Hit me up!

Mo 🌸📚@moplayspoke.bsky.social · 2d ago

1 like = 1 book question 📚💙

I just devoured #TheStaircaseInTheWoods in a single day and now I need to read as many @chuckwendig.bsky.social books as I can get my hands on. Holy shit, what a novel.

Could've been about 66 years shorter, actually.

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 3d ago

BREAKING: Sunday Times and Sun columnist Rod Liddle has died aged 66 after a short illness

To begrudgingly give Ayn Rand the smallest amount of credit possible: good God, she knew how to name a book. "Atlas Shrugged" is an absolute banger of a title, one of the best ever, even if the book it's attached to is philosophically inane.

God, this is just lovely. A nice reminder that the internet isn't *entirely* devoid of nice things!

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 4d ago

this owns www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

Saw a young guy in a bar wearing Ray-Bans and immediately thought "Ah, fuck, he's wearing the pervert glasses." I don't even know that they WERE the pervert glasses, but I couldn't relax for the rest of the meal. God, I fucking hate the way AI makes us go through the world with our hackles up.

This story is a slice of fried gold. And it's only 400 words, so you have no excuse not to read it!

William Shaw@williamshaw.bsky.social · last wk.

My short story, 'The Mirror,' is now available to read at 100-Foot Crow! It's about that thing where characters look in a mirror and describe themselves. Check it out over here: 100footcrow.com/the-mirror/

Sam Altman is evil. There's no other word for it. He's speeding up the destruction of our planet, giving vulnerable people psychoses, eroding objective reality with hallucinations and using our own art to drown us in slop, and claims he's doing it for our own benefit. He is cancer in human form.

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last wk.

“What we need to explain to the world: Number one, we are close to creating a genie that can grant any wish. Number two, we are going to make sure that our first wishes broadly benefit humanity” - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — This is definitely the opposite of Anthropic’s AI kills all jobs pitch.

Chloe Zhao's THE TIGER IS OUT, coming 2028

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

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

Sometimes, as a little treat, I go back and just watch the scene in Casino Royale where Bond and Vesper meet on the train for the first time. It's just a phenomenally well-written scene, played by two actors with great chemistry. "How was your lamb?" "Skewered. One sympathises."

CASINO ROYALE | “I’m the money.”

YouTube video by James Bond 007

youtube.com

Don’t feel pressured into changing the way you write because of these unbearable plagiarism machines. Fuck LLMs, and fuck being influenced by them.

Kevin@reginageorgebush.bsky.social · last wk.

one impact of LLMs is that everyone's sentences are organically shorter now. even mine! while in my case that's unreservedly a good thing as I tend towards run-ons, for most people it...isn't

About 10 years ago some researchers from Oxford mathematically proved that conspiracies always unravel given enough time and too many conspirators. For instance, it would have taken 400,000 people to fake the Moon landing, and it would have been uncovered in less than four years.

shauna@goldengateblond.bsky.social · last wk.

the problem with conspiracies is they require a LOT of people to stay quiet about incredibly juicy things. always a tough sell. and in the attention economy? impossible.

I despise the term "content" (in this context) with the fire of a thousand suns

Photography by Alfie Goodrich@alfie.photography · 2w ago

Yep. And it would be nice if “content” were the word reserved solely for Ai generated material. And for human creators to stop using it to describe what they create.

Yep. And it would be nice if “content” were the word reserved solely for Ai generated material. And for human creators to stop using it to describe what they create.

The fact that this dipshit refers to his slop machine as "Ms. GPT", like she's a secretary dictating for him or something, is extremely telling. The venn diagram of guys who will use slop machines to make art and guys who want a partner to live as their maid/mommy is a circle.

Damon Young@damonyoung.com.au · 2w ago

Nope. No, you haven’t.

I'd have to go with @johnfinnemore.bsky.social — not only does he have a lovely voice, but since he'd probably also write the narration himself it would be very, very funny.

Nanoraptor@nanoraptor.danamania.com · 2w ago

You suddenly get a narrator describing your life and there’s no way to turn it off - everyone can hear it. While shopping, at work, at home, with friends - the voice narrating your every move goes on. Who do you hope is the voice of this narrator?

If you're a writer in the East Midlands, I cannot recommend the Mentoring Scheme highly enough. I've met some incredibly talented people and had some fantastic 1-1 sessions with my mentor, which has been especially helpful as I start looking for a literary agent!

