Liam Hogan

It has been enshittified.

(The non-sortable search results, which don't even default to chronological... who asked for THAT?)

"The enemy of my enemy was my enemy yesterday and will be again tomorrow"

Or just #MiniTrue - the US has ALWAYS been at war with Iran, and always will be, and if you remember otherwise...

I remember when Iraq was the bad guys. Really wasn't that long ago they had the WMDs... Before that, US backed Iraq in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The US backed Iran in '83 Irangate. And now here we go again, US backing Iraq based Kurds. The dance partner changes, the US meddles, innocents die.

A Short History of the Future - Paperback | Northodox Press 42 Sci-fi stories by an award-winning writer Time travel to multiverses, via aliens, pocket spaceships, teleportation mishaps, and space pirates. Includes the award-winners Ana, Tribbulations, and Re-...

You can order from your bookshop (it's distributed by Gardners) or direct from the #indie publisher:
www.northodox.co.uk/product-page...

Read it already? Review it!

(Best get it NOW - it will NOT be reprinted as Northodox concentrate on Historical Fiction!)

Happy 1 year #Bookaversary to "A Short History of the Future": #ScienceFiction #ShortStories 42 modern twists on retro themes.

Between the pages you'll find time travel, multiverses, aliens, pocket spaceships, teleportation mishaps, dinosaurs, and space pirates!

@northodoxpress.bsky.social

"Learning—most importantly, learning when not to do magic—a vital part of our training, and why it took so many years."

A very short but graceful story that posits a world where the path to power leads through acquiring the wisdom of living in the real world and spending the time to understand it.

Nothing to see here, just the White House hallucinating the position of ENTIRE OTHER COUNTRIES, in a way that suggests the whole Administration is just an AI designed to blow smoke up Trump's wrinkled ass, carry on, carry on...

Pretty much same play as for arms firms - use up stocks, insist rest of Nato doubles defense spending, start a war...

Oh sorry, not "technically" a war, because that would require congress approval. What would Putin call it, hmm? A "Special Military Operation"?

It's all just - I believe the term is - a circle jerk. Oil banks Trump, Trump opens up parks and Alaska, grabs Venezuelan oil fields, and makes eyes at Greenland as DOGE AI bros ramp up electricity demand and THEN Trump "listens" to Israel demands and takes a dump on middle-east oil...

Tech firms pledge to pay for AI data centre power costs. But will they? The agreement at the White House comes as rising electricity prices becomes a political problem.

Aw, bless you for asking the question, but the fuck they will.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
(AI probably can't pay for all the chips they've bought, let alone the electricity to run them. And though green power would be cheaper option for them, I have little doubt it'll be petrochem...)

If you're a writer or researcher who thinks AI is better than you at your job, I believe you. I just don't think you should pretend like your skill issue affects me

"Asylum seekers who break the law, or work illegally, will be thrown out of government-funded accommodation and lose their support payments, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to announce."

So they're made homeless and destitute, then? That will certainly improve things...

Ros Atkins/BBC verify do make a habit of tackling in short spans subjects like this. Most of the news is "this happened, this politician said this" - uncritical, and often appearing biased by whose voice they trumpet. But I suspect it takes time to demolish the flim-flam, so verify always lags.

So one does wonder exactly what Kemi was getting at. Maybe she's all in for armageddon, and Trump's end of days war. Wouldn't surprise me. But to even mention pre-emptive strikes with such a "nukes" justification makes her entirely unsuitable to ever command the UK's nuclear deterrent.

Who DOES have nuclear missiles?

Israel*, and the US.

(*They're awfully coy about this. Almost like they have a secret nuclear bomb project, or something. But they probably have as many if not more than the UK - and presumably don't need to ask US permission to use them. )

Meanwhile, Kemi "WWIII" Badenoch complains about Starmer's less than full-blooded approach to US's not-technically-a-war, sayings that if someone has nuclear missiles, you don't wait for them to strike first.
Iran doesn't have nuclear missiles. It doesn't have missiles that can strike the UK.

