Spotted in Dublin. Building site art.

As a cyclops truther I like that Homer’s Odyssey is listed as non-fiction

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

news.com.au

Parenting is full of surprises. Like, I never expected to hear a 10yo pottering about the house singing ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac. (It’s on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack.)

What are you doing on Wednesday? Wrong. You’re coming to Chapters to drink French wine in a bookshop like a cultured menace! THE FRENCH CORRECTION - Wed July 22nd, 7pm with Lorcan O'Brien. Welcome Crémant, 5 wines, charcuterie boxes & 20% off books/wine. Tickets on Eventbrite!

Before and after. Some creative/overprotective parenting manoeuvres here by myself, two years ago. This was done in chalk in the laneway near our house. My version says “Duck Soup”.

Dear lord, watched Eddington this week (spread over 3 nights, a terrible way to watch anything). It’s a hot mess. There is no narrative cohesion, no point of view. It’s literally just… a bunch of stuff happens, everyone is awful, and, oh yes, it’s set during Covid. (Good cast though!)

Know what I would like? Instead of pervert glasses, I would like the ability to see who’s walking up behind me without looking over my shoulder all the time. Constantly amazed that we have not evolved to have a 360 view.

Rodrigo Ghedin@manualdousuario.net · 3w ago

Meta glasses ad vandalized in London https://manualdousuario.net/en/they-live-meta-glasses-kylie-jenner/

Tip for the day: Don’t put the vacuum cleaner on the highest setting while hoovering in a long skirt. Follow me for other good housekeeping tips.

I’ll be handling the publicity for this one myself so please get in touch if you’d like a PDF copy for review or would like to book an event or interview

Jan Carson@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 4w ago

Could not be more pleased to reveal my 10th book, a microfiction collection about staying in hotels by myself. It'll be published in late September by the mighty No Alibis Press complete with gorgeous illustrations by Rory Jeffers. Pre-order #NoVacancy now on the No Alibis website.

looking for a mind-bending, reality-warping summer read "crackling with energy, wit and pathos"? grab a copy of what various AI scams are telling me isn't just a criminally under-read gem of a novel - it's an illegally underappreciated jewel of a book hey when they're right they're right

The House on Utopia Way (Paperback) | Stefan Mohamed

The world is coming apart at the seams.Reality is relative. The concept of truth no longer applies. This is all wrong. And detective Johnny Orange is going to find out what's really going on - or lose...

stefmo.co.uk

New parenting trick. I have introduced the concept of a “water bar” in the kitchen. I just pour glasses of water at the counter and listen to my 10yo’s woes, without offering solutions, like a bartender. Troubles? Worries? Mean girl stuff? “Come and join me at the water bar.”

Just off a Ryanair flight where the air steward announced at takeoff: “There’s a passenger on board with a nut allergy so we ask you to please refrain from eating any penis products… Peanut! Peanut products! on board this flight.” Cue giggles throughout the plane!

Ah lads. The walk home from the kid’s summer camp today. 20 minutes of this yoke being waved in my face. On a windy day.

Don’t see anything wrong with this. (Aldi middle aisle today.)

Toy Story 5 is a bit dull, isn’t it? Just meh. Like a pilot episode of a tv show maybe. There’s something missing but I can’t specifically say what. It’s less than the sum of its parts. There is no magic.

Hottest day of the year so treated myself to a little writing sesh at the @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social . Look at how gloomy! A nice productive morning. I’m nearly 50k into my WIP now. Coming along nicely!

Would’ve been a far worse headline if you replaced “found” with “lost”.

Emily Herring@emilyherring.bsky.social · last mo.

Not now, tiny particle that could erase the universe at any moment

24 degrees in Dublin so my neighbour is - looks out window - yep, power washing his driveway.

There are two types of men in this world. Those who wear shorts no matter what the weather, and those who won’t wear shorts no matter what the weather.

When did people stop covering their mouths when they yawn in public? Don’t they know it’s gross AND contagious? I realized recently my 10yo didn’t know this was a thing either so I have to teach her it, but she doesn’t believe me!

Eep. I just tried to turn off Gmail “smart features”. There are now 33,000 extra emails in my inbox. They stop filtering emails into categories to punish you for insubordination! Every single promo/update email is now in my inbox (which already had 10k legitimate emails). 😱

I have the right to bare arms. Because it’s summer time.

Also I feel very much like I was just at an Enterprise Ireland announcement, not a Research Ireland one. Major focus on industry, commercialisation of research, turning scientists into entrepreneurs, creating a talent pipeline for industry, and an overriding theme of fairly ill-defined "scale".

GREAT EXPECTATIONS, TERRIBLE ANSWERS 📚 Our Chapters Bookstore Quiz Night is happening on Wednesday 17 June. €20 per table, all going into the prize pot. Teams of up to 4. Literary chaos strongly encouraged

Like father like daughter.

Joe Griffin@thejoegriffin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My 10 year old daughter was recently given a watch that can track her location and make phone calls, strictly for emergencies. She just left me a voicemail saying "Marjorie please, I sample all the meats in our cultural stew".

If Tinder profiles were honest…

Ars Technica@arstechnica.com · 2mo ago

His body is still home to a handful of cold-adapted yeast species that have probably been with him since just after he died.

Did the world get lazier or did I just get old?

The next Dune film is taking things in a different direction.

Richy Craven@richycraven.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The guy who installed our kitchen told us not to put the spice rack above our fancy ceramic hob because a jar could fall out and smash it. Anyway, you'll never guess what happened today.

Yikes. Seen on Instagram.