Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

when I was a kid my mom would make me give my little brother a turn on Crash Bandicoot and I would have to sit there and watch him run off the map and waste all my extra lives and that's sort of how it feels to watch the news right now

Every time the government announces something--Online Safety Act, ID Cards, AI nonsense--all I can think about is that there are over 1 million people looking for jobs. Why do they keep trying to manufacture crises when there are actual crises sitting right there?

The difference between the #COVID vaccine eligibility and the flu vaccine eligibility is ridiculous when you remember that the government kept saying we should treat COVID "like flu". That being said, "eligibility" is ridiculous. All vaccines should be free. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

At Romance Con, the Shadow of J.K. Rowling and Questions of Fan Culpability Loom Overhead

After being on the internet for 25 years, it will never stop being weird to me that a book being ex-fanfiction is now used as a selling point.

Also like, it's nice to be reminded that success, new ventures, etc. doesn't have a timeline. Those lists can be interesting, but they do play into the idea that innovation/art is the purview of the young. That success is only for the young. When really it can come at any age.

Nice.

Issue 491 is out now! For your autumnal reading (and just in time for #Halloween), I take a look at #PoppyZBrite's #horror novel "Lost Souls". And over in our 1001 Films feature, I gush about the fantastic Katsuhiro Otomo #anime anthology "Memories". #scifi #fantasy #Wednesday

Graham Greene was a Canadian legend. He was in so much of the media I consumed growing up, from kids shows to CBC comedies to big-budget Hollywood productions. This one definitely hurts.

I'm sure this will be fine. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I’m working on a story about AI, and when it came to writing a character engaging with AI, I just…wrote that myself. Like any other piece of dialogue. You don’t need to use AI to write about AI. That’s what your imagination is for.

Our Autumn edition is nearly here, folks! Subscriber copies will start shipping later this week, so if you're a UK reader who'd like to get it delivered straight to your door (with free P&P!) before the Aug 29th release, head to our official store: starburstmagazine.store/products/sta...

This will sound characteristically social media hyperbolic, but this is genuinely insane. Vast centres, some on greenbelt land, for which the water and energy required will somehow have to be magicked out of thin air. Wasn't the Government telling us to delete photos to save water like...day ago?

While we finish up work on Issue #491 (out Aug 29th!), we thought we'd sweeten the deal for those who haven't yet caught our current issue... Order #490 and choose ANY other back issue for FREE! Just add both to your cart to access your discount! Store: starburstmagazine.store/products/sta...

It's absolutely wild to me that we've gone from "Don't share anything personal online, be completely anonymous for your safety" to "Show some company your face, driver's license or banking details so you can access Wikipedia". Fantastic trajectory. #OnlineSafetyAct

Our 'Buy One Get One Free' sale is on until the end of July! Purchase any of our issues from the official STARBURST STORE and choose another for nowt!* Store: starburstmagazine.store **If prices differ, then the cheaper one will go free. Standard #BOGOF stuff.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how terrible the internet has become, and now an age verification banner has popped up on my Bluesky feed. Anyone know if the guy who invented the internet has that new version of the world wide web up and running? Anyway, here's a petition.

As a 30-something who has been on the internet since they were 13, I found age verification useless to me then and find it useless to me now. This will do nothing to stop kids from accessing "harmful content", and everything to make the internet an even worse place than it already is.

This feels like a ✨prime✨ week to close the book on Amazon.

Happy #CanadaDay!

I'm largely ignoring That Wizard TV Show, but it has got me thinking about how unfortunate it is that Hollywood insists that every remake is live-action instead of animation.

32C in SE England this weekend would - in the absence of global heating - only happen every 2500 years Now made 100x more likely The UK Met Offoce recently reported that 45C - even 47C - now possible in UK summers This is just the beginning folks www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'm generally tapped out on sequels, prequels and remakes, but this...this I'll watch. #Spaceballs2

Me @ Midjourney:

A little late with this, but the new @starburst.bsky.social is out now! In Issue 496, I take a look at Clifford Simak's #scifi classic #WayStation and celebrate Brett Simmons' fantastic horror film #Husk.

