Mark Jones

"babies are born worshipping unknown gods" is one of the most incredible dwarf fortress bugs i have heard of. its poetry.

YouTube video by ONE Media ALPHA Trailer (2025) Julia Ducournau

Wait. There's a new Julia Ducournau film that's out now and the first I'm hearing of it is looking through cinema listings? I need a better way of finding out about these things

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C1G...

Like the Guardian, people view the BBC as left wing and, as a result, their combined anti trans campaigning has done more damage to trans people than the entire right wing media machine, because they legitimised the right wing's lies.

zine maker speed friending, nov 15th 2025, book your place now! at MMU

Zine and small press makers of Manchester (UK) and beyond! I'm going to be running a session of speed friending on November 15th just for you. Come meet folks in a low pressure environment and bring some zines along to trade if you have them www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/zine-maker... #diyzines

i know i wittgenstein post too much but i would love to see his reaction to the wholesale capitulation of critical thinking facilities to machines whose entire model of the world begins and ends in language, a medium he regarded as intrinsically impoverished

ushering in an era of bold socialist leaders who support trans rights and make really great font choices

It’s great when you put a lot of work into an article and you get good feedback.

I spent a while writing this to make sure it was accurate and informative, without being too technical or complex - and it seems to have worked!

Do check it out if you've ever wondered wtf the 'AI bubble' is all about

This is cool after the war on everything called “porn” by platforms and payment processors. A machine that stole all your words can generate and sell “erotica” but you can’t haaa

Decisive action is now being taken to protect one of Salford’s most important historic landmarks. Salford City Council has today issued an Urgent Works Notice on the Crescent Pub due to the alarming condition of the building. This legal notice sets out the essential repairs required to prevent further decay. While it will not see the pub fully restored at this stage, it is a crucial first step in safeguarding the listed building for the future. If the necessary repairs are not carried out promptly, the Council may step in to complete the works and seek to recover the costs from the owners. The Crescent Pub holds a unique and cherished place in Salford’s history, and it is long believed that Engels and Marx were regulars back in the day.

Good news from Salford City Council and Historic England. An Urgent Works Notice has been issued on the Crescent pub after its shocking deterioration. (1/2)

This is grim & dangerous over reach.

This is a government that have lost the moral argument & are still selling arms to Israel. Now further cracking down on dissent.

Absolutely the opposite of what they should be doing - so of course this is what the Labour Government choose.

Anyway, this is probably all very tangential to the book itself but I'm very much looking forward to reading it.

(I do think some corners of the internet are holding on to this more than others. Tumblr and AO3, for example, feel like places where some still post solely for their handful of mutuals rather than trying to reach everyone).

The problem is that the internet has always been kinda bad at discoverability and "frictionless" big platforms haven't helped.

We'd also have to accept smaller potential audiences in return for more engaged audiences (and avoid groups that only care about their own niche, restricting creativity).

In my optimistic moments, I can see that pushing more people to start putting more effort in to discovery & community building.

Certainly not enough for a massive restructuring of the mainstream but enough to see a flourishing of other stuff in much smaller groups.

I believe there's just as much weird, creative output on the internet as there used to be. I'm not even sure it's harder to find than it used to be.

It's just so much easier now to lose an hour to accepting what the algorithms dictate and settle for that rather than seeking out something new.

Got me wondering whether we could be on the precipice of an increase in internet counter-culture again (in an interesting way, not more 4chan). It feels like there's an increasing amount of disillusionment with algorithm controlled feeds and censorship on the big platforms.

Enjoyed listening to @badaude.bsky.social talk about her new book (Amateurs: How We Built Internet Culture and Why It Matters) at @blackwellsmcr.bsky.social tonight.

And feel free to keep up to date with tracking my reading over on Storygraph: app.thestorygraph.com/profile/just...

A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan

A quick-to-read YA book about a town where the populace go blind and receive special rose-tinted glasses that shape how they see the world.

Starts a bit twee but becomes an interesting intro to social apartheid and the problem with making things "perfect"

Darkly by Marisha Pessl

Fun YA mystery about a reclusive board game designer who hid/destroyed an unfinished masterpiece before she died. In the present, a group of kids are invited to the secret island factory to try and investigate rumours of people going missing while playing the game

Life is Strange: Heatwaves by Brittney Morris

Something lighter after those. A YA Life is Strange tie-in with something to say about climate change and the politics of small towns. I enjoyed this but I'm biased towards anything with Steph in

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by Eman Abdelhadi, M.E. O'Brien

Fascinating fictional history of how the world moved to a commune-based system of organisation through interviews with people who had different exposure to the world before, during and after

My previous quote post seems like a good time to mention some suff I've been reading recently so:

Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda. A collection of connected short stories set in Mexico that didn't always work for me but an interesting and quick read nonetheless

As you'd expect from Hannah, some very interesting sounding books here (& some that were already on my vague future wishlist)

Just what I didn't need when I've already broken my "try to stop buying books until you've cleared some of your backlog" a few times in the couple of weeks 😅

The best time to boycott Xbox and Microsoft was when BDS called for it, the next best time is now. Focused, targeted boycotts work, this one is working, and all you got to do to support it is go play other games. Literally the least you could do in this moment in history

CREEP’s Mark Duplass Launches Found Footage Fund For Trans Filmmakers He may play a CREEP but Mark Duplass is a stand-up guy, as Duplass Brothers Productions is teaming up with the Transgender Film Center to launch the Found Footage Fund for trans filmmakers.

He may play a CREEP but Mark Duplass is a stand-up guy, as Duplass Brothers Productions is teaming up with the Transgender Film Center to launch the Found Footage Fund for trans filmmakers.

HACK. THE. PLANET.

BREAKING NEWS:

I am thrilled to be able to report that after a discussion with JPAC, JPAC has agreed to update it's position statement to make it clear that trans people haemoglobin levels should be tested against their hormonal levels, not their Sex at Birth.

1/7

This is trans rights, too. There is no viable position for the Democrats other than “trans rights are human rights.” Trying to triangulate a position where you throw trans people under the bus “just a little” to woo swing voters only feeds the right’s argument that trans people are a threat 1/x

Certainly doesn't read like it's over 100 years old for the most part. I read the whole thing in a few days and at 120ish pages the pace is non-stop.

(Fair warning: there is some unfortunate racial stereotyping of a pawn shop owner. It only happens a couple of times but it's still unacceptable.)