I've seen this going around today and it's beautiful, so here's a gift link.

I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1746

Merry Christmas! Day 25 of the #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar La Cascada, Honduras, light roast A good one to finish on. Not my favourite, but a good light roast with hints of fruit and a nice syrupy mouthfeel.

Day 24 of the #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Fazenda Ismenia, Brazil, Dark Roast It's a good thing there's 25 coffees this year, as this would have been a disappointing finish. Harmless enough, but not getting any of the toffee/raisin notes.

'On the "bitter cold" Christmas Day of 1830, Mary Ann Macham arrived in North Shields, the northern English fishing port that would become her unlikely home; the endpoint of a 4,000-mile journey filled with fear, courage and a superhuman determination to be free.'

Day 23 of the #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Kiamwangi, Kenya, light roast Perfection. Light, but with a syrupy mouthfeel, with blackcurrant notes. Great coffee.

Day 22 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Las Nieves, Colombia, medium roast Very nice flavour profile: hints of blackcurrant and orange, but the mouth feel is a little thin for me, leaving it a little too acidic to be perfect. Highly potable though!

Has anyone got a #ttrpg project they’d like me to shoutout in the next Secret Passages newsletter? There’s one going out tomorrow so it have a #Kickstarter campaign about to launch or close, let me know!

‘everyone in gamedev is using AI’ the business dumdums are using it to generate decks and write bad copy. They think it’s good because they think their basic lore ideas make a good game. that’s it that’s who is using AI

Day 21 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar El Archangel, Bolivia, medium roast Bit of a grower this one. It's a nice, nutty, chocolatey coffee, if a little too dark roast flavoured for my current tastes. Didn't get any of the fruity notes, which is disappointing.

This was my biggest tweet over in the bad place. It will live here now. 🧙‍♀️🎄

Day 20 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Ichuga, Kenya, light roast Unsurprisingly I love this one, too. Blackcurrant notes in a Kenyan light roast, yes please!

Day 19 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Sitio Serra, Brazil, Dark roast Another banger! Two great coffees for the first day of the holidays. Smooth, creamy, chocolatey, another light flavoured dark roast. Yumbo!

Hard no to this: French publisher Harlequin has told translators that their work will now be done by AI. They can ‘revise’ AI translations at much lower rate. It’s a subsidiary of Harper Collins so treat this as a test for rollout elsewhere

"I refuse." This is it. There's no reason we should accept a narrative of an already settled future which marginalizes humans and individual agency. No one wants this. No one asked for it.

Day 18 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar (a day late thanks to end of term shenanigans) La Secreta, Colombia, medium roast Delicious. My favourite so far, exactly what I like: blackcurranty, marmaladey, delicious and light.

This is ridiculous. There clearly has not been a 660% increase in terrorism in the UK over the past year. How much is it costing the criminal justice system to arrest and prosecute all these people for the crime of wearing a t-shirt or holding a placard? news.sky.com/story/terror...

#PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Day 16 - La Fila, Honduras, Light Roast - nice and tasty, definite blackcurrant notes. Day 17 - Gutierrez, Bolivia, Medium Roast - unpleasant. Sour, bitter, not for me. Interestingly this is the 1st one pact emailed about to say I could get it on subscription: no thanks!

Day 15 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar El Cabildo, Colombia, medium roast This was OK. Slight apricot hints, but quite a thin flavour that was a little disappointing.

Day 14 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Santa Rosa, Brazil, dark roast Nice; I'm getting the chocolate flavours, big style, and maybe a hint of cherry in the aftertaste. Not too bold for a dark roast, at all.

Day 13 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Fazenda Reis, Brazil, dark roast Another regular on the subscription, this is lovely with date and caramel flavours. (No pact insert today: I somehow lost it between the kitchen and living room!)

Day 12 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar El Durazno, Honduras, medium roast Not a huge fan. A little too acidic, and I'm realising that coffees with strawberry notes aren't for me.

Day 11 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Kiaguthu, Kenya, Light Roast Love this one. It's a regular on my subs list, I think I have had it three or four times this year. Not a surprise, but it's a deliciously blackcurranty flavour.

