Great thread. Emma is brilliant at carefully researched, fact based debunking of nonsense.

David Lammy’s Plans to Scrap Automatic Right to Appeal Risk ‘Increasing Miscarriages of Justice’ Lawyers and legal campaigners say the changes risk removing “vital safeguards” and shutting out vulnerable defendants from justice bylinetimes.com/2025/12/03/d...

A thread about ExCel feeling "too big" or "empty" as part of Dragonmeet 2025, or at least my understanding through attending the convention for 10 years and founding its #PodcastZone, with a sprinkle of my professional experience with London real estate and exhibition centres planning. 1/x

2 in 3 of Nigel Farage’s current and former partners do not speak English as their first language.

We’re truly fucked

More Stoppard, on the eve of the Second Test: “This [cricket bat] here, which looks like a wooden club, is actually several pieces of particular wood cunningly put together in a certain way so that the whole thing is sprung, like a dancefloor. It’s for hitting cricket balls with...

Whatever comes out of them, today's talks in Moscow are a diplomatic all-time low for the US. Incompetent, mercurial envoys trying to reset relations w one of the worst regimes in the world at the expense of the victim of unprovoked aggression and the security of America's best allies in Europe.

Raccoon gets drunk at a Virginia liquor store and passes out in bathroom

Brightener of the TL!

Here are Jack Alcock and Ted Brown heading towards their Vickers Vimy before their flight across the Atlantic in this superb Elsie Holloway photo. Author @rooneyvision.bsky.social took on the 15 Minute Book Club and discussed what went into The Big Hop. 🎧 pod.fo/e/35d1b1 📺 youtu.be/OTIqIje5ixI

The USA is ripe for wind power! Full story: informationisbeautiful.net/visualizatio...

"The playbook here is familiar," @parkermolloy.com writes for HW. "Find a trans person in a position of minor institutional authority. Manufacture or amplify a confrontation. Blast it through the conservative media ecosystem until it becomes national news. Watch as institutions capitulate."

The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"

This made us think

COMING next week … Orbital 2100 – Zozer’s science fiction setting for Cepheus Universal and other Classic 2D6 SF games. Now revised.

Space 1999 (1975-1977) Special effects director/Lighting Cameraman Nick Allder (Moon Zero Two, Alien, The Fifth Element) and special effects director Brian Johnson (2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back) working on an Eagle model.

Have a seat. #mig15 #histscalemodels #photoetchmademecrosseyed

Make the fuckers go on the record in favour of protecting a war criminal.

In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of food stamps are employed, half of them full-time. Nearly 2,500 work for Amazon and another 2,300 work for Walmart. Uber, DoorDash and Tempus Unlimited each have more than 1,400 workers who rely on SNAP www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...

In 1992, the Winter Olympics were held in Albertville, France. To ensure security, Mirage 2000B aircraft patrolled the mountains with special Albertville Olympic Games livery under their wings. © Images Défense

The model effects in ALIENS are so effective you don't realise that they're using puppets in the final boss fight on the Sulaco. It's so well done, will pitch perfect lighting that marries the marionettes with the full-size action superbly. These physical effects are a testament to talent.

How many lives would be saved if Africa had other regions’ child mortality rates? One of the starkest expressions of global inequality is a child’s chance of survival.

#OTD 2nd Dec '44, the John Harvey, exploded in Bari harbour, full of mustard gas. My great uncle, John Appleby RAFVR, was with his unit, 267 Pegasus Squadron at their airfield base about 5km's away, the blast blew in the windows of the control tower & aerodrome. share.google/XNY8SKiWg3qoWt…

Astonishing. Life expectancy in the past wasn't bad, IF you got past childhood. And that was truly a big IF.

In the new year I'm focusing a bit more on 'A Dark Star To Steer By', my 19th century tall ship RPG using the D6 Those Dark Places rules. It's written, 27K words with full adventure and pregens, so I think my next step is creating a PDF for public playtesting. Pitch - ALIEN meets The Onedin Line.

The scale of today's X1.9 CME compared to the Earth. Truly a monstorous eruption.

What if all cash ISA investments went directly to government bonds and notes?

I agree with the analysis that property prices are the biggest immediate problem, but we need to go back to inequality as a root cause. Though it's not unidirectional.

And over in America, things are getting spicy

Listening to David Lammy on @BBCr4today attempting to justify abolishing trial by jury, it is increasingly and terrifyingly clear that he simply does not understand the issues.

Portal to the past. Alderman Stairs, featured on John Rocque’s map of 1746, also known as Alderman Parsons Stairs & Lady Parsons Stairs, probably named after a previous owner and his wife. Connecting river to land, these steps once bustled with people & activity, now quiet, eerie & full of ghosts.

Hey Melbournians! There's a neo4j meetup tomorrow night. One talk on graphs and AI, and me on some cool research on scalable transactions for graphs. Sign up here: www.meetup.com/graphdb-melb...

Absolutely amazing! And now I'm also trying to figure out which production of Arcadia I saw around this time. I thought it was in London, but I'd already left by 1993. So maybe Sydney? Regardless, I loved it. And next year I will see it in London!

The Australian population of Bluesky is slightly smaller than the population of Port Macquarie.

Juries are one of our most important safeguards against authoritarianism. There is an emergency in our courts which needs tackling – but addressing that doesn’t require ripping up rights. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec/02/david-lammy-proposals-jury-trials

Oh it’s not a real book club. It’s an AI scam. Jason Sanford did a little investigation and if you go into the rabbit hole it’s an entire AI discord. jasonsanford.substack.com/p/genre-grap...

Came for the cat, stayed for the accent

The fall guy. Though he is probably also guilty of first degree murder.

70 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama.

Costco Founder Jim Sinegal will keep that hot dog & soda at a $1.50, and per that man's own words, someone will die tryin' if they otherwise try him:

who decided to call it Secret Santa when Nondisclosure Claus was right there

What a thought-provoking quote! 🌍 It’s essential to examine these narratives in SFF to understand the genre's evolution. Let's celebrate diverse voices in our stories! 📚✨ #SFF #DiversityInLiterature

Overheard in this cafe: Two silver-haired women talking, one explaining monster fucking very earnestly Silver 1: Well, a Sasquatch is a a hairy gentleman who lives in the woods and some people want to make love to him. They write stories! Silver 2: Really?! A Sasquatch?! Best OH ever.

Just imagining how much better it would be if ALL news stories about vaccine-preventable illnesses were illustrated with pictures of people with the disease, not pictures of needle injections. If you must show something that people will find scary & unpleasant, make it the disease, not the cure.

Today the news will be about the government's proposals for juries. Please read this thread so as to be informed about the actual practical problems in the criminal justice system - problems which will not be solved by this misconceived and illiberal tinkering.

News from a robust democracy

“Europe is losing confidence, sinking into fatalism and justifying its passivity with the soothing thought that it has no real choice, as its cards are weak. Besides, in the long run, things will work out. Just wait for the U.S. midterms.” www.politico.eu/article/euro...

People catastrophizing about a precedent where no one can mark anything down anymore for being wrong when the real precedent is trans people not being able to do literally any job without an army of bigots launching a harassment campaign against their employer.