Profoundly alienated
@oceanbeachmarie.bsky.social
Please see above
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Sorry to mention it on here but I feel like I’m dealing with a modern form of insanity/brainwashing.
How is it WORSE to charge less for the same writing, work just as hard, if not even harder, and choose to no longer give money to venture capitalists?
How is it WORSE to charge less for the same writing, work just as hard, if not even harder, and choose to no longer give money to venture capitalists?
October 16, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Sorry to mention it on here but I feel like I’m dealing with a modern form of insanity/brainwashing.
How is it WORSE to charge less for the same writing, work just as hard, if not even harder, and choose to no longer give money to venture capitalists?
How is it WORSE to charge less for the same writing, work just as hard, if not even harder, and choose to no longer give money to venture capitalists?
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
vampires
First sentence says it all: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use." Read the rest of the story though. from @ianjames.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/environment/...
California cracks down on water theft but spares data centers from disclosing how much they use
Gov. Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required data centers to report their projected water use when applying for a business license.
www.latimes.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:23 PM
vampires
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
We're very proud to be the first publisher to have the Books By People stamp - and that it should be going to Telenovela, a book about the fight against authoritarianism and all the associated nonsense:
www.thebookseller.com/news/uk-star...
www.thebookseller.com/news/uk-star...
Startup launches ‘industry-first’ certification for human-made books
UK start-up Books By People has launched a new certification – the Organic Literature Certification – with a group of independent publishing houses to “counter AI-generated books”.
www.thebookseller.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:56 AM
We're very proud to be the first publisher to have the Books By People stamp - and that it should be going to Telenovela, a book about the fight against authoritarianism and all the associated nonsense:
www.thebookseller.com/news/uk-star...
www.thebookseller.com/news/uk-star...
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
If you're having virtual sex with a chatbot that is a product of a corporation aren't you in some sense having sex with the corporation and giving it this tremendous hold on you/dependency on their protection of your privacy (but they know all your secrets). Who wants to have sex with OpenAI?
October 15, 2025 at 4:31 PM
If you're having virtual sex with a chatbot that is a product of a corporation aren't you in some sense having sex with the corporation and giving it this tremendous hold on you/dependency on their protection of your privacy (but they know all your secrets). Who wants to have sex with OpenAI?
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Someone made the very good point that this demonstrates how easily AI can be manipulated to spew whatever values and truths the people behind it want and that should also be a warning about AI sources in general as well as anything Musk has touched in particular.
July 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Someone made the very good point that this demonstrates how easily AI can be manipulated to spew whatever values and truths the people behind it want and that should also be a warning about AI sources in general as well as anything Musk has touched in particular.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Individuals in the publishing industry want you to write a good non-fiction book. The publishing industry as a whole wants you to write a non-fiction book about something heroic and unrealistic which doesn’t tax anyone’s brain and is not dissimilar to some other non-fiction books which sold well.
July 8, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Individuals in the publishing industry want you to write a good non-fiction book. The publishing industry as a whole wants you to write a non-fiction book about something heroic and unrealistic which doesn’t tax anyone’s brain and is not dissimilar to some other non-fiction books which sold well.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
🔥🔥🔥
The purpose of said advice pandemic is to avoid collective accountability for major problems we are facing in our society (like the true neoliberals we are🤢)
“Small human, the unhappiness/lack of fulfillment/success you are feeling is your own fault and this is what you should do to improve”…
The purpose of said advice pandemic is to avoid collective accountability for major problems we are facing in our society (like the true neoliberals we are🤢)
“Small human, the unhappiness/lack of fulfillment/success you are feeling is your own fault and this is what you should do to improve”…
Dear modern digital culture. Please stop telling me how to be the best version of me. I'm ok with being, with the exception of the odd day here and there, the fifth or sixth best version of me, with all the chaos, foibles and happy unpredictability that entails: tomcox.substack.com/p/can-you-pl...