Writing East Midlands@writingeastmidlands.com · 2w ago

Closing in less than two weeks! 🚨📢 The Mentoring Scheme is our FREE writer development programme for East Midlands writers. ✍️ Could you be 1 of 10 lucky writers to receive 1-1 mentoring from a published author, Writers' Conference tickets and more? Apply here ➡️ bit.ly/MENTORING2027

I'm *obsessed* with the animation style they're using in #CoyoteVsACME. As far as I can tell, the toons are all 3D models, but with outlines laid on top to give the illusion of a 2D character — a bit like the wonderful Disney short Paperman — and it looks brilliant.

Counterpoint: same idea, but instead of "Que Sera Sera" we use "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits — a song scientifically proven to fit perfectly into the end of any film. www.youtube.com/@wolproject2...

Mark Watson@watsoncomedian.bsky.social · 2w ago

If it's definitely over, regardless of what the film is and its tone, the director must use the song 'Que Sera, Sera' by Doris Day for the end credits. If you hear that, you know you're clear to stand up and say something like 'well! What did you make of *that*!?' (2/4)

Good. Look, if it is a genuinely honest error, most people I know, including myself, aren't going to make a fuss beyond maybe a gentle clarification first time. If people wilfully misgender trans and non-binary individuals though they absolutely should face misconduct proceedings.

💯💯💯 If it was really "inevitable," they wouldn't have to try so hard.

Karen K. Ho@karenho.bsky.social · 2w ago

I know it seems like the fight against AI is really uphill but I want to remind you at one point, people went really hard for NFTs, including $69.3 million for one by Beeple at a Christie's auction in 2021, but now almost no one buys them.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Becky Tyler@beckytylerart.bsky.social · 2w ago

What song did the Sirens sing in The Odyssey? Wrong answers only.

God, this is depressing. Part of why I love Neill Blomkamp's movies — even Chappie — is their sense of texture, the lived-in feel of the worlds. Theres absolutely none of that here. Once again, fuck GenAI and fuck anyone who uses it.

IGN@ign.com · 2w ago

District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is facing backlash after releasing his first full test film made completely with AI on YouTube. https://bit.ly/4vE8MW8

The theme of this week's #StuffIveBeenEnjoying seems to be "going on adventures". Maybe I'm just desperate to go on holiday in a few weeks...

Stuff I’ve Been Enjoying #2

Or: How I Learned Christopher Nolan Needs To Make A Horror Movie

philwbayles.com

Never get tired of telling this story... Packed cinema in 2011, when the trailer for "Contagion" showed. There was complete silence for a few seconds at the end... And then someone sneezed. One woman SCREAMED, realised what she'd done and started giggling, and then everyone fell about laughing.

Boner Vivant@dougtilley.bsky.social · last yr.

Got me thinking.. What's the strongest reaction you've seen an audience member have to a scene in a cinema? During the birthday party scene in SIGNS I saw a whole row of young women literally throw their popcorn in the air like a cartoon.

One of the best things I ever did was to allow myself to say, out loud, "I don't want a career, I just want a job." Giving myself that permission took SO much pressure off.

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 3w ago

I wrote a column about this in 2023 and still feel so strongly about it!!! in my opinion a truly civilised and successful society is one in which even slackers get to enjoy a decent enough life www.newstatesman.com/comment/2023...

I've got a great joke about Narcissus but every time I try to tell it I get distracted by my own beauty.

Mister Alex@awp.christies.org.uk · 3w ago

I've got a great joke about how Odysseus tricked a cyclops, and Nobody wants to hear it.

When I did my MA in Journalism a decade ago, and the idea of "mobile journalism" was still fairly new, one of our lecturers showed us a bunch of Tim Pool's coverage of OWS as an example we should try to emulate. I think about that every time I see his stupid beanie being wrong about something.

Max Berger@maxberger.bsky.social · 3w ago

Tim Pool is the dumbest person I met at Occupy Wall Street—and now he’s a famous right-wing pundit that gets paid by Putin. Life is weird!

My go-to answer for this question is London Has Fallen, which veers wildly between unbelievably boring and horrifically racist. If it was released today a whole bunch of right-wing chuds would probably go see it to "own the libs" or something.

Defector@defector.com · 3w ago

What's the worst movie you've ever watched in a theater? defector.com/whats-the-wo...

I wrote a short story about one of my favourite words...

Kalsarikännit

A Short Story About Beer.

philwbayles.com