Your fact of the day: The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in six American citizens suffers a food-borne illness annually. In the UK, the figure is one in 132. bylinetimes.com/2020/02/28/f...

now, it might seem odd that political commentators who advocated for the uk to leave the eu because of their belief in “the nation state” to be supportive of america’s annexation of venezuela, but what you have to remember is that those people didn’t actually think that, they were lying for money

We're calling for submissions to the Black Archive from disabled authors and authors of colour, who we know have been underrepresented in the range. Please spread this as widely as you can, as we want it to reach as many eligible authors as possible. Thank you. obversebooks.co.uk/blackarchive...

People say it’s odd that governments still use Twitter/X to communicate, but it’s only like how the John Major government announced its ongoing Maastricht negotiations through the readers’ erotic stories pages in Men Only magazine.

Fascinating thread but I don't feel it's that complicated? This is what happens when you go out of your way to performatively kick your own coalition in the hope of impressing voters who never liked you to start with.

The next few years will see unprecedented unemployment, homelessness, and inequality in the West as AI makes billionaires even richer and the rest of us even poorer. I have no idea how you can offer "bold change" to counter that if you're terrified of offending those same billionaires.

It's not about immigration, never has been. Immigration is just the acceptable way into a debate about far darker policies. Just look at how remigration is seeping into acceptable discourse. Labour needs to stop chasing these voters, they're gone, no way to satisfy them that isn't monstrous

So help me, I just made Fanny Cradock's mincemeat omelette ...and kind of enjoyed it

Brutal last line.

Perhaps the moment childhood innocence can truly be pronounced dead is the first time you take the satsuma Santa has left in your stocking and put it straight back in the fruit bowl he got it from.

It’s Christmas, and we’ve got you some Fruit of the Loom. #DoctorWho

A happy Hely Hutchinson day to all who celebrate

We round up our #ChristmasCracker countdown with two jokes. The first is from team member, dramatherapist Andy Holloway and Roundabout supporter James Lark. If you are a fan of #chess this one one for you! 🤣Thank you Andy and James youtube.com/shorts/ppNjt...

Happy Otherstide! How else could we celebrate than getting the family together at home and nobody - Housekeeper Joe, Ordinal @jameslark.bsky.social & wanderer @michaelmills.bsky.social - agreeing on anything? The classic of repute or a complete borefest? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

We’ve only gone and got our own place.

Like, subscribe & listen to the ALL NEW Hamster Book Club Podcast…!! This is a labour of love and the perfect jumping on point for fans of the books both new & old 😊🐹📖

YOU WILL LISTEN! YOU MUST LISTEN!

The Hamster Book Club gets its own podcast! If you love Doctor Who books, jump on board now!

Ah! Great times to be had listening to these :) if you grew up reading Doctor Who VMA’s, VNA’s, PDA’s and EDA’s then this is the podcast for you :)

The Hamster has spawned....

I’m not one to blow my own trumpet but I think Joe & I did a bloody good job on this review. The interview following it is nothing short of delightful. Very proud to part of this opening episode, so please go give it a listen…!!!

Hamster Book Club has a spanking brand new jazzy look! Laughs aplenty, along with dep dives into the world of Doctor Who literature.

The IEA got everything they wanted and believed in when Liz Truss came to power, and her government and their ideology didn't survive two months of contact with reality before being totally exposed and collapsing. Total frauds, but still screaming that they need to be the ones in charge.

That there Joe has only gone and built us a new playground for all our book chat. And you’re very, very welcome to join us all there too.

And the second debut day release - EarthWorld by Jacqueline Rayner (featuring @felixfrazer.bsky.social) - featuring bonus Jacqueline Rayner interview! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

A special bumper episode - Unnatural History by Kate Orman & Jonathan Blum (featuring @steedstylin.bsky.social) and a bonus @kateorman.bsky.social Interview! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

"A hamster with a book club would.." ah, never mind. Just LOOK at what's arrived !!! An all-new chapter begins with this exclusively literate Doctor Who podcast, whose library is actually bigger on the inside. Complete with a theme tune by @jameslark.bsky.social and artwork by @devondan.bsky.social!

Welcome to the Hamster Book Club - the Doctor Who Book Podcast! Debate, laughter, friendship, insight…we love Doctor Who books and we hope you do too! With artwork from @devondan.bsky.social & a new theme by @jameslark.bsky.social Like & Subscribe ❤️ podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

We made a mistake by calling the output of AI ‘slop’. In academia it is now looking much more like toxic pollution, on the verge of laying waste to previously fertile plains. Suing for royalties is only a small part of the battle.

Coming soon...

Just say yes.

Contains the saddest little story about an advent calendar you ever did hear.

Hamster Book Club - The Chimes of Midnight @jameslark.bsky.social @michaelmills.bsky.social Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a Hamster Book Club Christmas Special! And this time we are seasonally themed with the Christmas chiller, The Chimes of Midnight! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Slides from a Home Office presentation for employers on “earned settlement” — note the case studies: they explicitly play the “good migrant” versus “bad migrant” narrative. Guess which category Sarah, the American, is placed in?

Anyone keen to see Norman Lovett cosplaying Nord from The Greatest Show In The Galaxy? Very well. You'll find him 46 minutes into this festive treat. youtu.be/Scvd6_o4GPM?...

Another AI triumph

Stealworkers

I was talking about AI at a regulatory conference yesterday and someone put it perfectly when they said AI is actually manifesting the ‘grey goo’ fear from the early days of nanotechnology. Instead of matter, information is the thing being turned into homogeneous gunk.

An unknown keeps popping up on various music feeds authoritatively (and wrongly) stating the Star Wars theme is in E flat major (rather than B flat, the key that renowned and knowledgable composer John Williams correctly wrote it in). & it occurs to me that the issue of AI-spewed misinformation 1/4

My Amstrad CPC464, bought with the spoils of the 1987 Royal Mail Young Letter Writer of the Year competition, saw my family through nearly ten years of computering (we were late adopters of the PC). And actually it still more or less works to this day (the cassette player struggles a bit).

I keep thinking about all of the people who were NOT hired as part of this exercise. All the real world production crew. The actors. The caterers supporting real world shoots. So many people with real skills not being paid. So. Many. Creative. People. Not. Being. Paid.

Happy international human rights day, everyone.

Despite what you hear from fossil fuel-funded politicians, the U.K has just generated a record amount of clean, domestic wind energy. Enough to power 23 million homes! U.K decarbonisation policy is a recipe for energy security.

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’

What really strikes me is their utter inability to see how this sort of language is not just morally wrong, but very clearly helps their opponents.

Streeting to next launch inquiry into “over-diagnosis” of left-handedness. “Never used to be like this,” he insists.

I find it astonishing that any music journalist, personal taste notwithstanding, would find it plausible that the Spice Girls made bad albums. You wonder if they've actually listened to very much music at all.

Coming Jan 1st - Hamster Book Club - we’ve got a wealth of previously published episodes, new episodes, interviews, artwork and a spanking new theme and original audio stories! @devondan.bsky.social @jameslark.bsky.social J’adore Doctor Who Books!