emma bolton
@ebolton.bsky.social
Artist and writer based in Granada, Spain. She/her.
My newsletter, Sketches from Granada, celebrates moments of connection with ourselves, friends and strangers
Subscribe here: emmabolton.com
My newsletter, Sketches from Granada, celebrates moments of connection with ourselves, friends and strangers
Subscribe here: emmabolton.com
Pinned
Making the most of the early fall sunshine with some urban sketching in the Albaicín, Granada
Continually baffled that I was subject to far stricter ethics rules around investments as a junior lawyer than government members / advisors are. Avoiding the actuality (and appearance) of conflicts of interest is good, actually
There’s a good chance the British Prime Minister’s main adviser on AI is an OpenAI shareholder - but the government refuses to say whether she is.
🧵 1/5
🧵 1/5
November 11, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Continually baffled that I was subject to far stricter ethics rules around investments as a junior lawyer than government members / advisors are. Avoiding the actuality (and appearance) of conflicts of interest is good, actually
Reposted by emma bolton
It's just been confirmed that Monash University is dropping Woodside as a partner because they don't align with their sustainable values. This is an incredible win for @stopwoodsidemonash.bsky.social who have run a dedicated grass roots campaign for years.
November 11, 2025 at 5:37 AM
It's just been confirmed that Monash University is dropping Woodside as a partner because they don't align with their sustainable values. This is an incredible win for @stopwoodsidemonash.bsky.social who have run a dedicated grass roots campaign for years.
Reposted by emma bolton
Another statue from San Casciano, showing a woman at prayer, with beautiful details of her dress.
November 11, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Another statue from San Casciano, showing a woman at prayer, with beautiful details of her dress.
Reposted by emma bolton
Slovakia just rewrote its Constitution to erase legal gender recognition, restrict adoption, and ban surrogacy. Tell the EU to act now to defend equality, family rights, and democracy. ✊ Sign here: a.allout.org/s/v0qyx/
Defend equality and LGBTI+ lives in Slovakia
Slovakia’s new Constitution, denies legal gender recognition, restricts adoption, and bans surrogacy. Sign now to demand that the EU act to defend equality, family rights, and the rule of law.
a.allout.org
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Slovakia just rewrote its Constitution to erase legal gender recognition, restrict adoption, and ban surrogacy. Tell the EU to act now to defend equality, family rights, and democracy. ✊ Sign here: a.allout.org/s/v0qyx/
Reposted by emma bolton
I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit
this should not be controversial 🫠
this should not be controversial 🫠
November 10, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit
this should not be controversial 🫠
this should not be controversial 🫠
Reposted by emma bolton
A watercolour sketch I still love of this cute kiosk in Bib Rambla, Granada's busiest square.
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
November 9, 2025 at 8:09 PM
A watercolour sketch I still love of this cute kiosk in Bib Rambla, Granada's busiest square.
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
A watercolour sketch I still love of this cute kiosk in Bib Rambla, Granada's busiest square.
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
November 9, 2025 at 8:09 PM
A watercolour sketch I still love of this cute kiosk in Bib Rambla, Granada's busiest square.
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
#art #urbansketching #acuarela
As someone who's both, the same goes for artists who use gen AI to write their newsletters. There is strength (and moral consistency) in solidarity
I’m amazed at some authors complaining about AI for writing but then using it for art🙃
HIRE REAL ARTISTS!! We’re all in this together ffs!
HIRE REAL ARTISTS!! We’re all in this together ffs!
November 9, 2025 at 5:56 PM
As someone who's both, the same goes for artists who use gen AI to write their newsletters. There is strength (and moral consistency) in solidarity
Reposted by emma bolton
📊 Dato mata relato.
@pablofdez1.bsky.social desmonta los bulos que utiliza la extrema derecha para señalar y criminalizar a las personas migrantes. 👇
@pablofdez1.bsky.social desmonta los bulos que utiliza la extrema derecha para señalar y criminalizar a las personas migrantes. 👇
November 9, 2025 at 5:19 PM
📊 Dato mata relato.
@pablofdez1.bsky.social desmonta los bulos que utiliza la extrema derecha para señalar y criminalizar a las personas migrantes. 👇
@pablofdez1.bsky.social desmonta los bulos que utiliza la extrema derecha para señalar y criminalizar a las personas migrantes. 👇
Reposted by emma bolton
“We're seeing a level of proliferation of bodies & body piles from space that's unlike anything I've ever seen…”
Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond explains how more people could be killed within a week in Sudan, compared to the past two years in Gaza.
🔗 zeteo.com/p/sudans-dea...
Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond explains how more people could be killed within a week in Sudan, compared to the past two years in Gaza.
🔗 zeteo.com/p/sudans-dea...
November 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM
“We're seeing a level of proliferation of bodies & body piles from space that's unlike anything I've ever seen…”
Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond explains how more people could be killed within a week in Sudan, compared to the past two years in Gaza.
🔗 zeteo.com/p/sudans-dea...
Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond explains how more people could be killed within a week in Sudan, compared to the past two years in Gaza.
🔗 zeteo.com/p/sudans-dea...
Reposted by emma bolton
Patio de Banderas takes my breath away every time I visit Sevilla. You pause under an orange tree to take in the white buildings with their golden details, tiny balconies and green shutters. Over the top of the walls and through the archway you glimpse the Cathedral (closer than it appears)
November 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Patio de Banderas takes my breath away every time I visit Sevilla. You pause under an orange tree to take in the white buildings with their golden details, tiny balconies and green shutters. Over the top of the walls and through the archway you glimpse the Cathedral (closer than it appears)
Reposted by emma bolton
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
Reposted by emma bolton
7 lawsuits against Open AI claim "that OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely, despite internal warnings that it was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative. Four of the victims died by suicide."
1/
apnews.com/article/open...
1/
apnews.com/article/open...
OpenAI faces 7 lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide, delusions
OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 5:35 AM
7 lawsuits against Open AI claim "that OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely, despite internal warnings that it was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative. Four of the victims died by suicide."
1/
apnews.com/article/open...
1/
apnews.com/article/open...
Reposted by emma bolton
When you switch from fossil to clean you only use like 30-40% of the energy to do the same stuff, bc most energy from fossil fuels is lost as waste heat
What's I'm trying to say is that all climate action is degrowth
WELCOME TO DEGROWTH EVERYONE
What's I'm trying to say is that all climate action is degrowth
WELCOME TO DEGROWTH EVERYONE
From my file on the IEA's world energy outlook.
"Primary energy" = what goes in
"Final energy" = what comes out
a
The space in between: mostly lost energy bc burning fossil fuels is absurdly wasteful.
So in the net zero scenario, that gaps closes to zero --->>
"Primary energy" = what goes in
"Final energy" = what comes out
a
The space in between: mostly lost energy bc burning fossil fuels is absurdly wasteful.
So in the net zero scenario, that gaps closes to zero --->>
November 8, 2025 at 8:52 PM
When you switch from fossil to clean you only use like 30-40% of the energy to do the same stuff, bc most energy from fossil fuels is lost as waste heat
What's I'm trying to say is that all climate action is degrowth
WELCOME TO DEGROWTH EVERYONE
What's I'm trying to say is that all climate action is degrowth
WELCOME TO DEGROWTH EVERYONE
Patio de Banderas takes my breath away every time I visit Sevilla. You pause under an orange tree to take in the white buildings with their golden details, tiny balconies and green shutters. Over the top of the walls and through the archway you glimpse the Cathedral (closer than it appears)
November 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Patio de Banderas takes my breath away every time I visit Sevilla. You pause under an orange tree to take in the white buildings with their golden details, tiny balconies and green shutters. Over the top of the walls and through the archway you glimpse the Cathedral (closer than it appears)
Reposted by emma bolton
As always, today is a great day to support artists, writers, creators of all sorts. If you have the means, buy a book, sign up for someone's Patreon, commission an art piece. It's also a lovely day to leave a nice comment, post a short review, spread the word about someone's work. Everything helps.
November 8, 2025 at 7:02 PM
As always, today is a great day to support artists, writers, creators of all sorts. If you have the means, buy a book, sign up for someone's Patreon, commission an art piece. It's also a lovely day to leave a nice comment, post a short review, spread the word about someone's work. Everything helps.
Reposted by emma bolton
You can tell if gratitude is helping or hindering by how much you show up as yourself while feeling grateful. If it results in a 'diluted' self, it might be acting as a social conditioner rather than a wellness tool.
November 8, 2025 at 6:47 PM
You can tell if gratitude is helping or hindering by how much you show up as yourself while feeling grateful. If it results in a 'diluted' self, it might be acting as a social conditioner rather than a wellness tool.
Reposted by emma bolton
We wrote a paper that used double helix metaphor, "Our findings illustrate that both educator response & education policy create a double helix of oppression...that make it incredibly difficult for Black girls to be protected from racialized sexual harassment"-this was our note on Watson's citation
November 7, 2025 at 8:56 PM
We wrote a paper that used double helix metaphor, "Our findings illustrate that both educator response & education policy create a double helix of oppression...that make it incredibly difficult for Black girls to be protected from racialized sexual harassment"-this was our note on Watson's citation
Reposted by emma bolton
People do tend to come up to me when I sketch, but I have never spoken to as many people as I did on the first day of our Granada Sketching Retreat. I did a lot of Spanish practice! But it was the best thing that could have happened to help our guests set aside their fears about sketching in public:
Conversations with strangers in Spanish
Reflecting on day 1 of our Granada Sketching Retreat
www.emmabolton.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:51 PM
People do tend to come up to me when I sketch, but I have never spoken to as many people as I did on the first day of our Granada Sketching Retreat. I did a lot of Spanish practice! But it was the best thing that could have happened to help our guests set aside their fears about sketching in public:
People do tend to come up to me when I sketch, but I have never spoken to as many people as I did on the first day of our Granada Sketching Retreat. I did a lot of Spanish practice! But it was the best thing that could have happened to help our guests set aside their fears about sketching in public:
Conversations with strangers in Spanish
Reflecting on day 1 of our Granada Sketching Retreat
www.emmabolton.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:51 PM
People do tend to come up to me when I sketch, but I have never spoken to as many people as I did on the first day of our Granada Sketching Retreat. I did a lot of Spanish practice! But it was the best thing that could have happened to help our guests set aside their fears about sketching in public:
Reposted by emma bolton
Good literary translation requires understanding (language, culture, genre--on both sides of the translation) and an ability to write well. "AI" can't do that. There are no shortcuts. Treat your work and foreign language readers with the respect they deserve. You won't fool anyone with this.
