"Twenty-two tons of artisanal British cheese, some of the most expensive cheese made in the UK. A huge order for Neal’s Yard. It seemed too good to be true."

Want to learn about cheese heists? Of course you do! Our latest #longreads offering is ready to be served:

https://longreads.com/2026/05/28/the-cheese-theft-food-crime/

#food #writing #truecrime #cheese #theft

Writers: here are ten free and easy ways to add a dash of visual interest to your blog posts without resorting to AI imagery (which signals to readers that your blog post is probably also AI and there’s no need to bother reading it):

1) A thoughtful photo you’ve taken yourself — a nice sunrise you saw, a cool angle spotted on vacation, your pet curled up on the couch, flowers. Play with your phone photo app’s filter settings to nail the tone. It doesn’t need to be particularly related to the post, it’s related to you as a person.

2) An image from Wikimedia Commons that’s somehow related to the subject matter — there are unfathomably many, you can search by keyword. Remember to credit. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

3) A screenshot of a scene you made in a sandbox game such as Minecraft or Animal Crossing

4) A scene you made with toys such as Lego (you can also use free Lego design software such as Bricklink Studio) https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/main.page

5) Play with the effects in whatever image editor you have access to, using your own photos or free-to-use images, to create something a bit abstract and avant-garde

6) Even if you can’t draw or paint very well, you can probably make some pretty cool abstract or collage imagery with whatever art supplies you have around. Dampen some paper and randomly dip watercolor paint onto it and see what happens

7) Those stickers you stashed and never used? Yeah you can make something with them. If they’re individually cut, you don’t even need to peel them, you’ll still find the One True Way to use them one day, I’m sure

8) Shelfies. None will dare question your competence after they see you have a real paper copy of Subject Matter Tome Volumes 1 through 6

9) You can get a lot of mileage out of compositing pre-made video game assets into an image. A good place to start is Kenney’s free and generously licensed 2D assets: https://www.kenney.nl/assets/category:2D and the Tiled editor which is specifically meant for assembling images out of video game asset tile sheets https://www.mapeditor.org

10) the most ridiculously amateurish thing you can scribble on a post-it note or in MS Paint is preferable to AI imagery because it clearly signals a real human cares about the post.

#writing #writingcommunity #collage #blog

Alt...

A pink, purple and soft blue collage created with paper and stickers I had lying around my room: a little robot mascot from Ace Attorney is advising “You don’t need to be ‘a good artist’ to create a unique and interesting image for your blog.”

This needs naming, a bit of extra consideration regarding line breaks, and maybe some kind of annotation to virtue signal the fact that I'm clean and haunted, rather than enhanced and attempting to gain followers for the church of dope.

I was really delighted at how this poem, written in my Signal notes to to self in the middle of the night, dragged itself through my mind with the fully-fledged vision of its world, real and solid and tactile, a peopled and historied place.

This is one of my favourite kinds of flow state while writing, in which the words beneath my fingers must simply describe things that - to some degree - are. These things exist, here and now.

[internally if nowhere else, like the endless city of towers and stairwells and back gardens stacked on tower blocks stacked on river-washed factories]

It's worth losing sleep to pursue that when it imposes itself so dramatically.

#WritingProcess #WritingPoetry #Writing

A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis argues that legal systems falsely treat words as precise instruments despite the inherent instability of language. Responding to a video (in comments), I critique how courts rely on dictionaries, punctuation rules, and corpus linguistics to manufacture definitive meanings where none naturally exist.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/28/i-told-you-so-your-honour/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#philosophy #history #video #language #law #reading #writing #blog #podcast #LanguageInsufficiencyHypothesis #response #politics #youtube

If every metaphysics is a story, The Architecture of Encounter asks what makes some stories hold under pressure while others merely decorate our prejudices. Not a view from nowhere, but an anatomy of how any view becomes possible, a sort of meta-metaphysics. Perhaps I'll share some interior content presently.
📕👉 https://a.co/d/0dGLZZBV
#books #reading #writing #publishing #philosophy #language #ontology #metaphysics #mediation #physics #pov

"Students constantly ask, so what do you do about writer’s block? You keep writing, you find a specific and small entry point and you continue on." —Ramona Ausubel

https://longreads.com/2026/05/26/cnf-pod-excerpt-ramona-ausubel/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#craft #writing #writersblock

I've shared the opening chapters of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis on PhilPapers.

