Had minor dental surgery on Monday afternoon (not as bad as I feared but definitely something I want to never do again!). Spent yesterday feeling properly *beat up* after it. Oooof. *Much* improved today though.

New essay now online: "EATING THE FUTURE: The Metabolic Logic of AI Slop." AI consumes planetary resources and excretes slop, polluting environmental & information ecologies. It's a new metabolic rift - disrupting the cycles that sustain both humans and AI alike. www.e-flux.com/architecture...

I wrote a thing a little while back for my side-hustle's blog. It's mostly about my own struggles, but it's got some advice you might find helpful on defeating the negative asshole voices in your head. IDK who might need to hear this today. bibliotta.com/musings/the-...

Neil Jordan criticism starter pack...

Finland is ready for the next crisis, with stockpiled food and 72-hour kits – Europe should be too | Miika Ilomäki

This is a really wonderful article 🚀

Want to survive the end of the world? Want *humanity* to survive its own stupidity? Get better at caring about other people, both theoretically and practically.

Interzone #303 is out - fiction, non-fiction, and all points West. Plus reviews and an instalment of Roger Zelazny: American Psychopomp* by ME. Cancel your Disney subscription and support your local Interzone! shop.interzone.press/b/E76yw * We didn't call it that. But we should have.

More turning golf courses into forests, please! 🌳

Interzone #303 is out today with all sorts of treasures, including my latest column on rereading the Library of America edition of Le Guin! shop.interzone.press/b/E76yw

Interzone #303 drops today w a lovely review of *Spec Fic for Newbies 2* (thank you, @alexanderglass.bsky.social!). Check out the issue here: shop.interzone.press/b/E76yw Also includes my review of Paul Kincaid's *Colourfields* + the 10th (!) instalment of my Folded Spaces column about SF criticism!

Oh no I just had an editor ask me to "avoid semicolons and em dashes" YOU WILL TAKE MY SEMICOLONS FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS

Writing a Science Fiction story? 😀 Check out the SF subgenres and tropes covered in *Spec Fic for Newbies 2*, the second stand-alone volume of the multi-award-nominated writing guide series published by @lunapress.bsky.social! Find a range of purchasing options here: linktr.ee/specficforne...

Let's be blunt. Independent Ireland asking that a minute's silence be held in the Irish parliament for the fascist political agitatorKirk, shows them up either as fascists or as useful idiots for fascists. Kirk was not a good person. He wanted to hurt people. He was a fascist. ##IrishPolitics

I wish more people would call this what it is: a lie/scam to increase unpaid labour. Management know many of us won’t give crap feedback, so instead we work evenings/weekends or let other work slip. Their spreadsheet is happy, students still get decent feedback. All the burden is on the Lecturer.

Ugh, the "Independent Ireland" party really are the pits. Ashamed to have one of them in our constituency.

Friends and friendlies on here: don't stop talking about your lives and joys. I know some folk are quiet or staying away what with *everything* but posts about cats and books and funny shaped puddles are essential to us getting through it. And shouldn't be drowned out by the fash.

Getting similar vibes from the Tron: Ares trailer, if I'm to be honest about it.

Had four hours of driving back-and-forth across the country yesterday, so I put on the Hamilton cast recording for the first time in ages. Still such an absolute *electrifying* show.

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Wonderful afternoon today speaking to participants at the Tullamore mini Comic-Con about Mad Scientist stories! A fantastic event organized by the excellent library staff there!

This is an *exceptional* animal! 🐾

Controversial opinion, but I think trans people should feel safe here on bluesky, and nazis shouldn't.

Baby's first trilogy finally together. 😊

Is it a bird...? Is it a plane...? No, it's... ...Wario?!

Muting a certain hate figure's name on here because, FFS, there's no need to be swimming in a sea of photos of a smirking racist/homophobe/misogynist/transphobe. Ugh.

Governments have a responsibility to safeguard their ppl. That's why they're in place. Hate speech should have no place in government. To represent the ppl should mean ALL the ppl. And western media needs serious reform on this score as a matter of life and death.

Oh, it’s the 85th anniversary of the discovery of the cave paintings at Lascaux! We visited over the summer.

👻 The enduring allure of ghost hunting is explored in a new book published by Dr Alice Vernon today. 🖱️ tinyurl.com/yzs9fxfz @alicevernon10.bsky.social #ghost #ghosts #paranormal #ghosthunting

Is it too late for a constitutional referendum to change the description of the president so that it always has to be a convention-defying academic from the west of Ireland? 😂 That way we might get the likes of a Micheline Sheehy Skeffington or a Catherine Corless on the ballot!

Over the weekend we went to Doom Slice on Dame Lane in Dublin and... I don't want to oversell it, but ******* this might be the *best* pizza I've ever had! Detroit-style pizza hidden in Dublin City center. Run, don’t walk; it is genuinely *phenomenal*!

We have had another update...

Elon Musk needs to stay out of Irish politics (and, indeed, out of politics full stop).

More and more thinking we should get Ian McEwan a copy of Spec Fic for Newbies 😂 Find out how to get your copy here: linktr.ee/specficforne...

Alternative history SF novel where Y2K is as bad as people feared, Silicon Valley tech corporations never recover, and we reach utopia.

Been a while since I updated my rotating model display, so here we go... The theme this time is Federation starbases and space stations (as always: not to scale)! 🖖

Very much ready for the every-random-person-tries-to-run-for-president silly season to be over. Can we just pick another poet and be done with it?

Actual footage from the family WhatsApp...

Really telling that the villain of every new franchise instalment these days - Superman; Alien: Earth; the new NCIS show, I guess? - is always Elon Musk.

Prospect magazine has dropped its paywall for the first few days of September, which means that among other things you can now access Kaliane Bradley's prize-winning short story, "Doggerland". www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/6081...

The movies don't really get into it, but it's worth remembering that Denethor went crazy because he spent too much time doomscrolling on the Palantír and it cooked his brain

"By using GenAI to shortcut the learning process, students undermine the very thinking skills that make them both human and intelligent [...] chatbots also flatten and homogenise diverse student voices and perspectives, replacing them with a superficial, generic, simulation of humanity..."

While @vallescurarule.bsky.social and I work on Vol 3 (coming next Easter!), how about a look back at the SF covered in Vol 1? SPEC FIC FOR NEWBIES aims to give you everything you need to jump into writing a new (to you) subgenre or trope (along with silly jokes & puns!): linktr.ee/specficforne...

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The new Del Toro movie reminds me that back on twitter once I offered the Irish for Frankenstein as being Pronsiasaighainstaighan. Mixed reactions.

Heading back to school or uni? Beam aboard your own SF, Fantasy, & Horror classroom with *Spec Fic For Newbies* vols 1&2 (@lunapress.bsky.social) 😀 Brimming with genre histories, tropes to explore, and prompts to get you writing! Find a range of purchasing options here: linktr.ee/specficforne...

What a truly awesome detail! Very cool to have the Chessmen on Trek. We were lucky enough to visit the Outer Hebrides this summer and saw the real things in the Stornoway Museum. Amazing objects! Plus the extent to which they have been embraced by the islanders with many fun replicas is delightful 😀

Yoooo this is now!

I love that part of any project where I get to riff about Hyperobjects for a bit 😂

How many alien abduction stories are just people who woke up in a modernist apartment...? 👽 😂