Louise Holden
@llamaperson.bsky.social
SFF reader, fanfic writer, currently studying astronomy and planetary science, keen on boardgames, linguistics. Keeper of dogs/cats/goats/tortoise and a grumpy python. Schizoaffective.🦖
At the moment this is guidance for businesses and public facilities about banning trans and trans adjacent people. There's no specific criminal offence created but presumably if you don't leave when told to it could be trespass/breach of the peace.
November 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
At the moment this is guidance for businesses and public facilities about banning trans and trans adjacent people. There's no specific criminal offence created but presumably if you don't leave when told to it could be trespass/breach of the peace.
It's a reference to the Israelis blowing up Hezbollah pagers last year. The implications are that a) the target of the 'joke' is a terrorist and b) it would be funny if they were killed.
November 14, 2025 at 3:17 PM
It's a reference to the Israelis blowing up Hezbollah pagers last year. The implications are that a) the target of the 'joke' is a terrorist and b) it would be funny if they were killed.
If I were the UK govt I'd be hoping the courts overturn the ban. Embarrassing for the govt but at least an end to the matter. The reporting on 2,000 people going through the courts for holding up signs will be worse.
November 11, 2025 at 7:06 PM
If I were the UK govt I'd be hoping the courts overturn the ban. Embarrassing for the govt but at least an end to the matter. The reporting on 2,000 people going through the courts for holding up signs will be worse.
So an argument for privileging every type of private conversation on the grounds that it's always good for people to talk about stuff and who cares about convicting criminals anyway?
November 10, 2025 at 6:36 PM
So an argument for privileging every type of private conversation on the grounds that it's always good for people to talk about stuff and who cares about convicting criminals anyway?
On Audible, Tales of Earthsea, from library The Great When (Alan Moore) which is not yet grabbing me but not a DNF just yet.
November 9, 2025 at 11:55 AM
On Audible, Tales of Earthsea, from library The Great When (Alan Moore) which is not yet grabbing me but not a DNF just yet.
To summarise the article - if you're a big name, publishers will still happily make money off your human-written books but all other authors will be expected to reduce their costs by either using AI or being outright replaced by it.
October 27, 2025 at 9:27 PM
To summarise the article - if you're a big name, publishers will still happily make money off your human-written books but all other authors will be expected to reduce their costs by either using AI or being outright replaced by it.
And indeed the terrorism act. MPs in 2000 were assured no govt would apply it to direct action protest groups, and yet here we are. Govt assurances about how a law will be applied are legally worthless.
October 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
And indeed the terrorism act. MPs in 2000 were assured no govt would apply it to direct action protest groups, and yet here we are. Govt assurances about how a law will be applied are legally worthless.
If it's only for the most serious cases it won't inconvenience them to keep using the police's search powers. Once legislation is on the books somebody will always decide to use it to the full extent possible and 'the govt said they didn't intend that' doesn't legally overrule the law as written.
October 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
If it's only for the most serious cases it won't inconvenience them to keep using the police's search powers. Once legislation is on the books somebody will always decide to use it to the full extent possible and 'the govt said they didn't intend that' doesn't legally overrule the law as written.
Thank you. I will punch with a clear conscience.
October 14, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Thank you. I will punch with a clear conscience.
I would really like to go back and punch an author in 1969 but since the individual is still alive and for all I know repentant I'm not sure of the ethics involved.
October 14, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I would really like to go back and punch an author in 1969 but since the individual is still alive and for all I know repentant I'm not sure of the ethics involved.
He waves his hands and says "bad scientists did it" too many times. He never tries to bridge the gap between reality and his world building - many authors can get away with that but they have to be committed to their worlds and he isn't.
October 14, 2025 at 9:56 AM
He waves his hands and says "bad scientists did it" too many times. He never tries to bridge the gap between reality and his world building - many authors can get away with that but they have to be committed to their worlds and he isn't.
I recall being very unimpressed by the Chinese room thought experiment when I was at college. Forty years later I think he was probably right.
October 13, 2025 at 1:13 PM
I recall being very unimpressed by the Chinese room thought experiment when I was at college. Forty years later I think he was probably right.
In the UK the rate of infant circumcision is about 10% and falling, and yet the rate of autism diagnosis is increasing in a comparable fashion to the US.
October 11, 2025 at 11:59 AM
In the UK the rate of infant circumcision is about 10% and falling, and yet the rate of autism diagnosis is increasing in a comparable fashion to the US.
My point is simply that the legislation is drawn obscenely wide and people should know just how wide before they write something on a placard in the belief they can't be arrested for it.
October 9, 2025 at 4:22 PM
My point is simply that the legislation is drawn obscenely wide and people should know just how wide before they write something on a placard in the belief they can't be arrested for it.
So the same politicians who throw a fit if schools don't teach Shakespeare are now throwing a fit because universities do teach it.
October 8, 2025 at 9:43 PM
So the same politicians who throw a fit if schools don't teach Shakespeare are now throwing a fit because universities do teach it.
I might even think about travelling for it but not to the States.
October 7, 2025 at 9:44 AM
I might even think about travelling for it but not to the States.
"A person in a public place commits an offence if he... displays an article in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation." S13 TA2000.
October 6, 2025 at 3:45 PM
"A person in a public place commits an offence if he... displays an article in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation." S13 TA2000.
Ah yes, the good old radicalisation pipeline, currently chock full of elderly vicars queuing up to be turned into bomb throwing terrorists (once they've finished writing things on pieces of cardboard).
October 6, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Ah yes, the good old radicalisation pipeline, currently chock full of elderly vicars queuing up to be turned into bomb throwing terrorists (once they've finished writing things on pieces of cardboard).
Because the precise wording isn't the issue, it's the support for PA that's illegal, however phrased. If you can tell that a sign's really supporting PA but with the words mixed up, so can the police and the courts.
October 6, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Because the precise wording isn't the issue, it's the support for PA that's illegal, however phrased. If you can tell that a sign's really supporting PA but with the words mixed up, so can the police and the courts.
There is no precise prohibited wording, it just has to be expressing support for PA and I imagine that would in practice come down to a 'reasonable person' test. So Palestine In Action might breach the law because a reasonable bystander could conclude that it does express support for PA.
October 6, 2025 at 10:40 AM
There is no precise prohibited wording, it just has to be expressing support for PA and I imagine that would in practice come down to a 'reasonable person' test. So Palestine In Action might breach the law because a reasonable bystander could conclude that it does express support for PA.
Hemlock and Silver (Kingfisher) on audio, Brown Girl in the Ring (Hopkinson) in paperback. Got Regenesis (Cherryh) lined up next, with anticipation- a sequel to one of my absolute favourite books.
October 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Hemlock and Silver (Kingfisher) on audio, Brown Girl in the Ring (Hopkinson) in paperback. Got Regenesis (Cherryh) lined up next, with anticipation- a sequel to one of my absolute favourite books.
If you ask a human and they don't know the answer, most of the time they'll say so. If you discover that person routinely makes up stuff instead I'm sure that you'd pretty soon stop asking them about anything.
October 2, 2025 at 8:20 PM
If you ask a human and they don't know the answer, most of the time they'll say so. If you discover that person routinely makes up stuff instead I'm sure that you'd pretty soon stop asking them about anything.