James Oswald
@sirbenfro.bsky.social
Reposted by James Oswald
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
There is no cost of living crisis, only rampant wage theft.
Last time I checked my current rate at one publisher was $70 less than my starting rate there almost 20 years ago, when accounting for inflation. It'll be even worse now.
The one about comic book page rates – again. News flash: Comic book page rates are STILL stagnant, after all these years, and for indie cartoonists it's even harder
November 25, 2025 at 5:18 PM
There is no cost of living crisis, only rampant wage theft.
Fuck that noise. 'AI' is neither necessary nor inevitable. It brings nothing to the creative process, turns everything to shit and makes us all less capable. Its sole reason for existence is to syphon off as much cash to the tech companies as they can get.
AI will reshape publishing jobs, from editorial and production to marketing, sales and operations. The question is not whether this happens, but who shapes these changes, says Bec Evans 👇 #BookSky
Knowledge is power
ebx.sh
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Fuck that noise. 'AI' is neither necessary nor inevitable. It brings nothing to the creative process, turns everything to shit and makes us all less capable. Its sole reason for existence is to syphon off as much cash to the tech companies as they can get.
Reposted by James Oswald
Once again, with feeling:
AI IS NOT FUCKING INEVITABLE
AI IS NOT FUCKING INEVITABLE
AI will reshape publishing jobs, from editorial and production to marketing, sales and operations. The question is not whether this happens, but who shapes these changes, says Bec Evans 👇 #BookSky
Knowledge is power
ebx.sh
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Once again, with feeling:
AI IS NOT FUCKING INEVITABLE
AI IS NOT FUCKING INEVITABLE
Reposted by James Oswald
I can't help noticing that very Brexity folk and right-wingers are not at all keen on my petition. X’s algorithm isn't awfully enamoured either.
I can't think why?
Well, anyway. Could the rest of you please sign it & repost it repeatedly, to compensate?
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
I can't think why?
Well, anyway. Could the rest of you please sign it & repost it repeatedly, to compensate?
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
Petition: Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy
We are concerned about reported efforts from Russia to influence democracy in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. We believe we must establish the depth and breadth of possible Russian influence campaig...
petition.parliament.uk
November 25, 2025 at 9:20 AM
I can't help noticing that very Brexity folk and right-wingers are not at all keen on my petition. X’s algorithm isn't awfully enamoured either.
I can't think why?
Well, anyway. Could the rest of you please sign it & repost it repeatedly, to compensate?
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
I can't think why?
Well, anyway. Could the rest of you please sign it & repost it repeatedly, to compensate?
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
This, a thousand times. Although now I think about it a thousand kittens might be a bit of a handful.
Just seen an acquaintance asking around for someone with an intact male cat to mate with her (clearly unspayed) female. She wants to have "one litter and keep one kitten as a companion" for her daughter.
WHY NOT ADOPT ONE OF THE HUNDREDS AVAILABLE!??
WHY NOT ADOPT ONE OF THE HUNDREDS AVAILABLE!??
November 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
This, a thousand times. Although now I think about it a thousand kittens might be a bit of a handful.
Useless fact of the day, brought to you by my actually looking something up while writing for a change. It's thirty years now since BT PhONEday, when all the UK numbers gained an extra 1 after the initial zero in their area code. Where does all the time go?
November 24, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Useless fact of the day, brought to you by my actually looking something up while writing for a change. It's thirty years now since BT PhONEday, when all the UK numbers gained an extra 1 after the initial zero in their area code. Where does all the time go?
What's your recommendation for a good Christmas book?
The Book of Souls by @sirbenfro.bsky.social (crime/mystery)
The Christmas Killer is back, but how can that be if he’s dead?!
⚡️📚💙
#BookSky
The Christmas Killer is back, but how can that be if he’s dead?!
⚡️📚💙
#BookSky
November 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
What's your recommendation for a good Christmas book?
I've never quite understood the urge to screenshot and share posts from other social media sites on here, usually in a snarky, pointing-the-finger look-at-this-idiot way. Mate, if I wanted to see that I'd be on the other site, not here.
November 24, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I've never quite understood the urge to screenshot and share posts from other social media sites on here, usually in a snarky, pointing-the-finger look-at-this-idiot way. Mate, if I wanted to see that I'd be on the other site, not here.
Calling them 'settlers' seems altogether too genteel and civilised. These are invading thugs, backed by the Israeli military, murdering people for their land.
This is Baraa Maali, a 20-year-old Palestinian student, he was killed last night by Israeli forces during a settler attack near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. (1/3)
November 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Calling them 'settlers' seems altogether too genteel and civilised. These are invading thugs, backed by the Israeli military, murdering people for their land.
Reposted by James Oswald
I’m usually giving counsel of despair so let me offer a hopeful note now: all this is the desperate thrashing of a dying generation, horrified to see up close the consequences of raising their children to believe violence and racism are wrong, and that people should treat each other decently.
This one really is useful because you won’t see a more clear demonstration of one of the most damaging political phenomena of the era: the reactionary professional mind rejecting unacceptable reality, only able to process and comprehend it via something close to conspiracy theory.
Former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz says Jewish students shouldn’t have smartphones until they finish high school — so they don’t see the “carnage” Israel and the U.S. have carried out in Gaza.
Video: Mel via X (@Villgecrazylady)
Video: Mel via X (@Villgecrazylady)
November 24, 2025 at 10:06 AM
I’m usually giving counsel of despair so let me offer a hopeful note now: all this is the desperate thrashing of a dying generation, horrified to see up close the consequences of raising their children to believe violence and racism are wrong, and that people should treat each other decently.
I wonder if it's called Lorne?
November 24, 2025 at 12:13 PM
I wonder if it's called Lorne?
