I'm actually doing this at home with the youngest. Ours had the benefit of sofas, pizza and being free to laugh very loudly when required. They were really good fun, turtles just aren't scary though.

Ah that is what they were doing at the front

open.spotify.com/track/3iBemY... one of the cruelest things you can do to a music buff is to play this song; ask them what they thought of it; and then reveal it was written by Sting.

The entire diplomatic posture of the United States right now assumes that there is no path dependency on past actions (cf the American ambassador to France for a much much more trivial but revealing example)

Muslim voters being monstered during Ramadhan. 🙄

Labour remain trapped by the grid. It's clear that they had planned on the basis of either losing to Reform or just about scrapping a tight win against them. So they had Mahmood already lined up to show that Labour can outdo Reform on the cruelty stakes. Unfortunately the Greens won.

It is slightly startling that Trump is sliding towards the principles that the *English* civil war was fought over

Ah, yes, the main revelation of the leaked diplomatic cables to me was how much the Saudis hated Iran

No you’re doing the Gamera triple bill at the BFI with your eldest today.

I will say one goddamn thing, because it's relevant to the preliminaries: every news service saying this is an "Israeli" attack after it was clearly reported that we were begging Israel to strike first to give us cover is a disgrace upon disgrace.

Oh my god, if you put a screenshot into ChatGPT and ask it to translate, it just hallucinates a completely different, unrelated text!?

Look, maybe I am already just in a bad mood, but it is ludicrous to me that we are having a really intense argument about sectarian voting when there isn't really that much evidence that it was why the Greens won. This is immediately just accepted wisdom, and we can scold using it. archive.ph/zqmKF

What a clusterfuck

The Kindle Daily Deal today (here in UK) includes several books by Francis Spufford including - Red Plenty: Inside the Fifties Soviet Dream. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. amzn.eu/d/02lSeLHY

Fucking hell when I pointed out this morning Ellison had a history of hiring (untalented) men who faced allegations of sexual harassment, had no idea a new one would drop in hours www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

It would appear the company that supplies 90% of the blister packaging in the UK wargames industry went into administration (while still owing us of course)

Do you possibly, *possibly*, think something may have happened in Ukraine in the 1930s that explains why a Polish person stationed there might have acquired a deep anti-communism?

G&D was the lowest vote share in a by election for the Conservatives since the 1918 Reform Act.

And Matt Goodwin who DID NOT win

This sparks joy

okay, here it is, the five key takeaways from this by-election: 1. Denton Kebab House 2. The Crispy Cod, Denton 3. Reddish Tandoori, Gorton 4. Cottage Chippy, Gorton 5. The Continental Takeaway, Denton

Generally, I am fascinated that the country literally next door has a proven working model for how to do fash right for European tastes, and how to gain more and more ground every time - and those freaks decided to import the demented template from one ocean away

Well, at least I got the answer right

So just as a final word on this by election before polls close: No matter what the result, Gorton and Denton is supposed to be in a category of safe seat that should essentially render it uncompetitive. The fact that it isn't is a damning indictment of Labour's time in office.

Prime Video’s categorisations are thing of mystery at times. This also includes On The Beach, which I suppose does have a romance in it

Accidentally bought a netsuke at an auction

Roughly speaking the IT industry doesn’t realise how much the last 15 years have cratered public goodwill, right?

Is anyone doing exit polls for tonight or is it just not really feasible for a by election?

www.comedy.co.uk/people/news/... huh that’s a real shame even if it was one of those partnerships much larger than the sum of its parts

It’s a long time since I was tempted away from hearth and home and cleansed of my “provincial mores”. Nothing brings out the chippy northerner in me more than being patronised by an Old Etonian who wouldn’t know a northern community if it bit him on his nose.

Danger danger for some of you (by which I mean @jacktindale.bsky.social ) drouot.com/en/l/3231439...

I think the key to understanding why parts of the British right have ended up where they are is they self-identify as being more successful than they are.

About a decade ago I found a website for BOLLOCK ENTERPRISES - a US kitchen worktops company, hence their website bollocktops.com - which caused much amusement to everyone in the UK I showed it to. Anyway, went to look again and FOR SOME REASON they now geo-block access from the UK

I feel very seen, and so should you

Unavoidably reminded of the old joke "... in the maths department all they ask for are pencils and rubbish bins. In the philosophy department..."

what is it about snakes generally being thought untrustworthy? (or is this just a loan concept)

Now I’m at home, I find the vocal was the bloke behind the counter on the phone to his mate.

Heard an incredible record in a shop yesterday, sort of like an Arabic surf band but there was a bloke with a strong London accent muttering barely decipherable chat over the top of it. Blew my mind. Couldn’t believe how good it was.

Occurs to me that if you’re under 50 and know anything about Bader you’re far more likely to have known the demythologisation of him before the original myths

Being a rich mountainous country with lots of snow doesn’t hurt either

Now just imagining BraunuOrchid89's PixIv account

Quite enjoying this collection of 52 very short (1-3 pages) short stories/parables and the feminist viewpoint embedded in their surrealism

ahem; so it is.

Ah, yes, one of my favourite 'how did he get that past the editor' moments in a comparatively modern academic book.

Got a bottle of oolong tea from the local Asian supermarket - is packaging with both traditional and simplified characters on opposite sides a common thing these days?

You don't... um see Pepe Le Pew in WB's Looney Toon line-up much these days, do you?

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f... so... is American just phasing out paperback editions completely, even in bookshops? Not clear from this article where it s a sub-set of paperbacks or the whole concept

Much like Reform's "we'll deport 2 million people" they seem very confident that they can be open about these things and it will not have an effect on their polling.

And some of them are just pushing the racism to get to something for which there is absolutely no popular support for in Great Britain