Helen Macdonald

Jilly Cooper is lovely.

Our opinions on current issues in the technosphere:

AI is theft
Diversity encourages innovation
If you won't fix this planet, you don't deserve a new one
There is no such thing as a self-made human
Reject terror
Ignore censors

Remember, you are here:

If only someone had written a really gay sci-fi horror book built around the central theme of how nostalgia is a weapon wielded by a fascistic and capitalist state
Anyway, read PROPHET. Me and @hjm.bsky.social are super proud of it.

Hanging out at Barrett’s with Xtin

Napoleon Bonaparte box set - Knee-highs - Limited edition Box of 6 replicas of Napoleon's stockings - Limited edition May 5, 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's death. To celebrate this page in French History and the love of socks, the Mes Chauss...

Napoleon Bonaparte box set! "Each in a color that evokes an event in the emperor's life"

JA Westenberg @Daojoan@mastodon.social My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.” Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner Kiddo: that’s AI Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

They've lost the 9yos

This Reddit thread of people explaining the most unhinged reason they ever abandoned a book is a delight

excerpt from Vesper Flights putting claims of immigrants eating swans in context and showing it's an ornithological dog whistle

ah I see Farage has invoked the old swan chestnut

I am calling for a moratorium on new tote bags. We all have more than enough tote bags already. Stop giving me tote bags at conferences. I do not want or need any more tote bags.

Did I mean one dimensional, @sinblache.bsky.social? I mean, deWitt has his heritage apple thing, maybe that gets him to 2D

In PROPHET, @sinblache.bsky.social and I took great delight in making our villains as two-dimensional and frankly awful as they are irl

“The computer acts like a computer” is such a profound and such a mundane result, all at once. It’s far more shocking that reasonable-sounding people have argued that massive datasets contain within them a secret truth that only will be revealed by… multinomial logits

The best shirt

Thanks to bff Xtin for alerting me to this joyous photoset

The image shows a close-up of hands with blue-painted fingernails touching a silver or metallic dome-shaped object with a lever inserted into it on a wooden surface with a metal-toned container partially visible on the right side of the image.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The image shows two small metal hemispheric containers on a wooden surface. One container is empty, while the other contains what appears to be a decorative food item - a swirl of white cream or meringue with yellow and reddish-brown elements, possibly a dessert or culinary presentation. In the background, there is a tall cylindrical metal container and some other blurry metallic objects on the wooden surface.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We eating dessert out of the demon core.

(Don’t sleep on Bakea in Mungia, once they get a Michelin star you’ll never be able to get in)

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’

Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

I heard "unfortunately you can't not do this thing in fiction" & have been determinedly not doing it since

Camilla, charles, trump, melania in poses and expressions that resemble the pen, ink and watercolour illustrative style of the illustrator Quentin Blake

quentin blake, photojournalist

Re: last RT. See also: Frank O’Hara

But most of all, I loved how Redford held a phone.
How he righted wrongs with a phone.
How he made holding a phone so fucking sexy, so morally righteous.

I don't think Peter Mandelson is PM's biggest problem. The biggest problem is not standing up to the literal violent racism on our streets, supercharged by the richest man in the world, and threatening the very fabric of our society. If he and so many commentators can't see this, we're truly lost.

Hahaha

This is simply untenable. There is no way forward with media and political classes captured by the right. Every time someone commits a crime you have to pray it's not an undesirable or it's purge time, then when it turns out to be themselves again they just shrug and wait for the next one.

A display in a grocery store for Reese's Oreo hybrid cups. Even worse there's both white chocolate on top outside of the Oreo peanut butter filling and dark chocolate on the bottom. I can't believe I wrote that. The price on it is already if you buy for the 99 Cents otherwise they're a $1.50. AI ass candy bullshit

cApItALism BReeDS inNovATIOn

Storm over Surbiton

My brother is the great @jamesmacdonald.bsky.social
Genius cartographer and absolute joy of a person

My brother just filmed this over surbiton oh my GOD

Every centrist hagiographer: he said some very important stuff

Everyone: oh, like what?

Every centrist hagiographer: very important things

Everyone: Can you repeat some of those things he said?

Every centrist hagiographer, looking at their legal department frantically shaking their heads: no