I woke up with Zbigniew Preisner's 'Song for the Unification of Europe' in my mind. A glorious start to the day, and my mood followed it upwards...
Matthew Fox
@mattfoxwriter.bsky.social
Kirkus ★ THE LOVELY DARK out April '26 🇺🇸 | Financial Times Best Children's Books '23 | Barnes & Noble Children's Book Award Shortlist '24 | Rep'd: Bell Lomax Moreton | No AI |🌱 linktr.ee/mattfoxwriter
If we just spent the crazy money people are spending on AI on the education system instead nobody would ever need AI.
If we just spent the crazy money people are spending on AI on the education system instead nobody would ever need AI.
A hedgehog in the back garden. Just wonderful. I haven’t seen one in the UK for twenty five + years.
‘Planetary destruction on fast-forward’: witnessing the disappearance of Indonesia’s ‘eternity glaciers’
‘Planetary destruction on fast-forward’: witnessing the disappearance of Indonesia’s ‘eternity glaciers’
Researchers racing to document Oceania’s last tropical glaciers found the remaining “eternal snow” in Indonesia’s West Papua region has lost almost all its ice
theguardian.com
A guy on 5Live just now states that the average adult consumes 3 hours of social media per day, equating to a full 15 years of your life over a normal lifetime. And, yup, now I'm putting my phone down. 15 years seems like an awful waste.
“Guys were getting a growing body of evidence that a lot of life is actually sentient” “Shitshitshitshitshit time to change the definition of sentient “
Ars Technica@arstechnica.com · 2mo ago
A rainy morning with no commitments and you think I’m going to do chores? Go fuck yourself
YOU’RE LISTENING TO SISYPHUS FM, THE HOME OF NON-STOP ROCK
In a Turing Test of sorts, it looks like a 100% AI generated story just won the Commonwealth Prize for the Caribbean region "for its lyrical precision and haunting atmosphere, the story stood out for the confidence and restraint of its voice." Published in Granta: granta.com/the-serpent-...
More than 100 UK datacentres plan to burn gas to generate electricity
More than 100 UK datacentres plan to burn gas to generate electricity
Requests for gas connections by operators amount to more than 15 terawatt hours per year, endangering climate targets More than 100 new datacentres in the UK plan to burn gas to generate electricity, some potentially doing so permanently. British officials say this is an inevitable consequence of a years-long wait to connect to the National Grid, and raises an “interesting question” about the UK’s climate targets. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
WE DON'T NEED PETROLEUM-BASED PLASTICS ANYMORE! "The [bamboo plastic] outperforms most commercial plastics and bioplastics in mechanical and thermo-mechanical metrics while maintaining full biodegradability in soil within 50 days and closed-loop recyclability with 90% retained strength."
High-strength, multi-mode processable bamboo molecular bioplastic enabled by solvent-shaping regulation - Nature Communications
Bioplastics derived from biomass show promise as sustainable alternatives to petrochemical plastics, but their adoption is hindered by their inferior mechanical properties and processability. Here, th...
nature.com
Edmund White was a dear friend and teacher whom I miss terribly nearly a year after his death. I've written a brief memoir about him here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Melancholy Is a Duty We Ignore
On Edmund White
substack.com
Great. Yes. Do it. Hurry the fuck up. "The herbicide, which kills almost every plant it touches, is often sprayed on wheat, oats and other cereal and pulse crops shortly before harvest... The practice has been banned in Europe since 2023 over fears of the chemical’s impact on human health."
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo agoEU trade deal could force UK to restrict use of weedkiller linked to cancer
AI is "just a tool" but also "every child on the planet must be forced to learn to prompt (train) the machines and edit its output and that is the future of education" do not make sense. If it is "just a tool," we do not have to repurpose the entire architecture, goals, of education.
Sam Cole@samleecole.bsky.social · 3mo agothe biggest tech companies in the world are endorsing a new bill that would shove AI onto kids in school www.404media.co/literacy-in-...
Great. Yes. Do it. Hurry the fuck up. "The herbicide, which kills almost every plant it touches, is often sprayed on wheat, oats and other cereal and pulse crops shortly before harvest... The practice has been banned in Europe since 2023 over fears of the chemical’s impact on human health."
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo agoEU trade deal could force UK to restrict use of weedkiller linked to cancer
If the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) shuts down, it could cause a massive drop in average winter temperatures in northern Europe and drastic changes in the Amazon’s water cycles and the rainforest triggering further disaster www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #ClimateEmergency
A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it | George Monbiot
Scientists say a crucial Atlantic system is set to collapse. But the billionaire death cult that steers humanity’s destiny just doesn’t do existential crises, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
and you may find yourself logging on to post your little thoughts on your five social media platforms and you may ask yourself well how did I get here
🎉Happy Canadian Publication Day to @mattfoxwriter.bsky.social for THE LOVELY DARK, a beautifully moving and breathtakingly original story of bravery and second chances, for readers aged 9+. Read about his passion for magical seriousness in children's books at bathnovelaward.co.uk/2023/07/05/s...
Matthew Fox on the magical seriousness of The Lovely Dark
Interview: MATTHEW FOX on the magical seriousness of writing The Lovely Dark (Hodder, 2023) and why he hopes his readers know they are braver than they think.
bathnovelaward.co.uk
While we are transfixed by the antics of our supposed "leaders", a catastrophe of astonishing proportions has been creeping up on us. Climate scientists now believe it is more likely than not to happen, and soon. This week's column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it | George Monbiot
Scientists say a crucial Atlantic system is set to collapse. But the billionaire death cult that steers humanity’s destiny just doesn’t do existential crises, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
Earth Day 2026... Not the answer to today’s Wordle, in case you were worried. Then again, it's sort of the answer to everything. Because if the planet doesn’t matter, nothing matters. Also it's the only time I got the Wordle in one. #earthday
It's publication day in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦 for THE LOVELY DARK, a Financial Times Children's Book of the Year. Why not check with your friendly neighborhood indie bookstore? They'll be glad to order it for you. Oh, and btw this Saturday is INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY! #fantasy #mythology #thelovelydark #booksky
It's publication day in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦 for THE LOVELY DARK, a Financial Times Children's Book of the Year. Why not check with your friendly neighborhood indie bookstore? They'll be glad to order it for you. Oh, and btw this Saturday is INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY! #fantasy #mythology #thelovelydark #booksky
A micro-excerpt from the THE LOVELY DARK, out today in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦. Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore or @bookshop.org! 'Sad, sweet, and special.' - Kirkus ★ review 'an evocative celebration of life, love, and hope.' - Booklist #thelovelydark #fantasy #mythology #booksky
This box of delights has arrived. A beautiful, definite edition of THE LOVELY DARK from Union Square Kids. ON SALE TODAY, April 21 🇺🇸& 🇨🇦. And there’s a strapline to die for: ‘A journey across the river Styx...’ Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore... x
This box of delights has arrived. A beautiful, definite edition of THE LOVELY DARK from Union Square Kids. ON SALE TODAY, April 21 🇺🇸& 🇨🇦. And there’s a strapline to die for: ‘A journey across the river Styx...’ Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore... x
A micro-excerpt from the THE LOVELY DARK, out today in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦. Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore or @bookshop.org! 'Sad, sweet, and special.' - Kirkus ★ review 'an evocative celebration of life, love, and hope.' - Booklist #thelovelydark #fantasy #mythology #booksky
My book THE LOVELY DARK is 100% human authored. By me. The idea came to me long before AI was even a thing... So while I have issues with SoA/Author's Guild certification (brainstorming? outlining?), I'm supportive in principle. It's a start, it'll get better, and it will make people think.
