Máire Keene
LightNews LightNews
banner
mkeene.bsky.social
Máire Keene
@mkeene.bsky.social
580 followers 480 following 36 posts
Just trying to be a good human.
Posts Replies Media Videos
mkeene.bsky.social
"...many practitioners would have been indistinguishable from anyone else, for folk magic was in the home and hearth, it was the coins protecting the threshold and the sign of the cross over the proving bread. It was the way in which meaning could be given to a world of uncertainty."
g0blinegg.bsky.social NearlyKnowledgeable @g0blinegg.bsky.social · 5d
*New Post*

In my latest post I revisit the subject of witchcraft in Shropshire and discuss its historic and folkloric legacy. This is my most comprehensive study of the subject so far! I hope you enjoy!

nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com/2024/01/witc...

#witchcraft #history #folklore #witch
A woodcut of a witch, taken from a 1643 book on the subject
December 13, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
michaeldiaz101.bsky.social
If you like the MURDERBOT series (or fantasy by Martha Wells) you can own them all digitally plus donate to charity.

www.humblebundle.com/books/martha...

#goodbooks #murderbot @marthawells.com
Humble Book Bundle: Martha Wells' Murderbot and More by TOR ENCORE
Pay what you want for <<<product>>> and support a charity of your choice!
www.humblebundle.com
December 11, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
veronicaf.bsky.social
Frustrating. I am getting zero reach on my soap FB page because apparently Meta wants everyone to pay for reach. ($87 a month for Business Plus!)

In other news, if you're in Australia, today is probably the last day I can guarantee delivery for Xmas.

veronicafoaleessentials.com.au
Top down photo of very pretty freshly poured soap in loaf moulds. The soap is swirled white, purple, pink, and gold.
December 10, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
The latest edition of my newsletter includes must-reads, organizing resources, year-end reflections, and a writing exercise for anyone trying to stay whole and take action in 2026.
Must-Reads and Some Notes on Taking Action and Staying Whole in 2026
As we close out a year of crisis and courage, I’m thinking about what sustains us — and what comes next.
organizingmythoughts.org
December 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
australia.theguardian.com
Datacentres – why are they so thirsty? Let’s ask a shark! | First Dog on the Moon
Datacentres – why are they so thirsty? Let’s ask a shark! | First Dog on the Moon
Do we even want or need all these datacentres? That is apparently none of your business * Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published * Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
jasonhickel.bsky.social
I'm excited to announce this new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, which explores public support for degrowth and ecosocialist transformation. The findings are quite surprising.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
December 2, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
saracentury.bsky.social
People still constantly bring up my AI Statement page in the Scream zine. Some folks say it made them cry! I was going to be more eviscerating but instead felt the best way to make my point was just to be totally raw and vulnerable in a way AI can't be. sara-century.square.site
Scream mask on a black background This zine was not created by AI. It took me a year to write, from early 2023 to early 2024. I spent several more months agonizing over edits, desperately rephrasing sentences out of coherence and back again. Even with all of that work, it isn't perfect. It will never be perfect. I will never be perfect. Imperfect people will read it and I love that for us. This zine was not created by AI. I wrote it and rewrote it during a really hard time in my life. Many times, it seemed like I'd turned 40 and had been unceremoniously dropped back to Square One by life. I couldn't see how I could make anything work. So, I made a zine. This zine was not created by AI. Every time I almost gave up, I worked through it instead. By the time it was finished, it felt like a small epiphany for how I wanted to make art going forward. This zine was not created by AI. Finishing it was a gift I gave myself when I felt devalued and defeated. It's a love letter to myself, horror movies, and I guess to all of us. This zine was not created by AI. It was created by me.
November 5, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
nathannun.bsky.social
The second #art poster inspired by the works of Walter Crane, "Labour is Entitled" (2024) is another three cat portrait commission. The slogan itself was first used in the early 19th century. It features three workers in industries vital to cats: fishing, biscuit making, and catnip production.
A cat poster in the style of 19th century illustration. Three cats facing the viewer hold tools and product of their trade, fishercat with fish, biscuit maker with biscuit, and farmer with catnip. The middle cat holds a large banner with the phrase "Labour is Entitled to All it Creates"
November 30, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
us.theconversation.com
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Learning With AI Falls Short Compared to Old-Fashioned Web Search
In virtually all the ways that matter, getting summarized information from AI models was less educational than doing the work of search.
buff.ly
November 30, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
nathannun.bsky.social
I'm taking some time to work on tasks and requests that have needed some attention. One of these is getting some new shirts in the shop. The first batch are now up. Also, after a long hiatus, Canadian customers can order shirts again from the shop.
Tshirt mockup ad for cat propaganda poster. On a light blue shirt there is poster artwork for the "International Brotherhood of Biscuit Makers and Allied Trades". Two cats, a farmer and a baker shake paws. in the background is farming and baking equipment. Bottom text reads, "From Field to Tummy - Building better Biscuits"
November 27, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
ghost.org
Google search is broken.

Social algorithms suppress links.

