never been a better time to take control of your writing! mslexia.co.uk/shop/indie-p... #amwriting #amediting #writingcommunity #writers

Publishers, publicity peeps, take note, I'm back in the saddle for Wigtown Book Festival 2026. Please send catalogues, AI sheets, proofs. Using [email protected] email again (after a year off). Writers, please have publishers get in touch! www.wigtownbookfestival.com/blog/welcome...

Maybe the Birds, by @ajashworth.bsky.social featured on MIT Reader from @mitpress.bsky.social @goldsmithspress.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @sffoundation.bsky.social #newwriting #newreleases #newbooks #SF #FeministSF #IntersectionalSF thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-j-ashworth...

Want to read a story about bats predicting extreme weather? Of course you do! With thanks to the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, my story "The Way Out" is here: issues.org/futuretensef...

In which I recommend (some of) my fave short stories!

🇯🇲 Poets Read for Hurricane Melissa Relief Fundraiser: November 19th. Organised by @outspokenpress.bsky.social hosted by Leone Ross with an introduction from Akala, such an amazing line up, please show solidarity, donate and share and repost! Thank you! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poets-read...

My fave short stories! (Well, some of them, anyway.) Huge thanks to @jonathangibbs.bsky.social for organising:

I'm lucky enough to have the time and other resources to spend a lot of time with my children doing "making" activities. A few years ago, I organised a "Month of Making" to encourage people to make gifts for Christmas instead of buying them - some of you might like these ideas to try:

"Let's not forget, when we remember the service and the sacrifice with this poppy, that the people who bled and died for our democracy and our freedom, weren't just my grandfather who looked like me & worshipped the same God, but people across Empire & Commonwealth, who were Muslim, Sikh & Hindu'

This Tory "policy" is going to be an absolute gift to the SNP. Can't imagine any better way of convincing Scottish people that they'd be better off by setting themselves free from this immoral sh*te once and for all. (Same is probably true of Sinn Fein in NI.)

#WritingCommunity! Submissions invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, #Gaelic, & #Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct! Submit free via Submittable 👇 nws.submittable.com/submit

Resistance is not futile

‘One of the oldest urban centres on the planet’: Gaza’s rich history in ruins. My @guardian piece on the erasure of Gaza's past. As we mourn incalculable human losses, learning about its past can help us better understand the present www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Why is having covid such hard work? I lie on the sofa, arrange the hot water bottle over my feet, tuck myself under a blanket, sort out the cushion under my head, realise I can't reach the tv remote control and have forgotten to fetch the hankies, paracetamol and other assorted drugs (1/n)

Pretty disturbing. Authors need to argue for the legal right (written into their contracts with publishers) to veto AI translations of their work.

You don't need to have read it to get the joke www.worldofmoose.com/products/tri...

Our October sale has gone EVEN deeper! 🤩 33% off selected items while stocks last! 🚀 Discount applied automatically in our checkout. Head now to: www.saltpublishing.com/collections/...

Happy pub day to this wonder anthology which includes my story "Lord of the Fruit Flies" about the biologist Hermann Muller, big thanks to editor @nicholasroyle.bsky.social and publisher @saltpublishing.com

Happy #WorldPorridgeDay to all who celebrate! 🥣 Captain of oats, braw brose, fine gruel, you are thi Scotsman’s constant fuel fae New Year’s Dey till end o Yule (we don’t do Simmer)… —WN Herbert, “TO PORRIDGE” #poem #poetry #porridge poetryinternationalweb.org/pi/site/poem...

Join us in commemorating Black Speculative Fiction Month at Arizona State University! This series of events on October 16 explores how artists, scholars, and cultural leaders use speculative storytelling to imagine more just and inclusive futures. 🔗 asuevents.asu.edu?searchText=b...

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit" Stay tuned for more.

It’s happened again

😭 IG newberlinlibrary

“A full harvest moon is rising, though it is still only twilight” Artist: CF Tunnicliffe Writer: EL GrantWatson

Happy #DayofGermanUnity #TagderDeutschenEinheit to everyone in Germany, 35 years since East and West Germany reunited and a timely reminder that we can overcome divisions