Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" is set today, August 4, 2026, in Allendale, California. A voice-clock chirps the time, the stove makes breakfast for eight, and the house keeps running for a family that's no longer there.
A 50-year-old short story written for today
This just in from reader Theophrastvs: "here's a portentous calendricular note/post for today (only) Bradbury ~May 1950 wrote a short story about robotic assistants doing the daily choirs for an…
boingboing.net
In a similar railings/fencing vein, there used to be a lot of railings in London made of metal stretchers left over from WW2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch...
Stretcher railing - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The Strange Horizons Fund Drive ends in 4 days! Increasing 2027 fiction rates to 9c/word is just $1520 away! You can still fund a poem, review or short story directly or secure one of our Fund Drive patches. If you've already donated, please share widely! Link ⬇️ www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
Mr Baxter told how Mr Bailey was arrested on meeting his lover at immigration (where authorities watched to destroy gay men). An actor he knew, before even the unequal partial decriminalisation I grew up with, imprisoned for being gay. This evil is still in living memory for some.
We could all use some good news these days Ghana cut malaria deaths by 86%!!! And they followed science and good public health policies healthpolicy-watch.news/how-ghana-sl...
How Ghana Slashed Child Malaria Deaths By 86% - Health Policy Watch
For decades, malaria has been one of Africa's most persistent health challenges. In Ghana, it was once the leading cause of death for children under five. Bed
healthpolicy-watch.news
Me: Mother of mercy, when will the hellish heat end, when will we be spared? Daughter: Rain at 5am tomorrow. Me: Oh you have to be joking, I wanted to put the laundry out. 😠
Here, Duncan Lawie looks at the latest from Paul McAuley, a novel of climate change which "hits hard because we can see it in the world around us". I kept thinking of Paul March-Russell on EJ Swift as I read this one. A tight little corpus of Brit climate near-futures is forming.
Loss Protocol by Paul McAuley
McAuley shows us the world to come through nature writing intense and evocative.
strangehorizons.com
It me.
Dan Hartland@danhartland.bsky.social · 2mo ago🎧 NEW PODCAST TO PUT IN YOUR EARS. 🎧 In this month’s Critical Friends, @kateem.bsky.social and Duncan Lawie talk about reading writers with back catalogues: how to start, how to you think about them, what to do when they publish another new book? On oeuvres (with apologies to the French language):
Strange Horizons published our first issue 25 years ago this month! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who has ever read, shared, submitted, donated! We wouldn't be here without you and we hope you'll continue to support us into the future!
An unofficial conversation is thus had (with Gold's knowledge but not COBRA's) between the Mayor, Kiley, and the then head of surface transport, Sir (now Lord) Peter Hendy. KILEY: If we ask them, the drivers will come, right? HENDY: This is THEIR city. Of course they fucking will. /9
Swifts raise their chicks high in eaves or nestboxes, returning to the same site year after year. When the young fledge, they launch into open air... & just keep going! They’ll remain airborne for the next two or three years, until it’s time to breed themselves. #SpringStories
Rea Irvin’s “Superwoman” comic strip made its first--and last--appearance on June 27, 1943. Following Superman’s debut, National Periodical trademarked the character’s name and was crushing anything it saw as infringement. (How I wish the strip survived! I love details like her bookworm sidekick.)
I like a good dystopia much as the next chap, but preferably not via the news on a daily basis please thank you.
Happy #pancakeday everyone. May your day be filled with lemon, sugar and batter goodness. So why have we posted a bell you ask? Well this is THE pancake bell. Want to know more? Join us for a thread as we explore its history, throwing in some riots and bribery along the way...
David Pringle sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/pringl... was born on this day: he edited or co-edited the first 193 issues of Interzone (1982-2004) [save for occasional guest editor issues], so here are some of the 1980s covers (Artist: 1&4 Ian Miller, 2&3 Pete Lyon)
Pro tip for European politicians that are discussing to wither send troops to Ukraine after the war. If instead you supply Ukraine weapons and she will win the war, then there will be no reason needed to send anyone anywhere. @emmanuelmacron.bsky.social @donald-tusk.bsky.social
There are so many of @aresluna.org pieces I’ve loved over the years, but this tribute to Gorton has to be one of my most favorite. aresluna.org/the-hardest-...
The hardest working font in Manhattan
A story of a 150-year-old font you have never heard of – and one you probably saw earlier today.
aresluna.org
*Nobody had yet invented any Greek Muses to have a "museum" about, so I wonder what the proprietors called their establishment en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennigal...
Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The final paragraph of Christopher Brown’s ‘A Natural History of Empty Lots’: “Things that can be explained by science, but also understood by poets”. More of this kind of thinking, please! Such a beautiful book. #christopherbrown #nonfiction #environmentalwriting #poetry #science #emptylots
