The value-add of private providers is either or both of “it allows you to harness the power choice and competition” or “the profit motive helps drive innovation”. If you think there are “excessive profits”, what do you think the value add IS?

On Newsnight, fall in net migration was attributed "spectacular ... Shabana Mahmood at Home Office obviously making some real changes happen there" by Helen MacNamara, former dep Cabinet Secretary. Net migration data (Jan-Dec 2025) not impacted by Mahmood becoming Home Sec on 6th Sept 2025

Good 🧵

Who looks at these flags on roundabouts and lampposts and feels pride? Far right thugs and racists. And who looks at them with fear and loathing? Everyone else. National flags are being used as Nazi bunting by Reform and the far right. Let’s call this what it is. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Precious Moments from other fields. Person From HQ: We'll be rolling out the new Controlled Substances Analysis Manual in the coming month. Them: [winces] Is there *ANY* way you could change the name or never refer to it by acronym? PFHQ: Why? Them: Acronyms can have multiple meanings.

Regular reminder if you want to follow a feed of art on Bluesky with NO generative AI slop, the SciArt Feed is for you. Just skilled people doing interesting work:

Walk into an urgent care and you have to opt out of a GLP-1 conversation katemanne.substack.com/p/a-woman-wa...

Well, I'll be using less Google stuff. That's how I'll change how I use the internet 🤷🏾‍♀️

They showed this version in schools for maybe 15 years and literally no one in my class had any reaction to a black woman being in it, someone yesterday said Eartha Kitt was Helen of Troy in 1950 and I looked it up and it was Orson Welles who cast her because she was a cabaret dancer and was hot!

Very few sign-ups for the in-person document sessions on 16 and 17 June. Please circulate with PhD students etc who use legal records in their research (or I won't be able to run the sessions this year). I can promise witchcraft, treason, and all that good stuff (if it runs). Details via the thread.

Tried the cold brew at a new coffee shop on a whim and I think I can see at least one new colour.

I am the author of a Guardian piece that in my humble opinion contains the greatest (and most wrong) correction, about which I am still cross

Google “Christ is made the sure foundation” to check the lyrics. Google’s “other people ask” suggestions are particularly weird.

same goes for dancing

Are we really saying that multiple perpetrator rape at knife point is because of a limited understanding of consent? Is this what this Judge thinks is the issue, that 15yr old boys think a bunch of them raping a girl they don't know at knife point is actually consensual sex?

No one: Not a single solitary soul: Early Irish hagiography:

Duck livers and BBQ and recipe ideas for one! Come on hit me up! Maybe skewers with onion and bacon? Anything else? #recipes #foodsky #bbq #foodideas

And you don’t even need to show it to anyone - you can do hobbies just for yourself out of pure enjoyment for the process

You don't have to be good at it and if you eventually ARE good at it you don't have to monetise it.

just overheard a colleague say "I don't think we ever got those clogs from that dancer"

When did Starmer or Sunak try to 'restore sanity'? Sunak insisted on two highly irresponsible budgets, dismembered HS2 in a costly and inefficient way, and wanted to exit from net zero, and Starmer doesn't *do* anything.

Actually as a reminder for certain meds when it's above 25c it's best to keep them in the fridge, concerta is one of these, and we're coming into a period of 27c+ weather so plan accordingly

This is a cat checkpoint; relinquish your most recent cat picture on your phone.

i have many justifications for hating AI but ultimately don't think i need any besides "they stole the book it was my life's dream to write without compensation, and did not get punished." their hands are literally in my pocket and they can fuck off

Just finished Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian -- big recommend. Quick, smooth read, even more HILARIOUS if you've ever worked in/covered TV & fun if you love sff TV esp. Believable enemies to lovers tale, well drawn characters. MAIN thing: has @clairewillett.bsky.social read this? you neeeeed tooo??!

Possum jar in the works

This show needs to be shut down right now - it shouldn't be able to survive this. And more broadly, I hope it signals the beginning of the end of shows where people are thrown together in the hope that they'll shag each other and then have dramas. It's a shit, exploitative model that needs to die

In other words no one told her it didn’t pay to be a councillor!

I'm looking for a genuinely terrifying book to read. Not something too gross (not that I don't like that, just not what I'm in the mood for rn), but something that will fill me with dread, give me goosebumps, keep me up at night, etc. Any recommendations?

This line of Chandler's is so good that Boris Johnson lifted it, verbatim, for his execrable 2004 novel Seventy Two Virgins - among the greatest literary honours an author can receive!

Responsibility has a crucial role in social functioning as well as morality Outsourcing 'decisions' or activities to AI diffuses or erodes the very idea of responsibility; how do we then attribute responsibility to anyone? This undermines accountabilty, not just moral concepts such as praise, blame

Help! I need a fashion historian (or fan) of handbags — AKA purses, the woman-coded bag you put things in — from the 80s to today. Essentially, I need to know when a certain style of handbag became popular, and what 5–10-year era it symbolises. RTs and tagging others in the comments very welcome!

Dear dog owner, if you know your bastard dog jumps up, keep them on a leash. I am now filthy. Coat & trousers have muddy footprints. Twats.

Good morning, Rob @robcrank68.bsky.social has said that “ Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #WingsWideOpen, any bird with its wings open wide, the Alt Theme is #Laridae, any of the species.” Here’s a Starling. #birds #photography #ECK

After what has been a rather unimpressive spring as far as weather is concerned, we are heading for higher temperatures over the weekend. Similarly, in a way, the UK is heading towards being a hotter country. We need to adapt to live safely in the future. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Is AI better at coding than a junior engineer? Maybe! Will we ever have senior engineers if we replace all junior engineers with AI? We will not Is AI better at writing then a 6th grader? Maybe! Will anyone learn to write of all 6th graders use AI? They will not

I am still too caffeinated and am now fantasizing about a Magic School Bus style journey into my body to both get my adrenals to calm the fuck down and also see if they could fix what makes my knees so crunchy and maybe like talk to my nerves.

Listening to an audiobook narrated by an American and they just pronounced Magdalene College, Oxford as Mag-dah-lynn instead of Maud-uh-lynn and the smug smirk I smirked

I love how cranky the cat looks.

However. Celery (their elderly Jack Russell) is not having a BAR of her. Look at her! Absolutely rigid with outrage 😄

Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

You don’t have to do this to yourself. There are non-Google options. Kagi is one of rude best search engines I have ever used: kagi.com

my gf works corporate and is on a training about AI and there's a word cloud for "what do you use AI for." the largest word by far is "Nothing" and the trainer is PISSED

Can anyone who lives within striking distance of Thames Ditton help give an elderly cat a loving home? #CatsOfBluesky

I made a monster pickle thread yesterday on making your own pickles for pennies when you have veggies to use up in the fridge. Save money, eat better, have awesome sandwiches.

Somebody has had quite the busy morning.

The cat is as shocked as any of us to find sick on the carpet. 🐈

This article about EY retracting a "study" full of flat-out fabrications reminded me something I made a while ago and completely forgot to share. Introducing: JOSHI'S WORKSLOP POSTULATE🚮

Some time ago someone on here did a series of the top political moments in Australian history. It featured such gems as Tony nodding silently at the reporter and Katter doing his thousand blossoms bloom/crocodile thing. Can someone remind me who did this and/or link to the thread please and thanks

I hate, hate, HATE this kind of nonsense. The basic education in *any* discipline is, in fact, the essential foundation for all advances built upon it, not some tiresome hazing ritual that instructors put students through just to obstruct their genius. FFS. *exits ranting and grumbling*