Abe & Eddie
@abdecker.bsky.social
Raised in Devon close to the sea, now landlocked in Switzerland, I write fiction for adults & children and translate. Website: https://abdecker-skinner-books.com/
It's worth reading both the thread and the comments. 👇
Paul Bernal@paulbernal.bsky.social · 2d agoThe new CEO of Bluesky wants to change Bluesky from being a leftist bubble. The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with being a leftist bubble: the idea that everything has to be all-encompassing and suitable for everyone is a trap. 🧵 1/4
Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.
There Will Come Soft Rains Ray Bradbury wrote a story set on August 4th 2026 (today’s date). It was the first Bradbury I ever read and it’s one of his finest. Here it is read very nicely. youtu.be/bEjZxh_rYXk?...
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury (Full Audiobook w/ Text)
YouTube video by Readman Reads
youtu.be
Vor rund 2 Wochen sprach Friedrich Merz angesichts der enormen Hitzewelle von "Wetterentwicklung". Klimaforscher: "Wenn man hier von Wetter spricht, dann zeigt das, dass man das Problem noch gar nicht internalisiert hat und noch gar nicht anerkannt hat, dass wir überhaupt ein Problem haben."
Trump is just like any other authoritarian leader: he needs to be feared. The longer the world gives him what he needs, the greater the disaster that awaits us all. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Trump’s hypocritical new tariffs are a chance for the world to fight back | Joseph Stiglitz
The president’s pretext of stopping forced labour is only a ruse – he is trying to grab a share of global trade for the US
theguardian.com
Joan Baez painted a portrait of Dr. Fauci August 2020, featuring the word "TRUST" as a tribute to his scientific truth-telling during the COVID-19 pandemic. The viral artwork became part of her Mischief Makers 2 art exhibit and sparked a lasting personal friendship between the two.
Huge billboard on the side of a building in Germany “Do the right thing“
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Europe is burning – and if Trump’s war on the climate is not met with sanctions, things will only get worse | Alexander Hurst
The White House seems committed to ecocide. The EU should harness the power of the single market to force it to change course, says Guardian Europe writer Alexander Hurst
theguardian.com
The point isn't to produce essays, it's to teach students how to think for fuck's sake. The minute you automate that, it's over. You might as well close the course. Which they're also doing. This is an attack on learning, and everyone is just shrugging.
Full of despair today. Massive lay offs in social sciences and humanities across the country, Burnham puts out a video saying 'AI can write an essay', and my university is busy integrating co-pilot into all staff and student computers. We are being told we're defunct and there's no resistance.
1/2 We keep folding laundry, buying soap, watering plants, answering emails. - Not because the world is at peace, but because life insists on continuing even while history is shouting. Survival is built from ordinary moments.
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.Good grief, this hits home.
This article quotes from an Andrew McMillan poem, in which the poet chooses the awkwardly transitive “laying” over the intransitive “lying”. I just wonder why, especially as “lying” offers a delicious ambiguity that would perfectly fit the context of the poem www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Why does everything feel so joyless? Welcome to the age of decadence without pleasure | Michèle Mendelssohn and Charlie Tyson
Decadence in our era comes in technologically mediated forms, emptied of desire and obsessed with self-optimisation
theguardian.com
So, celebrities are now toting books wherever they go, showing that it's sexy to be bookish - is this creating "a new, exclusionary barrier around literary culture – you must be hot to take part"? www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
The rise of the ‘hot literati’: how reading became sexy
Celebrities are hosting literary clubs and designers are launching products emblazoned with the classics – but does reading’s trendy turn have a darker side?
theguardian.com
If you ever want to give an author whose book you've loved a magical free gift, recommend their book to someone.
Juliet E McKenna@julietemckenna.bsky.social · 2w agoWord of mouth, personal recommendation, was the first and remains the best way for authors to reach new readers long-term. New readers helps us carry on writing new books for everyone.
I feel like a broken record when I say that the future is now, climate-wise. The best time to act was decades ago, the second best time is today. If only those with power cared about the rest of us. www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfir...
Wildfires expose millions in Midwest, Northeast to dangerous smoke: "Perfect storm for really dry conditions"
Heavy smoke from several large wildfires blazing in Canada and Minnesota is expected to engulf large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. this week.
cbsnews.com
‘I felt Holden was talking to me alone’: The Catcher in the Rye at 75 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
‘I felt Holden was talking to me alone’: The Catcher in the Rye at 75
JD Salinger’s wry, subversive classic inspired novelist Joseph O’Connor to be a writer. He reflects on why this story of a disaffected teenager remains as fresh and transgressive as ever
theguardian.com
This is a side to Edvard Munch that I was not aware of. A visit to Oslo would seem to be on the cards. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory: the bitter truth behind the Freia frieze
New exhibition in Oslo connects artist’s 1922 public work with the history of cocoa, the labour movement and women’s emancipation
theguardian.com
A classicist’s verdict on Nolan’s Odyssey: a soulful hero flatters our times as women and nuance pushed overboard www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju...
A classicist’s verdict on Nolan’s Odyssey: a soulful hero flatters our times as women and nuance pushed overboard
Matt Damon’s sensitive and repentant Odysseus might come as a surprise to Homer, likewise some significant omissions concerning the poem’s female characters
theguardian.com
The most beautiful act of resistance I’ve seen: Madrid tenants fighting landlords with art It was a spectacular theatrical performance of everyday existence, but also a fight for their lives. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The most beautiful act of resistance I’ve seen: Madrid tenants fighting landlords with art | Leah Pattem
When an investment fund bought their building, the residents of Tribulete 7 protested in the only way they knew how – through radical creativity, says multimedia journalist Leah Pattem
theguardian.com
"When we sell our minds too cheaply to our machines, we not only overestimate them, we underestimate ourselves" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth
Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...
theguardian.com
