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Mandy J Watson

@mandyjwatson.bsky.social

570 followers 140 following 2.3K posts

Tech-culture journalist. Copy editor. Game dev. Hire me! World expert in South African comics (#sacomics) published after 2000. Words: https://brainwavez.org/ Tiny games: https://mandyjwatson.itch.io/ Masked up in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · Jul 5

To get the anxiety inducing first post out of the way:

something of mine you can read: https://www.brainwavez.org/screen/film/features/2019/20191128001-01.html

something I made for you to play (dev is ongoing - more to come):
https://mandyjwatson.itch.io/the-mischievous-thievery-of-jessica-the-cat

The Mischievous Thievery Of Jessica The Cat by Mandy J Watson

Jessica the cat has been stealing people's things! A GGJ2021 narrative-puzzle prototype that's now a full game! Play in your browser

mandyjwatson.itch.io

Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 1h

The term is "model collapse" if you want to go poking around the Internet to see what people (one hopes) have written about it.

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Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 2h

Also, the Ares idea come from work they did in the Legacy era but never used. It's not a bad idea, in and of itself, but, well, many bad films have resulted from ideas that initially weren't worthless.

Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 2h

No, it was just in development hell for 10+ years, and pedo was producing, so it was never going to be good. All the previous cast (except Jeff) bailed over the years because of the bullshit and clearly nothing they had on offer when they finally got going was something to entice anyone back.

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Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 3h

I love Tron, by the way, and my opinion of Tron: Legacy has gone from dislike to ambivalent over the years.

Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 3h

Review by me.

"Fun" fact: even the press kit for the film is bad. I really struggled to find any usable stills and photographs and had to mine the trailers as well as the press kit for imagery, except the trailers weren't much better.

brainwavez.org @brainwavez.bsky.social · 3h

Film Review: Tron: Ares
www.brainwavez.org/screen/film/...

(Spoiler free.)

A still from Tron: Ares: The Dillinger Systems programs that had gained access to the ENCOM Grid via a hack make their escape back to the Dillinger Systems Grid.

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brainwavez.org @brainwavez.bsky.social · 3h

Film Review: Tron: Ares
www.brainwavez.org/screen/film/...

(Spoiler free.)

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Dwuff 🇿🇦✨ @dwuff.com · 3h

To clarify: this person is gathering information to motivate for better regulation of AI. I'm not sure if they'll be talking to legislators directly or submitting a paper as part of a larger body of research, but they are esp interested in the harms it causes. Testimonies welcome.

Dwuff 🇿🇦✨ @dwuff.com · 1d

Friends: I have a potential contact who's looking into AI regulation. Please share your personal experiences losing work to AI, hearing of others losing work to AI, AI infiltrating your workplace/affecting work flow/income, etc. Also pls share any posts/articles you know of on its negative impacts.

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Dwuff 🇿🇦✨ @dwuff.com · 1d

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Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 3h

I don't have any personal stories since I don't use AI and I haven't had any work in a while in which it might have been imposed upon me; I just wanted to know for clarity before I retweet it.

Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 3h

Ugh, this infuriates me.

Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 3h

Is this South Africa or anywhere?

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jaydo @jaydocovid.bsky.social · 10h

UCLA’s Long Covid clinic director explains that Covid is not a lung issue but “vascular and neurologic infection.”

A Duke cardiologist shares “we see people have symptoms from almost head to toe.”

People don’t care, they don’t want to hear it.

www.heart.org/en/news/2024...

Beyond breathing: How COVID-19 affects your heart, brain and other organs

The "head-to-toe" effects of COVID-19 infection mean you still need to be cautious, experts say.

www.heart.org

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jaydo @jaydocovid.bsky.social · 10h

To say people make a rational assessment of the threat environment around Covid… is just not true.

Most people refuse to talk about or read anything about Covid.

Long Covid has surpassed asthma as the most common childhood illness, and it’s rarely spoken of.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

(and i think it is a demand that stems from fear more than a rational assessment of the threat environment)

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Lucas Nunes @lucasjn.bsky.social · 14h

Here's a T. Rex bored to death trying to bite their own tail. My partner asked me to animate it in stop motion, after she watched a video about the very important topic of "could T. Rex chew its own tail like a dog". The puppet is still a work in progress 🦖

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M. Belanger @sethanikeem.bsky.social · 1d

My most unhinged(?) take:

This is not just 70s nostalgia

I think we should go back to glass bottles & jars for packaging ALL pre-prepared food & drink.

