Mark Bridge
@markbridge.net
Reading, writing, driving, photographing.
(Posts are my own opinion; reposts and likes are someone else's; reportage is not endorsement.)
Also at http://www.markbridge.info
(Posts are my own opinion; reposts and likes are someone else's; reportage is not endorsement.)
Also at http://www.markbridge.info
Ray Bradbury talks about Mr Electrico, who appears as a character in Something Wicked This Way Comes: [https://www.wired.com/2012/06/mr-electrico/]
(Discovered via [robinsloan.com])
(Discovered via [robinsloan.com])
Mark Bridge
markbridge.net
January 20, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Ray Bradbury talks about Mr Electrico, who appears as a character in Something Wicked This Way Comes: [https://www.wired.com/2012/06/mr-electrico/]
(Discovered via [robinsloan.com])
(Discovered via [robinsloan.com])
Reposted by Mark Bridge
We know today is labelled 'Blue Monday' by journalists looking for clicks and rewriting press releases.
Today is just another day. There's more daylight by the day, snowdrops have appeared and better music, film and TV releases start to happen.
www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-ment...
Today is just another day. There's more daylight by the day, snowdrops have appeared and better music, film and TV releases start to happen.
www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-ment...
What does Blue Monday mean for our mental health?
January’s third Monday, “Blue Monday”, is thought to be the most depressing day of the year. Spoiler: it isn’t. Let’s look after our mental health against commercial influences.
www.mentalhealth.org.uk
January 19, 2026 at 8:04 AM
We know today is labelled 'Blue Monday' by journalists looking for clicks and rewriting press releases.
Today is just another day. There's more daylight by the day, snowdrops have appeared and better music, film and TV releases start to happen.
www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-ment...
Today is just another day. There's more daylight by the day, snowdrops have appeared and better music, film and TV releases start to happen.
www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-ment...
Reposted by Mark Bridge
"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard
“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
December 10, 2025 at 5:10 AM
"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard
"...some things that look like robot behavior might actually just be another human culture, refracted through the machine."
Sam Kriss in @nytimes.com magazine: 'Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?'
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
Sam Kriss in @nytimes.com magazine: 'Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?'
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?
www.nytimes.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
"...some things that look like robot behavior might actually just be another human culture, refracted through the machine."
Sam Kriss in @nytimes.com magazine: 'Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?'
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
Sam Kriss in @nytimes.com magazine: 'Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?'
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
"When you ask AI what the meaning of life is, you concede that it must be AI: how else could AI respond, for what does it know of being human?" The latest from @sarahkendzior.bsky.social
New article! On cemeteries, serendipity, and the battle against AI. sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/bell-fount...
Bell Fountain Retreat
Wandering a cemetery to dodge ghosts in the machine.
sarahkendzior.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
"When you ask AI what the meaning of life is, you concede that it must be AI: how else could AI respond, for what does it know of being human?" The latest from @sarahkendzior.bsky.social
"AI represents the exact opposite of creativity, [Vince] Gilligan warns. It steals the work of others. So any attempt to legitimize it as a creative tool is built on lies." The latest article from @tedgioia.bsky.social
Feed: "The Honest Broker"
By: Ted Gioia on Saturday, November 22, 2025
By: Ted Gioia on Saturday, November 22, 2025
Paul McCartney Invents a New Kind of Protest Song
The culture war of the future has just started
www.honest-broker.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:40 PM
"AI represents the exact opposite of creativity, [Vince] Gilligan warns. It steals the work of others. So any attempt to legitimize it as a creative tool is built on lies." The latest article from @tedgioia.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Candid, class-based analysis of creative work makes some people uncomfortable.
You know what else makes people uncomfortable? Getting stuck in an elevator.
Yes, getting stuck in an elevator is scary. So is the state of working in the media.
Umm, OK lemme explain: www.esckey.co/what-getting...
You know what else makes people uncomfortable? Getting stuck in an elevator.
Yes, getting stuck in an elevator is scary. So is the state of working in the media.
Umm, OK lemme explain: www.esckey.co/what-getting...