📕👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/WILALI-3

I examine the structural limits of human language as a medium for conveying meaning. This counters the widespread assumption that clearer definitions.

👉 https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/25/a-language-insufficiency-hypothesis-on-philpapers/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #books #reading #writing #author #nonfiction #academic #language #communication #efficiency #semantics #pragmatics #meaning #society #critique #complexity #power #blog #poscast

I've been in the garden most of the day, sometimes day dreaming, othertimes with my laptop in the shade. I wrote a short piece about my encounter with a bumblebee earlier today.

Flight of the Bumblebee

https://david.shortfiction.online/flight-of-the-bumblebee
553 words.  3 minute read

I love bumblebees. They make me happy.   🐝

#blogpost #writing #bumblebee  #bee

I've got mixed emotions about Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks on anti-Enlightenment grounds.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/23/black-skin-white-masks-chapter-5/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #psychology #books #blog #podcast #blm #postenlightenment #enlightenment #reason #rationality #writing #reading #humancondition #decolonialism #history #choice #fanon #bookreview #language

Chapter 51 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at
http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Hello, Sia

In which Renny calls his family and tells them what he had done

#scifi #writing #AtraxianBlue #indieauthor

In this week's #longreads #Top5:

—After the flood (Texas Monthly )
—Twisted roles (The San Francisco Chronicle)
—Drawn to the emptiness (The Offing)
—When the rice fails (The New Yorker )
—Many, many miles (Texas Highways)

https://longreads.com/2026/05/22/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-475/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#top5 #longreads #essays #reading #writing

In defence of Sabine Hossenfelder, I posit that particles are not real or fundamental in any meaningful way. They are heuristic placeholders at best.

📕👉 https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Encounter-Mediated-Philosophics-Monographs/dp/1972025031/

There is an underlying 'reality', but it is not material in any conventional manner. My thesis operates on scale-dependent mediation. Seeking peer reviews.

#philosophy #physics #reality #objectivity #material #ontology #heuristics #fundamentals #video #opinion #book #writing

We’re being conditioned to surrender to automated authority. It’s time to break the cycle and demand structural accountability.

Read my latest on reclaiming human agency:

https://open.substack.com/pub/brandonbedard/p/the-desensitization-loop?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7qos2e

Images & text assisted by AI.

#NUPA #UBI #UHI #policy #technology #politics #economics #economy #government #psychology #finance #fintech #Al #robots #futureofwork #writing #reading #substack #business #physics #science #markets #money #future #Terminator #Netflix #BlackMirror #RoboCop

https://open.substack.com/pub/brandonbedard/p/the-mordor-problem?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7qos2e

#AI #Writing #Reading #policy #LotR #Mordor #middleearth #business #politics #finance #economics #fiction #philosophy #science #Substack #journalism #news #gondor #fourthage #sauron #morgoth #math

Thoughts while naming a short story: "The Awakening of the Forest"? Nah, too wordy. "The Forest Awakens" I like it, subtle, yet exactly what the story's about. Wait, why does it sound familiar? Oh shit. Eh, fuck it, I'm naming it that anyway.

#Writing

The reversion-to-the-mean critique for LLMs is valid only for those already above the mean. For those below it, or those writing across linguistic, educational, cognitive, or editorial disadvantage, the same movement towards the mean may function not as degradation but as enfranchisement. The political question, then, is not whether AI homogenises prose, but whose prose is being homogenised, from which starting point.

#artificialintelligence #philosophy #statistics #writing #satire

What’s your writing style? (This includes everything from texting to novels.) Please include examples in replies. And yes, many of these are newly coined style names. Add your own!
#writing

Hello EVERYONE! I am really loving Mastodon and meeting awesome people! I have A LOT of fun creating ART* and POETRY!

*Conceived and created by a human. :)

Say "hi" and enjoy my ART!

My portfolio here: https://sharoncummingsart.pixels.com/

#art #artist #creativity #creative #abstract #abstractart #colorfulart #introduction #followfriday #followbackfriday #follow #mastoart #mastadonart #fediart #ArtMatters #artwork #colorful #AYearForArt #mastoartist #fediart #poetry #writing #fun #writingcommunity

Alt...

