It’s Christmas Eve and there’s a chill in the air. That’s because you’ve just listened to TOND, the excellent ghost story from Broken Veil.

Christmas Eve. The perfect time for ghost stories… TOND A one-off story from the Broken Veil channel. Patreon.com/brokenveil (or wherever you get your podcasts.)

We’ve gone on Christmas holiday by mistake!

TOND is here, and it’s put the Broken Vell podcast channel back in the top ten! Thanks to everyone who supports us on patreon.com/brokenveil and everyone who’s listened… especially if they’ve told a friend. It’s like The Ring. Right? You have to pass it on.

Coming tomorrow. On the Broken Veil channel. #BrokenVeil Patreon.com/brokenveil

I heard there was a secret meat With paprika, and spicy heat But you don't really care for sausage Nduja ...sorry, I can delete this. I've just seen a few posts in this format and I wanted in.

The Devil You Know is an 8-part podcast series from the CBC and Sarah Marshall (host of You’re Wrong About…) about the Satanic Panic. “These thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found…” [cbc.ca]

"I'm not getting you down at all am I?"

Unlike other services that try to remove access to books you’ve bought from them, 2000 AD allows you to download your purchases – so you’ll never go offline with your favourite comics! https://bit.ly/4h2csdj

Very sad to report that JOHN ANTROBUS died yesterday (15th December) aged 92. A frequent writing collaborator with Spike, he conceived and co-wrote The Bed Sitting Room, two Goon Shows, sketches for the Fred shows & so much more. Glad we got a chance to salute him with a show earlier this year. RIP

The Westen Classics [sic] edition of George Eliot's "Middlemarch", or as she originally titled it, "Carry on Casaubon"

Loving this. "Antirender" engine converts architects presentation drawings into the likely reality of the designs :) antirender.com

Coming to the Broken Veil channel. Tond: a ghost story for Christmas. patreon.com/brokenveil And wherever you get your podcasts. #BrokenVeil

ITV in partnership with The Film and TV Charity, are looking for 20 people to take part in a new pilot in January at ITV bringing freelancers from different aspects of production to, receive an ITV mentor, attend events, training and workshops. To find out more or to apply go to thegreenroom.itv

Excellent damn question (andfa very fine write up that actually gets into the history and larger issues) Why Is Warner Bros. for Sale at All? prospect.org/2025/12/10/w...

As I said in the spring, @theweatherstation.bsky.social put on the most complete and exquisitely-composed small[er]-room set I can remember; I’m so glad the Toronto show was (as exquisitely) recorded. Dim the lights and give it a couple of your precious hours. youtu.be/q1K0U38zz9c

Bert at the BBC! A comprehensive collection of Jansch’s appearances at the BBC, featuring over eight hours of rare and unreleased recordings... an epic and enduring trail, 45 years in the making. Both CD and LP boxsets available to pre-order: monorailmusic.com/product/bert...

Seen an ad for AI business accounting software promising to do all that tedious stuff for you. (Saving on costs of paying a human implied) Shall we start a countdown to the first prosecutions for false tax returns, where 'but the AI said everything was correct' turns out to be no defence in court?

If you’re struggling with this morning’s NYT Connections, the categories are: Words Other words American words for actual things Wasps I have known

Even Alan Moore did the thin tie at school

“So the plan is to replace all their jobs with AI” Five minutes later: “what do you mean, broke people don’t spend as much?”

Coming soon

My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books. Lots more here: www.theguardian.com/books/series/tom-gauld-s-cultural-cartoons

The People’s Popular Front etc. etc.

The War Between the Land and Sea

NEW EPISODE. Journalist Michael Hogan takes us back to early 90s Spain for some sun-soaked age-inappropriate romance.

Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s. This is the power of vaccines. The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer. Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!

One of the most beautiful bits of english eccentricity and glorious design is coming back to Sotheby’s and should be bought by a musuem (or me) for THE NATION. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

So this happened in Oslo yesterday. Four articulated buses got stuck in a roundabout.

A man heads to a window seat in a pub. He puts his pint on the table. He takes off his bicycle helmet and places it beside the drink. He sits down. He opens his bag and gets out a book. He turns to a page. He takes a sip of his pint. His shoulders relax.

I flew to Canada this week to go to a Paul McCartney concert and I wrote about it here: open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...

While on tour promoting 'Wake Up Dead Man', Rian Johnson goes off on AI for “making everything worse in every single way.” bit.ly/47UBPfH

Musk’s AI just being totally reasonable, once again. Or as reasonable as its owner.

Amazon are using AI to create episode recaps. Because serving slop saves literally hundreds of dollars per series. Once again, cheers.

What many politicians don't realise - or want to understand - is that many of the "highly-skilled" immigrants whose labour they crave were raised by the same asylum seekers and refugees they openly despise. They take the racist political rhetoric personally, and act accordingly. Why wouldn't they?

Happy 89th birthday to Dick Cavett, who has provided documentary filmmakers with a boon of incredible and essential archival content for decades.

Terry Nation's Survivors, innit

A moment, please, to consider the absolute majesty of Daphne Oram's unbelievable score to this. A pitch shifted, time stretched, frequency agile glimpse of the future of music production; a liberty-taking all analogue remix of Sandy Nelson's Teen Beat realised in real time with the visuals.

I don't want AI generated art, I want AI emptied dishwasher

British and Australian chemists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, hiding in a well-known soil bacterium. This molecule kills drug-resistant bacteria without triggering resistance. buff.ly/YlXaONo #ShareGoodNewsToo

Ad in New York’s The Voice newspaper, October 1965

My wife (and co-author) and me have a new Instagram profile to help promote our forthcoming book. It’s early days, but we want to build some anticipation. Come help us, follow us there at #MyBelovedOther #comics #gpahicnovels #bandedessinée #bandadesenhada

So, the witches in Macbeth may be a later reworking by playwright Thomas Middleton. Someone who attended the play in 1611 described 3 'beautiful' "feiries or Nimiphes," not “filthy hags”. Holinshed's Chronicles, Shakespeare's source, also describes 3 "creatures of the elderwood.. nymphs or fairies"

"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975 “It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975

Some days, I have trouble reading the news because it causes in me a wave of existential nausea and depression. (It’s OK, I have tools to combat that, and:) I’m reminded of Ben Ferencz’ great advice on that (see below): “Never give up, never give up, never give up.”

Happy Partially Muscled Skeleton Stands By The Perimeter Fence And Screams For Thirty Seconds Before Vanishing day for those that celebrate