Bigcitylib
@bigcitylib.bsky.social
Writes fiction as MJ Murphy. Writes about fiction here: https://4mjmu.substack.com/ Wife says he's a smartass.
The Ogerog Annual: The State of the Art 4mjmu.substack.com/p/the-ogerog... Read the post. Buy the book.
The Ogerog Annual: The State of the Art
Reviewing a Book I am in
4mjmu.substack.com
September 1, 2026 at 12:00 PM
The Ogerog Annual: The State of the Art 4mjmu.substack.com/p/the-ogerog... Read the post. Buy the book.
A short post on Nathan Ballingrud's Cathedral of The Drowned, which I quite liked. open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/...
Nathan Ballingrud's Cathedral of the Drowned
The Story Changes...
open.substack.com
July 28, 2026 at 11:11 AM
A short post on Nathan Ballingrud's Cathedral of The Drowned, which I quite liked. open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/...
Impressions of Africa: Roussel's Obsessions open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... A post about one of Literature's great kooks.
Impressions of Africa: Roussel's Obsessions
I’m not sure I can recommend Raymond Roussel’s Impressions of Africa, as much as I love the book myself.
open.substack.com
June 30, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Impressions of Africa: Roussel's Obsessions open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... A post about one of Literature's great kooks.
AI changing the world one deleted database at a time
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
MSN
www.msn.com
April 28, 2026 at 11:28 AM
AI changing the world one deleted database at a time
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
The First English Surrealist? open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... A quick bit about Richard Crashaw. You've never heard of him.
The First English Surrealist?
Richard Crashaw (1613 – 1649) has always been considered the Metaphysical Poets’ resident odd-ball.
open.substack.com
April 28, 2026 at 11:12 AM
The First English Surrealist? open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... A quick bit about Richard Crashaw. You've never heard of him.
Edgar Lee Masters: The Man Who Invented Flash Fiction open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... An old book of verse that prefigures modern fiction.
Edgar Lee Masters: The Man Who Invented Flash Fiction
Over the course of his life Edgar Lee Masters published, according to wiki, twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels, and six biographies. The Spoon River Anthology (1915) is the only thin...
open.substack.com
April 21, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Edgar Lee Masters: The Man Who Invented Flash Fiction open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... An old book of verse that prefigures modern fiction.
If Iron Maiden is in the Rock n' Roll hall of fame then rock is dead and they should burn the whole building down.
April 14, 2026 at 12:28 PM
If Iron Maiden is in the Rock n' Roll hall of fame then rock is dead and they should burn the whole building down.
A Note On Easter: That Rabbit Died for Our Sins!!! open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... The Secret History of Easter that you won't read on The Internet (unless you read it here).
A Note On Easter: That Rabbit Died for Our Sins!!!
Many people wonder why the death of Jesus is symbolized by a giant rabbit that goes around tossing chocolate eggs into the underbrush.
open.substack.com
March 31, 2026 at 1:45 PM
A Note On Easter: That Rabbit Died for Our Sins!!! open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... The Secret History of Easter that you won't read on The Internet (unless you read it here).
Thx. I try to test ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude a few of times a yr (general historical research). In Dec 25 I saw no improvements. I hear if you use paid models to do technical, computer-y type stuff there have been advances. But its no good to me if it isn't free.
Most of the studies I've seen are mixed, but they're from last year. Purportedly Claude Code got "really good" 3 months ago and is doing things it couldn't previously. But this happens every time Claude is updated.
Regardless, all performance gains this cycle are coming from more spending.
Regardless, all performance gains this cycle are coming from more spending.
March 25, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Thx. I try to test ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude a few of times a yr (general historical research). In Dec 25 I saw no improvements. I hear if you use paid models to do technical, computer-y type stuff there have been advances. But its no good to me if it isn't free.
Reposted by Bigcitylib
Most of the studies I've seen are mixed, but they're from last year. Purportedly Claude Code got "really good" 3 months ago and is doing things it couldn't previously. But this happens every time Claude is updated.
Regardless, all performance gains this cycle are coming from more spending.
Regardless, all performance gains this cycle are coming from more spending.
March 25, 2026 at 6:39 AM
Most of the studies I've seen are mixed, but they're from last year. Purportedly Claude Code got "really good" 3 months ago and is doing things it couldn't previously. But this happens every time Claude is updated.
Regardless, all performance gains this cycle are coming from more spending.
Regardless, all performance gains this cycle are coming from more spending.
Reposted by Bigcitylib
Free newsletter: The AI industry is lying to you about progress. Only 5GW of data centers are under construction, it takes 6 months to bring online a single quarter's worth of NVIDIA GPU sales, and LLM code is actively breaking big tech.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/
The AI Industry Is Lying To You
Hi! If you like this piece and want to support my independent reporting and analysis, why not subscribe to my premium newsletter? It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newslet...
www.wheresyoured.at
March 24, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Free newsletter: The AI industry is lying to you about progress. Only 5GW of data centers are under construction, it takes 6 months to bring online a single quarter's worth of NVIDIA GPU sales, and LLM code is actively breaking big tech.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-lying-to-you/
Everything in its Place: Ptolemaic Cosmology in Paradise Lost open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/...