Finding good independent writing online has never been harder.

We built something to fix that: 🌍

ghost.org/changelog/gh...
Explore the independent web
Driving growth for Ghost publishers with a new discovery engine
ghost.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
phyphor.one-dash.org
I wrote a thread about LLMs (but pretended it was about something else).
phyphor.one-dash.org phyphor @phyphor.one-dash.org · 22d
I know nothing about cars so when my car was playing up I asked my neighbour, who also knows nothing about cars and he said "it's completely broken, you should scrap it and get another one".

1/
November 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
mattrosoff.bsky.social
“Google Gemini was by far the worst. It would make up an authoritative-sounding summary with completely fake and wrong references — much more than the other chatbots. It also used a satire source as a news source.”

pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/05/a...

This company doesn’t get nearly enough blame imo
AI gets 45% of news wrong — but readers still trust it
The BBC and the European Broadcasting Union have produced a large study of how well AI chatbots handle summarising the news. In short: badly. [BBC; EBU] The researchers asked ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemi…
pivot-to-ai.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
scottpb.bsky.social
I’ve often called this song—“Just Like Heaven”—the finest single of the 80s and meant it. This cover’s arrangement only confirms it for me 💜🔥
November 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
angushervey.com
Youth Crime. Now that's definitely increasing. There's even been machete bans in Australia to try and curb this wild trend. What does the data say? Youth crime in developed nations has plummeted since the 1990s. Well I never.

tinyurl.com/27w7g2l2
November 21, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
douglasmack.bsky.social
1. Great, let's do this

2. Here's some useful info (from my agent). You have until March 23, 2026 and it now includes illustrators

3. Here is the Works Lookup link: secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Regarding deadlines and form submission: Rights holders have until March 23, 2026 to submit a claim. Look on the Works Lookup Page for your titles If you have published works under different names, be sure to search each of those names Illustrators are now included as part of the settlement and should submit a claim if their work is on the Works Lookup page.
November 18, 2025 at 4:45 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
cultauthor.bsky.social
Writing Hookland. #Writing #Hookland.
I try to write with deep focus. Everywhere I let the eye of the reader turn should be in deep focus. It should be an implied, readable background at almost all times. The reader and I may not being going into the post office today, but if we walk past it and gaze at the window I am going to let them see the posters in it, the droplets of rain racing the glass. Most of us desire immersion, I have to facilitate this. Whatever the level of fantasy in the world that you are building, it has to feel real. Hookland is a salt-line blur of the actual and imaginary. Its actualities require as much thought and work as its imagined elements. If I am going to used a Ford Cortina as bridge into the 1970s, I have to do it well because I want the existence of it to imply beyond itself, to imply that the world contains not only it, but other cars, roads, garages. I will combine real world details of model, engine capacity et al with haptic fiction, textured writing. The way the vinyl feels to the touch, the way the car smells of plastic tainted by cigarette smoke, the way surface of the road travels through the seats, that squeaking that comes only from the left-side of the vehicle. My guiding principle is always EVEN A CLEAR FICTION MUST FEEL REAL.
November 17, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
felipegaonar.bsky.social
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.

Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
www.yahoo.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
leahlitman.bsky.social
HAPPY FOUR SEASONS TOTAL LANDSCAPING DAY TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE
Rudy press conference at 4 seasons total landscaping
November 7, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
wsj.com
Seven lawsuits allege OpenAI encouraged suicide and harmful delusions. The suits represent four people who died by suicide and three more who experienced psychological trauma following interactions with ChatGPT.
Seven Lawsuits Allege OpenAI Encouraged Suicide and Harmful Delusions
The suits, filed in California, represent four people who died by suicide and three others who experienced psychological trauma following interactions with ChatGPT.
on.wsj.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
fahad-s-ali.bsky.social
Good morning beautiful people! If you’re in Sydney or Melbourne, PARA is looking for furniture donations for Palestinian refugees. If you don’t have any furniture to donate, they have options to purchase items for the families directly. See below, poke me if you have questions.
November 2, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
beebrookshire.bsky.social
I know a lot of people (cough Millennials) feel like they need to START a thing, START a food bank, build a little free food pantry.

My friends, my loves, my dears.

Don't start.

JOIN.

These exist. They have community ties! They have some funding! Accountability! Regulations!
October 27, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Máire Keene
noethematt.bsky.social
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
catsofyore.bsky.social
Here are some of the scary jack o'lanterns I've made for our cats over the years. First: the cone.
Photo of a glowing jack o’lantern sitting in a dark room. It is illuminated from within so you can see that a cat wearing a surgical recovery collar also known as Elizabethan collar has been carved on the surface.
October 28, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Máire Keene
guante.info
"Become that something that doesn’t love a wall. Give it a name. A history. Tell us in verse why it hates walls so desperately. Why we all should."

from “Poetry Prompts for Detained Children” by Joaquín Zihuatanejo
Poetry Prompts for Detained Children
Write about the untouchable. Something out of arm’s reach, like freedom...
www.texasobserver.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:15 PM