Stuff like this goes on because Britain has what looks like an internationally remarkable system called “briefing”: basically a formalised process that allows politicians and party hacks to anonymously bullshit the public and wreck, defame, insult and undermine their colleagues.

As a science fiction writer I really fucking resent tech bros for ruining the phrase "artificial intelligence." 80 years of it being all about cool androids and interesting computers destroyed by five years of "Spicy autocorrect making everything shittier for money." NEVER FORGIVE.

Unsurprised. The fucking shit people say when they think you’re gonna be sympathetic. Anyway mean and median performance in female academics smokes men in every metric that actually matters in leadership yet they get less leadership positions doesn’t seem like a hard hypothesis dickbags.

Any takers on the year? Value of Trees by John Seed - Reforestation is a "carbon sink:, as trees take up and hold in their bodies the carbon dioxide which some believe to be the major planetary pollutant threatening us via greenhouse effect with devastating climatic changes.

Looks like "we" "chose" unwisely, doesn't it?

Consistency is all they are capable of during their crime spree.

Pilate-lite - Frank Hardy, 'The Dead are Many' and how we are all drowning in AI slop, whether we know it or not. marchudson.net/2026/05/21/p...

Pot holes are not a mystery. Add to that climate change increasing flooding and heat increasing cracking and erosion plus vehicles getting bigger and heavier Putting much more stress on our roads… Then public transport issues. 👇

Any takers on the year (this one is easy, if you know this stuff).

Well I had a laugh. A hollow laugh, but what other kind is there these (end of) days?

@billmckibben.bsky.social has a very useful post - "A Question of Margin." The whole thing is worth your time. billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-question...

Well, need to add this to the "to read" pile... www.dukeupress.edu/pollution-is...

I don’t know what to tell you, man. I’m a medieval historian, and, in my field, if you don’t check your sources (and your sources’ sources) you are just asking to be taken for a ride by some bored 19th C. aristocratic English antiquarian with a penchant for inventing history.

#OtD 18 May 1942 the Baum group, Jewish communist factory workers, broke into a Nazi anti-Soviet exhibition and set fire to it. In retaliation, the Gestapo rounded up all 30 members +500 others and executed them all stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9029...

@janetskwatson.bsky.social thnx for following back. Found out abt you via thread on David Abraham and also “Arming America”. You might (?) be interested in allouryesterdays.info - climate change histories

@davidrafferty.bsky.social sat at table at state library cafe wearing green top

Seen near Holborn Station, on the route of the Unite the Kingdom rally. When the scapegoats are gone, the borders are fortified, and the hatred has done its damage, the cost of living will still rise, the NHS will still be dying, and corporate vultures will still be picking our lives apart.

we are at the beginning of the Fafocene

“An intense and prolonged heatwave has been causing misery for millions across Pakistan and India.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

This really is quite something. In the 15 years @carbonbrief.org have tracked UK media, 2025 was first ever year where more newspaper editorials opposed #climate action than supported it. Meanwhile, the *actual* climate crisis deepens by the month. Go figure.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The privatised water companies have poisoned every river in England by pumping raw sewage into them. These companies have done this so they can pay £billions in dividends to shareholders & £millions to execs in bonuses. Thanks Tories, you fucking environmental vandals.

Nâzım Hikmet en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A2...

A male northern flicker woodpecker peers out from its nest cavity in a tree as a storm with high winds and rain passes through Longmont, Colorado. #WoodpeckerWednesday #BirdofTheDay #birdphotography #ECK #bird #birds #photography #woodpecker #woodpeckers #northernflicker #northernflickers

blaming bigotry on disabilities is just bigotry with extra steps it's bullshit and I'm sick of it

perfectly expressed

May 13, 1957 – Guy Callendar to Gilbert Plass on how easy it is to criticise, how hard to build theories allouryesterdays.info/2024/05/12/m...

I call it “potemkinclusivity”… “The aim of this pseudo-democratic exercise, beyond ticking a box to confirm that ‘users’ had been consulted, was at best to help determine which centres survived and which did not.“ Nice by @will-davies.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

May 12, 2011 – IPCC Special report on Renewable Energy Sources allouryesterdays.info/2026/05/11/m...

May 12, 1971 – Swedish protest against the culling of Stockholm trees (the “Elm Conflict”) allouryesterdays.info/2024/05/11/m...

May 12, 1974 – an early dose of Hydrogen Hope/Hype allouryesterdays.info/2025/05/11/m...

We need to encourage a better archetype than "messy bitch who loves drama"

@yungenchee.bsky.social you saw that you are famous (in the latest Monthly)

I swear to gaia, patient zero in the zombie apocalypse will be a woman. Instead of quarantine we will get World War Z… www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

I am sure this is somehow regressive, 'problematic' etc etc. But omFg it's hilarious. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Pz...

Snorts www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wer...

What am I even doing here? marchudson.net/2026/05/11/w...

What am I even doing here? marchudson.net/2026/05/11/w...

Today’s economic orthodoxy is transparently psychopathic & detached from material reality. In fact,capitalism so overtly does not meet our collective needs that its imperial masters are using a massive chunk of their extracted spoils to ensure we don’t understand this theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

Silas Soule died for refusing to whitewash the Sand Creek Massacre. His actions are more relevant than ever. coloradosun.com/2026/05/10/s...

UK media is not journalism. It's about the nastiest boss class recruiting the nastiest people into positions of information gatekeepers. This encourages the worst politicians in govt. In turn the worst electorate are empowered. It's a far right pipeline playing the long game and it's bearing fruit.

This seems on the money, imho www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

The use of “czar” for a government executive really reached an absurd peak the other day when I read someone’s position was the appointed “anti-semitism czar” which well yeah he usually was

Sent from a friend

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker. Brazil. This is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brazil, Paraguay and far north-eastern Argentina. It is a fairly common bird with a wide range. This colourful 📸: @celsobirds

“In Camden, a byelection is already on the cards after a secondary-school teacher who was elected for the Greens immediately quit as councillor because he is not allowed to hold the post while also teaching in the borough.” Will see more of this; journos will be hard at work doing research on cllrs

When I was in a hostel there was a girl in there who insisted "but if you're an immigrant you get a house straight away". There were immigrants living right there in the building. You cannot reason people out of this belief.

I used to live in moss side. they would weigh rather than count the Labour vote. Well, the Greens just took it. No safe seats any more

someone in a Labour strategy meeting crosses out "BE MORE RACIST" on a massive flipchart, thoughtfully picks up a marker, writes "BE EVEN MORE RACIST??"

@davidrafferty.bsky.social fancy a coffee on North Terrace? In Adelaide for another 3 weeks…