John B. Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶

Terfery aside, I find it comforting that this is true in basically every area of knowledge. The deeper you go, the less you know.

I was no more than two or three - young enough to be held at arm's length - and I still have flashbacks to *those* mussels.

Periodically I'll try a bivalve again just to see if they still taste like food poisoning. They always still taste like food poisoning.

Here are our 5 policy asks for tackling misogynistic content online and its impacts in the real world.

We responsed to the Women and Equalities Committee consultation on misogyny: the manosphere and online content. Read our response here: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

16% of the UK population was born overseas (21/22 census)
12% of UK prisoners were born overseas
Therefore people born overseas are less likely to be in jail than people born in the UK.
That should be the headline.

This is going to ruin so many cis women's lives. They had to end it in the 2000's because it resulted in women having their lives destroyed, partners leaving them, family disowning them etc. After some high profile suicides and attempts , they had to stop.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_o...

French sign saying (in French) "Crepes and chocolates", left arrow. "Cruel world", right arrow. Harvested from the webs, no idea of attribution.

A promotional banner with the Disability Pride Month logo featuring a grey background and a rainbow stripe of red, yellow, white, blue, and green and the words Authors for Disability Pride.

July is Disability Pride Month, and we didn't want to end the month without celebrating indie authors with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

Here we have FIFTY (!) SFF books for you to choose from and support! There's something for everyone.

www.readindiefantasy.com/celebrating-...

The trans rights stitch-up How government plans to silence debate on the new rules

It's very telling what happens to the comment whenever I write on this subject. Every other week, the comments in my substack are witty, funny and kind. On this topic, they're bitter, vicious, demented.

open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

It's smashed through the 100k target already, but worth signing this if you're a UK person. The more the better.

Have a little fun! Or be a little emo. Quote post with your own dramatic black and white selfie 🖤

(Messed up the timing with this one but I kind-of like it?)

😊

👀

So, France has fewer songbirds and small animals etc. than neighbouring countries like the UK because there is a (thankfully dying) hunting culture that shoots literally anything that moves. My grandparents there utterly despised it and most of the chasseurs I met justified that opinion...

This itch.io kerfuffle seems like a good time to remind you that it is not and never has been a war on pornography.

It's a war on women and marginalised people to attack and remove their capacity for earning income and financial independence.

They won't stop there. Time to consider writing to Visa and MasterCard - as with so much else, I suspect this was after a small but loud group of bigots wrote to them. Probably time to get writing to others too. Something else will be next.

Sign the Petition Not in our name: Women in support of the trans+ community

Are you a cis-woman in the UK who is opposed to the government using your rights as an excuse to oppress trans people?

If so, please sign this petition created by women like you.

Once again, the wrong old man died

A screencap of a Microsoft loading window in white, with the subtext "Updating Microsoft 365 and Office, please wait a moment...", which inevitably precedes me ruthlessly scouring it to make sure it's not snuck AI into my computer when I didn't ask it to.

Gods, but I have learned to detest the sight of this:

Speaking as a Cambridgeshire boy, there is no sane world in which Hungerford is in the same English region as flipping Wisbech.

Try again.

trans rights isn't a single issue, it's an indexing issue

a politician willing to dump all evidence & get behind anti-trans rhetoric for votes, they're showing you something important. they're showing they'll give up any principle at all for political expediency

are you so sure you won't be next?

The % changes suggest the Greens threw the kitchen sink at it, but came third and got a Tory instead.

It's also really good! :)

Visa and Mastercard should not have control over speech and it's very strange this is a position that even needs to be argued.

Lol! It's a thing we should get around to even so 😅

💙 here...

💙 here...

Likewise - and at least the robot is utterly merciless at highlighting errors

This is why I never watch England play any kind of Sportsball™ if I can help it.

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Danger Mouse.

(I'd have supplied a GIF if the only ones weren't either crap, or flashing and thereby crap)