"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." Edward R. Murrow, who died on this day in 1965

In Gentle Light Kaoru Yamada

Whilst the world's attention is on Iran the collective punishment of people in Gaza continues, the land thefts in the West Bank continue and the invasion and the illegal annexation of Southern Lebanon continues. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Bowl with a little shepherd and his flock, Palaikastro, 1900 BC. Heraklion museum

It's taken about a year but I restocked the Seafoam mug department.

Remember how less than three weeks ago the president threatened to kill an entire civilization

I mean. Nobody cares. But they don't want you to care. It's just a pretext.

1. Nobody cares. 2. Everyone is a little disappointed. 3. Nobody cares.

A charming #Egyptian figurine of a hedgehog, made of faience, dating ca 1900 BC, from Thebes, #Egypt. The Egyptians associated hedgehogs with rebirth. On display at Neues Museum Berlin 📷 me 🏺

A black heron using its wings like an umbrella, creating shade to attract fish, a behavior known as “canopy feeding”.

The most impressive thing about the US military for decades has been the logistics sorcery that feeds and equips tens of thousands of troops in hundreds of far flung places. A year under Hegseth and aircraft carriers are running out of food. Incredible stuff. Truly peak performance.

Ishtar and her servant from Palmyra 3rd century AD found in Damascus Syria #Ishtar #goddess #Palmyra #Syria #archaeology #arthistory #pagansky ##witchsky #occultsky

Whenever I get down about how many drafts it takes me to finish an article, I remember how many drafts of the Nefertiti bust were discovered in Thutmose’s workshop at Tell el-Amarna—each of which led up to the “perfect” one in Berlin today. I say this as I take my third pass on a short essay (sigh).

This lively little prancing horse is a Roman bronze knife or key handle 🐴 😍 It is one of four bronze objects buried together some 1,800 years ago. The so-called ‘Rydale Hoard’ was found by two metal detectorists in North Yorkshire, in May 2020. Yorkshire Museum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

Journalists who are still attending the WHCD this year don't seem to get just how much things have changed. It isn't 1998. You're not going to pose for cute photos with the West Wing stars at "nerd prom." You're enabling a regime who's assaulting your own profession & you're torching your career.

To paraphrase the Onion, Relaxing walk better fucking work.

‘After all, what is every man? A horde of ghosts – like a Chinese nest of boxes – oaks that were acorns that were oaks.’ ~ Walter de la Mare. This #BookWormSat will celebrate the birthdate of Walter de la Mare with the haunted, the uncanny and the hidden worlds of literature. Do join us.

I got my permanent job at a university in 2008 (after 8 years hourly-paid) and now face redundancy. My salary has declined in real terms for my entire career. The graph for senior management pay in a broken sector looks very, very different. This is not an accident.

Still feel like "Musk and his crew of incels destroyed a bunch of stuff they didn't understand and thereby hastened the deaths of millions of children" did not get the public attention it warranted.

"This isn't what we expected, but we had to do it because I heard they were barbecuing dogs in Ohio and people were using pronouns I didn't understand."

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

Tonight! I'll be at the Cambridge Literary Festival discussing Sick of It: the Global Fight for Women's Health. Come along, the Festival line up is amazing. www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/sophi...

Sunlight travels through too wide a strait for any nation to blockade it. grid.iamkate.com

Virginia Woolf, more than a hundred years ago:

strange these op-eds about women being too angry have all come out the last few days when during the same time there's also been a massive investigation published on an online rape academy with millions of viewers a month and none of them have bothered to even cover it, even as news

My god.

The Strait of Hormuz + surrounding seas are critical ecologically as well as politically. Coral reefs, whale sharks, dolphins, endangered Arabian humpback whales, seagrass meadows supporting dugons, islands harbouring green turtles - just some of the creatures + ecosystems in + near the Strait. 2

A wildlife disaster unfolds alongside the human tragedy in the Strait of Hormuz @greenpeace.org reports Iranian vessel Shahid Bagheri, stuck by a US warplane in early March, is still leaking oil near the Strait, with nearby wetlands at risk: www.cnn.com/2026/04/17/s... 🧵 1/5

I can't go on, i'll go on (Beckett) 9" x 12" acrylic on board

Sybil Andrews (British, 1898-1992) The Storm, 1935 Color linocut on brown Japanese paper 36.5 × 26.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

A perennially good point.

This feels like what talking to someone with dementia is like. But less heartbreaking.

Some people call me the space cowboy Some call me the jockey of death

Holy SHIT someone found the test pressing of Robert Johnson's Cross Road Blues and it is clear as a PIN www.openculture.com/2026/04/reco...

Women will be blamed for the downfall of civilisation. Women who have been second-class citizens in terms of health, wealth, safety, self-autonomy for their entire existence. We will be blamed for protecting ourselves against or distancing ourselves from, for example, men who visit rape academies.

Somebodye once tolde me the worlde ys goinge to roll me, for beholde among the tooles yn the shedde the sharpest Ich am not.

if it has (or had) a water spout, it’s a gargoyle, if it doesn’t, it’s a grotesque. thank you for coming to my tedtalk, see you all next month when I give it again

Name the visitors to the rape academy website. Name the names in the Epstein files. Let them justify themselves like victims always have to.

A rape academy? Are you... Wh... Are you serious? Why do men hate us so much?

"Two or three years ago it was just another snake cult."

You know in Sun Tzu's idiots guide to conflict for dummies or whatever it's called, where he says "Feed your troops"? Yeah. This doesn't end well for anyone.

Martin Gregus Jr. captured a pod of narwhals on film: #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFu...

I threw larkspur seeds along my front wall. I didn't think there was space enough for them to root. But life always finds a way.

Dogs clearing the way for an ambulance . 😍

Poor Sleep Linked To Gong https://theonion.com/poor-sleep-linked-to-gong/

"Cat" is a poem J.R.R. Tolkien first wrote in 1956 for his granddaughter. However, in his Legendarium, the poem was written by Samwise Gamgee, demonstrating Hobbits' love toward comic bestiary lore: a cat that imagined itself as a ferocious beast in its dream. 1/2 #WyrdWednesday #BookologyThursday

Quite a flex to turn up at the presidential palace, get him to confirm you as prime minister, call him unfit to serve with no moral authority, tell him to resign, and then pose for a picture

Ok. So our special relationship needs to end.

Rehabilitation of the Dandelion! No other plant in the Netherlands attracts as many bee species: 107. In early spring, when nothing else is blooming, it is simply there. Meadow bird chicks that have just hatched depend on the insects that are drawn to dandelions. No dandelion, no insect, no chick.