As I suspected, it's not even anywhere close. Still, a huge relief Congratulations, @zackpolanski.bsky.social! "I promise to work every single day to deliver environmental, social, racial and economic justice." 👏🏼
Queer, trans, disabled, he/they. Artist, designer, amateur material culture historian, ex-nanomaterials scientist. Open University environmental science student. Welsh, living in Scotland by the sea. Fix your hearts or die.
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As I suspected, it's not even anywhere close. Still, a huge relief Congratulations, @zackpolanski.bsky.social! "I promise to work every single day to deliver environmental, social, racial and economic justice." 👏🏼
Trans rights are, in fact, human rights. Pass it on. 🏳️⚧️🫂
Selling off Other People's Stuff at a penny on the pound is a classic grift for a reason.
I was going to suggest that the latest flaggy image of Mr Starmer was probably photoshopped by someone who is hostile to Mr Starmer, but tbh you could say that about any image of Mr Starmer. It seems quite possible that the man only exists as a collage of hostile Photoshopped images of himself.
Oh, he barely even hinted at the existence of sex. It was the hand-holding and sweet nothings he had trouble with.
Even EE 'Doc' Smith is better than that, and he famously had to get someone else to write his love scenes.
Also particularly excited to spread the word about a new Kurdish publishing house, Henar Press, henarpress.org, which also has this Kurdish Literary Database (henarpress.org/database) of Kurdish works in English translated from Sorani Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, Kurmanji, German, Farsi, & more.
I'd like to put in a vote for "businessman who goes to a small town, meets a cute local, realises the error of his ways, and opens a gallery for local artists instead".
Same.
Also, community-sourced Stuff are reified memories. I still have a treasured jumper my mother made from the wool of a specific sheep I used to feed, and a couple of the winter jumpers she made me went around dozens of children in the area when I outgrew them.
To misquote Polonius, "better a lender than a borrower be". Work to be a net exporter of eggs and elbow grease and surplus vegetables. But not too net! Not accepting help from others is weird and offputting, and so is pressing kilos of courgettes or Victoria plums on literally everyone.
If you want an accessible account of how these sorts of community work, David Graeber's "Debt: the first 5000 years" is really good. The TL;DR for this aspect is that networks of debt are sinews of community, and they always balance one way or another rather than being paid off. And that's good.
When you think about it, there's no real difference between "Hey, ho, let's go" and "Izzy, wizzy, let's get busy".
At one point, a group tried to get a local currency going - this was 1992 or so, when that sort of thing was popular - and it failed because nobody saw the point in keeping track.
My mother - a single parent with two children - did mending & dressmaking, and I used to go do farm work & duckpond level construction. We got eggs, goat milk, wool for her to spin, horseriding lessons for all of us, lamb for Sundays, haircuts - even the occasional bit of cash.
seriously, the long term winning strategy in life is to be A Guy who knows A Guy all my success comes from all the Guys I've collected over the decades and I am delighted to be A Guy for them mutual aid starting from the most casual level
I grew up in an "I know a guy" economy in rural Wales.
There are no sacrifices that will keep any right-wingers happy. They're not going to say "okay, we got rid of trans rights, gay marriages are OK" or "we stopped small boats, people with leave to remain can stay". They'll want another target. Appeasement is pointless. Don't give them an inch.
Dying while doing what you believe is right doesn’t automatically make you right. Believing the things you shout while inciting a violent mob doesn’t free you from the moral responsibility of inciting a violent mob. I can’t believe these things need saying.
I had a professor divert into strike breaking techniques from his time at ICI. It was quite disconcerting.
you just know somebody’s being called by their full name right now
This is the danger of unreflective, uncritical centrism. You just can’t smile & nod at eugenics, genocide, racism, or nascent fascism. You can’t shake your head & say, “they’re just crazy.” Even centrists must call out mechanisms of inhumanity. It’s not divisive - it’s being a responsible adult.
I have been Extremely Pleasant to the supermarket who do my deliveries, at length, and explained to them why switching from delivering in open crates to delivering in overstuffed paper carrier bags is really unhelpful. Especially for disabled people who live up two flights of stairs.
I'm surprised it took him this long.
A kind of protracted Cold Social War, in a sense?
Happy Qixi or Qiqiao, China's festival of enduring love and textile crafts. I talk about it every year but this year, I bring you an article on a new evolution of famous legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver and their magpie bridge across the galaxy. #culture snowpavilion.co.uk/in-to-mortal...
Whether it's Canadian French, Welsh, Mikmaq or Occitan, you people talk about these languages like any act in their defence is a violence against you personally, the speaker of the majority language that overwhelmingly dominates your corresponding cultural elite.
The Man in the Moon, in a pub, holding a pint: (appreciatively) This is SO brown. So brown. That’s what I came here for
I just made the best air fryer dinner in ages. Smoked tofu, courgettes, red & green peppers, local tomatoes, oregano, smoked paprika, & lemon juice. I keep forgetting "grill some stuff with herbs and microwave a packet of rice to go under it" is an option.
