Paul McAuley

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

Image of Picocon 43 schedule: 9:30 Arrival 10:00 Guest speaker: Drew Wagar 11:00 Guest speaker: Paul McAuley 12:00 Lunch and Baguette Bash 13:00 Destruction of Dodgy Merchandise 14:00 Author Q&A panel 15:00 Trivia and Your Wildest Takes 16:30 Goodbyes

I'm one of the guests at Picocon, a one-day event Saturday March 7th at the Imperial College's Royal School of Mines, Prince Consort Street, London.

This is obscene, ghastly, unacceptable.

A full moon in the sky reflected on still water on which a boat with three people is passing. Reeds grow on the shore in the foreground.

'Moonlit Sea' - Koho, ca. 1930's.
#FullMoon #JapaneseArt

Sickening. This is a betrayal of every screenwriter, playwright, poet and novelist in the UK. We’ve had copyright laws since around 1710 and they intend to upend all of that to help feed billionaire tech companies. 😡

#ScriptSkyUK #ScriptSky #WritingCommunity

we talk about carcinization, but never about the many, many times plants have invented the “tree.”

Tree is not a kind of plant, it is a thing plats do, and they are by and large unrelated.

flicker with mottled feathers and slight red to head.

a young flicker, just contemplating the world from a picnic bench on the oregon coast. no cares in the world.

Rocks! On Maaaaaaaaaars!

Here are some rocks on Mars, photographed Sunday.

I do love a ghost gable like this found near Ancoats in Manchester - but it's rarer still to find the intangible signs of the puff of smoke from the chimney...

Beautiful

Image of Picocon 43 schedule: 9:30 Arrival 10:00 Guest speaker: Drew Wagar 11:00 Guest speaker: Paul McAuley 12:00 Lunch and Baguette Bash 13:00 Destruction of Dodgy Merchandise 14:00 Author Q&A panel 15:00 Trivia and Your Wildest Takes 16:30 Goodbyes

I'm one of the guests at Picocon, a one-day event Saturday March 7th at the Imperial College's Royal School of Mines, Prince Consort Street, London.

Close-up of a hawthorn flower and unfolding leaves.

Hampstead Heath, 08:01

The Twin Peaks title generator saying "ONE DAY THE SDANESS WILL END"

Part of me wants both Iceland & Norway to join the European Union simply because:

-It would hopefully give Putin a massive fatal stroke
-A map of the EU showing the UK sitting as Billy no mates on its own surrounded entirely by EU member states would illustrate perfectly Brexit's backward stupidity

Obscure YT of the day: Everyone's favorite actor Warren Oates stars in 1972's neo-noir CHANDLER as a private eye! Leslie Caron & Scatman Crothers costar.

youtu.be/iojYYuPTsK8?...

Signed copies of Paul McAuley’s novel Loss Protocol

Signed some copies of Loss Protocol in Forbidden Planet’s London megastore. Currently £4 off list price.

My photo shows the front of a warm-yellow coloured Minoan clay flask, hand painted in black with a frontally depicted octopus. The flask measures 27 cm (about 10.5 inches) in height. It has a short spout at the top with a small loop handle at either side. The octopus is swimming diagonally with its eight writhing, sucker-lined arms covering the whole surface of the flask. It stares out at the viewer with wide, almost cartoon-like eyes. Additional motifs include sea urchins, tritons, small rocks and seaweed. Minoan decoration depicting sea motifs is known by scholars as the ‘Marine Style’. The flask was excavated in 1903 at a Bronze Age settlement site at Palaikastro. The Palaikastro excavations, carried out between 1902 and 1906, were run by R. Bosanquet and R.M. Dawkins from the British School of Athens. The flask is part of the collections at Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Heraklion, Crete.

Marvellous 3,500 year-old Minoan clay flask decorated with a wide-eyed octopus 🐙❤️

Excavated in 1903 from a Bronze Age settlement site at Palaikastro, Crete.

Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology

A very dangerous world, in which the FIFA Peace Prize no longer carries the weight of integrity it once did.

A very special treat on Saturday's Weird West Adams walk is the incredible Elmer McCurdy Museum, a celebration of the mummified old west outlaw who spent more time on display than he did breathing air--some of that time in the West Adams district! esotouric.com/event/weird-...

YouTube video by DRAGUNOFF Heebie Jeebies-Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five

cut in Chicago 100 years ago on this date: a wonderful, joyous, swinging record. Armstrong was far from being the first to scat, but he did it masterfully here. Nothing would be the same afterward for Armstrong, for jazz, for US pop music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksmG...

Bug beats: Caterpillars use complex rhythms to communicate with ants Research from the University of Warwick has revealed that butterfly caterpillars use sophisticated rhythmic signals to communicate with ants, helping them gain protection, foo...

Caterpillars subvert ant music.

The spring 2026 issue of Tank magazine includes "The Walden Dead", a long, reflective essay by me about reading Henry David Thoreau while playing the zombie apocalypse sim "Project Zomboid": www.tank.tv/magazine/iss...

A yew tree on a steep slope of winter grass, silhouetted against a blue sky.

Finally stopped raining in Rain Island, so I went for a walk.

Thanks. East London is preferred usage. But yes, Anglican should be Anglian. Slipped past me, editor, copy editor & proofreader— but not you! Will pass on to publisher.

Currently reading @hutchinsondave.bsky.social’s slyly weird and most excellent The Essence.

Signed copies of Paul McAuley’s novel Loss Protocol

Signed some copies of Loss Protocol in Forbidden Planet’s London megastore. Currently £4 off list price.

Pleased to hear that you’re enjoying it. If you let me know what those typos are they can be corrected for the paperback.

Thousands of short story recs here at @jonathangibbs.bsky.social brilliant Personal Anthology project. Weekly update in which a writer chooses 12 fave shorts and discusses. Loads of links to read some of these too. Goldmine, been going for years 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

apersonalanthology.com