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Kirk McElhearn

@kirkville.com
656 followers 297 following 330 posts

Lapsed New Yorker in Shakespeare's home town. I write and podcast about Apple, Scrivener, computer security, music, and photography. kirkville.com

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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 18m
I’d never read anything by Rose Tremain before, but this book was a joy from beginning to end. I shall read more her novels. www.amazon.co.uk/Restoration-...
amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 1h
newrepublic.com/post/216016/...
newrepublic.com
Trump Reprograms Government AI Chatbot to Stop Fact-Checking His Lies
Trump officials seem to have realized their AI chatbot was correcting the president’s biggest lies.
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Radical Graffiti @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social · 6h
"Nuclear War is Bad for Kittens" Poster spotted in York University in Toronto, Ontario
"Nuclear War is Bad for Kittens"
Poster
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ScrivenerApp @scrivenerapp.bsky.social · 7h
While much of what you do in Scrivener is in one window, the app has a number of other windows that can help make working on your projects easier. . Our blog post takes you through using Bookmarks, Quick Reference windows and much more: buff.ly/acqzhy2
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Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 12h
We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs
Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.
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Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 12h
if your marketing pitch is 'AI may be about to end humanity! but first, we will kill music' then i feel superintelligence may be a way off
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 12h
The Many Windows of Scrivener and How to Use Them While much of what you do in Scrivener is in one window, the app has a number of other windows that can help make working on your projects easier.
kirkville.com
The Many Windows of Scrivener and How to Use Them
While much of what you do in Scrivener is in one window, the app has a number of other windows that can help make working on your projects easier.
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Great moments in Scottish engineering history: James Watt tries to work out how his phone attaches to his selfie stick.
Statue of James Watt. In his right hand he holds a telescopic stick with a frame at the top; in his left he holds a flat object about the size of a large smartphone. He is scowling at the possibly-not-a-smartphone as if he is tempted to yeet it into the sea. On that basis, it probably _is_ a phone.
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026
52-54% of welfare recipients in Arkansas are white, which is why the ad should have featured a black woman
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 29/09/2026
I love this picture of Macfadyen as Smiley. (It’s pretty much the first one I’ve seen, by the way - we’re all in this together!) www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
bbc.com
Matthew Macfadyen and Charlie Hunnam revealed in first-look images from Legacy Of Spies
Filming has wrapped on the highly anticipated espionage thriller, which will launch exclusively on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 22h
Nothing but super intelligence all around at the White House.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026
Oh look. More things that makes sense happening in these United States.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Was interviewed by a US journalist today who asked if we were all panicking about terrorists at Fairford, which ended with me trying to explain dogging.
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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
lol
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Stephen King @stephenking.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Reading has become an endangered species. Which is half the problem with American political life. Maybe more than half. If you can't read, you can't think. Then you can fall for anything. The idea, for instance, that the truth is fake news.
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Dan Moren @dmoren.com · 29/09/2026
I get these incessantly and the funniest part to me is that I am a writer and I have no money for them to scam me out of.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
Yeah, um, no... I guess I was a "content creator" when I set up my first website in, let's see, 1995. He set up an information website. Kudos to him, but he was not a "pioneer" of self-publishing or content creation.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 29/09/2026
AI companies can't access encrypted messages on your device. Which is a reminder to always use end-to-end encrypted apps - Signal, WhatsApp - when you're messaging others. Messenger can do encrypted messages but I think it's still off by default. If you use Messenger, turn on encryption there.
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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Everything is bigger in Texas, including assholes and the sheer number of rubes willing to shitkick their way into a voting booth and pull a lever for them. Can't fence them in.
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ScrivenerApp @scrivenerapp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
#Scrivener 3 on Mac Tip of the Day: Holding down the Option/Alt key while dragging in the binder or outliner will disallow drop-ons, making dropping between items easier.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
I company is suggesting that I pay a fee for something that they are responsible for. I have the option of buying this item directly from the company or from Amazon; I will choose the latter.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026
Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin...
Summary
Companies
• Anthropic IPO could value the company at more than $2
trillion
• Anthropic lost $42 billion in 2025
• Al lab spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure last year
• Operating loss widened to $8.06 billion in 2025 from $2.98 billion in 2024
• Execs, industry analysts have expressed concerns over harms of Al tech
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic is making a massive bet that Al will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
But the cost to get there will be staggering. Anthropic reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming year, according to the
prospectus.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I've reported first-hand on steel mills in Korea, China, Japan, Illinois, and Mississippi. This is 100% not going to happen. Disagree? Bet me. (Though I'm against online betting. It's just not going to happen.)
