“I’ve reviewed over 50 sticky toffee puddings” is an incredibly powerful way to begin a video

It's a stupid question and not a political matter. Businesses and organisations can make their own decisions about what working styles give them the best results, surely - and that is likely to differ based on sector, job function, etc.

It would be a betrayal on an unimaginable scale, throwing away a historic majority three years early and handing government to Farage. Good God, who are these people?

Meat Loaf, Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are. Specifically, how it is used in Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical, ie sung by immortal mutant bikers trapped in a disused toxic waste mine.

An FT subscription is both ludicrously expensive and worth every penny.

“Infinite Jest” is a masterpiece and a pleasure to read, Hermione Hoby writes. “Perhaps the greatest disjunction between the book’s reputation and its contents lies in the notion that it’s a pretentious slog no one could honestly enjoy.” newyorkermag.visitlink.me/xQHtnb

Wild to me that media talking heads can drop Wakanda and Namor as cultural reference points and everyone nods sagely. Hard to recall just how niche this stuff was 15 years ago much less, like, in the 80s or 90s.

Do these "experts" have a view on where this larger group of "skilled operators" will emerge from in this diamond formation?

Even the very clear-eyed FT is doing the whole "the question is can his word be trusted?" thing. No! Obviously not! Who is questioning that it cannot?

This happened to me once on old Twitter - it was 99% positive reactions, it was absolutely terrifying and ideally it should not happen again.

I'm perfectly aware this is by far not the worst thing he's done, but Trump's constant presence - day after day after day - in the lives and headspaces of hundreds of millions of people (billions?), in the US and outside, is so taxing. Every morning, we wake up and have to think about this asshole.

I think it would be quite nice for me to be able to wake up in the morning and think about my plans for the day, and more broadly about my own little life, instead of immediately having to ponder the overnight actions of The Guy Over There

No, it's fundamental. He has to roll the pitch that if this thing gets worse, people will start to notice. There are sometimes reasons you actually have to take economic pain, and this is one. But that has to be sold to public over time, otherwise it will be seen as the government's fault.

I note that the leader of the party currently leading in the polls reckons we should just roll over. They need to hammer him on this, from now until whenever election day is.

One of those days that makes you really ponder hard what else you could be doing with the hundreds of pounds and hours you spend on going to football

Everybody thinks 'https://' stands for 'hypertext transfer protocol secure' but it actually stands for 'head to this place, sucka' followed by a colon and two laser sounds

But then it's worth asking why the Conservatives chose so badly in 2022. Part of the problem is that the question was never "Who would be the most effective prime minister?" It was "Who can win a contest among the party membership?" That dynamic will affect the choice for Labour, too.

This would break the internet.

What I was meant to do this evening: various constructive things What I did this evening: watched low quality Elliott Smith footage for three hour

I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe in my part of south-east London where primaries are massively over-subscribed and secondaries are worse.

Craven stuff that, wow. I don't know what's in it for him, really, he never struck as an attention-seeker and he's also already quite rich.

It was sensible to carry a book of maps with you in case of getting lost.

Best TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.

more generations need to discover M*A*S*H

Wife has just confirmed that if we were both on Traitors as a secret couple she would immediately tell everyone I was her husband and that I was probably a Traitor.

A lot of this idea is driven by people online who don't know the (very safe) city, but as far as any Londoners subscribe to it, it's driven by the perceived retreat of police from tackling petty crime like shoplifting and phone-nicking. Do they make London less safe? No. Do they cause unease? Yes.

This won't be a problem for the UK, because I imagine we'll just have a US company running it by default from the start.

Full marks to Yoto Radio (kids radio thing) which apparently knows that on New Year's Day what parents want is the Buffy theme tune.

Belated tight 35 songs from 2025. I put the metal at the end for ease of ignoring. I wasn't great at new music discovery this year, and I'm not sure it was a great year for music in general, but I reckon it's a solid list nonetheless. open.spotify.com/playlist/3OO...

I’ve spent this morning morbidly watching the MTV channels close down and the final songs played were: MTV Music - Video Killed the Radio Star (Buggles) Club MTV - Don’t Stop the Music (Rihanna) MTV 90s - Goodbye (Spice Girls) MTV 80s - Together in Electric Dreams (Oakey and Moroder)

it feels weird to memorialise a wonderful actor just for being good at saying the word "shit", but also he was perhaps the best person at saying "shit" ever and that is no small thing

I understand why this is all necessary, I guess, but for reference for our younger viewers, at the Millennium in central London, presumably busier than most NYEs, you could just do whatever and go wherever, completely unticketed, and I'm not sure culturally this is an improvement.

Sainsbury's, bloody hell. Remove most staff. Put in the worst self-serve machines of any major supermarket, in that they fail a high % of the time. Introduce gates preventing you from leaving unless you scan a receipt, which is hard to understand the legal basis for. Awful experience.

I was in a McDonald's and a child nearby was misbehaving. His mother admonished him to "remember who's watching", meaning his younger sibling. He glanced round, saw me (a random adult) looking vaguely in his direction and looked absolutely terrified.

I totally agree with this thread. Customer service has basically stopped. Companies have worked out that people will buy their stuff no matter what. Sainsbury's has gone from being a nice place to be to flat out hostile, and they don't care, because people need food, so they still turn up.

honestly just thought warhammer was a metafandom about the idea of a game

Didn't expect there to be an episode in which Agent 47 shows up to eliminate the Chipmunks before they can sing again, but here we are.

Has anyone done any psychological studies on people who make phone calls on buses with the speaker on? Not kids, grown adults. Do they view strangers as people? Are they narcissists? Sociopaths? Someone could win a Nobel off this, I reckon.

Here's the image I used to convey to @sebastianpiriz.bsky.social what I had in mind for a spread and Here's the final result. You can convey things easily!!! You don't NEED to be a good artist, just have basic communication skills

Ugh. It's the same honestly with any AI creative work. The end product is only part of the impact. A huge part is the fact someone made it. My five-year-old child instinctively gets this. Whenever he sees some impressive piece of art, the first question is *always* "how did someone *do* that?"

Sometimes I think people outside narrative sincerely believe that placeholder text reads like “[PLACEHOLDER] I am reloading.” because the writers don’t have time to write anything else, and not because it needs to be highly noticeable amongst hundreds of lines of finished dialogue.

Sorry, I presumed she'd left her job and I'd missed it, but this is the *current* White House chief of staff.

In further "our electoral system is not fit for purpose" news, Electoral Calculus puts this as a Reform majority with the Lib Dems as the Opposition.

It is incredible to me how made up this issue is. No one gave a shit ten years ago. Sure there were your individual mad, ignorant bigots but *Theresa May* was pushing for self-ID because it was the last little bit of logistical sorting out of a settled question: we're ok with Trans people

I'd never looked at a David Walliams kids book because of their rep and we got given one the other day. Maybe it's not so bad, I thought. Within five pages we'd met a mysterious old man called Chang and a corner shop owner called Raj.

This was very informative for me, if also rather worrying paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-wi...

Just absolute spite from Lambeth Council, that. "Oh, you want fewer events? Fair enough, we'll bin the free community one."

This. Fucking hell, this. Ideas are so, so cheap.

It’s the mark of an amateur – in journalistic writing, book writing, TV, whatever – that they think ideas are the currency, where the value is, and need fiercely protecting. Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.

Brexit's natural end point www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...