ruin two bands by combining them: the the yes

General reminder of the words of proud son of Virginia, Major-General George H Thomas. The "Rock of Chickamauga". Who, unlike Lee, stayed loyal to the Union. Post-war he had views on 'Lost Cause' and the damage it would do to America, unchecked. A “counterfeit varnish of patriotism” he called it.

I once saw Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell packing stuff into the back of her car a few cars over at the airport.

I am in Cambridge next month / tickets here www.junction.co.uk/events/robin...

Good morning! 🪶

Yes, exactly! If they can't render a joke literally, they find one with the same spirit, that advances the plot in the same way. I also highly recommend Bell's translation of The Life And Opinions Of The Tomcat Murr, which is properly hilarious.

THIS. Read Asterix in English, and see how Hockridge and Bell don’t just transliterate but remake whole puns and wordplays that sparkle in English culturally as well as linguistically. Flawless work that simply cannot be done without true understanding of *the concept of meaning*

When you gather the data, you can see the consistent dampening or encouraging effects of bad and good cultures. Every time. We can't problem-solve well in a state of threat. No matter what choice we think is right for our orgs, we need developers to be able to face this in a supportive frame.

We're all listening to Vince Guaraldi. 'Tis the season

Muppet RoboCop already exists: youtu.be/i-9MbhK4tt8

Making sure everyone knows that Kate Bush's 1979 Christmas special is available to stream on YouTube and it's VERY worth your time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6BP...

I did an UnderPile about the story behind Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to _A Charlie Brown Christmas_ and why the music touches us so deeply. There are also some words of wisdom from the record's potty-mouthed drummer.

I mean, you shouldn't laugh...

Well, it’s the day after Wallace and Gromit rode again – and it’s the 31st anniversary of the first appearance of the greatest sound effect in the history of the motion picture, so here’s the story of how (I found out how) they made it...

"Why do we have to take ethics classes for a computer science degree?" This is why. And frankly, we should be failing more students for inadequately demonstrating their understanding of the topic. Let's review some fun historical examples of why "No, actually quality will continue to matter."

Miss Marple previewed.

i post this story every christmas, and will keep doing so until it stops making me cry merry christmas xx

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[ wol ]

This is the barn owl stained glass window in St Thomas’s Church at Harty on the Isle of Sheppey. Sure did hear those last night in the moments when I drifted in and out of sleep! #NightInAChurch #Sheppey #WinterSolstice

In these challenging times someone might need one of them: Childline: 0800 1111 Samaritans: 116 123 Domestic Violence Hotline: 0808 2000 247 Mind: 0300 123 3393 Age UK: 0800 169 6565 Alcoholics Anonymous : 0800 9177 650 Cruse Bereavement Care: 0808 808 1677 MH text support: 85258

Early in my drumming journey I discovered that Don Ellis had two drummers in a very like fashion

Mathematicians get their kicks on 8.1240384

Submitted for your consideration ...

This is an absolutely terrible idea. Today I learned about the French joke of asking an English speaker, "where is Brian?" It's about a language textbook, rather like "la plume de ma tante est dans le jardin". How do you get from Brian to pens in gardens? THAT'S the job of a translator.

Just remembered this gem #TheArchers The Archers - When Victoria Wood wrote for The Archers - BBC Sounds share.google/fvwwcTTFrUL6...

Reading this thread with wider and wider grin.

Anyway i went through a bit of a phase of cross-referencing 50s 'fictional' novels with military medal citations and holy shit did it throw up some fascinating stuff i really need to write up or podcast about at some point.

Do you remember this? Back in 2019 *this post* caused quite a stir on social media.

A friend & colleague of my father sent me this. When he started managing a box office 40+ years ago, he felt like he didn’t understand the entertainment business, so my dad made him this drawing, which he kept for his entire career, which eventually led to managing concert halls.

Was really challenging to participate in this, but I think I was able to pen something real, important, and personal to my experience in AI. Remember that GenAI is not *all* of AI nor all of what it should be. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1...

Meteor last night, most likely a Geminid.

this was a weekend of unrelenting horrors, but if you had a small nice thing happen I would like to hear about it maybe you read a great book or saw a cute dog walking down the street or your soup turned out really good? please share

Every time your brain tries to frame trauma recovery as "sh*t I have to do," challenge it w/ the reframe, "tools that keep me from having to do sh*t I don't ever want to want to do again." Recovery is a roadmap to our authenticity, not a list of rules & obligations.

Happy 250th Birthday, Jane Austen!

Oh man

I'm reading Terry Winograd's magnificent thesis—the state of the art of AI for 1971—and he consistently spells "auxilliary" with a double-L, at a time when no computer system could really cope with a misspelling

And here's who took that picture of him

We salute you, Charles Clyde Ebbets

the only sensible use-case for ai involves closed, quality-controlled datasets, and the fact that literally every ai company wants to scrape every word, image, sound and film in history really proves that they don't understand their own tech

Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."

Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is, in fact, a tortology

Can't stop thinking about whoever took this photo though. Was there a neverending sequence of photographers across the skyline? All in spats?

Here he is taking the photo.

a masterpiece. youtu.be/TmyjzvQv5bA?...

@naomiaklein.bsky.social's Doppelganger touches on this exact matter quite a lot, among many other timely and important things.

Good on Penn Jillette. Having to come to terms with your entire political identity and philosophy being wrong is not easy and most people could never do it.

From the archives - a drawing I did of Haeckel's comparison of vertebrate embryos - for my book on human evolution & development, the Incredible Unlikeliness of Being. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...