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Six Colors @sixcolors.com · 28/09/2026
Why Stolen Device Protection makes Passwords safer
sixcolors.com
Why Stolen Device Protection makes Passwords safer
After my massive article on migrating your passwords, passkeys, and other secrets from third-party password managers to Apple’s Passwords, Wallet, Safari, and general ecosystem—potentially with help from another app—reader Scott asked whether I was directing people into weaker security. He wrote: If someone manages to steal my device and its passcode, they have access to the contents of my phone, including all of the information stored in Apple Passwords. This is not the case if I use a third-party password manager and have set a separate password for access, as the thief will not have access to my other passwords…I’m...
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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Not making it up: Just boarded a Southwest flight and as I passed the cockpit, pilot and copilot were telling a flight attendant about being furries. Regrettably for the intellectual powerhouse that is the U.S. senator from Alabama, in the next breath they started laughing and called him an idiot.
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Police: 'Don't speculate about Fairford' Farage: 'Here's my speculative theory...'
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 28/09/2026
And some of us older family members do tech support for the Gen Z and Gen A family members because they have no sense at all of what goes on under the hood and if they can't make it work by stabbing impotently at an icon on their phone they're stuffed.
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Theo Priestley @theopriestley.net · 27/09/2026
Love this
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Miaganga @miaganga.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 27/09/2026
And the rest is fucking silence.
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Will Hermes @willhermes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I listened to Joy Division ALOT in my early '20s. The Eternal is an awesome 16-disc audio-video monument to — and revision of — their legacy. I also wrote long about Lily Seabird’s incandescent Lightspheres On Their Way (out next Friday), sure to be high up on my Best of 2026 list.
substack.com
Will Hermes (@willhermes)
I listened to Joy Division a lot in my early '20s. The Eternal is a 16-disc audio-video monument to — and revision of — the band’s legacy. It’s an amazing set and I wrote long on it. I also wrote lon...
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Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier @smittermeier.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Can the media stop participating in AI psychosis
Tilly Norwood Says She’d Love to Work With Tom Holland and Olivia Colman: 'But Only If It Were Their Digital Twins' on an 'AI Production'
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 27/09/2026
The color is not “grellow,” it is actually chartreuse, a color named after this liqueur. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
The ‘elixir of long life’: how the elusive Chartreuse quietly became the trendiest drink around
With its garish ‘grellow’ colour, mythological origins, secret recipe and limited supplies, the herbal liqueur made by French monks is now the coolest thing to order at the bar
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Justin Jest @justinjest.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I've had fire insurance on my house for decades and never had a fire. Obviously a fraudster.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 26/09/2026
imperfect-loaf.com/2026/09/26/t...
imperfect-loaf.com
Today’s Loaf: Matthews Cotswold Crunch Flour with a Bit of Wholemeal Flour
Cutting the Cotswold Crunch flour tones down the malty flavor, and gives the loaf a bit more texture.
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Send this to every university President in the country.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 26/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
His Novel Had a Shot at a Top Book Prize. Then Someone Ran an A.I. Test. (Gift Article)
“It Was Either That Or Die,” by the Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien, was the hit of the French literary season. Now it has been pulled from the shortlist for a prestigious prize.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 26/09/2026
Zhizhi now balances training for speedcubing events alongside her kindergarten studies, spending two to three hours on weekdays and up to six hours at the weekend on the puzzle. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Specialist coaches and hours of practice a day: the making of China’s six-year-old Rubik’s Cube prodigy
Mother of Lian Yunzhi says world record a ‘dream come true’ for child who now gets autograph requests from fellow students
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Biggie @biggienotsmalls.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Should be reposted every month....
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 25/09/2026
We had to wait for the....NEW YORK POST to write about this. Y'all know there is so much more where this came from but journalists don't want to dig and people are terrified to speak to any journalist seeing the type of reporting they've been doing
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 25/09/2026
I’ve bought flour from this company, and I got emails from them. The latest one had this photo. It makes it look like a Reform UK picnic.  There’s cognitive dissonance between organic farming and people dressed like this. 
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Life comes at you fast
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Rowan Hooper @rowhoop.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Essential El Niño knowledge: me and @pennysarchet.bsky.social joined by @tinymaddie.bsky.social and @alecluhn.com youtu.be/KxNHlkNuqG0
youtu.be
This El Niño Is Shaping Up To Be A Global Catastrophe – We Need To Act Now
YouTube video by The World, The Universe And Us
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 25/09/2026
Learning math is part of developing critical thinking skills, being able to analyze numbers and statistics, being able to understand prices and contracts. Of course billionaires don't want people to know how to do that.
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Jacob Geller @jacobgeller.com · 24/09/2026
Tweet by merman_melville: Being a billionaire must be insane. You can buy new teeth, new skin. All your chairs cost 20,000 dollars and weigh 2,000 pounds. Your life is just a series of your own preferences. In terms of cognitive impairment it's probably like being kicked in the head by a horse every day
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is how you fuel antisemitism.
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