Tea or Coffee, Stars, and Gravity A Hard SF anthology of stories involving tea or coffee, stars, and gravity.

The final KS campaign day is here for the “Tea or Coffee, Stars, and Gravity” anthology: www.kickstarter.com/projects/526... - Let’s have one last surge! Appreciate all the excited backers who have pledged. #sff #fantasy #book #ks #booksky #tea #coffee

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"The International Fleet Review 2026 (IFR 2026) was an international maritime exercise hosted and conducted by the Indian Navy on behalf of the President of India in February 2026 to improve relations with other navies in the region."

Guess the US didn't get the "improve" memo?

Pointless, and as unnecessary and flagrant as missile strikes on speedboats in international waters.

The US could, should, have demanded the surrender of the vessel. What a story THAT would have been! But no, there is no respect of life that isn't American, and not a fuck of a lot for that, either.

What an evil ghoul Hegseth is.

'He said the ship was sunk by a torpedo on Tuesday, and that it died a "quiet death".'

Oh, really, all 150 sailors that weren't rescued? They died quiet deaths did they?

One can only hope your death is just as quiet and utterly pointless, Mr Hegseth.

The influencers leaping to Dubai’s defence [FREE TO READ] As missiles streak across the region, unfazed residents insist they ‘know who protects us’

‘British expats, he claimed, were refusing to fill out evacuation forms provided by the British government “just in case it somehow turns into a tax form instead”.’

No notes.

as.ft.com/r/65cf2b43-6...

Green Apples by Liam Hogan The orchard was merely a hundred trees. A hundred and twenty, counting the malus sylvestris—crab apples—that fringed the sides.  “Why so many?” I asked, shivering in the February cold....

"Bone-weary and unused to the work, hands ink-stained and callused in all the wrong places, February became March, then April, before I knew the answer. " @liamjhogan.bsky.social's new flash fiction story "Green Apples", is now live!

www.dreamtheory.media/green-apples/

Spain's Pedro Sánchez hits back at Trump threat to sever trade saying 'no to war' Spain's prime minister delivers a strong rebuttal to US President Donald Trump's threat to end trade with his country.

On a world stage of relatively few political heroes, Pedro Sanchez is definitely one to watch. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
(And I LOVE that Trump had to be schooled that trade deals with the EU are automatically deals with Spain. THIS is why being out of the EU is a weakness, not a strength)

Trumpist policies are no more "inevitable" than AI is. Sticking true to basic principles - the rule of international law, an unwillingness to be bullied, a recognition of who the aggressors are - is NOT political suicide. Pandering to the right that still wants to replace you, IS.

There is a sense that the UK mustn't antagonise the ogre that is Trump too much. While Labour also seems awfully keen to adopt certain horrendously cruel policies on immigration, and on AI, and on energy/green. But Spain is busy showing that there is another way.

(It was a toss-up between this and the government stance on copyright and blighted AI what was going to spike blood pressure highest... in the end, Mahmood once again wins the contest no-one should be trying to win...)

I would encourage those who can (and that's more than you think!) to enter this FREE contest. Sure, the odds are low of winning - but did I mention it's FREE? And potentially life changing for a writer. And entering contests is a great incentive to polish that piece of work.
Deadline 16th March.

World Central Kitchen head José Andrés confirms Israel has closed Gaza’s borders indefinitely and warns the NGO will run out of food this week. The group is currently cooking about 1 million hot meals a day.

World Central Kitchen head José Andrés confirms Israel has closed Gaza’s borders indefinitely and warns the NGO will run out of food this week. The group is currently cooking about 1 million hot meals a day.

It just needs to be handled with a lot more competence than Mahmood and Labour seem able to muster. I'm not saying I have the solution - but it's "obvious" that this slamming of the door, punishing the innocent as well as the desperate, isn't it either, and just makes us look cruel & heartless.