HATCH THE FROZEN FLESH EGG

If you have used 23AndMe, you are advised by California’s AG to delete your DNA right now from the company’s database as it has declared bankruptcy

I’ve just finished the audio book version of #TitaniumNoir by @nickharkaway.com and I loved it like a hungover Englishman loves a fry up. Satisfying and compelling

A Lord of the Rings cover band called Flock of Smeagols

‘Massive disruption’: UK’s worst-case climate crisis scenarios revealed by scientists Scientists say government must prepare for unlikely but ‘plausible’ 4C rise in temperature and a 2-metre rise in sea levels. @dpcarrington.bsky.social

There are obvious reasons why this would be good. I’m not optimistic, first because the public is *expert* at breaking things, and second because I feel sure if the hallucination problem was fixed someone would have mentioned it.

Pedro Ximénez Xmas puds somewhat belatedly steaming as per @nigella.bsky.social - have to say the mix smelled amazing :)

Next train is evidently for Edgware via R’lyeh

Enoch Powell Fanfic Right: 28% Rump Clubland Right: 17% Depressing Authoritarian Left: 18% Optimistic Eco-Progressive Left: 17% Liberal Process Nerds: unchanged

Government’s new plan to save the NHS: make it harder to access health care for everyone. Sure this will go swimmingly.

Really encouraging new data on the take up of smart tariffs. www.businessgreen.com/news/4523327...

A recent study by Dutch colleagues shows that a shutdown of the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC could bring extreme drought to Europe for centuries. That is a thus far underappreciated risk of climate change. @swinda.bsky.social www.yahoo.com/news/article...

HURRAH! Petitions are crap at making gov'ts do things they don't want to. But they are good for two things: First, making them explain why they won't do something, but second (and more important) nudging/giving them permission to do something they DO want, but that's been crowded out bandwidth-wise.

It will be interesting to see how loudly ministers trumpet this win. The govt tends to soft-pedal its more left-wing measures, as if hoping no one will notice. It has a story to tell about workers' rights, rental reform, green investment & public ownership, but seems curiously reluctant to tell it

Peak BBC. Possibly peak UK. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: Mongoose Barracuda Chamois Dolphin Badger

Can’t shake the feeling that Starmer is discovering in real time what a lot of people said about dealing with the Trump admin: that the deal and the relationship don’t matter. The issue is whether you bend the knee whenever you are required to do so.

America to suffer acute shortage of Mr Darcy

Experiencing physical pain at this time

I can't find the thread anymore so I'll paraphrase but People pushing AI in the arts dont understand that art is the process not the result Writing is about the words and the meaning and how they slot together. Painting is about colour and texture and the physicality of the paintbrush on paper (1/?)

This is *hilarious*. I actually barked an angry, triumphant laugh.

So… in order to preserve kids’ safety online… the government is proposing… taking away their right to use privacy tools?

"Bluesky is an echo chamber." "Bluesky doesn't have enough reach" "Liberals must return to X to challenge the far right" I'm not a tech bro or a journalist. Your priorities are not my priorities. Stop telling me I need to do anything other than chat about comics & telly with people who seem nice.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the end of the Pax Americana, yesterday in Munich, Germany. “Dear friends, the decades of the Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany, as well. It no longer exists as we know it. And nostalgia won’t change that.

Ahmed al Ahmed, a Lebanese Muslim who owns a Sydney fruit shop, risked his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters. His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound. A true hero.

Christmas night: "But Santa, you've hardly touched your Zardoz cookies."

There came a day where screen time died and all the old gods returned.

I tried to find a photo of Christopher Plummer riding a bike, and instead I found this photo of a guy named Chris who's a plumber, which is even better.

Honestly, I thought the “wave machine” discourse was the most shaming thing I would see on immigration from a UK government. Now its barely a footnote.

I’ve been seeing this cover over and over and I just… In the original you’re aware of the horror of falling, but the body positions of the workers are solid on the beam. Here, most of them should be falling off, yet they don’t, because they live in an unreal, consequence-free space.

Dan Richman is a professor at Columbia Law School and a leading authority on criminal procedure—not exactly an ideal target for Fourth Amendment violations. I’d love to see what his Crim Pro exam looks like this year.

A+ trolling from Zelenskyy

Edward Enninful: ‘Britain feels less tolerant now than we were in the 90s’

‘Reforming’ or leaving the ECHR…A raising of false expectations, based on populist dishonesty. A demonisation of immigrants to mask the failures of government. Lies about sovereignty. A cynical refusal by politicians and media to tell us the truth. So very Brexit. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

“So, Nick, what kind of dog do you have?” “She’s a werewolf.” “Yeah, haha, that’s O SWEET JESUS -“

This investment will change lives. It'll go towards bespoke, calming spaces to help children with additional needs get the support they need at a good, local school on their doorstep. Labour is building schools where every child can achieve and thrive. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The word “symbolic” is also doing a certain amount of mitigation work here.

Here's a question: there's an Italian bakery I go to where they serve a "Krantz" which is essentially puff pastry or possibly a twisted crispy bread with an apricot jam or paste. Does anyone have a recipe they like for a similar thing?

I want a donut. Problem: I literally just had a donut.

This is the point, not the by-product.

Imagining an LLM trained on my grandfather. “Mr Harkaway, your machine has committed 8421 acts of fraud since Monday and is now married to 11 women, 2 bishops and Nelson’s Column. It is also being sued by the estate of Frank Sinatra.” Eep.

I say this as someone whose entire job is finding the narrow use cases in which AI is actually useful: All the fear about AI, all the reluctance to adopt it, is entirely legitimate, and a product of the fact that it's been foisted on the public with no consideration of its negative externalities.

#thiswritinglife #writing When I finish a first draft, I find the act of returning to it almost physically difficult. It becomes something alien and a bit alarming that I have somehow to embrace.

Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

Worst cantrip ever

The university bought Claude AI for students to use. Here it is at work, denying that the East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Great stuff, academia.

Found a new tattoo design just now spilling ink on my hand.

"Why are we spending tens of thousands of drachmas on fortress walls when the siege of Troy proved wars of the future will be fought with swarms of cheap wooden horses?" - The Mycenae Times Editorial Board (1181 BCE)