Come for the thread, stay for the reveal in the replies

So you see, you are the middle generation. Too old to like this stuff and not care that it's AI, not old enough to fail to notice that it's AI.

Whoever wrote this letter should be the patron saint of Bluesky

A wonderful woman and a long life so well lived that sadness feels the wrong response. Nevertheless.

Deep cuts here youtu.be/C8uOPrU4B9s?...

FALLON!

"Here I am, this middle-aged black man, I'm in my best suit. I actually argued the case at the Supreme Court that we were trying to implement. I've got all these degrees and awards. And I'm still required to laugh at my own humiliation." Bryan Stevenson with @katiecouric.bsky.social

Excellent and insightful article. This AI storytelling is not of course limited to the far right (think of pictures of Trump or Putin, for example), even if it's rarely as toxic. We should probably be having more of a conversation about its impact.

Well don't I feel stupid

Imagine the vulnerabilities and compatibility issues there would be now in a digital ID system developed for the phones we had in 2010, then think about how the hell you could possibly future-proof this. I mean, what if Meta is right about the future beyond phones, for example?

Well I'll be mogadored

*Insert "Is this an edgelord?" meme*

Once more for those not paying attention: fact-checking with Google's AI Overview is not fact-checking.

An important counter narrative to the recent headlines — actual journalism about the daily lives of asylum seekers in the UK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is amazing.

I wonder how much worse the problem is when you factor in paywall impact? Here I am reskeeting an abstract when I have no access to the paper, for example.

Yesterday, the largest far-right protest in UK history marched through London, led by racist Tommy Robinson. Today, we say: They don’t speak for us — and they won’t have the last word. This Wednesday we come together against Trump and for a better future. Do everything to be there.

I've seen @jamellebouie.net dissed so many times for continuing to write for the NYT. It's not a simple equation given the paper's record of late but the fact is that he's one of very few people who can reach such a major audience with pieces like this, even in the current climate of fear. Hats off.

Unless things change dramatically, I can't see myself voting for Labour again; while Polanski's avowed popularism strikes me as deeply unserious. I have reservations about Davey and the Lib Dems too but this kind of thing is likely to win my vote.

The replies on X to the FBI's call for help IDing the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect is made up mainly of people either blaming trans people or doing shitty internet detective work. Also lots of terrible attempts to use LLMs to enhance the images.

New linguistics meme dropped

CURSED UNDER LONDON (Farrago Books) by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch is a semifinalist for the 2025 Small Spec Book Awards! Congratulations! #SSBA #SSBA2025

On the topic of “our” duty to persuade abusers, a tale: —— THE FINGER-TAKER’S SON Whenever the king became displeased with one of his subjects, he would send out his soldiers, and before long the offender would find themselves in the basement of the king’s finger-taker.

I ain't reading all that. Happy for you though etc. (I know, I'm not the intended audience. But 56 pages! Kind of amusing that because I opened it on my phone, I didn't trigger the usual automatic offer of an AI summary.)

I thought this was going to be existentialism not aging, but it's still good.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I hate that a billionaire is currently looking like America's best hope but maybe in today's world the best billionaire is all we can hope for. And every time I see him, Pritzker seems to be fighting the good fight.

Hello everyone! I am working on a story for The Guardian about how Chicagoans are preparing for the possible arrival of federal troops, following President Trump's statements on the matter. Right now, I'm looking for residents, community organizers, business owners, and other folks to talk to!

This is very self-flattering no doubt but I don't think it's ever about substantiveness. It's about being criticised/attacked by those who "should" be your allies on matters of values and identity (I'm not talking about academic disagreements over marginal tax rates, say).

The Greggs in our town is so posh the locals call it ‘Gregory’s’

It can't be helping that 40% of Bluesky is deeply repetitive discourse about Bluesky, much of it complaining about users (reply guys, people coming off Discover, people who still post on Twitter etc). If all this was replaced with extra reskeeting of great content, it might have a better chance.

Loooong thread showing the progress of a spectacular project.

I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset. In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia. In 2005 I started medical transition. (1/13)

Not sure it's a flex but Alice Nutter (Chumbawamba) dedicated a performance of "The Day The Nazi Died" to "the guy in the Nazi Punks Fuck Off t-shirt" when I was a teenager and it still gives me a buzz 30 years later

I've been using the expression "now we're cooking with charcoal" for decades. A while back I found it should be "with gas." Listening to The Lost Continent and just discovered I've been using Rincewind's version :)

Ok I was already looking forward to this movie but well, damn. This is one hell of a marketing stunt (complimentary)

📌

You're thinking of the Fair Folk, not spiders

London's mudlarks at war: feuds, fights and slurs on the shoreline. It's a Bank Holiday so for one day only, I'm making this brilliant piece by @susborne.bsky.social free to read. There's also an experimental one day flash sale for the first 25 people! www.londoncentric.media/p/london-mud...

At the same time, *any* disruption caused by people protesting for "progressive" causes is followed invariably by pearl-clutching over the wrong kind of protest, damaging your own cause etc etc. Even worse, it *does* damage the cause - this media dynamic is not easily hacked.

They handed control of half of Europe to Russia, though. Maybe that's what he's thinking of.

Hey lads new horny euphemism just dropped

I don't like whinging about public transport prices here but we already have a problem with high car use despite a great public transport network and this won't help. This will put us near to parity with London's Hopper, even though incomes are about 25% of London's. www.expats.cz/czech-news/a...

Everyone pretends that holidays are rejuvenating not exhausting, yet we all share the same experience. It's irodic, don't you think?

Oh ye gods the "what is a sandwich" discourse has a new end-of-level boss

Ooh a nice surprise!! Read or ideally listen to all Caimh's books by the way, they're super fun. Also, you can buy the *absolutely outstanding* audiobooks from Caimh's site for less than the price of an Audible credit and no I don't understand the economics of that but it's bloody marvellous.

I love eggcorns, especially when you can really see how people arrived at their usage. This one's a great example. I'm so tired of this, I'm tired twice over!

Going by the emojis, Anand appears to be rewatching Mexico '86

This comment on the PA fiasco gets to the meat of how the (UK) gov't could cut the Gordion knot here. They have the power to arrest & prosecute, not the obligation. They could easily reserve prosecution for those deemed to support PA's banned tactics rather than its ideological goals. Though...