Suw
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suw.bsky.social
Suw
@suw.bsky.social
Writer, creative ecologist, owned by Grabbity & Copurrnicus. Currently writing an eco-sitcom podcast, Fieldwork, about four ecologists studying a rewilding project. https://fieldworkpodcast.substack.com/
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Hello, lovely new followers! I'm Suw, and I post about whatever catches my eye. This might include, but is not limited to, volcanoes, cats, the Welsh language, science, cats, books and publishing, writing, Wrexham AFC, women in STEM, cats, crafty stuff, ecology, nature, and my various newsletters.
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Babe, you look great. I can barely tell.
February 6, 2026 at 5:32 AM
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Plus, of course, Bezos is a horrible person who hired horrible people who genuinely or conveniently endorse horrible ideas to enhance is horrible wealth. That rat fucking bastard.
February 6, 2026 at 1:50 PM
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2026, where you get more sense from the comics artists than you do from senior politicians and media commentators.
Bezos burning the Washington post to the ground is as firm a reason for the continued bbc licence as ever there was. Eventually everything that can be owned by a billionaire will be owned by a billionaire and at that point its future will be determined by the whims of a man making 166k per minute.
February 6, 2026 at 11:33 AM
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Forgot to mention I had breakfast in bed this morning. Aaah, luxury.
February 6, 2026 at 11:24 AM
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Ok, we're jumping straight off the back of last night's show to say, if you were sad to miss it, there's more chances almost immediately to see some of our team in action!

Next week, Matt's stand up tour continues at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe!

trafalgartickets.com/lyceum-theat...
Book Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker Does The Maths tickets | Lyceum Theatre Crewe
Book your tickets to Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker Does The Maths at Lyceum Theatre Crewe at the official Trafalgar Tickets, Lyceum Theatre Crewe box office.
trafalgartickets.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:25 AM
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This is 100% the right take.

Normal people are not "effortlessly" charming and witty when something disruptive happens while they are giving a live speech in front of TV cameras.

Normal people are awkward as fuck public speaking, and the robotic voice politicians adopt is the best they can do.
(seen a bunch of people sharing this/talking in general about how "normal" Mamdani is but imo this doesn't show a normal person, but an *exceptionally* skilled communicator - a normal person wouldn't react like that to having a speech interrupted by a child! give him his due!)
Child at the podium: “A woo woo woo.”

Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
February 6, 2026 at 10:29 AM
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Oh look. Turns out there is an alternative to a painful, invasive test.
Interesting story in the Independent: www.independent.co.uk/health-and-w...
It illustrates something I've said many times: scientists know more about the deepest parts of the ocean than they know about female bodies, but the comments on this on Facebook also illustrate a perhaps sadder thing...
There’s finally a smear test alternative – but why has it taken so long?
As scientists discover that menstrual blood can be tested for signs of cervical cancer, Lydia Spencer-Elliott explores why it took 75 years for researchers to put an end to women’s pain and suffering
www.independent.co.uk
February 6, 2026 at 8:37 AM
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Good work, everyone. Let’s keep it up.
"The average cost to mine one Bitcoin is currently...far higher than its current going rate, making it an extremely unprofitable proposition. It’s a massive wipeout as investors continue to sell off their reserves...."
futurism.com/future-socie...
Bitcoin Is Crashing So Hard That Miners Are Unplugging Their Equipment
Bitcoin's plunge has made it far less economical to mine the digital token. Some companies are starting to unplug their equipment.
futurism.com
February 6, 2026 at 6:15 AM
I’ve seen this and now you have to see this too. Let my eyes not suffer alone.
I need everyone to know that on the crochet subreddit the mods made a big post about how they're taking a week off because there was too much fighting/political posts. so there's currently no mods on r/crochet and people are being absolutely insane
February 6, 2026 at 7:41 AM
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If we get to our fundraising goal, I will show you all our newest miracle cat. His name is Hamham, he has two noses, a wobbly head and a hearing deficiency, and he is SO CUTE I COULD SPLODE.

Trust me, you want to see this cat! Donate here:
Donate to Three beautiful kitties in need of help, organized by Holly's Merry Moggies
Hello from Holly's Merry Moggies , a small rescue for disabled, difficul… Holly's Merry Moggies needs your support for Three beautiful kitties in need of help
www.gofundme.com
February 5, 2026 at 12:54 PM
Grabbity has become obsessed with my jewellery, particularly my VLA necklace and earrings. She very nearly managed to walk off with my necklace, and had a good go at eating an earring.
February 5, 2026 at 9:31 AM
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youtube.com/shorts/2SHnZ...

The voice is great but the eyes are superb.
Expired Gift Certificate for Donuts?! 😱🤣 Comedian Bill Hader Impressions - James Mason #shorts
YouTube video by Vibe Highest
youtube.com
February 5, 2026 at 8:25 AM
I went to a screening of Hot Fuzz, inc Q&A with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Saw them at the bar after, no one near them, so plucked up my courage to go and tell them that Shaun of the Dead was the first ever zombie movie that I, a non-zombie film liking person, had ever seen. I then...
One of my academic colleagues looks a bit like Bob Mortimer. One time near our labs I saw him walking towards me and I warmly said Hey Kevin. It was Bob Mortimer.

