In-Store: Miguel Ángel Hernández: The Pain of Others w/ Sarah Weinman “An absorbing book of unwavering honesty. A magnificent novel without fiction.” —Javier Cercas, author of Soldiers of Salamis

Bluesky pals, if you are in and around Brooklyn this Thursday I would love to see you at Books Are Magic that evening! I will be in conversation with @mahernandez.bsky.social to discuss the new translation of his book THE PAIN OF OTHERS, a splendid autofictional meditation on crime & memory:

So true

This is a big problem for audiences too - it’s actually really hard work to find what to read next or search for what’s worth watching on the streamers. You end up watching crap just out of tiredness. Trusted recommendations save so much valuable time

Nigel Farage Has Personally Accepted £675,000 from Foreign Sources Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accepted more than half a million pounds from foreign companies, governments, and donors while serving as an MP, DeSmog can reveal. Since July 2024, when he was elect...

“Farage rarely turns up to do his actual job. Yet he finds time to jet off around the world on his donor’s private plane and trouser half a million quid while families struggle. Reform are not on your side. They’re just in it for themselves”

It’s so obvious, it hurts.
www.desmog.com/2026/04/18/n...

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

Palantir and the "ramblings of a supervillain"
In an interview with CNBC, Karp suggested AI would “disrupt” the power of “highly educated, often female voters who vote mostly Democrat” & instead empower “vocationally trained, often male, working-class voters”.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

AI chatbots could be making you stupider As large language models take over more and more cognitive tasks, researchers are warning this mental outsourcing comes with a cost.

Is AI making us stupider?
It seems there's a growing body of research suggesting that "cognitive offloading" to AI can have a corrosive effect on our mental abilities.
LLMs could not only reduce creativity but also harm cognition & increase the risk of dementia.
www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Thanks for the tip. It's years since I read anything by Burgess, and this is one I don't know. I think I need it.

Trump Has Become What He Most Despises: A Loser There’s nothing more central to fascist authoritarianism than being proud of being a grievance-fueled failure.

A "worldwide Loser"!!

Trump Has Become What He Most Despises: A Loser newrepublic.com/article/2090... via @newrepublic.com

From Feynman’s clocks to the Uncertainty Principle explained with beautiful clarity. From Feynman’s clocks to the Uncertainty Principle explained with beautiful clarity.

From Feynman’s clocks to the Uncertainty Principle explained with beautiful clarity.
#BrianCoxTalks #STEM #Universe #AmazonAffiliate #ad #paidlink

Write Smarter with Kate Durrant "Sitting down to write 90,000 words that may never see the light of day takes a particular kind of dedication - or madness"

Write Smarter with Kate Durrant www.swirlandthread.com/write-smarte...

When an author says she had to decline a $175,000 prize, what does it say about the publishing world? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett Helen DeWitt turning down the Windham-Campbell literary award caused controversy. But her bold act highlights that such prizes aren’t always as meritocratic as they might seem, says Guardian columnist...

When an author says she had to decline a $175,000 prize, what does it say about the publishing world?
How many readers know that prizes aren’t as purely meritocratic as they appear ... and come with promotional strings attached?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘This craving to go viral is tiresome’: the artists who’re sick of the pressure to promote on social media From Stewart Lee in his wolf costume to Werner Herzog’s big steak sizzle-up, artists are now under huge duress to ‘chase the algorithm’ and reach audiences. Many of them are hitting burnout – and hitt...

‘This craving to go viral is tiresome’
www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Sex and drugs and poisoned champagne: 90 years on, we can finally see Joan Crawford’s wildest film A legal dispute led to Letty Lynton, the golden age superstar’s controversial drama, being sealed away. Only now can audiences see what all the fuss was about

Sex, drugs and poisoned champagne: 90 years on, we can finally see Joan Crawford’s wildest film
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

It's sobering - and quite scary - to see how many of the dubious and shadowy figures in politics from the US to the UK to Orban's Hungary and beyond are interlinked

Orbán’s Spying Kit Revealed: Israeli Surveillance Tool Combined with Hungarian Technology - VSquare.org Intelligence agencies of Viktor Orbán's government have been secretly using Webloc — a mass surveillance tool that tracks hundreds of millions of people via smartphone advertising data — making Hungar...

🔎📱 Just before Hungary’s election, we revealed Viktor Orbán’s intelligence agencies secretly use Webloc – an Israeli mass surveillance tool tracking hundreds of millions via smartphone ad data – making Hungary the first confirmed EU user, likely violating GDPR. @vsquare.bsky.social @citizenlab.ca

which explains why he omitted to mention that other malign influence, Donald Trump

What if the secret to the energy in your body is hidden in one simple formula? Find out in this book What if the secret to the energy in your body is hidden in one simple formula? Find out in this book…

What if the secret to the energy in your body is hidden in one simple formula? Find out in this book…
#BrianCoxTalks #STEM #Universe #AmazonAffiliate #ad #paidlink

Do You Love Books? Enough To Sleep With Them? Welcome To The Capsule Bookstore Hotel… Yes, That’s A Bed Amid The Books! Check out that photo above: that’s a REAL hotel bed nestled in a bookshelf – because this Japanese “Capsule Hotel” is in a bookstore! See those blue squa…

Do You Love Books? Enough To Sleep With Them? Welcome To The Capsule Bookstore Hotel... johnrieber.com/2026/04/06/d... @johnrieber.bsky.social

Beryl Cook was a fabulous artist. Her work can be seen at an exhibition in her home town of Plymouth until 31 May
www.theboxplymouth.com/events/exhib...

Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy Tales of love and adventure from 1,000 years ago reveal a dazzling range of now-extinct English pronouns. They capture something unique about how people once thought about "two-ness".

In this age of sensitivity around pronouns, wouldn’t it be fun to dust off some of the old medieval pronouns and give new meaning to words like ‘wit’ and ‘git’?
www.bbc.com/future/artic...

My thoughts exactly.
For Vance et al, “faith” is little more than an insurance policy.

'Faithful wife', virgin or tragic martyr?: Why this 16th-Century masterpiece is not what it seems Overpainted images found hidden inside Raphael's mysterious Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn show how the image of the ideal woman has been carefully controlled by men.

Overpainted images hidden inside Raphael's 'Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn' show the ways that the image of the ideal woman has been carefully controlled by men through the centuries.
www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

NEW: Lebanon is Gaza 2.0. That’s what Israeli ministers are saying in their own words. Believe them.
1/

www.thenerve.news/p/lebanon-wa...

Lebanon was included in the ceasefire

But Israel doesn't do ceasefires & carried on

Then Trump & Vance lied & said it wasn't included.

Netanyahu forced Trump's hand again just like when he started bombing Iran before the US.

Israel planned this attack to coincide with Trumps attack on Iran. 254.

Every morning, at 9 o'clock we hold our hands in silence

Our thought goes to falling soldiers by Ukraine💔

Every civilians death by nazi Putin army💔

One minute togethervin silence

Heroyam Slava 🙏🇺🇦

Their lust for killing is disgusting to most of the people of the world.

Meanwhile Donald Trump Jr is visiting the Balkans as a gesture of support for Dodik, the ousted pro-Russian leader of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska. It's all beginning to feel slightly sinister

bsky.app/profile/troc...