From chats with people in very different #smallcharities, it strikes me just how similar their challenges seem – even when the work is completely different. Am I right? If you work in a UK charity, I’d love to know your answer to this quick poll: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #ThirdSecotor

A system that is hardwired to not acknowledge failure will never be curious about what variation in outcomes really mean

billionaire: we billionaires earn our money through hard work and our extraordinary intellects. we are simply more perceptive and insightful than regular people mr nonce: hmllo billi,onirr, wuld u liek 2 visit my sexcrime. Island. ? billionaire: deborah, hold my calls

Politicians in Birmingham have been responding tonight to the news of the death of Councillor Wassem Zaffar - aged just 44 - including Council leader John Cotton and Robert Alden, the leader of the Conservative group, and MPs from the city.

Still think about this a lot.

Trying to rearrange an NHS appointment is a depressing experience. That’s been 30 minutes of listening to a phone ring with no success. It’s no wonder people just don’t turn up to appointments

Season 2 of Beast Games is very excited about it being “smart” people vs “strong” people. But it’s still all obstacle course. It needs an essay writing contest

Badenoch refuses to accept the reality of manufacturing that scale is everything. Scale that the UK could never achieve. Zhuji city is the size of Birmingham but pretty well it's single purpose is making socks. Education, and infrastructure focus on making 200 billion pairs of socks a year

I feel like I've been single handedly trying to keep Native Instruments alive for years. Clearly that hasn't been enough. If it can't be saved then I could end up with a lot of pointless plastic www.musicradar.com/music-tech/n...

Facebook is now offering to remove adverts for £3.99 a month. Which is nice of them but the adverts are far more interesting than the torrent of posts from people I've never met and groups and pages I've never heard of

Much of the anger with how streamers pay artists is really about how record companies ripped off artists when they negotiated digital rights

I liked Traitors but the couple of weeks after it finishes where everyone tries to make a career through social media is hard work

Maybe the Americans don't want Greenland or any other weird claim they throw into the world. Maybe this is just four years of increasingly outlandish insider trading

When Gabriel Jesus says "it was a glorious night for Jesus" is he talking about himself or the other Jesus?

Fascinating essay on *why* some cultures are terrified of reheating rice and others just...do it every day. The justification cycle - racialised thinking, call to science, appeal to long past and/or 'traditional' wisdom - seems universal for this sort of food story #histFood

I'm sure they're not embarrassed. Their peace prize is much more about encouraging the US Justice Department to not prosecute FIFA executives than peace. Embarrassment is a price worth paying to avoid prison

This is one interpretation. The more interesting issue is that around 72% of tracks on Spotify have effectively not been listened to (100 or fewer streams). The real story is the massive amount of stuff that is being created and just not finding an audience.

DHSC published its impact statement for the 10 Year Health Plan this week (yes, that is 6 months after it published the plan) It's more measured and clear-eyed than the original document and quite a contrast to some of the effusive optimism in the plan Some of the things that caught my eye 👇

I don't believe there is any amount of military buildup that Denmark can do in Greenland that will placate the US. I don't believe that the US has any worry about Greenland being invaded. The US concern is that Greenland achieves independence and chooses to cut ties with the US military

I think South Birmingham is now about 70% discarded Christmas trees

Which is fair enough, to an extent. But he's also massively reduced local decision making through budget cuts and redundancy Whilst also not having a plan for the functions that sat within NHSE that do need to have a national presence. This was a kneejerk reaction based on limited knowledge

With my wife out for the morning it's safe for a bit of me time and getting the banjo off the wall. My neighbours might disagree but even after four years the magic is still there

Nuts in May on BBC FOUR tonight.

I don’t think we should have ceded control quite so quickly and without so much as a fight.

As we're into the first album release day of the year it looks like more artists are moving towards releases that can't be bought, at least digitally. Artists can't get angry about remuneration for streaming and not provide a route to buy their products. Those positions are not compatible

I'd contend the biggest challenge we face in delivering change isn't regulation. It's centralisation. Let people closest to problems solve those problems. We saw in the pandemic that if you let people get on with things we see innovation in policy & delivery. Regulation should be the safety net

Me as the podcast host: so let me get this straight, you’re a rat from Japan who mutated, found these mutant turtle kids, raised them, named them after your love for Italian renaissance art and trained them in ninjitsu. Wow. Just saying that out loud, I’m like… how?

Nothing says we are a fundamentally conservative country better than the Rest is Entertainment's polling on who is considered a national treasure. I'm surprised people could get to ten candidates. I really struggle ot think of anyone after Ian Wright

Birmingham Live giving a heavy snow warning is the perfect lived example of the boy that cried wolf

Watching Simon Cowell try and invent a new boy band on Netlfix is a funny thing (not as in making you laugh) He said it's in response to KPOP but he clearly doesn't understand how the industrialisation of music has changed. It's like watching Arsene Wenger in his last few years of management

Apart from everything else, invading a country for oil in 2026 is somewhat like doing so for horses in 1931.

Did this have the backing of FIFA?

I don't think setting a precedent about borrowing presidents will end well

Is anyone else finding Sonos down? Downdetector has outages since 4pm and I can't get it to work

My take from loads of Facebook posts that are being forced into my feed, pubs are cancelling New Year's parties at a ridiculous rate

It's that time of year where we're deep into making a new book of songs. It makes no sense that we do this at Christmas. But, what do you think would be an interesting song for us to make work on the ukulele?

I have to admit that I went a day early on the bins. I don't feel like I can sheepishly wheel it back in again and keep any sort of dignity

Hard to disagree with anything Howard Oakley says here: Last Year on My Mac: Look back in disbelief eclecticlight.co/2025/12/28/l... Sad to see that last pic of an older macOS and see how far things have fallen. (And Howard didn’t even mention the absurd “hovering” buttons.)

Yes so true

If you were too busy having festive fun yesterday you may have missed that #ChatoutofHell dropped an interview with the brilliant and very kind Rory Dodd. Why not force your family to enjoy it over cold turkey today? open.spotify.com/show/7mvE0uk...

My 25th (and last song) of 2025 is They Came for My Head by The Black Dog #IsItAnAdventCalendar? youtu.be/sRUyCXQGV_g?...

And to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, and will return in Avengers: Doomsday

My 24th song of 2025 is Billboard Heart by Deepsea Diver #IsItAnAdventCalendar? youtu.be/dSJI7FveC-c?...

My 23rd song of the year is Defense by Panda Bear #IsItAnAdventCalendar? youtu.be/vXz4lEwglkg?...

My 22nd song of 2025 is Windows by Girlpuppy #IsItAnAdventCalendar? youtu.be/34zL0lQrsDs?...

My 21st song of the year is Riverside by Oracle Sisters #IsItAnAdventCalendar? youtu.be/H27YzfVmWuY?...

I can guarantee that the day that trains start running on HS2 is the day that everyone will be looking for whoever is responsible for not finishing it

Canceling the northern leg of HS2 was an act of insane self-harm