Reposted by James Oswald
There was actually a time quite recently when the Young People still used Tinder
(Published around the time of Dawn Chorus Day)
(Published around the time of Dawn Chorus Day)
![[Scene is a WOODLAND just before dawn. In a tree, a TEENAGE ROBIN with big headphones on is slouching on a branch, swiping on her phone. Her DAD ROBIN approaches her on the branch looking cheerful with her MUM ROBIN also in tow].
DAD ROBIN:
Wakey wakey darling, it's National Dawn Chorus Day!
TEENAGE ROBIN:
Ugh, Dad...
DAD ROBIN:
Come on, dear...
DAD ROBIN:
It's time for us all to shout into the darkness for sex!
TEENAGE ROBIN:
What
DAD ROBIN:
You're a big bird now.
Time to put down that blessed phone and find a mate...
TEENAGE ROBIN:
I am.
On Tinder.
[She swipes on her phone]
DAD ROBIN:
Oh for heaven's sake.
Your generation has no sense of tradition!
TEENAGE ROBIN:
Right... so you'd rather I found love by bellowing into the woods for a pre-dawn hookup with a total stranger?
DAD ROBIN:
It's natural!
TEENAGE ROBIN:
It's dogging.
DAD ROBIN:
Well that's how your Mum and I had you...
TEENAGE ROBIN:
OH MY GOD GROSS
MUM ROBIN [Singing sweetly into the air]:
Sex pleeease...
TEENAGE ROBIN:
Stop it Mum.
MUM ROBIN:
SEEEEEX PLEEEEAAAASE...
TEENAGE ROBIN:
MUUUM!
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreierbhobnorq5sxzbz3n5wpp2y3b4d6gpudj7qf6qycqqlvwja7eoi@jpeg)
November 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
There was actually a time quite recently when the Young People still used Tinder
(Published around the time of Dawn Chorus Day)
(Published around the time of Dawn Chorus Day)
Reposted by James Oswald
The myth that the NHS is ‘free’ is propagated by people who don’t want it to exist. No it’s not free! It’s paid for by the public - and many older patients who need the service more than most have paid into the system for their entire working lives!
November 23, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The myth that the NHS is ‘free’ is propagated by people who don’t want it to exist. No it’s not free! It’s paid for by the public - and many older patients who need the service more than most have paid into the system for their entire working lives!
Posted without comment...
November 23, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Posted without comment...
Smart meter saga continues. Following the engineer visit at the end of October, I now have a date for meter replacement of... 25th February next year. The meter broke in April. Makes you wonder where all the green levy payments are going.
November 21, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Smart meter saga continues. Following the engineer visit at the end of October, I now have a date for meter replacement of... 25th February next year. The meter broke in April. Makes you wonder where all the green levy payments are going.
Reposted by James Oswald
![Social media screenshot:
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
In a normal world, this should be an immense scandal in Europe.
Le Monde has a long article describing the hellish life of Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the ICC in The Hague, due to U.S. sanctions punishing him for authorizing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.
He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands.
That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are:
- punishing a European citizen
- for doing his job in Europe
- applying laws Europe officially supports
- at an institution based in Europe
- that Europe helped create and fund
and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil.
Again, in a normal world, European leaders and citizens should be absolutely outraged about this. But we've so normalized the hollowing out of European sovereignty that the sight of a European citizen being economically executed on European soil for upholding European law is treated, at best, as an unfortunate technical complication in transatlantic
[further text missing]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jrzyao2holfkgrsfbq2tue27/bafkreiga2xugyfyqaagrd3essidr6sktmwm72xodvy7aatg3yebuvygiyi@jpeg)
Others have said it before, but if 'AI' was any good, they'd be charging us for it and we'd be happy to pay. Shoehorning it into every single aspect of people's lives just reeks of desperation.
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Others have said it before, but if 'AI' was any good, they'd be charging us for it and we'd be happy to pay. Shoehorning it into every single aspect of people's lives just reeks of desperation.
You can't see me. I'm hiding
November 20, 2025 at 9:45 PM
You can't see me. I'm hiding
Reposted by James Oswald
I believe they prefer to be called Americans
November 20, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I believe they prefer to be called Americans
Reposted by James Oswald
Our trans kin aren't going anywhere. There will always be more; you cannot harass a facet of humanity out of existence. So if we could be kinder to the ones who are here now, I would really appreciate it.
Be nice to my friends. And to the ones who aren't my friends. Please.
Be nice to my friends. And to the ones who aren't my friends. Please.
November 20, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Our trans kin aren't going anywhere. There will always be more; you cannot harass a facet of humanity out of existence. So if we could be kinder to the ones who are here now, I would really appreciate it.
Be nice to my friends. And to the ones who aren't my friends. Please.
Be nice to my friends. And to the ones who aren't my friends. Please.
Reposted by James Oswald
This is why you should subscribe to @shadowbanner.bsky.social so you don't repost bad people into your mutuals' feeds
November 20, 2025 at 3:08 PM
This is why you should subscribe to @shadowbanner.bsky.social so you don't repost bad people into your mutuals' feeds
Today is paperback publication of #TheRestIsDeath, so of course I've been out dealing with coos all day. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
November 20, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Today is paperback publication of #TheRestIsDeath, so of course I've been out dealing with coos all day. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
If you don't want to be called evil, perhaps don't do evil things.
I often see people saying we have to be careful about using the term evil. But fuck it, if you support a policy that brings potential harm to a vulnerable minority or just makes their everyday life extremely difficult I'm going to call it how I see it. It's YOU that needs to take a look at yourself.
November 20, 2025 at 1:36 PM
If you don't want to be called evil, perhaps don't do evil things.