Just saying "Hi" and getting into the swing of Mastadon. I have A LOT of fun creating! This massive abstract was commissioned by Antonio Neri CEO, of Hewlett Packard. He was an amazing client to work for! See my portfolio here: https://sharoncummingsart.pixels.com/ #art #artist #fun #creativity #creative #abstract #abstractart #colorfulart #color

Alt...

Picture of a woman with brunette hair and a crew cut, green eyes, fair skin and a dangly artsy earring.

Chapter 50 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at
http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Tea with Tressa

In which Renny gives Tressa tea, plus a whole lot more than she bargained for

#scifi #writing #AtraxianBlue #indieauthor

It's funny to me that I never got an email, a notification, or a mysterious late-night anointing from a "watery tart."

I just looked up one day and went, "Derrrrr!"

And of course, the only time I actually took a formal writing class, the only thing the authority said was that my writing nearly drove them to drink. 😂

Seriously, something is seriously wrong with creative writing classes and arts programs if tearing other people's work to shreds is the S.O.P.

#Writing #CreativeWriting

New #blog #post: A New Socratic Sign, or: Writer's Block as a Work of Grace

https://rldane.space/a-new-socratic-sign-or-writers-block-as-a-work-of-grace.html

307 words

cc: my wonderful #chorus: @joel @dm @sotolf @thedoctor @pixx @orbitalmartian @adamsdesk @krafter @roguefoam @clayton @giantspacesquid @Twizzay @stfn

(I will happily add/remove you from the chorus upon request! :)

#rlDaneWriting #blost #ADHD #WritersBlock #Writing #Blogging

This is a very interesting idea.

https://www.interfluidity.com/v2/8511.html
h/t @interfluidity

#blogging #writing #economics

Many, especially Tech Bros™, like to imagine immortality for themselves.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/12/never-forever-not-ever/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

As for me, I'm not interested. I wrote about why not.

#philosophy #longevity #health #mentalhealth #forever #finitude #affluence #blog #podcast #myths #universe #physics #metaphysics #vampires #connexion #immortality #metaphors #lakoff #death #writing #perception #life #Tithonus

Chapter 49 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at
http://mathling.com/books/index.html

The third corridor

In which Lila shows Renny something she's been hiding all this while and comes up with something better than his pointless drama queen noble self-sacrifice nonsense plan

#scifi #writing #AtraxianBlue #indieauthor

A connexion asked me to explain how I use AI in my writing, so I captured my publication workflow in a blog post with a podcast summary: 👉 https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/11/how-i-use-ai-in-my-publication-workflow/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

I've shared several blog articles on the topic over the years: https://philosophics.blog/tag/ai-writing-2/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

How about you? 🧐

#writing #ai #llms #editing #workflow #philosophy #partnership #authorship #production #support #blog #podcast

The Space Between is more than a Dave Matthews song. It's how Romantic writing evolved from contiguous strings.
https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/08/a-brief-and-largely-accurate-history-of-punctuation/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#artificialintelligence #books #emdash #fiction #history #language #Latin #blog #podcast #philosophy #punctuation #satire #writing

The problem with the AI-authorship complaint is the complainers, who think everyone thinks as they do.
👉https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/the-author-did-not-write-this-and
#philosophy #writing #authorship #ai #critique #grammar #artificialintelligence #art #creativity #ontologicalgrammar #blog #podcast #substack

Language is not the bridge. I respond to another Substack post – one I agree with 85 % – but the missing portion is key.

https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/language-is-not-the-bridge?r=pvxh5

#philosophy #language #bridges #communication #ontology #systems #ontologicalgrammar #languageinsufficiency #artificialintelligence #knowledgegraphs #metadata #infrastructucture #systems #semantics #substack #blog #podcast #essay #writing #metaphor #model #schema #protocol

Author's notes for the short poem (cinquain) by me that appears immediately upthread of this message.

I think this is my first attempt at the cinquain form. I think I did not get the meter right. It's harder than it looks to do that right. But I have limited time today, so this will have to do for a first pass.

