Frances Lievens
@franceslievens.bsky.social
parent, partner, teacher, singer, cyclist, city-dweller, she/her.
Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty. Let us seek to end this inhumane and immoral practice around the world, especially here in America. It is so deplorable that in the 21st century this is going on in a modern democracy.
Fungal Misadventure: a short short story I wrote, which I've decided to tell here in the form a thread, using eleven photos I've taken of excellent fungi on my walks, and one I took of quite a fancy chicken...
This gets my vote for the best thing I've seen on the Internet today:
So many mammograms in the last year, and I hated every one of them (and also feared it, for whatever extra lump might show up). One point of light were all the techs knowing exactly what kind of ordeal it was & helping me through it.
Nnedi Okorafor, PhD@nnedi.bsky.social · last wk.I know I am not alone in saying that my relationship with mammograms is abusive. There’s a reason I rage-wrote a short story (titled “Abracadabra”) imagining better technology. Come on science, listen to this science fiction writer and make it so. This torture should not be so necessary. 😑
This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead
“Your blunt m’lord” Vintage Reuge musical dispenser IG: @estatesaleedit
“Life in the Shower” - a fun little series I started a while back and just updated! When you’re in your own shower…
Amazing. Also--you never know what will make an impact, no matter how small it seems.
TW@twesq.bsky.social · 4w agothis is fantastic and I learned something new
Thanks @lottelambrecht.bsky.social for the interview in the Belgian @standaard.be. We discuss the complex relationship between DNA, behavior, and society, racist pseudoscience from people like Nathan Cofnas & Emil Kirkegaard, and polygenic embryo selection. English: drive.google.com/file/d/1jSpH...
This is interesting. You get assigned to being born at a random place and time in history, to see what a typical person's life might have been like then. Unfortunately I was born in 1403 in the valley of Mexico and died at age 4 from dysentery.
Any Human Ever
One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived.
anyhumanever.com
this is one of my favorite visual jokes of all time. i think about it several times a week.
Quite a lot of hand-wringing could be saved if we all understood that for some people “the Establishment” means “the People who reinforce the cultural norm that racism is shameful”
Sometimes society at large rejects certain ideas because they’ve been thoroughly shown to be wrong and also because they suck and the people who espouse them suck and when someone comes around arguing those ideas should be part of some edgy modern debate we can and should shun them and move on.
I loved that film! Like Matthew says: it was Heartstopper for my generation.
Matthew Hodson@matthewhodson.bsky.social · 2mo agoI first saw Beautiful Thing in 1992 at the Bush Theatre. I was reviewing it for Capital Gay and it felt like a summer breeze - a play about young gay love where no one had AIDS and no one died. I loved it! It was Heartstopper for an earlier generation. Every generation needs a bit of queer joy.
Some of the richest people in the world want a racial caste system, and they want scholarly backing for that in the form of racist pseudoscience. And a lot of ostensibly non racist people quietly agree, and don’t like to see those who peddle that pseudoscience excluded from mainstream institutions.
This must be the third video of wonderful voices singing global scales I have seen, and each is mesmerising and has taught me things I didn't know. Such as: That these scales exist and how they, the bare backbone of tunes, reflect and unlock whole world regions' music. This is amazing.
Could bluesky be the better twitter? This man had been found in Amsterdam and he’s probably been in NL for a few decades. He might be Canadian. Share and solve?
BertjeBe@bertjebe.bsky.social · 2mo ago@seanferrick.bsky.social www.politie.nl/nieuws/2026/... (English beneath the Dutch text) "An entire life but no name: who recognizes this man?"
It’s not just raining this morning, it’s pouring & for once it does not induce a solemn state in me.
I read this book, partly because of the rave reviews on this app here, partly because I love that title and book cover (yes, I judge books by their cover) and will now urge the boyfriend to read it. It was deeply moving and I’ll probably read it again to fully grasp & appreciate the language.
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2mo agoIf anyone in the UK would like a signed one of these, direct from me, with a free linocut bookmark by my mum, give me a shout at hello@tom-cox.com. If you're outside the UK, Blackwell's will send it to you with FREE international delivery: blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...