Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.

So when did Trump learn that this was about to come out? About five minutes before he instructed his lawyers to threaten the BBC?

NEW The letter the BBC could send back to Trump A proposal for a reply to his $1bn claim By me. Enjoy. emptycity.substack.com/p/the-letter...

Manic day, so no time for a full analysis of the European Sleeper to run Paris-Berlin night trains from Spring 2026, so just this quick thread Important: chances this happens are GOOD, upwards of 80% Chances it can’t launch in spring and start is delayed is higher than it not happening at all

Can't believe the official Bluesky app still doesn't have repost muting - it's such an easy way (as when Twitter allowed 3rd-party apps) to trim your timeline without completely unfollowing interesting people.

Glad to be reminded that we got a few episodes into this, but must have got sidetracked. It's a LOT more interesting than the "forgotten curio with big names" reputation.

The number of English words from one Late Latin word is ridiculous 😆

NEW A close look at Trump's $1 billion claim against the BBC The litigation letter is weak, but his underlying practical position is not weak By me: emptycity.substack.com/p/a-close-lo... (Substack) (Non-Substack link to follow.)

Let’s make these two assholes famous. news.sky.com/story/police...

Six-and-a-half years ago, while researching something else at Caversham, I happened across a little fact and thought, "Oh, that's interesting, I must do something with that some day..." Today is that day! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

One strange thing about the BBC/Trump row is that the programme in question was actually made by an independent production company. Yes, the BBC producers and Panorama’s editor should have checked everything before it was broadcast. But… 1/3

Watch to the end

I think there's been a bit too much focus and pandering to these people now. 'legitimate concerns' 'silent majority' 'both sides' etc. Fuck 'em. Never known such a bunch of absolute fucking arseholes playing the victim and demanding everyone dances to their fucking tune. Fight fire with fire.

What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC. This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting. iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Happy birthday to Sesame Street, which began exactly 56 years ago on the NET network. Possibly the most important programme ever created by American television. Such trippy pre-titles. It really is a product of the late sixties. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPMA...

This has been an earworm for as long as I can remember. The Pointer Sistets, no less. youtu.be/HUL4T8WcFdA?...

When I was on @looksunfamiliar.bsky.social I chose this sequence from a 1979 Sesame Street episode - probably the first time I ever heard Philip Glass was this exclusive piece he wrote for this animated sequence, Geometry of Circles. It's never appeared anywhere else. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWw...

I’m surprised Davie has resigned over that Panorama edit (seems like a bit of a nothingburger to me) but I’m glad he’s gone. On his watch the BBC simply gave up the ghost on factual documentary TV, and decided the best way to serve its audience was to patronise it. 1/2

Could we have a BBC DG again who has made a programme, please?

The Great Enshittification continues: with audible simply removing loads of books from my library that I’ve paid for. Hundreds of bucks basically picked from my pocket Fuck you, Bezos, you chrome-domed motherfucker. My last reason for using your hateful company just expired. Subscription cancelled

This is great, appropriately haunting and unsettling. I didn't know about the two types of Field Punishment (Wikipedia can help you).

My textcast - where you read it, but there's also an accompanying playlist - is BACK. Some remarkable choices from @joannawyld.bsky.social that were new to me. Please share with anyone you think might be interested. Thank you. #FirstLastAnything

I think we need to stop calling it empathy and go back to calling it decency. It isn't a favour you're doing someone else, it's you proving that you aren't a fucking ghoul

"Spare a couple of quid mate? I need to get a taxi to the nearest branch of my bank because I've lost my phone with all my banking stuff on it, and I can't get into my car because... "

congrats to everyone for thinking this through before signing very big contracts to put it on every student’s device at the school or university you run

OVER A MILLION USERS DISCUSS SUICIDE WITH CHATGPT EVERY *WEEK* what the fuck are we DOING here

Hello yes I was wondering how I can apply to be increasingly isolated at a royal lodge, please? I assume I can bring my own books and cats?

