This is why I won’t read your Substack, people.

I try not to overdo this bit but ... my man is begging for it. Let's go.

It’s not a little guy who is looking things up for you! It’s a computer that is processing the frequency of words in (stolen) text on the Internet and then doing a math problem to create an average. That’s all it can ever be!

i first met sam neill in the late 80's on the set of jeremy brett's sherlock holmes. i think it was manchester studios. he and jeremy were pals. i was moving a light wi'out gloves cause i'm a tosser. i burned my hand. yelled "FUCK!" jeremy came right over, sam (who was visiting) in tow. (1/4)

truly the party of cookers

when politicians talk about using AI for things they actually mean magic "we're going to improve productivity using magic" "we're going to improve the health system using magic"

I see people blaming like... dumb readings of movies on "the literacy crisis." I dunno man!! I think most people are often bad at understanding art, but historically we heard the voices of professional critics and now we hear the voices of everyone on earth at once.

A lot of people are doing testosterone explainers, but you should read the one written by a trans man.

the great truth of New Zealand journalism is that it will elevate the most objectionable shitheels imaginable, the sort of insufferable people who you leave parties to avoid, and will then form an orderly queue with shining eyes to lick their boots

Take a movie title, add a colon and another movie's title to make it SOUND like a sequel to the first movie! Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: The Lighthouse Backrooms: Belly of an Architect Stalker: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

The 13th annual international Gender Census 2026 is now open until at least 13th August 2026! survey.gendercensus.com It's for anyone whose gender (or lack thereof) isn't described by the M/F binary. It's short and easy, and results are useful in academia, business and self-advocacy. #LGBTQ

unspeakable horror

📢 Kākāpō, takahē, shore plover, black stilt and the critically endangered orange-fronted parakeetare will receive the vaccine.

🙃. Find it baffling that none of the govt's messaging on this mentions risks to native manu. Yes, the human health issue is particularly important, but going from that to worrying about poultry farms with nary a mention of our precious, precarious species is revealing of govt's priorities.

I am vigilanting for the guy

TIL that redshirting children is a sports-derived term that means means holding them back a year in education, not sending them to an alien planet to die as cannon fodder, and uh I probably owe some people an apology for judging their parenting now...

But the headline highlight has to be from Victoria Casey KC, PATHA's counsel: "if the facts were known, stripped of misinformation and prejudice, the imposition of this ban would shock the conscience of the nation."

If anyone wants a ZX81, there's one coming up for auction week after next in Lower Hutt. www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1...

Objectivity is held up as a journalistic ideal. But today in the U.S., it serves as an excuse for cowardice and neglect of duty. Media neutrality in the face of a fascist assault on our freedom is ethically indefensible. As Elie Wiesel put it: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim."

Saw a post recently calling Amanda Palmer "Steampunk Ghislaine Maxwell."

You can find this on YouTube and it’s an incredible introduction to Kiwi cinema. What a man. What a life.

I’ve been on a bit of a binge recently watching horror films that I’d never got around to seeing before, and a few hours ago I decided to watch Event Horizon. Then I check back on social media and…oh no.

Absolute bullshit that we live in a world where we get to hear Winston Peters' remarks on Sam Neill's passing rather than the other way round.

Victoria, our lawyer, started this morning with words from the people who most often don't get to speak about these decisions - trans rangatahi and their whānau. There's some incredibly brave and proud rakatahi across Aotearoa who have lent their voices to this case and I'm eternally grateful.

This is how I met Kevan Verry: newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/13/m...

I’ve just found out that Jane Schoenbrun will be directing the cast of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” in a live reading of Secretary. Some of you may be interested to know that Gillian Anderson will be playing James Spader’s role. www.indiewire.com/news/general...

Hell yeah. You had me at “drug-infested,” baby

A screaming comes across the sky.

"The notion was to cut a crude V into the sprawl of the city, to vandalise dormant energies by an act of ambulant signmaking."

The publishing industry views Bluesky as some tiny unimportant island out somewhere in a far-off ocean. It's not worthy of their attention like Amazon Algoland or The Republic Of Instagram Influencer Collaborativepost is. What they don't realise is just how much the island's inhabitants love books.

Look as a trans person who has processed thousands of submissions as well as hundreds of OIAs, LGOIMAs, letters to the minister etc please do give parliamentary staff a chance to process these submissions before getting worked up. Just because the government sucks doesn’t mean public servants do.

In the olden days if a bloke didn’t want to mow the lawn, he’d pay a local teenager to do it. The money stayed in the economy because they’d spend it locally on rock and roll records and cigarettes. Nowadays you buy a robot from China and send the money overseas. Progress, I suppose.

I spoke to Mitch McConnell for twenty minutes this morning. He said “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.”

Preprint available from my publications page: faculty.washington.edu/ebender/publ...

When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...

The problem with protecting dirty cops is that when they're eventually exposed, you have to do this. Because their work just can't be trusted. And there may be convictions which need to be overturned as well, which will be hampered by police secrecy about who it is. www.rnz.co.nz/news/crime-a...

I watched this last night based on this review, and it seemed tailor-made for me! Slow burn cryptic Machen/Garneresque Celtic folk horror, beautifully shot and with astounding sound design. One of the protagonists was clearly based on Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram!

i love some weird trees #art

The severe thunderstorms in DC have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever.

Fresh on the shelves: 11 new books worth checking out

On 13-15 July the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa’s judicial review against the Minister of Health will be heard in Wellington High Court. Join us in the court room to support PATHA as they fight for our community  www.wellingtonpridefestival.com/news-1/patha...

I am this cat

Leo is being the See he wants to change in the world. ... I'll get my coat.

🎶 Bug powder dust and mugwump schism…

It is a small child clomping about in mummy's high heels: wearing the costume of science, understanding nothing of what it means, and expecting to be taken seriously.

The three genders: Rum Sodomy The lash

the three genders bondage needle play electricity