Amazon has launched a new AI-driven translation service, Kindle Translate, for Kindle Direct Publishing authors 👇 #BookSky
Amazon launches AI translation service for indie authors
ebx.sh
November 7, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Good literary translation requires understanding (language, culture, genre--on both sides of the translation) and an ability to write well. "AI" can't do that. There are no shortcuts. Treat your work and foreign language readers with the respect they deserve. You won't fool anyone with this.
Reposted by emma bolton
Every time a tech entrepreneur says “we don’t need to stop global warming because AI will” I want to slap them with a fish that says, “if a superhuman intelligence came into being and we asked it how to stop global warming, it would say ‘stop burning fossil fuels, you fools.’”
I’m going to regret asking this, but… what mechanism are people proposing whereby AI will “end scarcity”?
This feels like literal underpants gnomes thinking, and as I never tire of pointing out, it’s being driven by a lot of the same actual people
This feels like literal underpants gnomes thinking, and as I never tire of pointing out, it’s being driven by a lot of the same actual people
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Every time a tech entrepreneur says “we don’t need to stop global warming because AI will” I want to slap them with a fish that says, “if a superhuman intelligence came into being and we asked it how to stop global warming, it would say ‘stop burning fossil fuels, you fools.’”
Reposted by emma bolton
What happens when a journalist gets fired isn't confined to news sites.
It undermines our ability to identify truth and use it to enact basic social safeguards. It erodes society's ability to check messaging against reality.
It is a fundamental backsliding in social agency.
It undermines our ability to identify truth and use it to enact basic social safeguards. It erodes society's ability to check messaging against reality.
It is a fundamental backsliding in social agency.
Gabriele Nunziati was fired for asking if Israel should pay for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip
This isn’t even a controversial question; it was framed as a test of the EU’s moral equivalence
This is appalling and cowardly and why we need a boycott
europeanjournalists.org/blog/2025/11...
This isn’t even a controversial question; it was framed as a test of the EU’s moral equivalence
This is appalling and cowardly and why we need a boycott
europeanjournalists.org/blog/2025/11...
Italy: IFJ-EFJ call for the reinstatement of sacked journalist Gabriele Nunziati
Italian journalist Gabriele Nunziati, Brussels correspondent for the Agenzia Nova news agency, was told his collaboration with the agency was stopped ...
europeanjournalists.org
November 7, 2025 at 10:04 AM
What happens when a journalist gets fired isn't confined to news sites.
It undermines our ability to identify truth and use it to enact basic social safeguards. It erodes society's ability to check messaging against reality.
It is a fundamental backsliding in social agency.
It undermines our ability to identify truth and use it to enact basic social safeguards. It erodes society's ability to check messaging against reality.
It is a fundamental backsliding in social agency.
Whew, that was a wild ride. The anticipation I felt throughout even though that history is already written! Some of those Empires came and went fast!
I've been learning more local history, so really interesting to watch the Iberian peninsula and see Granada drop off the map in 1492 too
I've been learning more local history, so really interesting to watch the Iberian peninsula and see Granada drop off the map in 1492 too
While agreeing in the round,
I've found this (below) both reassuring and highlighting of the need for constant vigilance. There is no perfect end state. See if you can see where the 'thousand year reich' occurs (also, that Roman Empire lasted quite a while).
m.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P...
I've found this (below) both reassuring and highlighting of the need for constant vigilance. There is no perfect end state. See if you can see where the 'thousand year reich' occurs (also, that Roman Empire lasted quite a while).
m.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P...
The History of Europe: Every Year
YouTube video by Cottereau
m.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Whew, that was a wild ride. The anticipation I felt throughout even though that history is already written! Some of those Empires came and went fast!
I've been learning more local history, so really interesting to watch the Iberian peninsula and see Granada drop off the map in 1492 too
I've been learning more local history, so really interesting to watch the Iberian peninsula and see Granada drop off the map in 1492 too
Reposted by emma bolton
Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default.
Here's how to turn it off.
First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
Here's how to turn it off.
First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
November 6, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default.
Here's how to turn it off.
First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
Here's how to turn it off.
First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner