Anna F. Walker

Thank you!

Oh how wonderful! I increasingly find that there’s just no better use of my downtime than making art. Well, apart from reading books.

And thank you for the kind words, Anelise. It means a lot ❤️

I hope the little ones are doing well!

Thank you so much!

But the way the world is going, I want to hold on to human wonkiness and messiness as much as possible.

I’ve developed an appreciation for wonkier lines and messier textures. I mean I’ve always loved them in other people’s art, but never trusted myself enough to do it. There was a kind of safety in doing it digitally.

Thank you!

The short answer is AI. I’ve never used AI in my art (or anything else), but I think the overabundance of AI “art” really pushed me away from digital things in general.

Exploring analogue media as I’ve decided to move away from digital drawing altogether.

It’s a learning curve and with new materials I will need to find a new artistic voice. Long road ahead, but it will be worth it.

I’m so sorry. I feel your pain.

That’s exactly the line I wanted to write down when I was listening to the podcast version.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

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I strongly relate.

At least Blair did some agonising and soul searching before joining the US in its illegal war. This human rights lawyer is not wasting any time.

Facts.

Agreed. My favourite movie of all time. It’s perfect.

Clive Lewis?

Correct. I reluctantly gave Labour another chance in 2024 and regret it now.

Will be voting Green in Holyrood elections.

Yes, this is what I meant - Bluesky is an unproblematic social media precisely because it doesn’t have an algorithm, but it is also not a functioning business model. It remains to be seen what they do about monetisation and how it will affect the platform.

Maybe one day it will become possible. In the meantime, I’m really keen to protect children from harm.

I’m not prepared to wait for the tectonic plates of politics to shift so that future kids can be protected. Protection of some form needs to start happening as soon as possible.

That I agree with.

And I guess you have more hope for the possibility of political will to regulate them. I just don’t see any sort of regulation coming towards them from any of the current powers that be.

Bluesky is a lovely little place but it does not make any money, it doesn’t have a business model, it is effectively a public service.

And you cannot just ask or demand them to change their ways - their existence as businesses depends on it. The same way the business model of a gambling establishment depends on people placing bets and exploitation of vulnerable individuals.

I’m all for regulated internet. But it’s not banning the internet that is being talked about - but social media.

The internet offers plenty of ways to be connected in safe ways. But the business models of big social media companies are entirely based on manipulative and harmful algorithms.

As nice as BlueSky is, it’s not making any money and they’re scratching their heads about possible monetisation. As it is, it’s a public service not a business.

So good luck telling Mark Zuckerberg to turn his platforms into public services.

If they don’t have manipulative algorithm they don’t have anything. That’s the business model.

It’s like saying “just make gambling establishments stop taking bets”

I guess it depends on how you think about social media. You wouldn’t complain about gambling being banned for under 18s.

I see the harm from social media being on the same level as gambling, if not more. And if most - if not all - children can be kept away from it, I’m all for it.

Absolutely disgusting.

In 2010, the Texas State Board of Education removed Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See from the statewide social studies curriculum because board members mistook the author Bill Martin, Jr. with an unrelated philosopher, Bill Martin, due to their similar names. The philosopher had recently published the 2008 book Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation, which board members intended to ban. Texas Board of Education member Pat Hardy was a vocal advocate for the removal of Ethical Marxism from public schools across the state, citing its "very strong critiques of capitalism and the American System".

Doing some picture book research and found this.

Giant eye roll.

And I loved feeling like was on a set of a 70s paranoia thriller in DC metro.