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"New."
Y'know, the kind of English guy who gets pissed off when he hears Welsh being spoken. That's one reason why we must keep the language alive: to piss off that guy.
(I know 0.1g sounds pretty precise to most people. But for chemicals it's basically a whole pinch here or there. Also, I have unrealistic standards because I used to use nanogram scales in the lab.)
I basically gave up on actually calibrating the exposure times, given the variability of northeast Scottish sunlight, and do it by eyeball and vibes. Embrace the uncertainty. I also don't have a scale that does better than 0.1g, and I apply the solution to the paper by brush, too!
Found some! It's very pale blue, though, and I have NFI how long it's been sitting. We'll see how it turns out with a longish windowsill exposure.
That red emergency stop button was getting slammed hard, because when you get gas forming after water trickles across what's effectively a large flat capacitator, there are no real good options. It was still a beautiful installation though!
I worked on the first few phases of re-opening this - it was the world's first & largest underwater electroluminescent lighting installation. We learned quite a few lessons doing that. And I have never moved as fast in my life as when I saw the EL panel encapsulation bloating with gas.
"Just as," said Dr. Pellkins, in a fine passage,—"just as when we see a pig in a litter larger than the other pigs, we know that by an unalterable law of the Inscrutable it will some day be larger than an elephant." - GK Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill.
I know I had a (properly wrapped) pile of prepped cyanotype paper somewhere here. Can I find it? No. Can I be bothered to make up more solution and shut myself in the windowless bathroom for an hour? Also no. Bah.
Artist’s painting of a hippo on a flake of limestone 🦛❤️ Perhaps a practice sketch, or just for the joy of painting 3,500 years ago! From Deir el-Bahri, Thebes, Egypt, c. 1479–1425 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... #Archaeology
Good morning everyone I hope you all have a brilliant day Don’t you ever doubt yourself You’re an incredible unbelievable fantastic fabulous magnificent magical amazing awesome human Never ever forget it You’re wonderful ❤️❤️❤️💙❤️❤️❤️
When I do, I'll look west!
I keep looking, but none so far. Seaglass and seabrick pebbles yes, but no hagstones yet.
Stonehaven beach today.
The fucking Times. Sieved. Illegitimate. Is this supposed to be who we are now? Because this can entirely fuck off back to 1939.
Early modern is when they invented colour history and they didn't have to go around in shades of drab all the time. Easily confused with being constantly dirty though!
If defacing mini roundabouts with red paint is a response to 'reasonable concerns', then so is defacing planes with red paint. Can't pick just one.
a huge part of the problem with AI and delusional spirals at the moment is that the "AI safety" people were busy with their own fantasies of Skynet, AGI, and paperclip maximization being the danger and seem to have done zero due diligence on the *actual* risk factors of the product.
once again a reminder that if you for some reason believe chatbots experience consciousness, but you also use them for literally any tasks at all even a little, then you are a would-be slave owner
This is a PSA for anyone who follows artists: Your comments are NOT annoying! I think I speak for many of us we are starved for praise on our work so please if you have something to say lay it on thick WE LIKE IT. I promise you it is not seen as cringe or a bother, we love the interaction!
It's Minnesota State Fair time! It's time for Minnesotan folk art! Here, for example, is Saturn Devouring His Corn, in the seed art category!
Laura Boswell - absolutely gorgeous multilayer landscape prints, and detailed explanations.
so, uh, if you were thinking about a purchase from my shoppe, it would be especially appreciated: theartofcoop.bigcartel.com
Possible causes of your problems. It’s a diagram that (sadly) still seems relevant in 2025, so reposting a year and a bit on.
... honestly, I don't care whether the person who just reposted 17 of my skeets in a row is a bot or not, they're still getting blocked.
I far prefer feeling like I'm dancing with the author to fencing with them.
Today's artwork. Mixed media, book scraps & monoprinted acrylic on canvas.
Really good to be reminded of this. To be good at something, you mostly need to be bad at it for quite a while first. Make peace with doing things badly.
We are now officially fostering these five babies! Here's an intro 🧵: ORANGE SHERBET - the leader - bravest - first to decide humans are okay
Playful pedantry: yes. Playful peasantry: no. Thus is the essence of Magna Carta.
And I voted SNP!
Not only is "voting for the lesser evil" a politics of despair, but consider: you may be wrong. We thought we were getting the lesser evil with Keir Starmer. Instead, we got the (comparatively) efficient and competent evil.
Nationalism is by default unimaginative and paradoxically every example of it is broadly similar to other examples everywhere else in the world. It's always about flags and chants and xenophobic exceptionalism. The mantra of people who don't have the imagination to actually love where they live.
