The money we spend in this country on books, music streaming, physical media music, cinema, tv/movie streaming, theatre, live comedy, live music, dance, opera, exhibitions, video games and Patreons for various audio and visual media is £2.5 BILLION per MONTH. Per MONTH!!!

Annalisa Nicholson@apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · 16h ago

It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.

If you fancy a sudden outburst of emotion then listen to this beautifully simple song from Labi Siffre. Bless The Telephone 1972. I bubbled like a fool.

I just think that if you're of the opinion that millions of people are in the wrong for refusing to vote for someone who has outright stated that they plan on taking even more of their rights away instead of pushing for candidates to not take those rights away, you're a monstrous piece of shit

More things wot I wrote about that music festival I went to

EchoesAndDust@echoesanddust.com · 14h ago

Festival Review | @atgfestival.bsky.social• Part 2 – Fri–Sat BRUIT ≤ made quite a noise, Oathbreaker stayed true to their word, and Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas (📷Joe Singh) were life changing. By @laidbackinsong.bsky.social and @westcountryboy78.bsky.social . echoes.s.gy/arct26-part2

Guess I'm Gonna Be 500 Miles away from them then.

Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2d ago

So this is where the Proclaimers are at now

The number of wonderful things we could have if they weren't held hostage by an executive caste who feel they're not getting sufficiently wanked off

My old man's a thermos He wears a thermostat

RIP Charlie Kirk. Your PEZ despenser cosplay was ahead of its time </3

If you live in Wales or the UK, please sign the petition to unfreeze gender affirming surgeries in Wales. Every signature counts. 🩵🩷🤍 petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/24...

Petition: Immediately unfreeze gender-affirming surgeries and protect NHS Welsh Gender Service patients.

We call on the Senedd and Welsh Government to direct the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (NWJCC) to: Immediately unfreeze scheduled and approved gender-affirming surgeries for patients who ha...

petitions.senedd.wales

Jackson Lamb IS: James Bond; Off License To Kill

One aspect of being an adult is realizing that big toys have to be maintained, and knowing that fact recontextualizes the desire for the big toy. If I have a sudden desire for a deeply impractical sports car, I'll rent one for a week, which is enough time to enjoy it without any further obligation.

@iplayguitarbad.bsky.social · 2d ago

For me, realizing that I can enjoy things like sports cars and other expensive toys from a distance without actually desiring them was freeing. I think they're cool, I like that they exist and that I can look at them sometimes, but I have no desire to live with them.

If six more people play this, my first ever game will have had *ten thousand* browser plays in less than a year. That feels pretty good for a purely text-based thing made by a man who has never touched the software before. If you haven't, please do give it a try. brainmage.itch.io/i-will-stran...

i will strangle a horse by BRAINMAGE

An award-winning comedy choose-your-own-adventure game where it's your first day on The Farm, and you have One Job

brainmage.itch.io

This thread is excellent. Puts into beautiful words why genAI is so off-putting. For my own part: if I wanted to press a button to get a result, I would go to a vending machine.

s. e. smith@sesmith.lol · 4d ago

All else aside there is nothing I want or need genAI to do for me. I like reading. I like doing research. I like playing around in spreadsheets. I like interviewing people. I like writing. I like doing these things for myself because I take pleasure in the doing and they make me a better thinker.

[handing a picture of a very healthy person to my doctor] so I was thinking something like this

Few people are willing to stand up and speak the truth these days, but I'll say it: books are good.

Refusing to use AI isn’t a recalcitrant position. It’s the moral one. There is too much wrong with how this is happening to just “if you can’t beat em join em” this. It’s a lack of consent machine. An environmental destruction machine. An emotional and cognitive numbing machine.

Can you imagine being approved for a surgery, waiting years for the appointment, and when they day comes you finally meet the surgeon - it's cancelled by a subcommittee which has decided too many people in your country want the surgery.

QueerAF@wearequeeraf.com · 5d ago

“My whole life has been on pause as I work on getting this sorted and at the last possible moment it feels like it's been wrenched away without warning."

"Oh but it didn't FEEL like he ran those marathons" "But tinned g&ts on the HS1 doesn't FEEL fashy" "That dodgy poll funded by reform FELT legit" "It FEELS like Al, Alex & their rhyming kids can't go on 5 holidays bc of boarding school VAT" "It FEELS like that school has a litter box for furries"

After another shower of cowards tried to campaign on Facebook for people to stop donating to the RNLI when they discovered that they don't ask to see your passport when rescuing you if you're drowning in the sea, I started a monthly donation. You might want to do the same. Or just a one off.

Dr Jo Kershaw@mthrjo.bsky.social · 5d ago

The RNLI have some of the best people in Britain volunteering for them. They put their lives on the line when they are called on and they will rescue anyone who needs them. Because every life matters, and offering help is the right thing to do. You can donate here: rnli.org

every job deserves comfort, dignity and safety! 🫡

💣 Harley vs Kara ❤️

I love re-upping this: for decades the main library at UCLA had the generic name University Research Library because the person most responsible for getting it built was an English professor named Hugh G. Dick and the university refused to name it after him.

Katelyn Burns@katelynburns.com · last wk.

Tell me a fun fact.

If 70 more people play this, my first ever game will have been played TEN THOUSAND TIMES! AAAAAAA!!!

Brainmage.itch.io@brainmage.bsky.social · 2w ago

Have you played the game I wrote? I wrote a game! It's free to play! 18,000+ words of comedy choose-your-own-adventure nonsense! It won an award! You will die MANY times and ALL of them will be daft! Also, if you're rich, you CAN pay for it! What more do you want? brainmage.itch.io/i-will-stran...

It's very important to Elon for his chatbot to be a pedophile

Louis 〓〓@louishenwood.bsky.social · 7d ago

Elon Musk lost his attempt to block a bill banning his Grok AI from making nude pedo images

This is my new favorite women's basketball photo, showing Paige Bueckers (6'0") and Zhang Ziyu (7'4"). Please note two things: - Bueckers doing the IRL "😳" face - That both of these women are significantly taller than the average for cis women, yet both are cisgender

thank you lesbian tractor witch

I didn't even know it was humanly possible to get a burn from Chess dot com

Razzball@razzball.bsky.social · last wk.

lol

I feel like the addendum to Rule 34 is that you're never more than one badly phrased search result or alternatively four clicks away from encountering it

There’s a species of shark called the ninja lanternshark. It glows in the dark, like all lantern sharks. It’s called ninja because the scientist who discovered it was explaining her discovery to family at Thanksgiving and then her young cousin shouted “ninjas are cool, call it the ninja shark!”

Katelyn Burns@katelynburns.com · last wk.

Tell me a fun fact.

Saw this attack in the wild for the first time, in a purported ebooks site claiming to be using Cloudflare. I expect many (most?) of you use Linux or Macs, but just in case: This is trying to get you to run a Windows program that will infect your computer. If you ever see this, run away fast.