In today's @theoverspill: an incredibly hubristic building project in Saudi Arabia has had to face reality.

Start Up No.2553: the age of anti-social media begins, Internet Archive's next steps, TurboTax gets free rival killed, and more

Have you been watching Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles? We caught up with its presenter, Hamza Yassin, ahead of one of our Dig Deeper talks at the Museum, where he spoke about his love of nature and his work in the great outdoors. Check out a preview of our chat with him 👇 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/ham...

So it seems like perhaps LinkedIn is suppressing women's posts, which is absolutely fundamentally shitty of them. I've certainly noticed over the last couple of years my posts reached almost no one. Now I'm trying to build a new business, it's more of an issue. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

In today's @theoverspill: folding towels is a skill that humans find easy, but robots need to learn it. Guess who gets to teach them?

I’ve just discovered that: “The term captcha—Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart—was coined by researchers in 2003.” From @charlesarthur.bsky.social’s morning newsletter.

In today's @theoverspill: you might have noticed that there are fewer buses in squares and traffic lights in squares. Where are all the Captchas?

In today's @theoverspill: charging stations in the UK will be hit by new business rates in April that could make their prices for electricity rocket.

Honestly think that if Coco had her wrist and forearm closer to her head on serve she’d hit those second serves better. As it is there’s too much room for error in the upward swing. Compare Rublev’s serve, where the forearm is really close.

Hi Lisa Nandy! I’m a BAFTA winner from a small town. Instead of asinine questions like this, why not tell us how we can continue to make a living in the eviscerated creative sector over which you notionally preside?

I guess someone heard from Tylenol’s lawyers.

I heard you wanted to be amazed, amused, terrified and horrified on your Friday. This, and the replies, will more than fulfill that.

I sat down with perhaps the most level-headed man in rock music, Jon Bon Jovi, to talk about Trump, tennis and his return to touring after an atrophying vocal chord put his career at risk. this week's Lunch with the FT: www.ft.com/content/25f2...

In today's @theoverspill: an experiment in Finland has shown that children benefit from lots of contact with mud pies.

In today's @theoverspill: obesity rates have declined in the US for the past three years after rising for years before that. Guess why.

@aptshadow.bsky.social I feel like you imagined this eventuality

A 66-year-old competitive runner. Six broken ribs. He won’t be able to run his marathon anymore and all because ICE didn’t like how fast he moved his car. This isn’t about “immigration enforcement” anymore. It’s about unchecked power and the normalization of state violence.👇

Lovely history of the decline in UK shipbuilding; like the car industry, it fell foul of chummy marketing, too-relaxed management, and over-zealous unions. TIL all those things had been *advantages* at one point. HT @charlesarthur.bsky.social's Overspill www.construction-physics.com/p/how-the-uk...

In today's @theoverspill: an emerging use of AI is to fake images for expenses claims. Ambitious or stupid?

Just as an aside: tell EVERYONE you know about this. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Number of trans women actually "surveyed": 54. Number of trans men actually "surveyed: 65. Number of "NB, intersex or other" in survey: 338. 🤔 YouGov warns in the full data: "percentages calculated on bases fewer than 100 respondents... should not be used." This survey is worthless.

Wow, this looks AMAZING! It's a debut crime fiction series from an exciting new talent in mystery writing! I am going to pre-order it IMMEDIATELY. I highly recommend you do the same. (Yes, I did write it) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DPXNPN5B

In today's @theoverspill: iRobot, which makes the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, says it may soon go bust unless it gets a bailout or buyer.

In today's @theoverspill: a new study has made a 3D reconstruction of a quadrillion connections in the human brain - equivalent to a cubic mm of tissue.

I honestly don’t see how we come back from this

The New York Times publishes a handy guide to which federal forces are terrorizing us at any moment. This is America, 2025.

In today's @theoverspill: in the US, you can give up your house keys for a facial recognition unlocking system - if you want to give ADT $40 per month. Deal?

The end logic of this if you’re in the UK btw is DEFEND THE BBC. Complain about it, protest bad coverage of course, but we won’t get another institution that makes safe, publicly funded, reliable, human-created, vetted content for kids if we let the BBC get destroyed.

The Conservatives would not deport as many people as Idi Amin. They would deport *more*. www.ft.com/content/9a1d...

Old Soviet joke: Why do ICE agents travel in groups of three? One can read, one can write, and the third keeps an eye on the two intellectuals

New 20 just dropped to commemorate the Trump presidency

This cartoon and others are now in the art-for-sale section of my website: www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

We’ve updated our story with an additional comment provided by the United States Justice Department.

In today's @theoverspill: ask a chatbot for a random number between 0 and 9, and there's a 90% chance it'll offer seven. But why?

I suspect this kind of thing is more widespread than we know - individuals accused of wrongdoing based on "evidence" from unreliable systems, which are given undeserved credibility. C.f. Post Office. h/t @charlesarthur.bsky.social for the link #BT #UK #crime #justice www.bbc.com/news/article...

When I was younger, I thought one day maybe I'll go to a bar all the time and the bartender will know my order. Never happened. But today the pharmacist looked at me and said, we got your order, hold on. Not the way I imagined this moment at all.

👋🏽

I don't think real life comedy gold will ever be more golden, and I challenge Chris Morris and Steve Coogan themselves to outdo it. (You cruel thing @sturdyalex.bsky.social depriving us of such mirth.)

In the long run, Biden keeping that wall between himself and DOJ - leading to the conviction and humiliation of his son - achieved absolutely nothing. The standard is gone. The incentive for future presidents is to punish your enemies and say "your mom, lol" when reporters ask about it.

Local legislator displays the importance of kerning

This is how a dictatorship works

In today's @theoverspill: a wiring mistake by BT meant three people were wrongly accused of downloading child abuse images.

Would it kill him to shave? thecritic.co.uk/bori...

"as ever when it comes to his time in office, it’s possible to think that some questions might have been just about answerable in advance. Like, for instance, “if we’re planning to close all the schools, should we mention that to the Department for Education?” Deservedly brutal. And hilarious.

In today's @theoverspill: a YouTube documentary about birdwatching gives an insight into how app gamify, then corrupt, hobbies.

In today's @theoverspill: the British Transport Police say they won't check CCTV over two hours for bicycle theft. But one person has created a tool that could review that in around 20 seconds.

"But soft! What light through yonder window... BRAKES!"

In today's @theoverspill: plans to introduce a carbon tax on polluting ships have been thrown into disarray by opposition from the US and Russia.

In today’s @theoverspill: the end of an era as TiVo announces that it is throwing in the towel after 25 years.