On a side point, a few times recently when I've been elsewhere in the UK people have reacted to me saying I live in London by immediately saying they hate London, which is...very weird? Like, I hate Milton Keynes but if someone told me they lived there that wouldn't be the first thing I said to them

I see Reform are continuing with the recent right wing trend of trying to win elections in London by campaigning on the platform of how much you hate London

open.spotify.com/track/5uGZtS... First heard Petey's stuff less than a month ago and it's been a while since I've become so quickly obsessed with a musician. Midwest indie perfection, powerfully sincere, a potent mix of Spanish Love Songs and LCD Soundsystem, with a dash of Springsteen

I'm firmly on the "it was perfect" side of the Sopranos ending debate. More recently, Bojack Horseman and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Shola Ameobi, you were a wildly average footballer and I will love you forever

This whole story is wild. Annapurna is maybe the most dangerous mountain in the world, and it was somehow climbed at the first attempt by people in 1950s kit and no extra oxygen who then somehow all made it down alive (just about), and who weren't even sure initially where exactly the mountain WAS

While we're talking about fascinating civilisations westerners don't learn enough about: the Mongols went from controlling Mongolia to controlling the largest contiguous empire in human history stretching from China to Siberia to the Levant to the Carpathians in the space of about 75 years.

Just to QT this because I think this is true of a lot of Western Europeans; the Ottomans didn't (directly) impact massively on our history outside of WW1 and so we don't learn much about it. But if you're eastern European or Middle Eastern, Ottoman history probably IS your history.

The Dark Ages didn't really exist (or at least it's an overly general term). The Vikings landed in North America centuries before Columbus, were the original Rus in Russia, and a number served in the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine emperors. There was briefly a Russian colony in California.

Martin O'Neill just another guy reluctantly coming back to work at the start of January after a couple of weeks off

Lmao a third of the UK population are not on Twitter, even amongst people who spend a lot of time on social media there is no way that big a proportion ever used it.

There should be a sort of 24 hr soft ban on this site that, when logged in, asks for your location and then indicates the distance and directions to the nearest park or outdoor public place

A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacists websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

History makers. Nobody's doing it like the Jets.

Obviously Jalibert's Bordeaux form is hard to ignore but he has been so consistently poor in big games for France. The again Lucu was the same until this year

Aaaaaand they've announced multiple spin-offs. One of the things I find deflating about the entertainment industry is the tension between making art with a cohesive story, and the commercial incentive to just keep flogging the horse until the last penny falls out.

Dobie - 7 tries in 7 games Roos - 6 in 8 Adams - 6 in 7 Kok - 6 in 6 Lynagh - 6 in 5 Kenny - 6 in 5 Baloucoune - 5 in 4 Hardy - 5 in 5 Bowen - 5 in 6 Graham - 4 in 5 The Irish wingers with a good hit rate.

Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy sacked after eight games in charge

Reposting this one last time:

God I love Scotland

This is wild

Back to work! 😊

The NFL regular season is over and I don't have to watch the Jets until the next season starts

The amount of AI swill the URC use on Instagram is genuinely embarrassing

Anyway I caught the first five minutes of the Leinster match and that was it, but those five minutes were pretty good.

This is the situation room and there is one big screen up that shows a browser window with three tabs open, all of them on Twitter

Lmao this is because she won the Nobel Peace Prize and he didn't, isn't it

trump is being asked by reporters how he plans to run venezuela and there is clearly no plan.

Saving this screenshot from Threads as a new reaction image

And how exactly is the US going to do that?

god help me I will live to see hegseth behind bars

Their first league win since a win over Chiefs in October 2024 (a 19-game losing streak), which was itself their first league win since March 2023 (a 25-game losing streak).

New Year's resolution to get back into the habit of reading more, so aiming for at least one book a month. Starting with: 1) The Power and the Glory - Jonathan Wilson's excellent history of the World Cup, and the longstanding taint by corruption and governments seeking a propaganda coup.

Scoreline arguably flatters Munster. A good performance from Ulster but Munster completely beaten up in that second half. Still not enough depth when they have to rotate. From a Leinster perspective an Ulster win with no BP is a good outcome. Need to get the job done against Connacht tomorrow now.

Bryn Ward deserves that score, he's been really good tonight. #ULSvMUN

Munster look so much worse whenever Tadhg Beirne isn't playing (although in fairness that would be true of most teams) #ULSvMUN

Can see this getting a bit ugly for Munster now. From a Leinster perspective though would like to see Ulster not pick up the bonus point if possible. #ULSvMUN

Munster starting to look a bit fatigued. Lots of missed tackles, Ulster finding more space. Still half an hour left but hard to see them closing this gap. #ULSvMUN

People logging back into Bluesky for the first time in a year

Ulster should be further ahead really, although Munster have grown into it and probably should have been awarded a try. Conditions making handling a mess, seems like neither team can hold on to the ball. #ULSvMUN

I really do think Alex Nankivell is very unlucky not to have at least one All Black cap.

Werner Kok really is one of my favourite players. So much fun to watch with ball in hand but also he always looks like he's having a whale of a time himself #ULSvMUN

Ulster's kicking game is working much much better than Munster's is at the moment. #ULSvMUN

Not to go all third way, but I think you can believe both that public bureaucracies tend to groupthink and stasis AND that political operatives cannot just declare that, shout at them, and imagine this will answer the problems.

Lots of rotation as expected, although more frontliners than I thought we'd see. Good to see Connors back back after a long spell out with injury. A notable first appearance since September 2024 for O'Tighearnaigh as well. Mangan starts in the backrow for first time in nearly two years.

It's not just Musk who should be in jail, it's anyone involved in any service that pornifies images, regardless of the age of the people. The production of non-consensual porn, including for the harassment of women, is quite obviously a major use of these services and everyone involved knows it.

Final season of Stranger Things done. A bit too over-long, over-familiar, and overly safe to match up with the best seasons but still a satisfying enough conclusion to what imo remains one of the most enjoyable shows of the last decade. No spin-offs please!

I’m currently at the Washington Monument: