This is really good on how hard navigating airports - with the amount of walking, standing and queuing involved - has become, even for able-bodied people, and the various kinds of non-wheelchair assistance that could help with that.

My Spanish friend is currently in Spain and /everyone/ is messaging her congratulations. ⚽

Dublin Bus driver just stopped bus at traffic light, got off, walked across the road and up to pub window to look at match score Sir

Shareholders are suing big tech execs for taking on the massive legal risk of training AI on copyrighted work without permission, and I’m so here for it news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/big-t...

When you didn't die at the Viking Battle Festival

“I’m in this photo and I don’t like it!”

Still quite proud of this book me & @lollardfish.bsky.social wrote, published coming up 5 years ago

Miss Marple has (as always) noticed something that no-one else has, including a police Inspector who's interviewed all the witnesses. And is (rightly) convinced that the hotel waitress who "brought me kippers this morning instead of herrings and forgot the milk jug" is concealing guilty knowledge.

On the upside, I got a yellow-stickered sausage roll and coleslaw that, with the salad left in the fridge and some cold new potatoes, are making a very low-effort Sunday tea to go with a Miss Marple. (Hickson, of course.)

Nothing says “I should be taxed more“ more than using $82 million to argue that you should not, in fact, be taxed more.

Dammit: I did the Sunday grocery shop I absolutely loathe doing, yet have managed to forget the cereal that was the key thing I needed.

Just sold a book, looked the customer in the eye and said "To burn always with this hard gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life". Somebody's going home with The Wasp Factory folks

Worth remembering the Guardian entered into a partnership with OpenAI a while ago, so all their articles on the matter should be viewed through that lens.

Interesting replies to this on museum expenses/finances:

He’s been getting quite heavily into mindfulness lately. It’s not that I have a problem with it. I just wish he would stop banging on about it all the time

I deliberately don't spend a lot of time thinking about white supremacists, but watching the athletics yesterday did make me wonder how they cope with so many of the fastest, highest-jumping, most skilled at sport people in the world being black.

Consultation closes 4 August! I'd hope @writersguildgb.bsky.social and other representatives of self-employed people will respond; so many freelancers' income is earned irregularly across the year and paid months later when the client gets round to it, that I don't see how monthly tax payments work.

Prefab Sprout's Pet Shop Boys single. I agree: should have been top five.

Thanks to the diligent work of the CPS, alongside their US counterparts, Andrew and Tristan Tate have been arrested to face further charges in the UK. It's important commentary online doesn't prejudice these proceedings, so I would urge caution to all involved. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ju...

So glad no-one noticed this happened, or will remember it!

How on earth is Wonderwall the song for this tournament and not Hey Jude?

As a non-sports fan, I'd liken watching athletics to a mixed comedy bill: if you don't love this event, it only lasts 10 minutes, then you get another. Highlights included the polevaulting (right in front of our seats) and seeing Josh Kerr break the men's mile record. Way more fun than I expected!

On this, the 40th anniversary of the release of James Cameron’s Aliens, I feel I have definitively answered the question on everyone’s lips: What if Jonesy had his own power loader? #Aliens #Cats

I would like to drink the exact, chilled, citron pressé I bought from a French Aldi and drank by the sea on a hot day, please. 🍋

Whether to spend £13 billion or £25 billion on lower net migration is real choice Irs only £25 billion if want to actively shrink population by 100k+/year to make the core fiscal defence, debt, spending cuts + tax rises dilemmas and trade-offs that bit sharper every year! bsky.app/profile/sund...

Very small human in a buggy, who needs to hold tight to (presumably) dad's finger while in transit. Making said finger available while pushing is a challenge, but he's managing it.

I fainted in Luxor museum while looking at Tutankhamun's bed and woke up on a sofa in a back room being fanned by several Egyptian men I imagine it was what Cleopatra was used to

I profoundly hope this isn't true. Feels like our politicians have got so hooked on 'line go down' that they haven't thought through how on earth the UK works with massively lower immigration - the researchers and nurses and entrepreneurs and just PEOPLE we wouldn't have.

Someone in my building chucked big chunks of watermelon out onto the grass last night. The bright pinky/red fleshy remains are still there this morning, being picked over by a crow l, and it feels surprisingly battlefield.

A++ recommendation here; truly excellent cat content:

The story from the perspective of Mrs Gardiner is so funny. “I took one of my nieces on vacation, and she is too slow to get with the exact right man, and then we had to track down my other niece who is too eager to get with the exact wrong man.”

It’s 25 years since we lost Douglas Adams. I am happy to have been able to get a reference to him into this piece in the FT about why the humanities are essential www.ft.com/content/fbde...

9pm, two days after harvest

Starting Friday night with a scone and some light murder (not pictured).

I’ve been meaning to post about this one because it’s very cool- OPT is not just restoring the physical structure, but adding a modern, potable water outlet for bottle refills. Listed status isn’t just about preserving the ‘old’, but preserving the *use*, and this is a great example!

A bit floored by this incredible review in the Hindustan Times today, one of the biggest newspapers in India. Watch the full series at youtube.com/cosmicshambles

Dang they really got a category for everything

Bookshops, how to run them.

Man.

The Call of Cthudo should be out on R4/BBC Sounds some time in October, Great Old Ones willing.

Meeting with a colleague who's trying to organise something they can't define, for a number of people they don't know, on topics that haven't been decided. Maybe come back to me when you know anything about this at all?

YN THE LOBBYE OF THE MOVYE THEATRE "Ticket for the 7:30 showing of *The Odyssey*? Ticket for..." [clerke looketh at ticket] "...No Man? Is there No Man here to take this ticket? Oh, this is a bonus ticket -- No Man will receive a discount on popcorn!"

BUYINGE A TICKET ONLYNE FOR THE *ODYSSEY*: The screen: "Please enter your name for ticket pickup Me, typinge: "NO MAN"

"We are not called to the legal minimum of hospitality" I'm sorry, it's suddenly very dusty in here...

Hey, Leeds folks. Do you want to see six new plays in one night acted by a cast of fresh West Yorkshire talent? And only pay what you can afford at the end? I bet you do. Slung Low Shorts opens tomorrow. www.ticketsource.com/slunglow/slu...

This has been a DAY. A full day in a room with all of my colleagues, plus an evening work event with stakeholders (and then another hour or so of drinking and gossip by the canal). Delighted tomorrow's Friday. *collapses in a heap*

I have a little essay about the Nolan Odyssey in the Times today. I enjoyed it, but wonder how much you lose when (eg) you lose Nausicaa… and the humour of the original. Hope some of you can access it! www.thetimes.com/article/ad40...

Today we launch a new free guide for videogames writers on how to navigate your contracts to understand your employment status and to ensure fair and equitable terms Find out more + download the new guidelines 🔽 writersguild.org.uk/games-contra...

Not only a morning Local Fox sighting, but they were actually drinking from the water bowl I've put out! That got refilled /immediately/.