Everything in its Place: Ptolemaic Cosmology in Paradise Lost
Here’s an interesting fact about John Milton.
open.substack.com
March 24, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Everything in its Place: Ptolemaic Cosmology in Paradise Lost open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/...
Crypt of the Moon Spider: A Short Post on a Short Book open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... On Nathan Bellingrud's recent novella.
Crypt of the Moon Spider: A Short Post on a Short Book
I sometimes feel I am neglecting the contemporary horror/sci-fi/speculative scene on this blog.
open.substack.com
March 17, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Crypt of the Moon Spider: A Short Post on a Short Book open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... On Nathan Bellingrud's recent novella.
Notes On Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... Some comments. It is long, very long.
Notes On Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards
Horror, Horrible, or Another Bret Easton Ellis Novel?
open.substack.com
March 10, 2026 at 1:45 PM
Notes On Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... Some comments. It is long, very long.
Can't be a suburb of nowhere
One thing I feel ought to be discussed more is the fact that basically all rural and suburban places in the US are subsidized by cities. They resent cities. They insult cities. They elect politicians who abuse cities. But none of them could survive without cities.
March 7, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Can't be a suburb of nowhere
Cool post by @hausfath.bsky.social
on how he uses AI in his research. What it does, what it can't do. A peak behind the bullshit. LLMs perform as a function of the precision of their prompting. And prompting precisely implies thinking precisely.
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-ai-aug...
on how he uses AI in his research. What it does, what it can't do. A peak behind the bullshit. LLMs perform as a function of the precision of their prompting. And prompting precisely implies thinking precisely.
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-ai-aug...
The AI-Augmented Scientist
The promise and pitfalls of using AI tools to boost my capabilities as a scientist
www.theclimatebrink.com
February 24, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Cool post by @hausfath.bsky.social
on how he uses AI in his research. What it does, what it can't do. A peak behind the bullshit. LLMs perform as a function of the precision of their prompting. And prompting precisely implies thinking precisely.
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-ai-aug...
on how he uses AI in his research. What it does, what it can't do. A peak behind the bullshit. LLMs perform as a function of the precision of their prompting. And prompting precisely implies thinking precisely.
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-ai-aug...
Harold Of The Rocks open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... An old story of mine that I thought had been lost forever.
Harold Of The Rocks
A Story by Me
open.substack.com
February 24, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Harold Of The Rocks open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... An old story of mine that I thought had been lost forever.
Reposted by Bigcitylib
Happy 39th anniversary to an astronomical revolution: the light from the explosion of Supernova 1987A reaching Earth!
Here's what I wrote about JWST observations of this event.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/truly-weir...
🔭 🧪
Here's what I wrote about JWST observations of this event.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/truly-weir...
🔭 🧪
Truly weird JWST images of a truly weird object: Supernova 1987A
We’ve been studying it for over 35 years and still don’t really understand it
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
February 23, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Happy 39th anniversary to an astronomical revolution: the light from the explosion of Supernova 1987A reaching Earth!
Here's what I wrote about JWST observations of this event.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/truly-weir...
🔭 🧪
Here's what I wrote about JWST observations of this event.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/truly-weir...
🔭 🧪
Reupping my post for Valentine's day. Some thoughts on the holiday. They're a bit late, but deep. 4mjmu.substack.com/p/uplifting-...
Uplifting Religious Holiday Post: I WON Valentine's Day, And How You Can Too!
My wife and I have been together nearly three decades.
4mjmu.substack.com
February 18, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Reupping my post for Valentine's day. Some thoughts on the holiday. They're a bit late, but deep. 4mjmu.substack.com/p/uplifting-...
Uplifting Religious Holiday Post: I WON Valentine's Day, And How You Can Too! open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/...
Uplifting Religious Holiday Post: I WON Valentine's Day, And How You Can Too!
My wife and I have been together nearly three decades.
open.substack.com
February 17, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Uplifting Religious Holiday Post: I WON Valentine's Day, And How You Can Too! open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/...
Games Writers Play open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... Three novels sold under false pretenses.
Games Writers Play
This week I am going to write about three books that don’t have much in common outside of the fact that the writer (sometimes abetted by their publisher) played a kind of bait-&-switch in order to get...
open.substack.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Games Writers Play open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... Three novels sold under false pretenses.
Reposted by Bigcitylib
JD Vance is not in the Epstein Flies. Could he still be the Republican nominee in 2028?
February 4, 2026 at 5:18 PM
JD Vance is not in the Epstein Flies. Could he still be the Republican nominee in 2028?
The Alice Munro Scandal open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... Something I've been thinking a lot about since she passed.
The Alice Munro Scandal
When I went to University in the 1980s, if you took (or were forced to take) a CanLit course, you would be assigned a book of short-stories by Alice Munro. For me it was Who Do You Think You Are? Even...
open.substack.com
February 3, 2026 at 3:10 PM
The Alice Munro Scandal open.substack.com/pub/4mjmu/p/... Something I've been thinking a lot about since she passed.
Reposted by Bigcitylib
MAGA now entertaining the possibility that they may be guilty.
February 2, 2026 at 12:21 AM
MAGA now entertaining the possibility that they may be guilty.
Go suck ass hippy. If Steven Pinker didn't know Epstein how else would he get laid?
Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich
February 2, 2026 at 12:21 AM
Go suck ass hippy. If Steven Pinker didn't know Epstein how else would he get laid?