What getting trapped in an elevator teaches us about the state of media
Concerned by journalism’s decline and the déjà vu discourse around it? This week, I recap a year of meta media headlines and connect that to the psychological toll of watching your industry collapse. ...
www.esckey.co
November 26, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Candid, class-based analysis of creative work makes some people uncomfortable.
You know what else makes people uncomfortable? Getting stuck in an elevator.
Yes, getting stuck in an elevator is scary. So is the state of working in the media.
Umm, OK lemme explain: www.esckey.co/what-getting...
You know what else makes people uncomfortable? Getting stuck in an elevator.
Yes, getting stuck in an elevator is scary. So is the state of working in the media.
Umm, OK lemme explain: www.esckey.co/what-getting...
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Reposted by Mark Bridge
There's an arms race developing between job seekers and employers, one that sees both sides deploying increasingly sophisticated AI tools in a bot-versus-bot standoff that is quickly spiraling out of control.
The résumé is dying, and AI is holding the smoking gun
As thousands of applications flood job posts, ‘hiring slop’ is kicking off an AI arms race.
arstechnica.com
June 25, 2025 at 2:46 PM
There's an arms race developing between job seekers and employers, one that sees both sides deploying increasingly sophisticated AI tools in a bot-versus-bot standoff that is quickly spiraling out of control.
Back from Cornwall, took a few photos, put a handful of them on Flickr: flic.kr/p/2r97QJa
Port Isaac
Port Isaac
flic.kr
June 8, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Back from Cornwall, took a few photos, put a handful of them on Flickr: flic.kr/p/2r97QJa
"The phone eats time; it makes us live the way people do inside a casino, dropping a blackout curtain over the windows to block out the world, except the blackout curtain is a screen, showing too much of the world, too quickly." Jia Tolentino in @newyorker.com
Jia Tolentino writes about how Donald Trump and “his lieutenant content-generator Elon Musk” harness the internet to damage our sense of the real.
My Brain Finally Broke
Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.
www.newyorker.com
May 5, 2025 at 9:58 PM
"The phone eats time; it makes us live the way people do inside a casino, dropping a blackout curtain over the windows to block out the world, except the blackout curtain is a screen, showing too much of the world, too quickly." Jia Tolentino in @newyorker.com
Reposted by Mark Bridge
This week's Substack: I travelled to leafy Wendover to understand how a dispute over a farm track could delay parts of HS2 and cost taxpayers tens of millions of pounds.
I visited Britain's most expensive farm track
A dispute over a farm track in Buckinghamshire could cost taxpayers 'tens of millions' in delays to HS2 after local NIMBYs blocked a minor upgrade. I went to see that the fuss was about.
martinrobbins.substack.com
April 28, 2025 at 6:23 AM
This week's Substack: I travelled to leafy Wendover to understand how a dispute over a farm track could delay parts of HS2 and cost taxpayers tens of millions of pounds.
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Lovely to get this mention in the Financial Times:
March 20, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Lovely to get this mention in the Financial Times:
Reposted by Mark Bridge
This is really good on an under-reported water pollution issue: so-called misconnections.
I did a piece on this (www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...) but Jim's story is far more fun and has great detail
I did a piece on this (www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...) but Jim's story is far more fun and has great detail
March 20, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This is really good on an under-reported water pollution issue: so-called misconnections.
I did a piece on this (www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...) but Jim's story is far more fun and has great detail
I did a piece on this (www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...) but Jim's story is far more fun and has great detail
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans
Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans
In a statement, 35 signatories from dance, theatre and music industries express concern about ‘fragile ecosystem’
More than 30 performing arts leaders in the UK, including the bosses of the National Theatre, Opera North and the Royal Albert Hall, have…
www.theguardian.com
March 18, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans
We've been clearing the garage today. Plenty of unexpected treasures discovered, some of which may end up on eBay. I'm not sure whether to sell the dessicated woodlice individually or as a job lot.
March 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
We've been clearing the garage today. Plenty of unexpected treasures discovered, some of which may end up on eBay. I'm not sure whether to sell the dessicated woodlice individually or as a job lot.