ITV in talks to sell television business to Sky. Sky is owned by US-based Comcast, largest shareholders include Vanguard Group, BlackRock. CMA must block the takeover. No one must own more than one major media outlet. Need diversity and competition.

WAC wrong-headedness (that's the BBC Written Archives Centre) I've brought together the key links for the campaign against the changes which now make independent and exploratory research at WAC impossible - and why this matters. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/wac-wrong-he...

As a person with quite erratic handwriting, requiring concentration and a favourable wind to write neatly, I'm going to suggest that Guy Fawkes just got lucky the first time round.

Exactly 50 yrs ago tonight, the Sex Pistols' first gig, supporting Bazooka Joe at St Martin's College of Art. Bazooka Joe's frontman was Stuart Goddard (later Adam Ant), but also in the group were Danny Kleinman (later director of Smashie & Nicey - End of an Era) and backing singer Arabella Weir.

I regularly walk along a chunk of Stane Street (now a chalky dirt track roughly between Epsom and Dorking) and it's always impressive to think how old that route is.

Wow! 😮🤩 There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓 itiner-e.org We might have to have a lie-down.

Be interesting to see what kind of unpleasant reaction Australia gets from certain countries (with and without demented orange presidents) but I hope they hold firm.

Incredible as it may seem, today is the birthday of TWO men who each invented a musical instrument that was named after them by adding "phone" to the end of their name. John Philip Sousa (1854-1932): the Sousaphone Adolphe Sax (1814-1894): the Saxophone #musicsky #conicindence #synchronicity

If you aren't seeing skeets from some of your fave people, they might have been labeled "Rude" by bsky mods. Idk what they are thinking, I don't need a mommy to tell me who to be buddies with. Anyway, go into Settings > moderation > bluesky moderation (advanced) and turn Rude off.

You'll learn more about football in 30 seconds of listening to Lucy Ward than anything Joey Barton has ever said in his 20-year career. Always a pleasure when she's on the @footballweekly.bsky.social panel.

Joey Barton’s lawyer questioning Lucy Ward about his posts likening her and Eni Aluko to Fred and Rose West. Just about the most perfect response I have heard in a very long time.

This is such poor politics. The contribution is a loan at slightly below market rates, with a very modest risk attached (into a Facility managed by the World Bank). So it’s really modest. And could be a game-changer for forest protection. V. odd that the UK is burning its political capital on this.

ITS A COYOTE! CHASING A ROAD RUNNER!

"Mamdani" as a crash course in English phonotactics with sociolinguistics on the side, all in 101 seconds) 🐦🐦

Fireworks PIF countdown: number one! HAND (1976) This all-time classic PIF featured bandages that haunted a million nightmares and turned sparklers into something to be feared. It worked on me. Happy Bonfire Night!

I know it does happen occasionally, but given the general 10-year trend, it's quite a thing to wake up to some global political good news, isn't it? Well done, New Yorkers!

“Relentlessly campaigning for this honour was harder work than building a stadium in intense heat for 45p an hour”, quipped the multimillionaire

In important news from history today, it is (although I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you) the joyful 10th birthday of this unimprovable tweet

It’s fascinating comparing the front page coverage of the Huntingdon train attack (below) with how the British press treated another case 30 years ago. I’m referring to the 1995 Netto supermarket attack in Birmingham in which a man stabbed 10 people, killing one of them.

London's Ringways are a whole network of unbuilt urban motorways threaded through the capital. There's never been a complete map of them,not even one made by their designers, until now. Today we're publishing the Ringways Map from @roads.org.uk to let you see in the city that London nearly became.

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

Strictly speaking, my first single (45p, Woolworths, Lincoln) was bought for me. I can only remember the first album I bought with my own money (£3.99, WH Smith, Lincoln).

Disappointed a politician won’t make an extreme and hasty decision in the immediate wake of a shockingly unusual event