Can You Please Stop Telling Me To Live My Best Life Please
Thoughts On The Advice Pandemic
tomcox.substack.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:36 AM
🔥🔥🔥
The purpose of said advice pandemic is to avoid collective accountability for major problems we are facing in our society (like the true neoliberals we are🤢)
“Small human, the unhappiness/lack of fulfillment/success you are feeling is your own fault and this is what you should do to improve”…
The purpose of said advice pandemic is to avoid collective accountability for major problems we are facing in our society (like the true neoliberals we are🤢)
“Small human, the unhappiness/lack of fulfillment/success you are feeling is your own fault and this is what you should do to improve”…
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Good morning from @altyellonatpark.org
July 8, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Good morning from @altyellonatpark.org
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Today, a war criminal under indictment from the ICC will be welcomed to the White House.
Trump, like Biden before him, has aided and abetted the extremist Netanyahu government as it has systematically killed and starved civilians in Gaza.
It is a shameful day in America.
Trump, like Biden before him, has aided and abetted the extremist Netanyahu government as it has systematically killed and starved civilians in Gaza.
It is a shameful day in America.
July 7, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Today, a war criminal under indictment from the ICC will be welcomed to the White House.
Trump, like Biden before him, has aided and abetted the extremist Netanyahu government as it has systematically killed and starved civilians in Gaza.
It is a shameful day in America.
Trump, like Biden before him, has aided and abetted the extremist Netanyahu government as it has systematically killed and starved civilians in Gaza.
It is a shameful day in America.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Almost certainly the most eloquent and perceptive piece anybody has ever written about one of my books. (And far better writing than you generally get in newspaper literary sections.)
If you want to understand why, I wrote an essay about the thoughts it provoked in me
thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/2022/05/12/v...
thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/2022/05/12/v...
Villager
Read 08/05/2022-12/05/2022 Rating 5 stars Villager is Tom Cox’s first novel. I’m not going to call it a debut, because the author has a wealth of writing already in his back catalogue. …
thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com
July 7, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Almost certainly the most eloquent and perceptive piece anybody has ever written about one of my books. (And far better writing than you generally get in newspaper literary sections.)
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
"In today's Observer we look into the scandalous facts behind Tom Cox's bestseller 'Fish Dreams (How My Friendship With A Trout Taught Me To Fall Love With Life Again)', including the fact he'd never even met to a trout & had in fact spent that period just going on walks & hanging out with badgers."
July 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
"In today's Observer we look into the scandalous facts behind Tom Cox's bestseller 'Fish Dreams (How My Friendship With A Trout Taught Me To Fall Love With Life Again)', including the fact he'd never even met to a trout & had in fact spent that period just going on walks & hanging out with badgers."
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
You suspect it’s like this and think “ah no, I’m just being cynical” then you realise, yep, it’s actually like this.
When I was a bookseller it was easy to see these trends in books even down to the cover design. Always following what was successful until some outlier was successful, which was then cloned and it starts again.
July 6, 2025 at 4:26 PM
You suspect it’s like this and think “ah no, I’m just being cynical” then you realise, yep, it’s actually like this.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
There are no red states, no blue states, only purple, from Idaho fuchsia to Vermont violet. And in every state there are children, non-citizens, and prisoners who can't vote. In every state where one candidate won, a bunch of people voted for the other candidate. And so forth.
July 6, 2025 at 5:42 AM
There are no red states, no blue states, only purple, from Idaho fuchsia to Vermont violet. And in every state there are children, non-citizens, and prisoners who can't vote. In every state where one candidate won, a bunch of people voted for the other candidate. And so forth.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
By people who have forgotten that people read because we love to enter the author’s world. We start with the book’s first word and end on the last. THAT’S the journey.
July 6, 2025 at 2:35 PM
By people who have forgotten that people read because we love to enter the author’s world. We start with the book’s first word and end on the last. THAT’S the journey.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
My translator tells me "thoughts & prayers" is an American political expression that means "we'd rather have a secret police force than a weather service".