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Every major UK newspaper - left, right, broadsheet, tabloid - is running a front page campaign against copyright carveouts for AI training.
I can't remember the last time any political cause had such broad support, let alone one so anti-big tech and so economically consequential.
I can't remember the last time any political cause had such broad support, let alone one so anti-big tech and so economically consequential.
February 25, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Every major UK newspaper - left, right, broadsheet, tabloid - is running a front page campaign against copyright carveouts for AI training.
I can't remember the last time any political cause had such broad support, let alone one so anti-big tech and so economically consequential.
I can't remember the last time any political cause had such broad support, let alone one so anti-big tech and so economically consequential.
"I think the rebel move right now is to be kind and to be loving. If AI is listening to everything we’re doing, let’s fill it full of loving, communal thoughts as a community, and not follow the hurt."
Pamela Anderson with @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social in @theguardian.com
Pamela Anderson with @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social in @theguardian.com
Wrote two pieces for The Observer today, here’s the first, in which I meet ACTUAL PAMELA ANDERSON www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
‘I stripped away this caricature that I created’: Pamela Anderson on makeup, activism and gardening
The star of Baywatch and The Last Showgirl answers questions from Observer readers and famous fans including Stella McCartney, Liam Neeson, Ruby Wax and Naomi Klein
www.theguardian.com
February 23, 2025 at 6:21 PM
"I think the rebel move right now is to be kind and to be loving. If AI is listening to everything we’re doing, let’s fill it full of loving, communal thoughts as a community, and not follow the hurt."
Pamela Anderson with @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social in @theguardian.com
Pamela Anderson with @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social in @theguardian.com
Reposted by Mark Bridge
‘Mass theft’: Thousands of artists call for AI art auction to be cancelled
‘Mass theft’: Thousands of artists call for AI art auction to be cancelled
Letter says many of works being sold by Christie’s are made by AI models trained on pieces by human artists, without a licence
Thousands of artists are urging the auction house Christie’s to cancel a sale of art created with artificial intelligence,…
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2025 at 9:55 AM
‘Mass theft’: Thousands of artists call for AI art auction to be cancelled
"People having fun are more likely to sustainably change things in the long run." @jdshadel.com in wildwriting.substack.com/p/dancing-in...
Dancing in the intersections
JD Shadel on how good stories can still make a difference.
wildwriting.substack.com
February 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
"People having fun are more likely to sustainably change things in the long run." @jdshadel.com in wildwriting.substack.com/p/dancing-in...
Reposted by Mark Bridge
Fellow journos covering "AI": Please don't do their PR for them! "Virtual employees" is a harmful anthropomorphism in that it (a) is false; (b) confuses readers about the emerging technology and inaccurately lends human attributes like agency, accountability, etc.; and (c) harms humans in real jobs.
‘Virtual employees’ could join workforce as soon as this year, OpenAI boss says
‘Virtual employees’ could join workforce as soon as this year, OpenAI boss says
Sam Altman says tools that carry out jobs anonymously, known as AI agents, could transform business output
Virtual employees could join workforces this year and transform how companies work, according to the chief executive of OpenAI.
The first…
www.theguardian.com
January 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Fellow journos covering "AI": Please don't do their PR for them! "Virtual employees" is a harmful anthropomorphism in that it (a) is false; (b) confuses readers about the emerging technology and inaccurately lends human attributes like agency, accountability, etc.; and (c) harms humans in real jobs.
Reposted by Mark Bridge
The Brutalist and Emilia Perez’s voice-cloning controversies make AI the new awards season battleground
The Brutalist and Emilia Perez’s voice-cloning controversies make AI the new awards season battleground
Two leading contenders for Oscars this year have revealed use of artificial intelligence in the editing suite – will it affect their chances?
The use of artificial intelligence could become a ferocious battleground during movie awards season, as at least…
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2025 at 5:57 PM
The Brutalist and Emilia Perez’s voice-cloning controversies make AI the new awards season battleground