If you begin Star Trek: Voyager episode Spirit Folk at exactly 11:49:35 on New Year's Eve, Ensign Harry Kim will kiss a cow as the clock strikes midnight. Join in a very dumb annual tradition and start 2026 off on the right hoof.

23. The Great O Antiphons are sung, counting down to Christmas Eve. On the 23rd it’s either ‘O Emanuel’ or this one, ‘O Virgo Virginum’. This swoony setting is by the English composer Harry L’Estrange. youtu.be/lO-gbNS9IvY?...

Just your annual reminder that this photo accurately reflects what Brigid Brophy thought of Christmas.

FAO @drdsm.bsky.social

25. THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING IS THE SAME AS NOT THINKING ABOUT IT ALT TEXT: STUPID PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND ME WHICH MEANS I AM CLEVER

3. *taps sign saying 'I'm so tired of having to tap this sign'* If I find your attitude offensive, or confrontational, or ignorant or just plain rude I WILL block you WITHOUT WARNING. I have enough followers thanks! No DMs/crypto/porn! ALT TEXT: shot of dinner for one at a mid-range restaurant

An Advent Prayer: Forgive us our Christmases, as we forgive those who Christmas against us.

Epic Space, by the great @ianmartin.bsky.social, is genuinely remarkable. The book is an anthology of Ian’s diaries for The Architectural Journal but all the entries, written by Ian’s alter ego -a zeitgeist-munching, wide-boy architect- are made up.

Winter Solstice. We made it. Another year alive, a year closer to death. My dad died on December 21st, years and years ago. Spoiled Christmas a bit, but by then the light was already coming back. Between now and the end of January we'll get an extra hour and a half of sunlight. Come the fuck ON...

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar Window 20 ‘Winter Sunrise’ Artist: SR Badmin

ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT CHRISTMAS WRAITH. EVERYONE DEAD.

God bless these guys. Miss you.

Fine with me mate. "6.1.2 The Contributor may not use any Generative AI software or product to write any part of their Scripts." #FuckYouMetalMickey

MELTS

Oh

Prescient Ballard. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I'm sharing this here, as I have on Facebook and Instagram, but there's no account on here to share from, and I just think this is wonderful. A really good balance of design and implementation, and appears to achieve everything it set out to do, and it *SO* appeals to my inner 'work nerd'.

You won't believe how many Americans have replied to this, telling me.

"There's just no money in the industry at the moment"

*** PSA *** If you are lucky enough to be able to afford a new console for your loved ones this Christmas then please, do me, you, and them a solid and UNBOX IT (carefully), CONNECT IT TO THE INTERNET (to update it), and then RE-BOX IT before wrapping. Servers will be slammed on Christmas Day x

The one on the left is always miles away. The one on the right always looks like an AI rendering of 'ineffectual'.

10. I've been sober now for 1,384 days and honestly I feel sorry for those laughing pub gnomes, all pissed and happy. NEWSFLASH - you don't have to be happy to be pissed! I don't mean to spoil things for anyone although yeah, it is a bonus. ALT TEXT: Care Bear with 'SOBRIETY' on its little bib

Ho ho ho, Tom's NEVER WRONG.

2. Today has broken me. I said goodbye to my constant companion for the last 15 years. The crying will stop at some point but feels like the sadness is here for eternity. ALT TEXT: A knock-off 'Rod Hull's Emu' in flames in a dustbin. Caption: 'Bitch snatched him away, fucking set fire to him!' 🤯

You know who HAS got Trump Derangement Syndrome, etc.

"Look for me in the trees. I will be there in the trees." A letter worth reading? ✅️🤍 (Sent into The Irish Times)

Number of days without reading about someone clever 'pouring' over a document: 0

Just a reminder that at least 600 Americans were fired for failing to show sufficient respect after Charlie Kirk's murder.

at this point can he even spell it?

Part of the Chanukah tradition is to place the light menorah either outside or in a window where outsiders can see it. This is supposed to advertise the miracle of Chanukah. These days, it is also a way of saying, “This is a Jewish home.” Every year I think about how it is also an act of bravery.

a bit worn-out now, but some of the M6 bridges (top right) are SO elegant.

Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, has been identified as the heroic civilian who disarmed one of the Sydney terrorists. He was shot twice by the second gunman firing from a bridge and is now undergoing surgery for his injuries.

My kids woke up so excited this morning for the first night of Hannukah and now yet again we have a festival where I’m very conflicted about whether it’s safe to take them to synagogue to celebrate. Communities shouldn’t have to live like this.

yeah I'm involved in unethical non monogamy. no no, nobody's cheating on anyone else; me and my polycucle just operate a whaling ship.

That is a fantastically accurate account of her voice. What a loss.

'The moment I knew: as he opened the Uber door, he opened my eyes to a love beyond work' is a sentence I have just read in a well-known newspaper.

It sounds even worse than it looks although have you ever seen Farmer Trump look so benign?

25 'MOST BLUESKY' POSTS OF 2025 Here's my selection of the 25 Bluesky posts that most impressed me this year. They're quite varied, but doesn't that reflect the thriving, harmonious site this really is? Yes. It does. They've been anonymised anyway, who cares?

December 13, 1963: James Baldwin and Bob Dylan at the Emergency Civil Liberties Union’s (E.C.L.U.) annual Bill of Rights dinner that honored Dylan with its prestigous Tom Paine award, Hotel Americana, New York, New York 📷 Ted Russell

God this stuff is so embarrassing. There is so much about modern Britain that *should* offend conservative Christians, yet we get this complete wibble instead. The 'true' meaning of Christmas is being cancelled by consumerism, not 'the woke liberati'.

Have the BBC commented on the Ince business? Can't see anything. Would love to understand *exactly* which of his personal views they deemed incompatible with BBC standards. Or indeed with the Reform voters they're skewing towards, who will abolish the BBC anyway if they get in. Fucktastrophe, again.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, and said "Well THAT just happened!" Dance party finale.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, as always. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy79...

5. Is it asking too much that when you make a joke here it's explained in alt text? Comedy types get quite touchy if you tell them you don't 'get it' even when you offer them a better punchline! Jokes I don't get = elitist. ALT TEXT: A cartoon cow and a table of 'cow tools', whatever they are!

AND THEN THE LIGHT RETURNS

Countdown to massive Disney character pornography scandal. 10… 9… 8…

12. you don't hear the word 'Mogadon' much these days do you I have a cocker spaniel called Pammy I like sunshine and books if you could have one dream come true what would it be ALT TEXT: a lawn seen through a window, a nudged inference that something sinister is happening in the distance