I should say that I had a discussion on duck.ai with GPT-5 mini about this poem as I wrote various drafts of what is attached above. I let it do critiques and give me some info on the general form requirements, but I refused to let it do any of the actual writing. I feel very strongly that I want to do my own writing and not have that outsourced to another entity.

I chose to use duck.ai because it promises some degree of privacy. Not that this was a super-private project. But I think even when getting advice, it's useful to think about this question.

However, "we" did usefully discuss word choice and it's pretty good at being able to assess whether the sense of a particular word choice lands in the way I intend, so that was helpful in working through some changes I was contemplating.

#Writing #Poetry #WritingCommunity #AI #NoAI #privacy #DuckAI #LLMs

Again, I challenge the traditional concept of authorship by arguing that creating written work has always been a matter of social attribution rather than manual production. The use of AI/LLMs is just the latest evolution in a long history of collaborative writing, much like the accepted roles of ghostwriters, speech writers, and editors.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/05/the-author-did-not-write-this/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #language #authorship #writing #llms #al #genai #debate #history#blog #podcast #books #research #attribution #technology

new on my blog: The essential question

https://sylvia.studio/the-essential-question

#Commonplace-book #Writing

Chapter 48 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at
http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Saving all your lives:

In which Renny chooses the pointless drama queen noble self-sacrifice nonsense plan to prevent the Kintsugi's destruction

#scifi #writing #AtraxianBlue #indieauthor

I've been on the keyboard writing some Short Fiction again

The Seventh Repetition
Simon had always considered himself a creature of habit, finding comfort in the predictable rhythm of his days. But today, that rhythm had been disrupted by an unsettling undercurrent; a feeling that something was amiss. From the moment he stepped out of his apartment, a sense of being watched had prickled at the back of his neck, a sensation that persisted throughout his commute and into the sterile environment of his office.

read more: https://david.shortfiction.online/the-seventh-repetition

#writing #ShortFiction #WordWranglers

I explore the psychological necessity of routine and domestic labour for the elderly as a means of maintaining dignity and purpose through repetitive tasks that serve as vital frameworks that hold a person’s identity together.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/02/octogenarians/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #psychology #care #blog #podcast #ageing #humanism #meaning #feminism #purpose #housework #domestic #employment #productivity #ritual #retirement #caregiving #elderly #compassion #absurdity #sisyphus #writing #routine

"Leave the bees mostly alone, and let them learn to solve the challenges of their volatile world. And they have." —Hannah Nordhaus for National Geographic

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/secrets-of-bees-adaptation-pollinators/?src=longreads

#longreads #bees #insectes #reading #writing

I hired Claude to articulate my thoughts on the self-improvement industry…

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/01/the-grammar-of-bettering-yourself/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

…and, frankly, LinkedIn and pop psychology. I leverage my notion of ontological grammar.

#philosophy #psychology #blog #podcast #selfhelp #language #power #reason #rhetoric #personadevelopment #bollocks #vulnerability #writing #reading #cognitivebias #llms #claudeai

This week's Top 5:

- Bottles ashore, The New Yorker
- Benches awaiting, Places Journal
- Boundlessness disputed, Quanta Magazine
- Books aplenty, Cabinet
- Batons bought, The Baffler

https://longreads.com/2026/05/01/top-5-608/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Reading #Essay #Writing #Nonfiction #Journalism

I wrote this a few days ago, but forgot to post it here!

AI Summaries in your Blog Posts!

I was sad today!

Imagine my sadness when I stumbled onto a new (to me) blog, only to discover that the author had an AI Generated Summary at the top of each post.

https://forkingmad.blog/ai-summary-blog-post/?ref=fedi

#blogpost #ai #writing

I haven't posted a long time, but yesterday I couldn't help but write a post as a response to @daj

Here is my version of "Who knows that you blog?"

🌐 https://blog.gridranger.dev/who-knows-that-you-blog/

#blogging #writingprompt #writing #personal #post #indieweb

A novella about time and memory.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/04/30/new-release-the-box/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

I hear that people no longer read, don't read novellas, and have short attention spans. I figure that if they've got short attention spans, why not a novella? Of course, if they don't read anyway, I should have published a picture book instead. Live and learn.

#philosophy #book #time #history #memory #writing #reading #publishing #author #fiction #novella #london #blog #podcast #nostalgia