Puccinia lapsanae, galls on young Nipplewort leaves. #Fungi #VC55 #galls

This piece on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 just caught my eye. As a recent returner to the gaming world after several decades, I’ve been surprised by the lack of critical analysis in a medium now 50+ years old & with a potential narrative richness far exceeding cinema. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8M8...

As if we don’t have enough reasons at the moment to remind us why renewables are the only sensible way forward.

Please don't make me tap the sign

"A Reform UK council deputy leader [Darren Grimes, Durham County Council] has been caught using a fake AI-generated photograph to stoke tensions over housing and migration, exposing the shameless tactics deployed by politicians willing to deceive their own constituents" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Another slug repost…

Boiling frogs and all that…

Reform’s vow to scrap the Renters Rights Act shows they’re “in the pocket of rogue landlords”, the Housing Secretary has claimed www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Tokyo's Burning was made to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the mass firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945 in which 100000 people died and several million were 'de-housed'. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Great news to wake up to. Here’s hoping it signals a shift back to decency in British politics. One thing it proves is the Reform don’t have a hope in hells chance at the next election. Green actually have more MPs who stood for election for the party they were voted in as than Farage’s losers.

Not all slugs are bad for the garden. Most “may attack some vegetables or flowers but far prefer decaying organic matter.”

A primer on jidai-geki I wrote for Japan House's upcoming 'Samurai on screen: honour, swordplay and film legends' film season in London, running 15 February – 24 June 2026. www.japanhouselondon.uk/read-and-wat...

It's the small things in life... Alder Goblets (Ciboria caucus), a tiny cup fungus that appears this time of year on very wet fallen alder catkins. #fungifriends #mycology #naturephotography #fungiphotography

“Newly-released messages between the far-right former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, reveal how Bannon worked with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to “overthrow” Theresa May at the height of the 2018 Brexit crisis in the UK.”

“In 2023, the OBE-nominated businessman sent out a tweet saying “someone should kill Sadiq Khan”, and announced plans to move to Spain or Dubai to avoid tax, but now is considering returning to the UK to stand as a Reform councillor because he fears Labour’s tax plans. “

The British press

Steccherinum robustius #Steccherinumrobustius #Steccherinum #RotorangerResupinatstacheling #LangzähnigerResupinatstacheling #mushroom #mushrooms #fungus #fungi #pilz #pilze #champignons #champignon #nature #natur #FungiFriends

Today's slime mould,Trichia crateriformis, which has opened up its top to release its spores (by a process known as circumsessile dehiscence!)

My fundamental issue with AI is it doesn’t do most things better than people do. And never will.

Aha, someone else had been rummaging around in moss with a microscope! (Although a slap on the wrist for the picture editor for using the word “toadstool”!)

“It can be argued that the success of the cocoa industry in Ghana was precisely due the farmers’ resistance to the style of monocultural farming advocated by the government. Farmers had integrated the cash crop within a complex network of other plants that were essential to life…”

And yesterday brought me a slime mould, the tiny pinheads of Comatricha nigra in vast profusion in our local Kent woodland. #slimemould #slimemold #fungifriends #naturephotography #myxomycetes #mycology

Ciboria amentacea #Ciboria #Ciboriaamentacea #ErlenkätzchenBecherling #catkincup #ErlenkätzchenStromabecherling #mushroom #mushrooms #fungus #fungi #pilz #pilze #champignons #champignon #nature #natur #FungiFriends

“The last time this shower had seats in the Senedd, when they stood as UKIP, they were led by Neil Hamilton, who lived in a mansion in Wiltshire. This time their leader lives 10 miles nearer to Wales. At this rate they will have a leader who actually lives in Wales by 2050.”

2026 is proving to be a wonderful year for first time fungi finds so far. Looks like this is the rarely recorded Henningsomyces candidus - tiny little macaroni-like tubes found on a very rotten piece of wood in Southeast England. #fungifriends #fungi #mycology #naturephotography

water-gazers in John Woo movies

Been back looking for more graveyard fungi, and on a patch of Bryum capillare moss on a gravestone, found this tiny little ascomycete. It most closely resembles Octospora coccinea, but the jury's out on that so far. #fungifriends #fungi #naturephotography #mycology

In a yokai frame of mind..,

Shigeru Mizuki

Tomie and cordyceps… count me in!!!

Another upcoming release from Australia’s New Wave Video with my mucky fingerprints on it, in the form of a booklet essay for NUN IN ROPE HELL. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. newwavevideo.myshopify.com/products/nun...

Delighted to have a commentary on this new release of A COLT IS MY PASSPORT. I love my Nikkatsu Borderless Action! newwavevideo.myshopify.com/products/a-c...

One species becomes four. Oh the joys of mycology!

One for you @sarahappleton.bsky.social

A fantastic obituary by Cathi Unsworth, for the legend Roger Burton, who left us just over a week ago. Without Roger and the Horse Hospital there may never have been a Strange Attractor... www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Very sad news about the passing of Kazuhiko Hasegawa, especially as he never got to make another Film after his masterpiece The Man who Stole the Sun. cinemadailyus.com/news/the-you...

Any tips for split-screen local multiplayer PS5 games? Almost finished Borderlands 4.

“When asked by the interviewer, Sikka also agreed that we should forget about AI agents running nuclear power plants and other strident promises thrown around by AI boosters.”

To go along with RJL's upcoming episode on Godzilla and Mothra, may I present...

"There are now more members of the Truss cabinet in Reform than there are in Kemi’s shadow team." I'd almost forgotten about this ghoul. Leaky Sue’s defection is ultimately a gesture of attention-seeking desperation to get people talking about her again but hardly much of a trophy for Reform.

Yes! Wasn’t sure if we’d ever get a new De Palma!

Re-reading this slide of greatness, mainly for the Kinji Fukasaku chapter @midnightmes.bsky.social @jaspersharp.bsky.social

The person behind the camera could be seen opening many of the properties with a set of keys and letting other people in. Other clips, supposedly showing “illegal immigrants” being given houses in Knightsbridge, were filmed in semi-detached houses that are more common in suburbia than central London

Horsley (Derbyshire) Council By-Election Result: 🌍 GRN: 43.6% (+16.7) ➡️ RFM: 35.5% (+0.6) 🌳 CON: 13.9% (-9.0) 🌹 LAB: 3.8% (-6.5) ☑️ ADV: 1.9% (New) 🔶 LDM: 1.4% (-2.0) No Ind (-1.7) as previous. Green GAIN from Reform. Changes w/ 2025.

“Earlier this month, the Office for Environmental Protection warned that the biodiversity target, which means stopping the decline of species such as the hedgehog and red squirrel, will almost certainly not be met in England.”

Fascinating to see Masao Adachi's latest ESCAPE is playing at the ICA in London this month as part of a wider Adachi retro I didn't know about. I wrote in some detail about the director and his 1960s context in BEHIND THE PINK CURTAIN.

The latest interview in Justin Sevakis' landmark series The Anime Business features Jonathan Clements, for over a decade Britain's most prolific anime translator, and my co-author on The Erotic Anime Movie Guide and The Anime Encyclopedia. Unmissable. m.youtube.com/watch?v=g59A...

Passes are now Sold Out! Thanks for all of your support ❤️

We’re delighted to announce that actor and Slapstick Festival patron @sanjeevbhaskar.bsky.social is joining @adamhillscomedy.bsky.social in our Rediscovering #LaurelandHardy event at St George’s Bristol on Sunday 8th February 12pm - Link below for tickets.