Day 10 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar El Tolú, Colombia, light roast Yum yum yum. Light, sweet, citrus notes... I wouldn't say I get lavender as such, more of a blossom honey, but it's a delicious, flavoursome brew.

Remember the PM is a lawyer who formerly worked on Human Rights matters. I'm not going to call him a Human Rights lawyer because that implies a moral and ethical commitment to those rights which he clearly did not hold. Labour are now a right-wing party in the UK #HumanRightsDay #LabourIsLost

"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard

Day 9 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Engenho, Brazil, dark roast. Very nice: smooth, especially for a dark roast. It really does have a milk chocolate flavour with just a hint of pepper. Which may not sound nice, but is. I'm a fan of the micro fermentation process!

Day 8 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Ndaroini, Kenya, light roast Hell yeah! This is my jam. Smooth, blackcurrant notes with a caramelly aftertaste. Lush. It does seem Kenyan light roasts are my go to just now! Makes the parents' evening a bit more bearable! 🤓 @pactcoffee.bsky.social

Day 7 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Navarro, Bolivia, Medium Roast A nice, smooth coffee this morning, with definite date notes.

Day 6 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar El Aguacate, Honduras This one is a mixed bag. I really do get the tasting notes (apricot/strawberry candy), but I don't love those flavours in coffee. A little too acidic for my tastes.

Day 5 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Muthuthi-ini PB, Kenya, light roast. Kenyan light roasts have been some of my favourite subscription coffees this year, and this one's not bad. A little too acidic for my tastes, at first at least, though it smooths out. Definitely one I'd like to try again.

King Duncan: There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face. DM: Give me an Insight check

Day 4 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Colombia, Bolivia, medium roast. This is more my style. Smooth, slightly sweet. I tested myself with the tasting notes, and I swear I said 'creamy toffee', which is literally what's printed. Definitely one to try again. @pactcoffee.bsky.social

A Thailand-based crypto investor has handed a record-breaking £9 million to Reform UK, shortly before Nigel Farage used media interviews to plug his crypto firm and promise lower taxes and deregulation on the industry bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...

Day 3 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Recanto, Brazil. A pretty bold dark roast, but with some nice subtle flavours in it. Definite hints of raisin. Pretty good, though I'm hoping for a lighter roast soon!

Day 2 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Terras Altas, Brazil This is fine. It's nice enough, but I don't get any of the tasting notes. It just tastes like coffee. I've had it before (last year's advent calendar and as a subscription) and I added more milk this time, which makes it slightly better.

Day 1 of my #PactCoffeeAdventCalendar Buenos Aires, which is confusingly from Colombia, not Argentina. A very tasty medium roast. I've been favouring light roasts recently, but this is nicely full bodies but with some smoothness and complexity to the flavour.

Awwww yeah! Great to see these out in the world. Pick up a pdf here: floaker.itch.io

Highly recommend snagging a copy, it's great fun!

Oh nooooo, Lindsey Halligan, this is not how any of this works (15 screens into a Signal exchange) www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

For years, there's been a massive over-emphasis on food miles, and a massive under-emphasis on food type. By far and away the best dietary decision you can make, for environmental, humanitarian and public health purposes, is to cut out animal products.

Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury. My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Boosting this again because clinically vulnerable people do not stop being vulnerable when the Government wants to save money. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Part two is tonight! www.patreon.com/posts/139328...

In 25 years, every business school in the country will be doing case studies about how a long defunct company known as “Google” once had an unbeatable lock on online information retrieval and then started doing shit like this.

Reposting for friends across the pond

This was a hoot! @tomtoner.bsky.social was great as always and the chat brought tons of brilliant ideas to bear. It's available to watch now, check it out. We're planning a part two, and I'm also thinking about how to adapt it for school...

That was an absolute hoot! We've built a really interesting world in an hour, and you can watch the process on YouTube now! We're going to schedule a follow up soon, watch this space!

Fun times ahead for the Rookery, starting with an interactive Worldbuilding workshop tonight! CA caw!