Merry Hadaway
@kindjourneys.bsky.social
1.4K followers 770 following 2.2K posts
Queer, trans, disabled singer, fanboy, and frustrated outdoorsman. Living by the sea in a lovely Scottish town. He/him. Blocking bigots is good self-care.
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Reposted by Merry Hadaway
ryanestrada.com
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
cas.bsky.social
Dear all trans women: Whatever you talk about or how you behave is how women talk and behave, because you are a woman who talks and exhibits behavior.

You do not need to copy or mimic some kind of headcanon cis woman. Literally *anything* you do is definitionally something a woman does.
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
eithin.bsky.social
Most people don't know how to pronounce my name ("SOAR'lyeh" is close enough) but I've never had anyone giggle at it. Let alone a supposed professional. I know Anglophone SF culture has always been parochial, but you would think. You would bloody well think.
grigorylukin.bsky.social
Something very very weird happened during the Hugos award ceremony... It's been on my mind for days, and so I wrote this blog: "When People Giggle at Your Name, or the 2025 Hugo Awards Incident"

grigorylukin.com/2025/08/21/w...

#Worldcon
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
smhwpf.bsky.social
Good to see one paper taking a stand.
lauraewebster.bsky.social
NEW: The National is launching a new series highlighting positive stories of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland.

The increasingly hostile political commentary and media coverage is appalling. We have a duty to correct misinformation and stand up for those without a voice
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
hleehurley.com
I don't know how you can say that blatantly discriminating against trans people is not discrimination, but that's the UK now.

Don't think for a second it will stop with trans people.

We've been telling you this for a decade.
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
wearequeeraf.com
6/ Analysis - @jamiewareham.co.uk

"This is a rare positive ruling for the Trans+ community - but it only received a handful of mainstream media stories. I'm confident if the ruling had been negative, it would have been blasted across headlines as a propaganda tool against gender affirming care."
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
wearequeeraf.com
A UK judge has ruled that a private gender clinic was right to get an "outstanding" review from the UK medical regulator the Clinical Quality Commission 🏳️‍⚧️

It's a rare positive ruling for the Trans+ community - let's take a look at it 🧵
A team photo with four people, and the logo 'gender plus' in front of a white wall, with a greyed out overlay
kindjourneys.bsky.social
UK organisations with trans members/service users: this is the time to:-

a) refuse to comply with transphobia
b) make it clear to your trans members/service users that you are going to refuse, so they know they are safe.

Don't be intimidated into appeasing fascists, please.
kindjourneys.bsky.social
YES.

More trans girls everywhere please.
mitildide.bsky.social
More trans girls in sports. More trans girls in crafts. More trans girls in art. More trans girls at the book club. More trans girls at the ttrpg association. More trans girls at the birdwatching club. More trans girls at the model UN. More trans girls absolutely everywhere society is taking place.
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
ourflagmeansbeth.bsky.social
I think a lot of people need to realize that they’re not too much to love, that they’ve been loved by the wrong people, and that’s not your fault; it’s their fault for trying to diminish you.
kindjourneys.bsky.social
Dear UK govt,

You seem a bit confused about this, so I hope that I can make it clearer:-

- LLMs are not people. Corporations are also not people.

- trans people, Palestinians, refugees, disabled people, and indeed all other human beings *are* all people.

Please act accordingly. FFS.

Merry
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
canopyrobin.com
OpenAI doesn't realise that PhD-level expertise has very little to do with the stuff you know and more to do with how you can think. I forget facts from mine all the time!

The value in my PhD is knowing how to reliably generate, evaluate, and defend or dismiss information that's new to the world.
davehb.bsky.social
OpenAI: we’re giving you PhD-level expertise in your pocket!

Everyone with PhDs: I know exactly who you’re automating and I hate him
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
flootzavut.bsky.social
Doomscroll break
nedzeppelin.bsky.social
A pirate walks into a bar. He has a giant steering wheel on his belt buckle, and the bartender notices it and asks what it’s for. He replies “aargh, it drives me nuts”
kindjourneys.bsky.social
Beyond the utter pile of crap he's talking here, there's something about his wording that is *incredibly* red-flagging. I would not want to leave this man alone with a teenage girl of "buying her first bra" age.

(Frankly I think a huge proportion of transphobic cis men are predators.)
kindjourneys.bsky.social
Among so much I don't understand about "gender criticals" (such a misnomer) who still think they're protecting women: if hating on trans women was good for cis women, *Donald Trump wouldn't do it*.

They need to look at which men agree with them, and *why they do so*.
kindjourneys.bsky.social
Well they should stop pursuing aims that kill lots of people then, shouldn't they.
juniorhoncho.bsky.social
just imagine... a whole town of mozarts!! hundreds of mozarts to spare even if an entire shift were to perish in the mine
FORTUNE
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk say human population not nearly big enough: 'If we had a trillion humans, we would have at any given time a thousand Mozarts'
kindjourneys.bsky.social
If enough cis people and enough organisations refuse to comply with the UK gvt's transphobic bullshit it *will* become undoable.

Protect trans women using women's spaces/trans men using men's. Be inclusive. Be kind. Put the safety of trans ppl over the comfort of a tiny minority of bigots.
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
nationaltrust.org.uk
Happy International Cat Day! Put your paws together please for the felines who work hard to keep the places you love running.

Fliss makes sure young plants have plenty of heat for growing in the glasshouses at Stourhead in Wiltshire...
A black and white cat curled up on top of a flower pot, with the stem of the plant in the pot just about visible through the fur.
kindjourneys.bsky.social
The UK for the past 80 years, accurately: Chamberlain was wrong and appeasing fascists is bad. We are an awesome country and we won't do *that* again.

The UK gvt at the moment: I know we're Labour but we can have a little fascism (and a lot of appeasing Trump) as a treat.
Reposted by Merry Hadaway
rincewind.run
I would like everything everywhere to stop getting worse all the time