July 6, 2025 at 7:20 AM
My translator tells me "thoughts & prayers" is an American political expression that means "we'd rather have a secret police force than a weather service".
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Hurricane forecasters and scientists rely on weather data collected and processed by Department of Defense satellites. The Navy has decided to stop sharing the data.
Defense Department will stop providing crucial satellite weather data
Hurricane forecasters and scientists rely on weather data collected and processed by Department of Defense satellites. The Navy has decided to stop sharing the data.
n.pr
July 5, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Hurricane forecasters and scientists rely on weather data collected and processed by Department of Defense satellites. The Navy has decided to stop sharing the data.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
There are already more than enough residential buildings to house everyone in this country.
Of course, no MP would ever suggest the banning of second and third homes as any kind of solution, because that would mean they'd lose theirs.
Of course, no MP would ever suggest the banning of second and third homes as any kind of solution, because that would mean they'd lose theirs.
July 6, 2025 at 7:09 AM
There are already more than enough residential buildings to house everyone in this country.
Of course, no MP would ever suggest the banning of second and third homes as any kind of solution, because that would mean they'd lose theirs.
Of course, no MP would ever suggest the banning of second and third homes as any kind of solution, because that would mean they'd lose theirs.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
This seems very characteristic of our era. If you make a statement about something with enough brashness and conviction - whether that statement is a sign advertising houses, or some insane claim by a megalomaniac fuckwit joke of a politician - it no longer appears to matter if it's patently untrue.
July 5, 2025 at 7:46 AM
This seems very characteristic of our era. If you make a statement about something with enough brashness and conviction - whether that statement is a sign advertising houses, or some insane claim by a megalomaniac fuckwit joke of a politician - it no longer appears to matter if it's patently untrue.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
I always find it distasteful that they call new streets after the rural space or wildlife they destroyed in building them.
July 5, 2025 at 8:41 AM
I always find it distasteful that they call new streets after the rural space or wildlife they destroyed in building them.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
There's a large development half empty years after opening, in Ovingdean, near Brighton. It's called Starlings, and - guess what - there ain't any starlings there any more.
July 5, 2025 at 11:43 AM
There's a large development half empty years after opening, in Ovingdean, near Brighton. It's called Starlings, and - guess what - there ain't any starlings there any more.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
...I'd just like a noise free magazine type place to go and read things by writers I like, and support them. But I guess that wouldn't make enough $$$$/££££ for the VCs.
July 4, 2025 at 9:51 AM
...I'd just like a noise free magazine type place to go and read things by writers I like, and support them. But I guess that wouldn't make enough $$$$/££££ for the VCs.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Yikes. This is so clearly @theguardian.com running “Michael Madsen obituary” through Chat GPT or whatever. These errors, and the fact he wasn’t in Pulp Fiction aside, the SPAG is awful. It’s just so obviously robotic.
Horrendous. Just pay actual writers, you skinflints.
Horrendous. Just pay actual writers, you skinflints.
Reservoir Dogs was 1992, not 1994. Pulp Fiction was 2 years later, not 11 years later. Jesus Christ, @theguardian.com, whatever wretched AI rubbish you’re using in place of proper journalists, it ain’t working. Switch it off.
July 4, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Yikes. This is so clearly @theguardian.com running “Michael Madsen obituary” through Chat GPT or whatever. These errors, and the fact he wasn’t in Pulp Fiction aside, the SPAG is awful. It’s just so obviously robotic.
Horrendous. Just pay actual writers, you skinflints.
Horrendous. Just pay actual writers, you skinflints.
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
Everybody
Everywhere
Needs flowers tonight
Everywhere
Needs flowers tonight
July 4, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Everybody
Everywhere
Needs flowers tonight
Everywhere
Needs flowers tonight
Reposted by Profoundly alienated
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.