Merry Christmas, Bluesky! 😊🎄Whether you're celebrating or not, I hope everyone has a lovely and restful day.

via The New Yorker, Ellis Rosen cartoon

2025 is set to be the UK's hottest since records began. Scientists are clear that changes to our climate are unprecedented and the result of burning fossil fuels. The government's climate policies must be led by the science, not by climate deniers and their friends from the fossil-fuel lobby.

I absolutely hate the "This strike is happening at an inconvenient time!" rhetoric that comes from both politicians and the public every time a union goes on strike. It happened last year with #CanadaPost and is happening this year with UK doctors. Yes. It's inconvenient. That is the whole point.

I don't think I truly realised just how many films Rob Reiner made--just how much of an impact he had on cinema. This is such a loss.

The answer to @theguardian.com is obviously YES. If you're sick, wear a mask so you don't spread it around. Better yet, don't go out if you don't have to. Recuperate at home. Not giving other people your illness is just basic common decency, not radical thinking.

A part of my neighbour's tree fell off last night in the storm, and this morning, they cut the whole thing down. Really hoping there was genuinely something wrong with the rest of the tree to justify it. It was one of the few mature (evergreen!) trees in the neighbourhood. A massive loss.

Gonna give this a go. #AI #antiAI #artificialintellgience #antiartificialintellgience

On the one hand, Warner Bros. keeps cancelling films, etc., in the name of "cost cutting", so different people at the helm isn't a bad thing. On the other...we all remember that the studio system collapsed, right?

I love thrift shopping, but the poor communication and lack of measurements in clothing listings really tests that. If you're not going to reply to messages, please just...tell me the measuremnts upfront. "Large" means nothing to me. Especially in women's clothing.

Just in time for the holidays, it's a new @starburst.bsky.social! In my Book Wormhole column, I take a look at a #weridfiction classic: Gertrude Barrows Bennett's "Claimed!" (exclamation mark mandatory). Meanwhile, over in our 1001 Films Feature, I spotlight the Japanese horror film #Reincarnation.

Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88

Missing an issue of STARBURST MAGAZINE? Check out our Black Friday sale to save 70% off any of our 200+ back issues! Store: starburstmagazine.store *Discount automatically applied at checkout. Offer lasts until Dec 1st

With subscriber copies currently dropping through the letterboxes of our UK readers, the Winter edition of STARBURST is now available to order through our official store ahead of its Nov 28th street date! For more info and to purchase a copy, visit: starburstmagazine.store/products/sta...

This #Cloudflare outage is annoying, but it apparently took down ChatGPT, so at least there's a silver lining.

Having a good chunk of the internet tethered to one website was probably not the best idea, was it? #cloudflare

Was researching planners for work, and my #stationery world hot take is that these coveted planners wouldn't sell out so quickly if people realised that half the time, they don't need a planner--they need a notebook.

Haha yesss. Japanese copyright law doesn't fuck around. Since I get challenged on this a lot: U.S. and Japan are both Berne Convention signatories, meaning the copyright is recognized between countries. They CAN go after American companies. And they are. And I love it. variety.com/2025/digital...

The Gulf Coast is home to one of the last healthy coral reefs. It’s surrounded by oil. grist.org/video/coral-... #Coral #Climate #Ocean #Science

Trans rights is a winning platform. Pro immigration is a winning platform. Taxing the rich is a winning platform. Affordable housing is a winning platform. Free childcare is a winning platform. Hating Andrew Cuomo is a winning platform. SOCIALISM IS A WINNING PLATFORM

I love Mundane Halloween.

Finally watched #TheSubstance last night, and after all the hype, I was disappointed to discover that I just thought it was...good. A more dramatic take on "Death Becomes Her", with a dash of "Perfect Blue", although I would argue "Perfect Blue" tackled its themes of exploitation better.

I don't post much about my writing outside of what gets published, but today I closed out the last of my outstanding agent sumbissions for The Novel. It's ended with more of a whimper than a bang, but 70+ submissions was a pretty good run. #writing #WritingCommunity #fiction #books

Corals are disappearing, pushing Earth to its first major ‘tipping point’ A new report says Earth has reached a dire milestone with the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs. But it's not too late to save what remains. grist.org/oceans/coral... #Coral #Ocean #Environment #Climate #Science

From Afrofuturism to ecotopia: A climate-fiction glossary Find the climate-fiction genre that inspires you. grist.org/fix/climate-... #Solarpunk #ClimateFiction #Fiction #BookSky #Afrofuturism #Solarpunk

What an absolute treasure Diane Keaton was. Her wit never tired, nor did her style.

Diane Keaton has passed away at the age of 79

Ireland declaring a permanent universal basic income for artists is the validation creators need — how VITAL our work is. The monetary, cultural, & intrinsic value of art is palpable. THIS is reputable proof of that. How much better would societies run if EVERYONE had a UBI?! It’d be life-changing.

YES. I am SO happy about this! Making sure people's basic needs are met only benefits society. Hopefully other countries will adopt this and it will be another step in the direction of a #UniversalBasicIncome #UBI. #art

The reason the Right are so invested in the myth that the arts have no value isn’t because the arts don’t generate wealth (they do); it’s that studying the arts teaches people to imagine better ways of judging the value of an idea than by counting how much money it makes…

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

In other news, I started watching "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" over the weekend, but two episodes in, I'm not sure I'll continue. I was really enjoying it, but I was totally repulsed when they cut to 1959 and Alfred Hitchcock started explaining the story to me. #horror #MonsterTheEdGeinStory

The amount of resources we're using to avoid having to pay a human being or use our brains is unconscionable. #AI #antiAI #artificialintelligence #antiartificialintelligence

The Green Party of England & Wales' new housing policy: "Green Party policy is to seek the effective abolition of Private Landlordism." "The Green Party believes the existence of Private Landlords adds no positive value to the economy or society."

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...