Not only would I not care if AI vanished overnight, I wouldn't even NOTICE.

Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 9h ago

My answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.

Here is a starter pack of people and organizations working for trans rights in the UK, plus people who regularly post on the topic. The UK press is hopelessly anti-trans, so give these folks a boost: bsky.app/starter-pack...

The narrow, high-banked path that carves a channel through the boneyard of St. Urian’s at Wormford is notoriously ghost-soaked. We would expect nothing less for a old wraith way, yet it has a pleasing diversity of phantoms: giant spiders made of smoke; flaming wheels; floating pillars of blue light.

The "Golden Man" is the name given to an unknown individual discovered in a burial mound in eastern Scythia just north of Sogdiana, buried with warrior's equipment, and assorted funerary goods, including 4,000 gold ornaments. #CelebratingWomen

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 245: Read outside your comfort zone. If you're writing fiction, try also reading non-fiction: science books, medical journals, political biographies, psychology texts. The more you read outside your genre, the better you'll be within it.

Hurrah it is Wednesday and the weasels are dancing as always! A bit of Disorder and Joy Division today. The weasels are off on their hols for the next 2 Wednesdays and not sure if we’ll have a signal to post, so maybe see you, but if not, don’t forget to dance like a weasel, you know you want to!!

Two very noisy cock pheasants, just under my window…

Its maddening that so many people cannot join the dots to see the swastika forming over the UK. Rises in hate crime are across the board because hate is being weaponised to exploit us. Trans segregation is inextricable from this. Its all the same fascism. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

NHS radiographers report rise in overt racist abuse by patients

Survey reveals medics were called ‘monkeys’ and ‘dirty foreigners’, and patients refused to be seen by black or Asian staff

theguardian.com

Corn dollies or corn mothers are a form of traditional European straw work made as a harvest custom. Various scholars have theorized that they began as a pagan ritual to give the spirit of the grain a place to live for the winter after the harvest made it temporarily homeless. #WyrdWednesday

And this morning the Shed is an earthen bowl, filled with sunwarmed blackberries…

"Today is August 4, 2026" There Will Come Soft Rains By: Ray Bradbury

Soft rains for Mr Bradbury…

Here's something nice: A NARROW DOOR for just 99p on Kindle UK for the whole of August! www.amazon.co.uk/Narrow-Door-...

good lord though "Blasts during the fires, initially thought to be exploding gas cylinders, may have been World War Two explosives detonated by the heat, the local fire commander told local media." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

France wildfires reveal hundreds of WW2 shells in village

Explosions heard in Le Porge as the wildfires raged are believed to have have been the old munitions.

bbc.co.uk

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 47: Here's an experiment to try: Take a paragraph of your WIP. Highlight the most important word in each sentence. Now try rewriting with the important words at the very end of the sentences. Look at the difference it makes each way, and the way it affects emphasis.

And this morning the Shed is an undersea cave, with stalactites of coral and a floor of polished sea glass…

Creepy tennis ball image, no. 2.

Also a reminder that bullshit transphobic panic damages cis women and children as well.

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

Claudia Severa (born 11 September in the first century) was a literate Roman woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda fort in northern England. #CelebratingWomen

A sensible govt would be putting ALL of their resources into this.

Suw@suw.bsky.social · 3d ago

Crops grown underneath solar panels produce more, require less water and are more resistant to extreme weather, even during a hot, dry summer. We need agrivoltaics to be rolled out asap, for both the electricity and the better growing conditions. microgridmedia.com/solar-panels...

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 301: Here's an exercise to try. Try writing your sentences like this, in isolation. It will make your brain think differently about the way in which you use language. It might give you some insights about your habitual sentence length, and how to vary your cadences.

And this morning the Shed is the smallest hint of a heathaze on the horizon...

Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1427- 1482) was an Italian writer and influential political adviser. #CelebratingWomen

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 61: Readers don’t relate to characters because they’re attractive; they relate to them because they recognise a shared experience. So give your characters hobbies; pets; watch them eat food; make them fall in love; worry about their jobs; their kids. Make them human.

Yeah, Kat Tenbarge was much nicer to Jack Osbourne than I would have been, I would have just told him to go fuck himself. Also, if you're going to accuse a writer or journalist of using "AI" on the basis of em dashes, absolutely positively go fuck yourself.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 4d ago

So I woke up this morning to find out that Ozzy Osbourne’s son made a video falsely accusing me of using AI to write a Rolling Stone article about the Tate brothers.

I suggest something similar to those to my students and, like the author, couch it (pun intended) in the same terms. Building up to extended, distraction-free reading the way you might build up a running or other exercise routine. We are getting worse at this, 1/ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Could a couch-to-5k for books get you back into reading?

With smartphones stealing our attention, we’re picking up fewer books than ever. A novelist shares her eight-week scheme to get you back into the habit

theguardian.com

Why is it always”sloe-black”? Sloes are clearly blue…

What Charlie said.

Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 4d ago

New blog entry: On the non-use of AI in my writing process: www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...

‘More than just objects’: Australian book sellers raise alarm over ‘horrific’ destruction of rare titles to feed AI

‘More than just objects’: Australian book sellers raise alarm over ‘horrific’ destruction of rare titles to feed AI

Secondhand booksellers believe they may have been caught up in the AI supply chain that sees old books scanned then destroyed

theguardian.com

And this morning the Shed is a teasel, head-high, gilded in the meadow...