This is one of the best articles on this subject.

I was considering watching this, but I happened to catch the end credits of an episode and it stated that they used AI for some of the realisation, and I'm really disappointed 😔

I thought my wood floors weren't too dusty. Then I got a hoover with a little light on the front and... dear god.

A drummer in an extremely niche folk grunge band who accidentally start a cult.

I moved out of Eva Green's way in a crowd scene for Dark Shadows (whilst dancing in silence to the actual Alice Cooper miming on stage).

Regularly heard this from my parents. See also: "You make a better door than a window".

Citizenship stripping has become a political tool for authoritarians to signal their credentials. No matter how abhorrent someone’s tweets, or views, the idea REMOVING THEIR CITIZENSHIP should be the response is deranged. Philp & the right in general have lost the plot. #r4today

I don't really think I need to read a newspaper article telling me what 5 things could spark WW3 in 2026.

I've spent almost 4 hours at soft play today. And my child, the Duracell bunny, is still going.

These kinds of people are always very happy to sacrifice OTHER people for their principles...

The world’s largest shadow library—which is increasingly funded by AI developers—shocked the Internet this weekend by announcing it had “backed up Spotify” & started distributing 300 terabytes of metadata & music files in bulk torrents. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

We have such a hard time separating beauty from goodness (and, of course, lack of beauty from evil). Disney didn’t start it, but it sure as hell perpetuated it.

You can pretend to have your shit together if you want. They don’t really check

post a perfect album from the 90s that isn’t nirvana, pearljam, soundgarden or alice in chains

We’re hiring!🎻 The LSO is looking for a talented tutti cellist to join our cello section. 📅 Application deadline: Sunday 11 January 2026 🔗 Find out more and apply here: https://www.musicalchairs.info/jobs/52461

Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather

Deafened by how loud my parents have the TV on.

Number of mince pies made so far this season: about 60. You'd think I wouldn't need any more than that, but you would be very wrong.

Childbirth under attack: how women and babies became targets in conflicts around the world

Was just googling an author from my childhood and it's kind of wild to me that the publisher put that quote on the front cover 😬

Okay, this is fascinating and absolutely fabulous if it can be extended: Virologist builds a beer that delivers a yeast-based vaccine against a pretty serious virus.

I'm not sure exactly what 'peak x' this is, but I had a letter published in Private Eye this week, and I'm kind of stoked 😁

British Quakers are refusing room bookings from terfs as policy. If you were waiting for an org to stand up for LGBTQIA+ rights, and unflinchingly withstand bullying and lawfare, here you go, friends. Good luck to the raging bigots, they'll get nowhere with threats.

Thinking about this whole 'AI just helps speed up the creative process' thing... When I was a child, pre Google, I spent HOURS listening to my favourite songs on repeat, just so I could write down the lyrics. That laborious process was glorious and skill-enhancing, in so many ways.

The BMA has come out swinging for the rights of all trans people in healthcare settings and beyond - both patients and healthcare providers. Genuinely brilliant news amongst the bad - please read it and share, and remember that we are NOT alone. Not by a long stretch.

My top five favourite words to pronounce like they’re Greek philosophers…   5. Monocles 4. Bicycles 3. Popsicles 2. Obstacles 1. Testicles

Just found out from my 5yo that SOMEONE ate all the remaining class advent sweets from the advent train (a different child would get one each day)... Apparently no one was caught chocolate faced, or owned up. The drama! I am invested.

Am in that bleugh illness place where you don't really feel like the paracetamol's doing much, and then you realise oh yes it is, because it's wearing off and I now feel even worse. 😞

Snodland! 😍

'Britain spends significantly less per head on culture (widely defined) than almost every country in Europe. Greater Berlin alone spends more on culture than the entire combined arts and culture budgets of ACE and the London mayor.'

I JUST managed to print and post all my Xmas cards before the royal mail deadline, despite my raging cold. Finally got round to doing the Clifton Suspension Bridge this year 😁

The argument that banning someone who has deliberately used their car as a weapon from driving is too severe a limitation of their mobility & opportunity for employment should be a damning indictment of how society treats people who don't or can't drive - who are disproportionately disabled &/ poor.

Morons on X are salivating over the prospect of Trump destroying the BBC so that its role as state broadcaster can be taken over by - yes, GB News. That would be the GB News that produces such great documentaries, drama, comedy, light entertainment, local radio, national radio ...

And inspiration for this most lovely of songs: "Monday I discover things like sodium and chlorine, Mixing up my chemicals - the stink it is appalling! This is potassium - found by Davy"

I wouldn't drink that water, but I do still remember walking ahead whilst on a family hiking holiday abroad, reaching a water trough with a fountain and drinking. When my parents caught up, my mum warned us, rather too late, that the sign in German said "not drinking water"...

Today we unveil our new composers' hub 🙌 It brings together opportunities, concerts featuring world premieres, funding and bursary information, interviews with composers, and more. Take a look here: www.alternativeclassical.co.uk/composers-hub

Boom! "The Arts Council should replace Let's Create" www.gov.uk/government/p...

Given the BBC is publicly funded, this is Donald Trump suing you & me. It’s a pathetic cry-bully attack on journalism by a wannabe dictator & an attack on every British person. And our far right politicians & pundits are cheering him on, of course. #r4today

In an effort at something good on the internet today: A thread on Mr KJC, gingerbread architect of the early 21st century. Mr KJC got his beginnings like so many gingerbread architects: with a kit house for the kids. Kind of fun but the premade pieces are dry and nasty, only technically edible.

Reiner as both a political and cultural figure is a grand lesson in how art matters. It’s not just the “art films” that matter, it’s the fun stuff too, the silly stuff, the seemingly inconsequential. It all matters because we matter, it’s all that deep because so are we.

Thanks to gender-blind casting, I the king with gold in my second primary school. I left my first primary before I was old enough to be in the Nativity, but only blonde girls ever got to be Mary or Angel Gabriel there 😬

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

A bit of light reading for the weekend.

Spent the morning going back to an unfinished track of mine that I've been letting rest for a while, and it's been fun... I think. I knew it needed 'more' but what kind of more? I think I'm getting it. It's about now when I think another set of ears would be helpful.

5 yo: "I want to watch the film with the little girl who runs away from her mummy who is shouting at her, then the mummy drives in a car to find her. Her daddy is a bit sad. Then she has to find a diamond. And there are some mice".

No one believes me when I tell them Croydon (land of my birth) is actually Crocus Valley - but here is the proof!

"What did the Romans ever do for us?" Etc etc 😁

Very much looking forward to watching my child in his Nativity play today - in his key supporting role as first camel 😍

For the past few months, my husband has been playing violin duets weekly with an older amateur violinist who has Alzheimer's, and it's been incredible to see the impact it's had. The man's playing is improving, and he now enjoys practising several times a day. What a gift music is. ❤️