Read it here if you haven't yet. Today is the very best day of all days to read it for the first time. short-stories.co/@raybradbury...

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

The voice-clock sang, breakfast was ejected, but no doors slammed. The garage chimed and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. The house sat alone in a city of rubble and…

short-stories.co

Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · yesterday

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

A notice from The Heraldry Society concerning William Cowley the UK's last commercial parchment and vellum maker.

Four baselines for academic conference attendance: 1) keep to your allocated speaking time. 2) everyone is clever; stand out by being warm & kind. 3) be interested in everyone equally - from postgrad to Prof to conference administrator to catering & hotel staff. 4) in Q&A, ask an actual question.

Lancaster Oxfam also have a copy of this. Unsurprisingly it's signed, as any copies of this in the Lancaster area will almost certainly have been bought directly from me. Nice of Oxfam to put it on display, anyway.

I like this notetaking example. it is a good case of how gender works. Notetaking has never been about producing a transcript. It is a bureaucratic skill in the 20th c. organixarion because it is SENSEMAKING. Those women socialized to take notes? They have been doing men’s metacognition for them

Jennifer Romig @jennifermromig.bsky.social · 4d ago

Notetaking in meetings is tiny case in point - used to be some predictable social assumptions who would do it; now anyone can offer to do ”notetaking” by turning on the AI listener. Further interesting scenario is human recollection / notes (taken by habit by a person) conflict with AI summary

Finally a toilet for people who just want a quiet place to pet their duck.

Starting to get stuck in with my teaching prep... any other useful suggestions?

Dr Naomi Jacobs@ladylark.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I am also teaching (undergraduate) #FanStudies this year, for the first time officially! What should I not forget to include?

Finally actually watched this video and this is the first good analogy of faceblindness that I've seen as a faceblind person

Elizabeth Bear@matociquala.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As a faceblind person, I found this explainer for the face-sighted on what faceblindness is like very useful. tl;dr if you come up to me out of context and I do not recognize you please don't be offended. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcj-...

Dream job for someone! www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/44...

you're not stupid for not knowing everything. that's what learning is for!

“This summer… An epic tale of betrayal and the quest for forgiveness. In a world struggling to produce enough food, one man will brave the cold to survive. PLUMS only in cinemas.”

Jesse Hawken@jessehawken.bsky.social · last wk.

Studio execs are going to want to adapt more poems for the big screen now

Would people like a light-hearted Story from the Archives? In my case, the Bodleian's special collections reading room, which was at the time in the basement of the science library. It is entitled "Why Have You Given Me This Block of Wood?"

Life goal: Get a plaque this good

If we were not passionate about the history of the world's myths and stories, if we did not see our own lives entwined and tangled with them, if we did not have strong opinions...it would be a lot of dry and crumbling work. No one would know these stories for what they are. Big entertainment.

wanted to contribute to Odyssey discourse but unfortunately nothing I could say is better commentary than bsky's post settings

My parents came for a brief visit and brought me even *more* cherries, and I had ricotta in the fridge, so fancy pie happened. (It would have looked even prettier if I hadn't dropped it taking it out of the tin, but it still tastes great)

That's a service we provide for any researchers, btw! You don't need to have an institutional affiliation or be working on an academic project. Reach out to me if you want to see 19th century clothing in person, or need pics because you're too far from western NY.

Short thread dismantling some of the frame coming out of OpenAI’s reputation/crisis management around the Hugging Face hack. ⬇️

Eryk Salvaggio@eryk.bsky.social · 2w ago

Seeding the “maybe our model is exhibiting self-awareness?” narrative to obliterate the “OpenAI is a negligent and potentially criminal actor” narrative is a reputation management move exclusive to this industry. Not a stunt, but a desperate need to control the narrative.

Good things today: - Got to start planning the fun thing at work because I've got all the less fun things to where they need to be. - Bought a kilo of good quality cherries for £4. - Went to the nice pub 300 yards from my house and had a lovely chat with friends (and some beer).

Periodic reminder that if you are being asked by a captcha to type any kind of combinations of keys & especially if they look like shortcut key stroke combinations it is an attack called ClickFix. Basically the prompt is to fool you into downloading & installing malicious software. Stay vigilant!

Nicolai von Ondarza@nvondarza.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is new and completely wierd. To proof that I am not an AI, cloudflare now wants me to enter something in the terminal, of unknown origin. Sorry, no way.

reading Le Guin’s ‘The Dispossessed’ and the description of the University is so spot on:

Morning

Odd This Day@oddthisday.bsky.social · 2w ago

Morning

You're trying to teach an alien about human musical culture. What's the first song you play them? Please reshare for maximum sample size.

Genuinely thought this bin was levitating

When you say “AI models went rogue,” you manage to skip the part where OpenAI manually removed its cybersecurity blocks and ran tests on a machine with a live network connection. Remember that when they insist they’re the “AI safety” people.

I'm looking for an artist/illustrator to work on a project, you need to be a fan of the band Pulp. Paid work of course. You can contact me at James at Errington dot UK if you're interested.

Yes, ha ha ha, YES

This is wonderful. I absolutely hooted when I got to the second screenshot. And yes, this term should be (quite literally) common currency.

Boots@bootsmcgoot.bsky.social · 2w ago

I will be thinking about Angrypennies forever

This was published today in 1969 While Apollo 11 was on it s way to the moon Greatest correction ever

HAPPY MOON DAY MONDAY!

This Many Years Ago@thismanyyearsago.bsky.social · 2w ago

57 years ago, on the 20th of July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon, as part of the Apollo 11 mission. The last time humans were on the moon was in 1972. #otd #history 🗃️