Nicolas Papaconstantinou

What the actual fuck.

It is interesting and depressing (and also understandable, I don't mean this as a criticism of you or others) that it's easier to imagine societal, systemic artificial choking of tech to create greater employment than it is the dismantling of the desperate requirement to have a job to survive.

...in our bones that isn't what's going to happen, even if most of us can't quite get to 'why', so rail at the tech.

We know that AI is going to be used to make the lives of citizens worse because we've already seen how every other development in automation etc has been used by capitalists.

You've got to the nub of my position on this, which is that (aside from any environmental issues) the problems with AI aren't so much tech ones as capitalism/societal ones.

IF AI could sustainably improve productivity etc, arguably it could make EVERYBODY'S lives better, but we all already know...

Normalise serious consequences for seemingly untouchable people.

Truly dreadful. To be honest I noticed a few years back (I go through very rare periods of reading prose now) that this was becoming fairly common in the big famous novel space, as publishers started cutting their editor resource to shreds, & literally got worse as you got nearer the end of a book.

Like, look, I like him a lot, he's one of my favourite actors called Alan, and I know the slightly smug, satisfied look that's always on his face confuses matters, but there's really no way he can possibly be cumming all the time, surely?

RIP Scrappy-Doo. All the obituaries will lead with how “annoying” he was for three years in his twenties, but I’ll remember the sweet, frail old man who’d wink at me when I asked “Seen any ghosts lately?” as we passed in the hallway, him on his way outside to shit in the street.

@themightylayman.bsky.social

I've kept my Twitter account SOLELY because I knew there were specifically Black accounts, and trans accounts, still there who didn't make the leap, but they're all either leaving there or being drowned out by the ever increasing moral abyss.

It is somewhat a relief to read this, because I've noted since first joining BS that my timeline is noticeably white and cis and homogenous, relative to my Twitter, & my gut said it's the user base but head said maybe I just haven't looked hard enough.

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

Fat Freddy’s Cat comic

Carl Barks Donald Duck page

Kubert Tarzan fighting an ape

Swamp Thing page by Steve Bissette

I like comics.

I still thrill to a perfect piece of dialog or a brilliant bit of panel art.

Aside from family, making comics with wonderful collaborators has been the great joy of my life.

Kate Middleton on the cover of OK Magazine looking pissed off alongside a flash promising a free pack of fruit at iceland.

When you just paid for fruit.

'pivots' doing a lot of work there.

I still need the bifocals because of the difference in depth between the laptop screen and second monitor... Oddly I don't struggle with finding close-up much when out and about with the varifocals, but I think like you said it is about coverage.

Ugh, eyes are getting tired just thinking about it!

Bloody love a Dalmatian, me. She is gorgeous, and what you described has pretty much been my experience of every one I've met.

Anya (sadly long departed) used to just lie there while pillows and soft toys and blankets got piled up on her. Totally placid and daft.

I now spend way more time cycling glasses - and just taking them off altogether when reading comics and prose - than I ever expected to, but it is what it is.

(I often forget to take the bifocals off when leaving the flat which is still survivable but does tire my eyes out quicker.)

I caved after about a month or two of not finding 'the sweet spot', and went back and swapped my 'free' second pair for a much shallower bifocal just for work use (I have my work laptop cabled in to my second monitor so switching between a lot).

Pretty sure we've got that one, and it was excellent. Suspect it'll get thumbed through again soon, because oldest is currently rewatching.

(This sounds like it's sitting neglected but it got looked at A LOT for a long while.)

douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

Reactionary conservatives can't even stick to the 'facts' when those 'facts' broadly work for them. It's always with the fan fiction with these motherfuckers.

For all the problems with the Cass Review, it's almost incredible (read: entirely predictable) how often reactionary conservatives STILL dramatically misinterpret and make false claims for parts of it.

It was already a 'win' on points for them, so it's wild that wasn't enough.

Again, Orwell wasn't a prophet, no writers really are. It's just that history repeats, and most people really can't face up to the fact that this stuff is all around them all the time to anyone with the eyes to see it.

Orwell wasn't a prophet, he was paying attention and wrote about what he saw.

Kevin Sorbo regretting taking his own advice.

Ignore the smears: I was never a close friend of Peter Mandelson. And I fully understand the lessons we must learn Wes Streeting

This is the funniest headline I seen in a long time. And bravo to whoever underlined the desperation with the juxtaposed link.

That said, this is an article from 2023. I wonder what Davies was obsessing about back then that meant she missed this? People in the state where this actually happened have been protesting against it ever since.

Stopped clock Sharron Davies here, failing to recognise where all her reactionary conservatism of the last few years ultimately leads.

If only someone had predicted etc etc.

But at least explains Tommy Robinson's activities over the last couple of days.

It'll work on the credulous, no doubt.

Expect a ramping up of Islamophobia as well but that's always in fashion with the fash anyway, so probably harder to gauge.

So the pivot among transphobes on it being revealed how much Epstein et al had their fingers in their grubby little movement is to whatabout any criticisms of sex trafficking, rapist elites back to their transphobic talking points?

An ouroboros of disingenuous fuckshit.