So. A shenanigan may have started. 9I52 with @coastwaywill.me @daxon.insanity.tube and a few others, a quick change at Rotterdam (or anywhere) where I abandoned my compatriots and the IC1178 to Delft for me. Time to find my hotel, maybe a beer and relax for what's left of the evening.

Here's Palantir's Louis Mosley, grandson of Britain's most famous fascist leader, talking about the importance of AI, if you aren't convinced yet that this is one big co-ordinated push towards the destruction of everything good in life. www.politicshome.com/news/article...

This lurid headline is about British tourists no longer getting away with overstaying in Schengen. Or being 'illegals', as it's often called in the UK.

Almost 4,000 people have signed up to a lawsuit against major poultry producers and a water company over allegations of "extensive and widespread pollution" in three rivers - the Wye, Lugg and Usk. Good luck to them, I say.

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

I'm guessing the chocolate was white, managed to be very bitter and left a nasty aftertaste www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"IT ABSOLUTELY WILL STOP!!!"

Talks that challenge, workshops that teach, and a community that pushes boundaries. That’s WICCON 2025. Haarlem, Oct 30–31. Join us & be part of it 👉 wiccon.nl/tickets-2025 #WICCON2025

So I was in the mood to level up #BloomfieBubble and this is the end result after I cooked for a little while. It's higher resolution, it's in an actual bubble now, and the page will generate alt text for you ready to copy and paste. It's super cute right. 🥹🫧 skythings.lukeacl.com/bloomfie-bub...

It is beyond depressing to be involved in my current work project. Watching all the benefits slip away, watching people literally argue for a worse outcome. Sacrificing something that could be good on the alter of "make it cost less". And not even in an understandable way.

Nipped out earlier to ride one of the new B23 DLR trainsets that came into passenger use today. Good height, walk through, quiet, fast and decent passenger information systems. Will be good to see them slowly roll out across the network.

I cannot believe that Microsoft actually branded this as “vibe working”

I would expect nothing less from Herzog.

Today was one of my favourite lectures, on how evidence influences debates. Case A: 79 people died as a consequence of smart motorways (2010-2024). That's sufficient to pause the policy. Case B: In the first year of the Welsh 20mph scheme 900 fewer people were injured. There's still contestation.

What did I do with my Friday evening? Went to a disused factory owned by Tate and Lyle that smells of concrete dust and watched a lady strung up by her ankles play saxophone. There was quite a lot else on as well.

Starmer says we need new ID to control borders... It's called a passport mate. He says we need it to work. I already have to prove I have the right to work in the UK. His imagined problem is not about having papers, it's enforcement and compliance with existing systems.

post a duo ...

Housing is getting more expensive because the rich are buying it all

I see some idiot eugenicists are trying to blame paracetamol for autism. So here is a Swedish study of 2.4m children across decades. It shows that paracetamol was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

*incomprehensible screaming* Yes. A four hour workshop on "minimum viable product".

Queen

Slower speeds save lives: "...there were 2,638 people injured, including deaths, on low-speed roads in the most recent 18 months, compared with 3,520 injuries between April 2022 and September 2023, a reduction of 25%."

Goood morning, almost everyone

If you go on an "eat more meat" parade organised by a famous meat eater that involves people trying to force-feed other people meat, you kinda lose any standing to go "but I'm a vegetarian really" This is a post about racists and marches

Hat tip @clownf1st.bsky.social

This was an appalling mistake by Cooper. But thanks to primacy and recency my overriding memory of her is the last TV appearance when she claimed to have a shed with patriotic bunting.

- you clean up that banksy? - sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked

Interesting that the Prime Minister goes for an ad hominem attack rather than look at policies. Mind you, when the majority of Labour members support a lot of Green policies like nationalising utilities, taxing wealth, removing the child benefit cap and keeping the NHS as a public good...

Hats off to him though for doing it under the CCTV 😄

🚨 BREAKING | 1,339 people have now been arrested on "terrorism" charges in 2025, with almost all of them busted for holding signs at pro-Palestine protests. This is more than any year on record, by far. (Source: Home Office)

Ten minute warning. Alert due in the UK for your phone

One of the better developments on the Beeb in recent years has been "BBC Verify", which does proper fact-checking & analysis. But this substantive analysis seems entirely divorced from its political commentary, which is entirely focused on "showbiz" & sports-punditry. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I can’t be the only one hearing the DM’s homophobic dog whistle, can I?

Out of thread Kopstoot. Nancy is a bad influence.

They have lost their fucking minds.

What's this? Could it be a shenanigan?

This NHS nurse has lived & worked in the UK for 15 years. This couple assumed she’s come across on a small boat, hurled racial abuse at her, & assaulted her. Comrade Kermit, his Reform supporting cronies, & the right wing press have enabled this. It sickens me. 🤬 Stand against racism, always!

What's missing from this story is why we got here. Back in the Coalition days, Secretary of State Eric Pickles MP encouraged councils to make commercial investments to offset austerity cuts. Some councils did more than others and, inevitably, some investments went badly wrong. And here we are.

The lucrative votes of people who prefer racist intimidation to the rule of law.

Reminder that about 100,000 trans people and allies showed up for London Trans Pride a month ago. Mainstream media coverage: tumbleweed.

#WolffBites: The AI con is cracking. Investments in it are not paying off. Its output qualities often fall below what humans can do. AI is mostly employers' hype aimed to scare employees into accepting worsening job conditions. Dont be fooled. tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/ai-i...

"if the United States were to issue a legal request to Microsoft for the data of a French citizen hosted in the EU, Microsoft would comply regardless of French or EU law."

The shift away from Google and Microsoft will surely gain momentum in the next few years... I'd be strongly in favor of the EU subsidizing open source alternatives to all this enshittification www.zdnet.com/article/the-...

Microsoft copilot for Excel has a warning not to use it for “business critical” calculations because the answer may not be accurate. Would someone explain why I might *ever* want to use a spreadsheet where results are unreliable?

Trying very hard to explain something that is very simple to people who absolutely should get this, in a polite way without resorting to crayons and fuzzy felt. Or reminding people that standards are written in blood. I think I need a coffee.

But no, the BBC had to apologise because Dr Krish Kandiah rightly called Jenrick a xenophobe a few days beforehand.

The U.K. Online Safety Act was (avowedly, as revealed in a recent High Court case) “not primarily aimed at protecting children” but at regulating “services that have a significant influence over public discourse.”

According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, in June 1933 the German census recorded a Jewish population in Germany of less than 0.75%. But please, do go on about how a particular minority is so tiny that it’s fine to throw them under the bus.

According to my friend @mindtheflap.bsky.social we have some autism news. It seems 236,225 people are waiting for an autism assessment in England. This is larger than the population of Wolverhampton, making it the 21st most populous built-up area in England.