It: Welcome to Derry/Londonderry

Note to self youtu.be/orQKfIXMiA8

I hate the clocks going backwards and forwards. When I was young, we didn’t even have clocks. If we got hungry, we ate each other. We were poor, but we were happy. Good times. Not that we had time. It hadn’t been invented. We had to make our own time out of string and cholera.

Watching @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social for the first time in 3 or 4 years, why is it so bright now?

In her new book Independent, former Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre writes that party infighting, bias and disloyalty drove her to leave the Democratic Party. n.pr/3LkEZjO

Yer da finally used that vistaprint coupon. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

I posted a package using the “Royal Mail Tracked 24” service on Saturday. Today, I received an email that said it will arrive tomorrow (Thursday). They do say “next working day” is an “aim, not a guarantee” but 4 working days is stretching things somewhat.

As in, "should we do affirmative action" and "is affirmative action legal" are two separate questions that basically nobody else except americans tries to answer by punting to the second one

one of the weirder american traits is immediately taking any complex philosophical questions to "what has the supreme court said about this". like whether free speech covers covid misinformation or whether affirmative action is good is a deeper question than "is this legal"

"one more quick analysis"

Very much enjoyed @ppfideas.bsky.social "Films of Ideas" @ Regent Street Cinemas on Thursday. It was my first time watching the film Rosa Luxemburg, which was excellent on its own. The addition of the podcast recording with @leaypi.bsky.social was fascinating and really helped provide context.

“Marinated in social media” is a good phrase. An accurate description of a lot of us.

Cheung finished with this moving song: “You pushed away the severe storm. You made us believe, C̶o̶m̶r̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶K̶i̶m̶ ̶J̶o̶n̶g̶-̶i̶l̶ President Donald Trump. We cannot live without you. Our country cannot exist without you!”

Is this totalitarianism?

Business analyst, data scientist, data analyst

I arrived back in the UK this morning and was startled to discover the entire economy has reoriented around the production and sale of flags. #ukpol #flags #vexillology #ANationOfVexillologists

Rosemonde Kouassi saved Sunday.

ABSOLUTE CINEMA. A moment for THAT Rosemonde Kouassi game-winner 🎥

perennial reminder that most other countries don’t regularly shut themselves down

This seems massively undervalued. Congratulations to the billionaires involved for making more billions when they sell their shares.

Neat argument that desire rather than misinformation is the driver of fascism. "Fascistic Dream Machines" by @clairelwilmot.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Clickbait-style headlines like this need to stop.

Somebody needs to do a study on the number of Leeds supporters on Bluesky. Is this platform radicalizing football fans?

Why does confidential data often mean being subjected to the worst user experience imaginable? Surely there are better options than a janky remote Windows installation. #databs

Yesterday I bought the dip and became an American citizen.

Peter Mandelson was either going to be sacked or the first president of a new American republic. Let's see how this plays out.

Good column on its own terms but the way out of this crisis isn’t through the traditional political horse race.

This is a colossal waste of resources.

I have talked to these people. They’re terrified fools whose mental schema of public opinion is worse than you could ever imagine, who cling to consultant reports because they don’t know what to do and it feels safer than trying to fight back. As bad as you think they are they’re worse.

Democrats are actively refusing to treat Trump’s military campaign against American cities as a crisis, because they’re in thrall to a bunch of idiot pollsters who tell them to only ever react to Trump across a tiny range of kitchen-table issues. The Democratic Party is a huge part of the problem.

90% of elected Dems do not know how to fight, do not want to fight, did not run for office to fight, and are not smart enough or principled enough to fight. They entered office so they could fiddle with policy and feel important, they want to hide until it blows over, and will find excuses to do so.

The resignation was probably inevitable. It's been done very efficiently and sensibly. She'll be back I hope.

She showed that a single mum from a council estate can become deputy prime minister, while vaping and going clubbing. She's a threat to their narrow-minded buttoned-up classist bullshit.

Rayner is absolute class. She's been a bit silly in organising her taxes, but that's not why they hate her. They hate her because she did not know her place.

Trump

I've got a blog out today on @alpsblog.bsky.social about flipped learning: why and how I do it, what the students think and a bit of advice on how to go about it. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks to @roberttalbert.bsky.social for the prompts! activelearningps.com/2025/08/11/f...

It looks like one of those dead privately owned "public" spaces.

reminds me of those grey floor home remodels

I was very surprised to receive a "pre-read" from someone's AI transcription service today. I happened to be in an earlier meeting with this person's bot, I didn't opt-in to receiving anything from the service. #ai #annoyance

my new ai device will sit in a beer garden that backs onto a small river and drink three to five pints on a sunny late summer afternoon for you, leaving you free for more meetings and business calls

One-note.

Spotted in Washington, DC.

Hugh Muir recalls the response of London Mayor Ken Livingstone to 7/7 from Singapore. I agree that, despite his flaws & failings at other times, that this was an important message www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When did the term “fan activation” leave the marketing planning meeting to become the public-facing name for things? I’ve noticed it most around sports events but I’ve also seen variations used to refer to municipal events. It feels really cynical.

Balancing moderation and ideological goals is important and not simple. But it’s hard to run a healthy political party when your major donors and congressional leaders hate their voters and get most of their political worldview from Twitter.

This will be a disaster. Governments at all levels have far too many political employees as it is, they operate in a repeating series of electorally mandated coups d'état.

I hadn't considered this possibility until now. 👍

My unoriginal comment is that this will not end well. Easier to start wars than end them, let alone on your terms. (As Hamas found out). Unforeseen consequences. What’s the Israel/US strategy for the day after? Do they even have one? I have zero confidence in Trump’s national security team.