In light of the Emerald Fennell #WutheringHeights film, I finally got around to watching the 2011 Andrea Arnold version, and while I think adult Heathcliff and Cathy could have been played even more unhinged, BOY is this going to be a hard film to top.

I'm gonna watch the hell out of this.

I have no idea what's going on in #DoctorWho, and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask.

The newspaper that gave the world Roger Ebert & published his Pulitzer-winning film criticism for five & a half decades can't be bothered to pay a human freelancer some tiny pittance to compile a summer reading list, so they outsourced it to the free lie generator. I have no joke. This is just sad.

We're at that time of year where I become absolutely baffled about the lack of screens on windows in the UK. Do you guys LIKE having flies in your house? I mean, my cat does, but he also eats them, so his opinions are questionable.

This is bleak reading

This is such a good summation - there's plenty of 'work', people are plenty productive, but if the 1% can't extract profit, it's not considered valuable and it's not funded. We deserve a better system.

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

AI feels like a consequence of our increasingly superficial society. In our world of Instagram and YouTube vlogs, where the appearance of success matters more than actual reality, it’s no wonder that programs like ChatGPT, that give you the end goal without the work, are so popular.

When I was in Japan, I noticed all these clear designed smoking areas, like bus shelters, and every time I leave my house I wish the UK had those. Instead of vaping all over me on a patio, get in the smoking box.

That Other Party gets enough press. If we don't want them to win, it's time that our media--and social media--spaces spend more time celebrating and talking about other parties.

I know I'm repeating itself, but it would be really nice if everyone pissed at Labour voted for ANY of the other left-leaning parties and not...the far right. It's like getting annoyed at your cable service and instead of switching companies you smash your TV instead. #election #UKelection

Say it after me: Chat GPT is not a search engine. It does not scan the web for information, it just generates statistically likely sentences. You cannot use it a search engine, or as a substitute for searching. Now. Please never use an LLM for information searches ever again.

Hosting a convention that, ostensibly, celebrates writing--which often involves research--and then doing all you can to avoid both writing and research is a hell of a choice.

Bear in mind that a large part of the push to shove AI into every orifice, even when it’s not up to par with a human, isn’t an actual desire to make your life easier. It’s to make it so that the wealthy elite don’t need to hire you anymore. Human labor is a massive expense. Machine labor isn’t.

the year is 2247. the nation of Canada has weathered centuries of triumph and hardship. every aspect of Canadian life is unrecognizable compared to life in the early 21st century. Elizabeth May has just been reelected in the Saanich—Gulf Islands riding for the 97th time.

This post still applies. #CanadaElection

While I'm overall pleased with the Canadian election result, the sheer amount of people who looked at what's going on with Trump and STILL voted Conservative is pretty revolting. Was the propaganda that good? #CanadaElection newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/fe...

just so you all know bc books are a very opaque business... any way you buy/borrow a book is fantastic, but getting hard copies is *significantly* better for the author because that number shows up in an antiquated database called BookScan that publishers prize. ebooks & audio don't.

Every time I see a one of those polls about UK voting trends, I want to pull my hair out, because why do parliamentary systems always act like there are only 2 parties? Just because you hate Labour/The Liberals doesn't mean you have to vote Tory! There are other left-leaning options!

Happy #EarthDay! The last few months have been very loud and done a lot to drown out the conversation around #climatechange. So today, it's good to remember that we still have to fight for our climate. Which in 2025 now includes fighting against #AI. #ArtificialIntelligence #antiAI

If the #AI riddled lanscape has got you down, why not check out some writing written by humans! @starburst.bsky.social is great for articles and reviews, and if it's fiction you fancy, I've got a piece about werewolves in "Issue 10" of #OFICMagazne! #anti-AI www.oficmag.com/store/p/issu...

The contradictory logic here is just...staggering. Also, what must it be like to value art so little--to be so unaffected by it that its only worth to you is monetary? Souls as hollow as their hearts.