Please share your very low impact celebrity encounters here.
Fun low level anecdote: I once sat near Peter Mandelson in a theatre but I had a name blank and said rather too loudly ‘ooh look it’s Michael Portillo!’

He was visibly unamused.
February 5, 2026 at 7:58 AM
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The 41st eruptive episode of Kīlauea in Hawai'i a few weeks ago made a big mess thanks to tall lava fountains and strong winds. Check out some details on the clean up in the area around Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: eruptions.site/2026/02/04/c... #eruptions
Cleaning Up After an Eruption
Maybe you missed it, but the last eruptive episode at Kīlauea in Hawai’i was messy. Thankfully, that messiness didn’t mean injuries and fatalities, but it does mean that suddenly a lot …
eruptions.site
February 4, 2026 at 5:13 PM
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Everything is stressful and bad and weird so here's another thread of tech jobs I've found where you make the world better (or at least hopefully not make it worse)

I've started cross-posting these to my blog to make them easier to find, including some jobs not listed in the thread
Tech For Good-ish Jobs Jess Found, Feb 2026
Open technology roles in tech for good (or at least, hopefully minimally evil) orgs that Jess has collected from her wanders across the web.
jessica.tech
February 4, 2026 at 2:44 PM
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A story in three parts
October 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM
A categorisation of the non-miaow vocalisations made by cats and kittens: Maslow's Hierarchy of Meeps.
A study of the size of leg joints, according to your senority in an organisation: Maslow's hierarchy of Knees.
A dynamic map of Europe with how borders change throughout history: Maslow's Hierarchy of Cedes
February 4, 2026 at 11:23 AM
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Taking over Staff's desk and readying myself to steal her water.
February 4, 2026 at 9:34 AM
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I'm finding that searches on Google Books now don't even pick up metadata, including for books that I'd expect to be out of copyright. Searches return lots of periodical literature and little else.
winbuzzer.com/2026/01/28/g...

(what’s the betting that the answer to this mystery is LLMs and crawlers)
February 4, 2026 at 8:03 AM
It also looks to me like they didn’t tailor the shirt to fit a corseted silhouette. You can’t just chuck on a regular shirt - you’ll end up with excess fabric causing wrinkles, which you can see under the jacket. It’s like this whole thing was done by men with no experience of corsets.
I enjoyed this Vogue behind-the-scenes peek at Bad Bunny's Grammy outfit. I like the concept (especially the corset detailing), but think the execution could have been better. The coat does not appear to fit him as well as it could have. May have benefited from new pattern + multiple fittings. 🧵
February 4, 2026 at 7:25 AM
This makes no sense. Why would Google turn off book search like this?
February 3, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Today's Word Count newsletter might be a bit later than usual, but it's a stonker, even if I do say so myself. And the lateness allowed me to add in some extra bits, so it all came good in the end.

open.substack.com/pub/wordcoun...
Word Count 113: On making a living and dicking about, Tom Cox's writing routine, James Henry on writing
Plus Douglas Adams’ railway station biscuit theft story, Val McDermid's sensitivity reader, new AI report, and the European wildcat is making a comeback.
open.substack.com
February 3, 2026 at 4:31 PM
This is a lovely interview with Mackenzie Crook, but honestly, someone needs to get him in a room with Smol Paul. I need to see Smol Paul climbing all over Small Paul.

@hollyqueenofspayeds.com

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
‘Watching The Office recently, my heart just sank’ – Mackenzie Crook on comedy, cruelty and being TV royalty
After a very hard landing into fame in the 00s, he decided to take a softer approach – and hit on a winning formula for classic comedy. The star talks about his fantastical new show Small Prophets, hi...
www.theguardian.com
February 3, 2026 at 3:57 PM
OMG, I've spent 2.5 hours having quite intense conversations in Welsh, including a long debate on how to describe "snout" in Welsh when there's no word for it (nose, chin/jaw or mouth are the closest), and which word for "grass" is the closest to my intention. Then 1hr of user testing of my new...
February 3, 2026 at 3:14 PM
This is making me think about cross-subsidy, which used to support a lot of writers. AutoTrader used to subsidise the Guardian's journalism. Bestselling books subsidised all the others. I'm sure even the BBC's best dramas subsidised its more niche offerings. But then people got all excited about...
“I didn’t have rich parents, a childhood bedroom to return to or an infatuated billionaire intent on marrying me. Either writing had to make me money or I couldn’t do it. “

I wrote about making a living from writing in the new economy.

substack.com/home/post/p-...
Please sir can I have some more
On making a living as a writer
substack.com
February 3, 2026 at 12:10 PM