Sheep + solar panels = better wool. farmingdale-observer.com/2025/05/22/1...
today is a day to be a tractor in the machair, undisturbed and peaceful. today in 2011 #todayinreview
the thing about trans rights is that we fight the civil rights issues of our time. nazi chuds have made this the issue of our time. it's not more *important* than other civil rights issues, but it is the battleground of the moment, and we have to meet the moment to support everyone's rights.
Today's artwork. Mixed media, book scraps & monoprinted acrylic on canvas.
This is obvious, but if people broadly rely on a black box to give them answers that help them understand the world, whoever controls the black box controls those answers and therefore the understanding that comes from them. Openness is safety.
... That's Eurovision branding? It looks like a local drivetime radio station from 2006.
If you are able to help my friend deal with a family tragedy, I'd be very grateful. gofund.me/55b8ac64
Finding joy wherever we can and celebrating that joy is a fundamental part of how we all get through this. Your soul needs it, especially if you're able to fight. It's soul nourishment, when everything else is trying to drain your spirit.
Makes sense. High-concept doubling causes so many headaches.
Fun! Are you doing diegetic doubling?
I'd have struggled with "NEV-skee or NEFF-skee" but otherwise that looks obvious to me - I don't know if that's a Euro thing though. I've had professors confidently get my name wrong, but hardly anyone ever actually asks.
Would you like a selection of nuclear earworms to try and drive it out?
I've seen a few people use this comparison and it's maybe worth emphasizing that the decore in whorehouses was never for the benefit or in the taste of the whores. it's any place designed to please people who care only about appearance and not substance
#Booksky Sporadic reminder that we are the current publisher of the entire Astreiant Series and that it will be eligible for next year’s Hugo for Best Series, just in case you wanted to get a jump on your reading of award-winning gay fantastical mysteries! queenofswordspress.com/product-tag/...
Wrote about that claim that learning to paint is hazing, of course I did
Most people don't know how to pronounce my name ("SOAR'lyeh" is close enough) but I've never had anyone giggle at it. Let alone a supposed professional. I know Anglophone SF culture has always been parochial, but you would think. You would bloody well think.
"Get involved with the convention. You might not die of dysentery on the way."
We're all living in Omelas (or aspire to that level of harm reduction) but that doesn't mean you have to do the torture.
Do you hate nature? Do you like wildfires? Do you like miles and miles of black, burnt fields? No? Then don't buy, sell or use disposable BBQs!
I’m a historian of art and ideas specialising in the Tudor period; my new book is coming out in September - the first ever to look at art from the whole 16th century in England, and my first for a general audience. My previous book, Tudor Liveliness, was based on my PhD. Also I write ghost stories.
'Black Cat Looking Straight Ahead' - Toshiyuki Enoki. #BlackCatApprwciationDay #JapaneseArt
Ah, gotcha. So basically, they're like horses, in that they need to run fast to breathe properly, and these people have decided to drive performance vehicles around town and show off how unhappy their engines are. And presumably inefficent and therefore extra-polluting?
I genuinely want to know - is there something about the kind of engine that goes brrpt-brrpt-brrpt that gives better performance?
Reasonable! However, I can understand why you're saying AI is inevitable - the existence of the systemic problem is key to your business plan.
Regular reminder that Boycotts Work
Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker. Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path. Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.
That's a good start, but we still don't know whether lawsuits will do any good, and governments around the world are already carrying anti-regulatory water - helped by the people who talk about genAI as though it were a proven and inevitable technology.
That would be nice, but it will need threats with teeth behind them. And destroying the genAI rubbish and all the fruit of its poisoned tree would be better.
AI bros aren't even saying "this technology is good" any more. It's just unsourced and unevidenced assertions that we have to live with it. People said the same thing about cholera, TV ads, and huge piles of horseshit in the streets.
I genuinely want to know - is there something about the kind of engine that goes brrpt-brrpt-brrpt that gives better performance?
Grumble grumble "coronate" is not a word. Crown, crowned, coronation. Blasted clouds.
This morning reading Jim Harrison on art and wine, and this gets at my feelings about AI
Having a lawn is a sign of wealth - it signifies that you don't need to grow your own food.
and--idk quite how to articulate this--but the work of it is... critical to art-making. like you discover your intentions through the labor of expressing them. if I'd woken up at 17 with the technical ability to write a novel, i wouldn't have known what i was trying to say. the work IS the product.
just saw someone sincerely arguing that they need AI bc they don't have "natural" artistic talent and idk how to make you understand that nobody comes by this shit naturally. it's just...work. it's being bad at it for a really, really, really long time. it's intention, pursued over time! wtf!!!
Asbestos as a metaphor for where I suspect we might be going with LLM tools: rapid push to shove it into everything as a "modern solution," then an eventual "oh shit" walkback.
Brewdog ("about as punk as Jeremy Clarkson") are going under if Wetherspoons take against them. How awful. Never mind. Should've made better beer and been better to their staff.