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Jo Berry

@joberry.bsky.social

1.7K followers 500 following 1.1K posts

English gal in Montreal and Senior Game Writer at Motive Studio (Star Wars: Squadrons, Dead Space Remake); formerly at BioWare. Short stories and novellas (latest here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DW2Y5WH1) She / her. Opinions are mine.

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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · Apr 11

A master of the dark arts is hosting a victory banquet, but the guests are bringing their own ambitions to the table.

Mercenaries, socialites, assassins, and a spymaster determined to defend his master...for some to feast, others must fall.

www.amazon.com/dp/B0DW2Y5WH1

#booksky #fantasy #novella

A novella cover showing a sinister-looking table setting of metallic plates and crossed utensils. The title "Dining with the Demon-Eater" is in the middle, and the author's name (Joanna Berry) underneath

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Caroline M. Yoachim @carolinemyoachim.bsky.social · 6h

Photos from today's walk at the Seattle Japanese Garden (thread). I was quite taken with these red leaves, dangling by a bit of spiderweb in a way that made them look like they were falling.

#photography #PNW #autumn #FallColors #nature #red #31DaysOfHalloween #SeattleJapaneseGarden

Closeup of half a dozen red maple leaves, suspended mid-air by (near-invisible) spider web threads in a vertical line such that it looks almost like a composite image of a leaf tumbling down from the tree, twirling as it falls. Dark greenery blurry in the background.

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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 6h

Also: so he's C. Raven as in "craven"? 🤦🏻

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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 9h

Me: Is fish and chips fast food?
Melville:

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 9h

What is a Fast-Fish? Alive or dead a fish is technically fast, when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat, by any medium at all controllable by the occupant or occupants,—a mast, an oar, a nine-inch cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same.

Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 10h

I keep uninstalling Copilot and yet it's still showing up on the toolbar, like a grim spectre

emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 12h

just watched a dozen people ask microsoft copilot experts their most pressing questions and those questions were 90% “how do i turn it off?” and “when i turn it off, is it really off or is it spying on me?”

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Unofficial BBCNews (World) Bot @bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social · 10h

Man who appealed Pelicot rape conviction handed longer jail term

A French court increases by a year the jail term of the only man who challenged his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot.

www.bbc.com

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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 10h

Just a little longer

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Hawklorddragon @cimerians.bsky.social · 13h

Rebels vs The Galactic Empire by Sean Cooke
#StarWars

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Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 12h

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Rock Paper Shotgun @rockpapershotgun.bsky.social · 13h

Following Microsoft's mass layoffs, former Elder Scrolls Online and Blackbird devs form worker-owned studio

A group of ex-Zenimax developers have formed worker-owned Sackbird Studios following Microsoft's mass layoffs.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 11h

In this self-portrait by Pieter Van Laer (known as Il Bamboccio), ca. 1635–37, the artist portrays himself performing a magic ritual and, to his own horror, having summoned up some kind of demon. The sheet music has his signature and the words “il diavolo non burla” (“the devil doesn’t jest”)

"In one of the most remarkable self-portraits ever created, Pieter van Laer reacts with horror to the frightening claws of the devil that have suddenly come to claim him. Dressed in the black cloak and cap of a magician, the artist, with bulging eyes and open mouth, has witnessed this apparition while standing behind a table filled with books, some with alchemical notations, a variety of vessels, a snuffed-out candle, and a skull resting on hot coals" (Leiden Collection) https://www.theleidencollection.com/artwork/self-portrait-with-magic-scene/

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 13h

‘Amoral, evil’: vitriolic backlash builds against comics who played Riyadh festival

Murder by bone-saw, lashings for rape victims, punitive amputation, jail for satirists … these are the human rights abuses fuelling the fury now being directed at the likes of Louis CK and Dave Chappelle. How have they reacted?

www.theguardian.com

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Dr. Fade @fade.bsky.social · 14h

This is about moderation in social media but damn what an evergreen skeet.

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 21h

It's Almost Like This Shit Is Hella Fucking Complicated

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NPR @npr.org · 13h

For the first time on record, renewable energy generated more electricity for the planet than coal, a new report says. n.pr/47hcegr

Renewable energy outpaces coal for electricity generation in historic first, report says

For the first time on record, renewable energy generated more electricity for the planet than coal, a new report says.

n.pr

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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 23h

This feels like the sanest reaction to every piece of news I see coming out of the US

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 1d

Belvoir, both the street and the castle

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 1d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

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Joseph Fink @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 1d

this is how I, a resident of LA, found out that the Palisades fire was arson, that they caught the guy, and that he used gen AI to work his way up to doing the crime

niki grayson @nikigrayson.com · 1d

the city of los angeles burned in january in part because of a man who couldn’t stop generating images of burning cities on ChatGPT, and then after he lit the fire he asked if the fire he started was his fault

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Sasha Ravitch ☄️ @sasharavitch.bsky.social · 1d

finishing up my generative-writing zine for my craft class this weekend for SLC X The Writing Institute where i'll be introducing writers to some freudian, lacanian, and kleinian psychoanalytic theory in order to create psychologically complex, compelling, and cathartic characterization.

red zine cover with text that reads CRAFT ZINE / CREATING PSYCHOLOGICALLY COMPLEX CHARACTERS / WITH SASHA RAVITCH depicting two masked figures kissing

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Brian Gray 🪩🥂💖 @urbanbohemian.com · 1d

All these CEOs just cosplaying as smart people, it's wild.

I'm also reminded of the recent post about the "passing the same $5 around" creator struggle and realize these companies are much the same, except it's "passing the same $100-500 billion around" and still SOMEHOW making no profit.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 1d

That's because they're fucking idiots, there is literally no other explanation

www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama

It felt “more different to images than people expected.”

www.theverge.com

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 1d

feels like yet again time to mention that the *videogames* industry (that's a creative industry, which people do creative degrees in) brings in more than twice the amount to the British economy as the fishing and steel industries *combined*

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 1d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 1d

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 1d

Just to be clear, an English degree - learning to critically assess texts - is actually one of the most dangerous for people such as Badenoch.

An educated population, able to bring hundreds of years of context to statements in a dawning age of AI slop and attention-seeking dishonesty is also vital.

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 1d

So, the plan is to cut English, the arts, and sociology - the degrees that actually study culture - while on another part of your platform claiming to “defend” British culture.

It’s performance nationalism with a reading age of seven.

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English
The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

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grumdholt.bsky.social @grumdholt.bsky.social · 2d

HP Lovecraft might have eaten Cheez-Its

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Dan Liimatta @danliimatta.bsky.social · 4d

#daily 33: dual topics – spirits | skeletal knight

Skeletal knight before a wall of spirits

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Premee Mohamed @premeemohamed.com · 2d

Ohohoho free shipping (free?!!) from @bookshop.org on Oct 7 and 8! Two very fine days to pick up, perhaps, books written by a huge bug?

bookshop.org/shop/premeem...

Premee Mohamed Bookshop

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, Ignyte, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hug...

bookshop.org

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 2d

As someone who was doing that human review of images before even PhotoDNA existed, I can testify that the amount of human suffering automated image classification prevents is MASSIVE. Like, I am the best case scenario of the human cost of that work and I still have lifelong consequences from it.

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