April 2024

Read:

Fiction:

• Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham (K)
• Shadow of a Dead God by Patrick Samphire (K)

Shorts:

• Excerpts from a Scientist’s Notebook: Ancestral Memory in Europan Pseudocephalopods by DAVID DEGRAFF (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/excerpts-from-a-scientists-notebook-ancestral-memory-in-europan-pseudocephalopods/)
• A Review: The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7 by LARS AHN (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-review-the-reunion-of-the-survivors-of-sigrun-7/)
• Companion Animals in Mahō Shōjo Kira Kira Sunlight by STEWART C BAKER (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/companion-animals-in-maho-shojo-kira-kira-sunlight/)
• Some Assembly Required by ANNE E.G. NYDAM (https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/some-assembly-required/)
• Search History for Elspeth Adair, Age 11 by Aimee Picchi (https://dailysciencefiction.com/fantasy/magic-and-wizardry/aimee-picchi/search-history-for-elspeth-adair-age-11)
• Rising Star by STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES (https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/rising-star/)
• IN THE CITY OF FAILING KNIVES BY TARA CAMPBELL (https://archiveoftheodd.com/2022/01/08/between-the-shelves-in-the-city-of-failing-knives/)
• 50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know by KEN LIU (https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/50-things-every-ai-working-with-humans-should-know/)
• A Tale of Two Tarōs by Marie Brennan (https://dreamforge.mywebportal.app/dreamforge/stories/show/a-tale-of-two-taros-marie-brennan)
• Four Words Written on My Skin by JENN REESE (https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/four-words-written-on-my-skin/)
• Please Stop Murdering Grandma by Christine Amsden (https://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/clones/christine-amsden/please-stop-murdering-grandma)
• Marginalia by MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL (https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/marginalia/)

 

Non-fiction:

• ChatGPT “contamination”: estimating the prevalence of LLMs in the scholarly literature by Andrew Gray (https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.16887)
• Marking the Web’s 35th Birthday: An Open Letter by Tim Berners-Lee (https://medium.com/@timberners_lee/marking-the-webs-35th-birthday-an-open-letter-ebb410cc7d42)
• On the matter of the British Library cyber incident by Ciaran Martin (https://ciaranmartin.substack.com/p/on-the-matter-of-the-british-library)
• The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense’ by Alex Blasdel (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/02/new-science-of-death-brain-activity-consciousness-near-death-experience)
• Bryan Talbot: The comics legend lurking in a Sunderland basement (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wear-68712698)
• So, Amazon’s ‘AI-powered’ cashier-free shops use a lot of … humans. Here’s why that shouldn’t surprise you by James Bridle (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/10/amazon-ai-cashier-less-shops-humans-technology?CMP=fb_cif)
• DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF DISORIENTING MAPS? by NICK DANFORTH (https://warontherocks.com/2024/04/do-androids-dream-of-disorienting-maps/)
• Who is qualified to make a world? In search of the magic of maps by Robert Purchese (https://www.eurogamer.net/who-is-qualified-to-make-a-world-in-search-of-the-magic-of-maps)
• A Series of Emails From Your Kid’s Elementary School in 2024 by Liz Lydic (https://medium.com/frazzled/a-series-of-emails-from-your-kids-elementary-school-in-2024-58820528b9cc)
• Tantalus Key by Adam Roberts (https://medium.com/adams-notebook/tantalus-key-a308f5c2c97d)

 

Poetry:

• Ars Poetica, XI by Mary Jean Chan (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/22/poem-of-the-week-ars-poetica-xi-by-mary-jean-chan)

 

Visited:

• Addenbrookes