'I’ve analysed Sing To God cinemaesthetically, in other words as if it were a sequence of films. It’s a deliberately unorthodox approach, but let’s be unorthodox. The music deserves it.' Many Happy Returns to #Cardiacs' Sing To God, which turns 30 today! buff.ly/mwjBrAU

Our Friends in the North is getting a runout on BBC Four, starting from Weds 24 June. First ep preceded by a Remembers... programme with Peter Flannery. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

Semi Finale of the Baltic Cup between Lithuania and Latvia. Beautiful anti-Putin message from both sides! Slava Ukraini!

A Swedish folk song popped into my head, so of course I disappeared down a YouTube rabbit hole. Plenty of really nice versions by local choirs... I used to sing this (v badly) in choir lessons during my student year in Sweden. I barely understood the words when I started, but loved the melody.

PITCH: a car repair place that also has a library for you to use while they're fixing your car, called Bon MOTs

Hardly a new point, I know, but these race riots are another example that, while Starmer is up in a froth about banning children from social media, the biggest danger is adults having their brains cooked by rage-baiting misinformation on Facebook and Twitter and being radicalised into violence.

A worthy cause:

Ah! Commiserations to erroll musk then for splitting up with his girlfriend who was also his daughter

"Lineker... has signed a reported £14m deal with Netflix to stream... from a studio overlooking New York City’s Times Square." But it's still a podcast, competing in the podcast market. Even for people who listen to podcasts (eg me) the primary concern will always be "is the match on TV?"

"Yet while the BBC’s Salford studio may lack the stateside pizazz of its rivals – it is round the corner from a Greggs and a Holiday Inn – the corporation may yet win the battle for eyeballs." Well yeah, we have *the actual games* www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Some proper football news now: my friends from FC Apicoles Tilffois, the wokest, friendliest, funniest club in the world, have just harvested their first jars of honey. If you don't know their delightful story, read on. Vive Liège!

there were already many reasons to do this but Elon Musk actively encouraging racist violence in Belfast should be the final straw for every UK government institution to stop doing business - including being on X - with him in any way, and for him to be barred from entry to the country.

If you are an MP dithering over whether to stay on X, consider that its owner is egging on people who want to kill you.

Very sad news from the brewing world. Rob was a legend in many ways and alongside Martin Kemp when they founded the Pitfield Brewery back in the 1980s and won Champion Beer of Britain with Dark Star. RIP. www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2026...

the people behind this should be tried under the harshest anti terror laws

Nice to see Swindon's finest pub, the Glue Pot, at 1m40s. The railway village (I never knew it was built from stone from the Box tunnel) is still a highlight. Can't believe he didn't mention the County Ground Hotel, @chpearson.bsky.social !

I was looking for info about a particular muscle and how it could be aggravated by cycling, but I'm not sure I'm going to trust activeposture.co.uk on any matters of human anatomy... (from the "just take a photo of your mate rather than using AI" pile)

Ogoni activists in the Niger Delta have asked me to run a small crowdfunder to pay for Hell t-shirts that can be given to participants of the Niger Delta Climate Change Conference later this month (& billboards!) Trying to raise £2k, I've put in £300 to start it. Donate below ⬇️

One of the obvious problems with a under-16 social media ban is that it won't work. (60%+ of Australian under-16s are still using these platforms). But it will make people feel like something has been done so they won't tackle the content, which is the real issue.

A lot of these adults are also very unwilling to engage in any serious conversation about how unquestioned car dominance has ended up making it nigh impossible for kids and young people to play and socialize outside. And I suspect that's because they know it would involve changing their own habits.

“Kids are on the phones all day and we think it’s bad for them!” okay well how about you make it possible for them to do literally anything else

I don't want to brag but I've read all of the Guardian's best books list AND the Guardian's unofficial readers' picks list. Now to read the books on those lists.