Glass is near-infinitely recyclable and the improvement for both human health and the health of the environment would be significant.

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Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 1d

I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.

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Bat Krown 🦇 @katbrownwrites.com · 1d

A few months ago I got Genevieve this little cocoon bed and now every morning, when my husband does his emails or works from home, she takes herself up there like a busy business lady going to the office.

A bright eyed calico cat with ears pricked sits in a pink fluffy cat bed with a hole at the front. Someone had left it out on a fence near us so I took it home and aired it for a few days in case she’d like it, because God knows every new bed I’ve ever bought her has been met with absolute disdain!

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Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 1d

Got to shout out the novel that scared me the most for The Stylist's round-up of spooky reads by spooky writers: Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night. www.stylist.co.uk/books/best-h... (paywalled).

Black and white photograph of novelist Lauren Beukes against a red background, overlaid with the image of the front cover of Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night, white type over a dark blue/black cover featuring the image of a midnight-black hand outstretched and clawing at the air with long golden talons, the skin flecked with gold.

"Lauren Beukes recommends…

Our Share Of Night by Mariana Enriquez

Argentinian writer Mariana Enriquez understands that the real horror is people – and everything we’re capable of and how we justify it to ourselves. Set against the backdrop of Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ and its aftermath, Our Share Of Night follows a father and son born with a terrible magical gift who are trying to escape a centuries-old cult that wants to enslave them to The Darkness and their own burgeoning influence. There’s plenty of gruesome imagery I will never, ever get out of my head, inspired by bruja witchcraft and political atrocities, but the bloody heart(break) of the story is the familial relationship and all the frightening and awful ways we fail ourselves and each other. "

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bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 1d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 2d

I'm laughing out loud because, *twenty years ago*, a friend in robotics told me that showing off a dancing robot is what you do when your robot sucks, and a *group* of them even more so.

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Paul Le Comte 🇳🇿🇨🇦📷 @paullecomtephoto.nz · 2d

Absolutely heartbreaking visit to NZ's temperate glaciers on Te Tai Poutini West Coast.

Here's Kā Roimata-o-Hinehukatere Franz Joseph Glacier & Waiau (Waiho) River in Kā Tiritiri-o-te-moana the Southern Alps.

NZ's glaciers are in fast retreat due to Climate Change (see 2009 position drawn in).

View up a glacial valley towards mountains, with a flat valley floor & snow capped mountains. Lush rainforest frames the valley

This image shows how far the glacier has retreated just in 16 years - absolutely heartbreaking. The place where I took the photo was the terminal of the glacier in 1905

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 2d

Halloween is near! It's time to post this marvellous articulated Roman skeleton, presumably meant to be a reminder to enjoy life to the fullest, since pleasure ends irrevocably with death.
In Petronius’ Satyricon, the host of a dinner party brings out a small skeleton with moveable...🧵1/2

Bronze figurine of a walking skeleton with elongated limbs and detailed ribcage, shown against a dark gradient background.

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Mandy J Watson @mandyjwatson.bsky.social · 5d

I won a prize in the SA Game Jam for To Reanimate Thomas, Freshly Deceased!

Thank you so much @freelives.bsky.social for running this jam every year!

Here's the game (made in Bitsy):
mandyjwatson.itch.io/to-reanimate...

#IndieDev #PixelArt #GameDev

To Reanimate Thomas, Freshly Deceased by Mandy J Watson

A gothic horror Bitsy game for SA Game Jam 2025.

mandyjwatson.itch.io

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Slurmsadako MacKenzie @slurmsmackenzie.bsky.social · 3d

GenAI truly was the worst technology to come along at this moment.

An energy and water guzzler when we most urgently need to take climate action.

A disinformation machine as our journalism fails.

A bias machine as fascism takes root.

A job killer in a cost of living crisis.

Bria "tries to write a book" Horses @thevoidencore.bsky.social · 8d

The "cognitive decline and brain damage from repeat COVID infections" and "easy to use robot that makes slop and melts your critical thinking skills" is a hell of a combo in a post-fact media ecosystem

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Bria "tries to write a book" Horses @thevoidencore.bsky.social · 8d

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