Read Tolkien to an appreciative manatee day so far a bit of a failure, all the manatees I can find prefer hard SF

I got the rejection email today. I didn't have any luck with the Australian Geographic photo comp this year. No need for sympathy. I'm used to it. It's very competitive. Here's one of my unsuccessful entries. A yellow-tailed rock wallaby at Boolcoomatta Reserve.

You have dusty paperbacks in your attic/storage unit/basement. PUT THEM BITCHES BACK IN ROTATION.

Random member of the public, suddenly putting two and two together: “Oh, THAT’S why the station is full of priests.”

The October Daye books are great, I've been reading them since 2009. If you are able to nominate for the Hugos really consider doing this.

Hugo nominations close this weekend! I am once again swallowing my personal flinch response at self-promotion* to ask that you please, please consider the October Daye books for Best Series.

Next door are having some work done on their garden which apparently takes a week and requires a *mini JCB*. It is the same size as our garden. I am not sure what one would do with a mini JCB in our garden.

Incredibly specific job klaxon if you are: 🇬🇧 looking for a UK remote role 💻 where you can use your programming and data skills 🛠️ and do some hardware hacking too 🐈‍⬛ also if you like cats, omg this is a weird cat tech job (Cat Scientist - Emerging Welfare Technology, £49k, apply by April 3)

Egon Schiele (1907) I bloody love this one. The lines!

Historians of contemporary UK, I am looking for any primary or secondary source material on the involvement of university students in anti-racist movements off-campus in 1980s (such as campaigns against police violence or anti-deportation campaigns). I have a lot of stuff re: on-campus activism.

Tomorrow. Join us! Me n Naomi are a great double act. I've interviewed her at least four times but we've never done it this way round and i can't wait. Always nice to be in York too, booked the day off for a proper jolly.

I forgot that Vol. 4 of "Lost Time" opens with Proust going "and when I saw those two men hook up, I realized [50-page long incredibly detailed description of turn-of-the-century gay subculture with many very specific details and complaints] which was interesting to me, as a heterosexual."

#MildDistractionsFromTheHorror Why is this man dragging/carrying a gigantic lobster? The implications are lost on me (though I know calling someone a lobster was a deprecating thing to do, and appears on old 'vinegar valentine' type postcards).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MUTTAR

PUPDATE: * extreme cuteness warning * A smol puppy in a big world

Have hit quite a bad patch of Professional Gloom and I am fairly sure it is largely prodrome related (and also slowly completing a task related) but this doesn't stop it feeling very there and it is hard.

"I am bad at driving. This says a lot about society."

It's FOC day for DEAD TEENAGERS #2, and now that the Twist is out of the way, I can show you this preview: comicbookclublive.com/2026/01/14/o...

Your semi-regular reminder that I edit fiction, my rates are reasonable, and my feedback is excellent. No project too small. fruitbateditorial.com

I grew up in this community and I have a few thoughts I want to share. A short thread. www.jewishnews.co.uk/breaking-hat...

Migraines suck. I know we all know this but it is still really true.

You know, I'm starting to think there may have been some downsides to the US electing the literal stupidest and most evil man in the world as President, twice.

I made a timelapse last night and caught some of the Perseids

I'm married to a perfectly reasonable, very science minded woman who works with numbers for a living and somehow turns into a flat earther on exactly one topic and that topic is dinosaurs

Good morning! Sunset at Heather Beach, on the Northumberland Strait, Nova Scotia photographed by Shaun Whalen..

Rescued this smol friend from the inside of one of my sneakers. (The sneakers were not on my feet at the time so no risk of squishage.)

Periodic "I am available for various freelance work" post/thread. Not that these tend to lead to much in my case but just in case this will change that pattern. Things I can do and have experience of doing listed below.

Just as an FYI, I am available for proofreading/copy-editing work; it's not something I actively advertise but if it's a service you're in need of you can feel free to hit me up. pay me today to spare yourself a potential embarrassment tomorrow

youtu.be/YgONAAir4ls?... God I think of this sketch so often

Steves exercising again while I cut the grass. #cat

Just remembered a Fall gig I had completely forgotten I was at. Which probably means I was in the band

Really appreciate the quote from an actual plumber who has retrained at the end of this article.

Surely the thing is people want busy periods and quiet periods and the two aren't mutually exclusive? And actually a life that really isn't busy can be quite isolating and boring at times?

Just coined a term: “Freudian click”. When you open the app or page you subconsciously WANTED too, rather than the one you intended

Holy shit we might have a cure for sickle cell anemia

Tedious but necessary bit of ongoing task done

I am trying to really enjoy the tree during the brief window it is in bloom

Don't suppose anyone on here would want a ticket for Rich(ard) Dawson fest at the Barbican tomorrow? Rail replacement action means I can't make it.

God, it's nice when things have actual defined dates and time lines by which they should happen or by which you are expected to do a thing.

One of my teachers did tell my dad about me reading Catch-22 aged 10 or so because she was worried about all the sex in it and my dad did point out a) it was his copy and b) he was more worried about me finding the horror of war upsetting (and that we were doing WWII in class)

I guess another thing is we had a half decade of all the world’s experts being gathered together on one public site sharing knowledge and it’s coincided with the most comprehensive turn against expert knowledge in the last several centuries

had a dream that I invented, and attempted to market, "the thinking man's tiramisu," and as a consequence was assassinated

I did the Philip Geddes Memorial Lecture a few weeks ago, which is now online, which hopefully means that I will stop going 'oh, I should add that' and opening a draft *of a now delivered lecture*.

I'd love to, but am timed out for reasons of constant precarity and definitions of 'early career' being unfit for purpose.

Babe, come over, we’re playing the Barbara Cartland Romance Boardgame (Actually, we’re not: it looks even more fiendishly complicated than the Nationwide boardgame, the rules of which are so convoluted they make me feel like I’ve forgotten how to read)

Friday motivation

The Jewish News, which I am proud to work for as Deputy Editor, has published an editorial on this week's Iftar prayers in Trafalgar Square www.jewishnews.co.uk/voice-of-the...

Kirsty Maccoll "A New England" transmutes a good song into a really great song.