You used to go to websites and they would have guestbooks that people would sign like it was a bed and breakfast

Stuck indoors on a rainy day? Why not explore LISTEN WITH OTHER, slightly strange short story podcasts with short episodes, no ads, many with original music by @leesparey.bsky.social and one guest: @raynewman.bsky.social. Find all nine series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and at listenwithother.co.uk

It was a real pleasure to sit down with @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social and fill out a World Cup bracket. www.theguardian.com/football/vid...

This has lived in my head for 2 joyful years 🙏🏼 @jonnymorris.bsky.social

Absolutely obsessed with this album at the moment, having first encountered the cello concerto via @leahbroad.bsky.social's Slow Listening on Substack (another recommendation there). I'm now hoovering up as many other Tabakova recordings as I can find.

Right, can't put this off any longer. Only thing to decide: do I go by pure instinct or do some Proper Research? (btw, if you're looking for a prediction competition, I've been doing Dave's in World Cups and Euros for over 20 years, and they're always fun: matchwise.co.uk)

More than a quarter of UK musicians lost all EU work since 2021, report finds. Average tour earnings down 45%, with nearly three-fifths of musicians saying touring in Europe is no longer viable. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j... @theguardian.com

The driver on our Bilbao-Madrid bus has just said anyone playing their mobiles without headphones will be treated as terrorists and dealt with accordingly. ¡Viva España!

So, AI text detectors are about as reliable as AI text generators. I use emdashes and triads all the time. I'd be unfairly screwed if a prospective publisher ran my prose through Pangram or a similar tool.

Reform also want to repeal the handgun ban, raising the distinction possibility that they think the best way to eat a steak is to shoot it.

english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.

Anthony Head RIP, and Jon Snow's Alzheimer's announcement. A bad day for good chaps.

Bizarre to get all worked up about facts. The article containing the facts he is shouting at is here White hens consume less feed & have a longer laying life than brown hens, so a lower carbon footprint. The colour of the yolks is determined by the content of the feed apple.news/AdEhrui8zTXm...

Me: Thank God they're taking Putellas off. Spanish head coach: Tell you what, let's give Aitana a run out #Lionesses

I am SO sick of headlines like this. The public sees "AI" as being LLMs/ChatGPT, not an ML algorithm - and articles like this mislead the public into thinking that LLMs are discovering novel things. It's a cool thing! I'm excited! But it is lazy reporting to suddenly use "AI" as such a broad term

This exactly. The closest I got to a response (waaay back in Brexit-era Twitter) was a slightly sheepish mention of some kind of risqué golf club joke, which was (a) probably cringey back then and (b) still not forbidden in any way.

I'm not even sure what a dirty burger is, and I'm certainly not going to eat one. It's like advertising Nine-Bob Note Accountancy Services or something.

An amazing find in Perthshire- an adult Robin repeatedly feeding a recently-fledged Dipper! Interspecific feeding is recorded from time-to-time, but it's rare and a phenomenal thing to witness first-hand. Huge thanks to James Clements for reporting it. #BirdingScotland

I have questions.

Bagpuss house. Emily’s shop window. Even the pingwings barn is still there.

Classicist here to inform you all that this is ancient Greek for summoning a cat

Well, to begin with today, it’s the 23rd anniversary of the announcement that David Seaman would be leaving Arsenal. Or as Sky Sports briefly put it:

Since this doesn't seem to have been noted as much as it should... A founder of Raise the Colours, the flag-obsessed ‘patriot’ group, currently faces a murder charge. RTC members were present at last night's Southampton protest, where the far right crassly sought to recruit over Nowak's murder.

The canal restoration movement began by taking the law into its own hands like this. More power to them.

I mean, I love Riga Balsam (I'm a sucker for all those pungent European liqueurs and digestifs) but "on Ærø, Balsam is diluted with aquavit"... JUST TAKE ME THERE NOW

So trivially and unnecessarily cruel. I'd suggest that people rush the bars and steal the water, but only the innocent, underpaid public-facing staff would suffer.

I'm aware that I have previously pronounced this rain as "good for the garden", but as a firm believer that we should be able to change our opinions as new evidence arises, I am now thoroughly annoyed with the state of this.