I was nine when this aired and I'm probably still traumatised. It was also in that year my mum took us girls to see Xanadu in the cinema one afternoon and they showed *this trailer* for The Shining. 1980 was a very bloody year for kids.

One of the formative moments of my TV-watching childhood.

I am very excited about the concert. It’s a coming together of many of us who are raising funds for clean air. Soprano Tamara Stein is performing a song we co wrote a while ago. It was commissioned by Spare Tyre (disability theatre company). The song is about invisible illness ME/CFS & autoimmune 🧵

years ago I was losing my mind arguing with a rude man on twitter and my husband said "you're playing chess with a pigeon" and it flipped a switch in me.

Today's the feast of St Margaret of Scotland, 11th Century Scottish Queen. She stands with St Andrew in a detail of glass by Harry Clarke, made in 1923 for Dowanhill Convent, Glasgow. It's now in Kelvingrove Art Gallery in the city.

We have reached 1.4 degrees celsius #globalheating according to NASA data (smooth black trend line). Breaching 1.5 is now inevitable. From now on the fight is to keep overshoot as small and short as possible.

"Thank Heavens Reeves froze the thresholds," says the median voter in 2029 as they walk past the derelict sports centre and down the empty high street to cast their vote.

Okay, I can't let this one go. I live in Ireland, not the UK, but the use of this image by a supposedly socialist party is so stupid and offensive, I'm going to get stuck in. Let me explain to you why any experienced illustrator/designer could have stopped you making so many miserable mistakes. 1/

At the

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks. You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

I think my hairdresser has a photo on their style gallery wall like this ovine ombre.

Real-world maths, except the one at the front is hiding vital information.

It's he-e-e-e-e-ere...

"...the estimated cost of removal is greater than the entire annual budget of the local district council." Holy shit. What a nasty, filthy, run-down place Britain is.

Dear friends. I’ve done something different launching Legenda by targeting independent bookshops. I didn’t drive all sales to Amazon. So I’m relying on those of you that are reading it to share reviews & spread the word. I want this book to be supported by readers, not algorithms.

Some say that we wan, and some say that they wan, And some say that nane wan at a’, man But of ae thing I’m sure, that on Sheriff-muir A battle there was that I saw, man. —The battle was re-enacted earlier today using chickens & police, with the same result www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Photographing migrant Short Eared Owls always runs the risk of you getting a mind blowing mid-air image of a female Kestrel (who isn't best pleased about an intruder on her patch), flying up to have a game of tug of war on a Vole, with said Owl... #wildlifephotography #naturephotography

Fuckin amazing aurora over Penge tonight. Took this through some high powered noculars.

Is there any chance that Gary Larson has a lucrative side-gig, drawing defendants on Judge Judy?

With thanks to @jonathangibbs.bsky.social here are some of my favourite short stories (including a talking olive, a woman made of flowers, a dead muskrat and some musing on the sizes of different animals):

I for one will welcome, etc. www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2560607...

Wintry sky

🤣🤣🤣 this starts SO gently and then you can see him go "ah fuck it" and just wheel out the Gatling gun.

Autumnal hues – a day away from the writing desk to the mountainside woods and shrines of Nikkō

AI is a science fair project built by tech nerds to see if it works, not a serious monetisable business plan If a potato battery clock or a bicarb volcano promised to allow capitalists to fire all their staff somehow, we’d all be talking about that now.

“So we asked ourselves: how could we make the common bicycle heavier, more dangerous and, ultimately, reliant on electricity” From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

A gentleman skeleton at a ball asks a lady skeleton to dance; representing the effect of arsenical dyes and pigments in clothing and accessories. Wood engraving, 1862. Image: Wellcome Collection, London.

Good news everyone, you’ve got a whole new alphabet to memorise, and it’s both very long and very stupid too, hooray

my mac doing its best to telephone a seventeenth century ecclesiastical record 🗃️

Enjoy her wiki page, quick, before someone reverts it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_T...

“If you elect to have a machine do those things for you, you’re losing something. You’re losing a part of yourself.”

I need everyone who uses AI to generate art & text to notice what Vince Gilligan says here. You're surrendering your brain, your creativity, the divine spark within you to a machine. Someday you'll wake up and find you're no longer capable of writing or thinking. And for what?

God just look at it. Look at where they've just squeezed in some extra twiddly bits for the sake of it.

Reminder: If you use generative AI for *any of your writing tasks* you are a Slopper not a writer and should be ashamed of yourself. The end.

There are scams doing this under my name, too. I’ll never ever ever offer consultations for any price! Ever! I’m sorry! I’m too tired to consult on my own children’s school papers!

Go on, go out and look

Joke of the day from Moscow: Russia tried to unveil its first humanoid AI robot, Aidol. Key word: tried. The robot collapsed during its debut, forcing organizers to cut the presentation short. Their rushed attempt to lift the prop only made things worse.

It was planned at a time when Resurrectionists - or body snatchers - were rife. However, completion was planned for 1832, but delays meant that it was only ready for use in January 1833. By this time the 1832 Anatomy Act had passed which would largely put the body snatchers out of business.

This is Udny Green Morthouse, Aberdeenshire, a round building with a heavy oak door. Inside is a 5.5m cast iron turntable. Coffins would be put in and moved around for up to 3 months before being taken out for burial - by which point they were no use to anatomists

PLEASE SHARE: On Black Friday, I want to draw attention away from the big chains and towards local Edinburgh independent retailers, makers and markets. Please join me from 7 pm - 8 pm on Friday 28 November to share some ideas for Christmas gifting. We'll use the hashtag #EdinburghHour

🎶 ... so good they named it thrice ...

Been in touch with a medical provider in Gaza who says “this ceasefire is even less of a ceasefire than the last ceasefire” — nothing’s getting in, no one’s getting out, people are still being killed and badly injured every day

Boris Johnson says the idea that criticism of the BBC is being organised by the right is ‘complete and utter bollocks’, which makes me think there might be something in it.

The one thing every single one of us can count on in this life is that you will become disabled. The only variable is whether it happens at birth, in old age, or somewhere in between

News Chronicle, December 1936. Those were the days...

Caught two minutes of the BBC stuff on the news and feel sick at the idea of this pillar falling. Farage and the other cunts chomping at the bit will take the NHS next and we'll be sat listening to Third Reich FM hoping our minor injury infections take us sooner than later.

This headline over a photo of a man who leads a party with five MPs. Or is it four this week? Nigel Farage is a grifting charlatan, not the arbiter of British culture.

Honestly, I did NOT have "punching the air and going HELL YES to Chris Patten" on my bingo card today. But what he says is SO rarely said and needed saying SO badly! "How shall we treat Mr Farage's concerns? Shall we hail Brexit a tremendous success? Something that has cost the country billions?"

He really is not.

Your Assyrian cat omen for today: "If a cat discharges urine onto a man, he will become rich." You're welcome.