Country house and estate visit incl. muddy walk. #TinyJoys

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.

every day a fresh horror

Been very busy both at work and outside. Curiously, I also had many ‘mindful’ moments - I don’t even do mindfulness. Even the slight migraine-y feeling isn’t as frustrating as it normally would.

"Slavery was real" Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington. Presidents House, Philadelphia.

The weekend was very chill but I’m really grumpy that both my runs felt absolutely gruelling. And they were slow 😠🥺

*applause* Bluesky. Keep it up.

#TinyJoys is a quiet afternoon after hosting truly awesome people.

Told the OH that I feel lonely in the evenings when he goes to bed before 9pm. Which he often does. He acknowledged my feeling as understandable, and his habit as not ideal (my word not his). At 8:05pm he has just gone to bed.

Today’s #TinyJoys a) lambskin insoles kept my toes toasty all day, b) lunchtime concert of top class chamber music, c) wood burner on when coming home.

I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.

For those keeping score, Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team, & Washington Post's Visual Forensic team have all published analysis showing the ICE shooter wasn't in the path of Renee Nicole Good’s vehicle when he shot her, contradicting statements by the President & his cronies

Because shaming people always helps 😩

Thank you to @abbybarker.bsky.social for reminding me about layered clothes for warmth: kept the worst at bay … until a heating pipe burst. I didn’t have waterproof layers 😱

THREAD: I'll fact-check all the viral misinformation about the US military operation in Venezuela in this thread This image, purporting to show the US military arresting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is AI-generated. According to Google's SynthID detector, it was created using Google AI.

Plenty of tidying after NYE party and staying guests. More finance admin done too. Singing tomorrow.

Any government.

Up at stupid o’clock to see daughter off. But #tinyJoys are a pot of tea with, soft music, and catching up online

If you are not aware of the lovely German tradition of watching Dinner For One on New Year's Eve, I strongly commend it to you. #TinyJoys

Not feeling it quite yet but there’s still time

Happy New Year, everyone! This is a @theguardian.com books cartoon from a few years ago.

Any fellow Storygraph users have any reading challenges you can recommend? I'd like to find some to join for 2026

Yesterdays gluttonous feast was [partly] walked off in glorious sunshine rhis morning.

Son wished for a certain ‘bauble’. How could we not grant this wish? #TheBaubleToEndAllBaubles

I’ve collated a list of UK and Irish mental health support and domestic violence support lines open over the festive period, 24hrs a day. Do share - you may never know who needed to see it.

Unusually for me, I’m already on leave. It’s simply wonderful: put up some missing lampshades, sorted through box room, found space for CD shelves, hung up a picture and a couple of the children’s crafty things. #domesticBliss

#TinyJoys is a misty walk with son and friend

"We don't want men in women's restrooms so we'll enact laws forcing men to use women's restrooms." We are ruled by our inferiors.

Long shot, but does anyone in Switzerland have an emergency Theremin to loan tomorrow night ( Friday 12 December )? #ViaMardot is playing a show in St Gallen, and the airline lost her equipment!!! We can help pay for a courier if needed, please share to get this message out!! #theremin #switzerland

And I say again … how will they enforce this?!? Do trans women have two heads? Will there be people there to ‘denounce’ anyone who - subjectively - ‘looks a bit too much like a ‘fella’’?!? The sheer crassness of it …

Love my city #leicester

Ever so slight scratch in my throat only yesterday evening. A million razors whenever I swallow since 3am. Blocked but also runny nose since 4am. #feelingSorryForMyself

The Netflix number is five years old and the ChatGPT number pre-dates GPT-5 by a couple of months so there are plenty of caveats here, but I expect the order of magnitude remains about correct

Out of curiosity I decided to try and run the numbers on how much Netflix you can watch for the energy cost of a ChatGPT prompt As far as I can tell it's between 5.1 and 10.2 seconds, depending on which end of the 2019 IEA Netflix energy usage […] [Original post on fedi.simonwillison.net]

Good! news

Did you know I have a shop that celebrates human nature? And there's 10% off at the moment with the code TAKE10. https://manwhohasitallshop.com/

Did most of tax return yesterday. Did parkrun despite pouring rain. Some laundry. Sorted & rearranged some kitchen shelves. Cooked. Had big pot of tea & listened to audiobook. Went to cinema for live opera broadcast. Why am I not happy?

Thia absolute classic

Not seen a single teaspoon for months and this morning there were two in the staff kitchen. #goFigure

Really looking forward to more from #NAGWebinarWeek tomorrow w/ What Doesn’t Come Shelf-Ready and What Do Cataloguers Do With It? w/ @annewelsh.bsky.social from Beginning Cataloguing. booking info: nag.org.uk/event/welsh/ - free & open to all I feel like it might open a can of shelf un-ready worms!

Good to see the problems facing our colleagues @britishlibrary.bsky.social being raised here by @hetanshah.bsky.social (of @britishacademy.bsky.social). If this had happened in France it would be considered a national problem to be urgently addressed! www.cityam.com/the-british-...

✨Introducing the world premiere recording of seven choral works from the Arundel Choirbook, one of the most significant collections of English polyphony from the early 16th century. The full album will be available 28th November but you can listen to a single now on Spotify ✨

It's the Seasonal Reposting Competition! Repost this over the weekend, and on Sunday one lucky person will win a signed copy of one of my books. For you or the #crossword addict in your life: 50 fiendish @theguardian.com #puzzles and all the stories behind them: boatmancryptics.co.uk/crossword-bo...

The Python Software Foundation has turned down a $1.5m grant from the National Science Foundation as it came with a restriction that they would not operate any programs (at all - not just funded by the grant) that promote diversity, equality or inclusion… pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...

Annual staff discussions (not called appraisals here) done today - incl. my own and all mandatory training. 💪

If you are in or near Leicester I’ll be giving the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture at De Montfort University on 27 Nov. I’ll be exploring what insights the humanities & social sciences can provide for policymakers and how policy can support them www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shaping-a-...

We've got a new job available here in the archive! We're looking for an Archive Assistant to support our collections team. For more information, head to jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/job_detail/3...