What’s in a name? Curiosity. Perseverance. Those tiny devices of human ingenuity, bearing names that represent our better angels, were sent by NASA before the destructive parts of our culture’s shadow self commandeered the civil space agency. Those tools were well named.

The owners of this local shopping centre (regd office Brit Virgin Islands) de-flowered the flower-beds, and then de-treed them so the scores of cheery pied wagtails no longer had a place to roost. Now these mysterious plastic monoliths have appeared instead 😒 #plastic

BLUE NEWS DIGEST October 2025 Update Saturday, October 4 Every day the most important headlines on water and sanitation from around the world, compiled by the Blue Community Network, defending water as a common, public good and a human right. blue-community.net/2...

The Washington Monstrosity Birthed by and Encompassing all of the seven deadly sins - pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Can America Save Itself? #AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Breaking […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

another sorry consequence of fossil-fuel

🇵🇱🚗🇨🇿 It never ceases to fascinate me that Poland is a country of car addicts "without a car is like without a hand", but it's the Czechs who have a Car Driver Party likely to enter the parliament. Konfederacja covers this portfolio in Poland, but nowhere as prominently.

Today, Oct.2nd, is the anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi agents.

Trying to nail why so many people admire despots: does it give them a sense of "containment"? Then I saw this quote and it works the other way round too. Now can I stop thinking about it?

All Voice of America programming has ceased today. Four of the 48 language services still had skeletal output after the Kari Lake/DOGE purge. During previous government shutdowns most broadcasts were not halted and VOA operations were considered essential.

Cars take up space, produce a lot of noise, cause air pollution, and kill lots of people, but they give us the illusion of freedom so they’re totally worth it.

I had about 1000 pet stick-insects, once upon a time. 6 y ago several populations of false widows moved into the house, and 3 months ago the colony had dwindled to 6, and then expired. Since then, around 40 nymphs have appeared here & there. I need a big cage I can easily clear of eggs each day...

Cyberflashing is an existing offence, *already* illegal online. Making it a priority offence under the #OnlineSafetyAct is about what platforms have to do to police it. Awful framing from the responsible government minister.

You could have taken these headlines and put them together as a sci-fi piece, say 50 years ago, and written a few paragraphs under each, and it would have been a bleak & intriguing look forward. How would AI and its water guzzling be explained? #water

Field Notes from September in the so-called "Homeland," with epic moons, coral vine, killer bees, Instagram propaganda, and new species appearing in the suburban edges of Texas: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/homelands-...

A Red Kite, hoping for a tasty morsel of chihuahua, has been escorted from the area by a small fleet of jackdaws.

Come to think of it, running a pro-Russian party bloc with this logo and a clear "let's be the Soviet Union once again" message might not have been the best play the GRU could have made in this vote. 5/

Popular #UK Petition. Who *doesn't* despise that 'King of the Road' attitude? 🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕🚗🚕💨 📜'Change the #speed limit for single-carriageway rural roads from 60mph to 30mph' (~100/50 kph) petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

🇵🇱🍄 Welcome to the savage frontier.

People think rats = disease, but govt recorded just 175 leptospirosis cases 2021-23, 58 cases on average. UK's pop= 70 million! So you have literally less than a one in a million chance of catching a serious disease from a rat. (Most cases, 86%, were middle-aged men w/ poor hand-washing habits.)

Phrases are jumping out at me. Richard Murphy's blog, today, contained the phrase "algorithmic amplification of indignation", which is more or less a polite alternative to "shit stirring".

"When our rivers are restored, so are we" appeared in an article about African rivers, but I'm taking it as a bench-mark for the wellness of the World. The wellness always seems to be so far in the future, long after this imminent cataclysmic breakdown. #mood

Wait a minute, this doesn't taste like camel piss.

UK UNDER THREAT! 🚨 Russia is secretly preparing sabotage operations around the British Isles, studying underwater communications to threaten Europe’s internet, energy supply, and military communications. The Russian intelligence vessel Yantar operated in […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

"...we need to have an ethical framework that basically sees water as sacred..." 💦 How could that happen? By reversing our idea of our separation from Nature. #water #pollution #extraction blue-community.net/2025/09/27/m...

If you were in any doubt that compulsory digital IDs should be resisted as a matter of principle, Starmer’s arguments for them put the matter to rest. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

Re disingenuous reframing of legal immigration:

@tonia-antoniazzi.bsky.social Hi! Just letting you know how I feel about your government's mutterings regarding introducing digital I.D. in the UK: I've signed a petition opposing such a move, at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73... #UKPolitics #NoDigitalID

Former Bridgend MP Katie Wallis to face trial over alleged false passport Katie Wallis, formerly known as Jamie Wallis, who served as Conservative MP for Bridgend from 2019 until 2024, will stand trial next year accused of possessing a false passport while serving in Parliament.

We live in a "motornormative" world. What does this mean? Why does it matter? Well, it means that the world is designed on the basis that driving is the natural, normal way to travel. This matters quite a lot. More in today's blog post www.freewheeling.info/blog/motorno...

Bridger-Teton National Forest. This moment in time.

With a nod to that over-quoted poem, I'll say that I have been watching this particular shape moving its slow thighs & slouching towards the UK for several decades. A sense of recognition and horror. humanists.uk/2025/09/17/r...

attn: @billamend.bsky.social

Glad to see our garden spiders have at last fattened up #autumn 🕸️ 🍃

#Reform at each others' throats, this time in #Wales. Article also mentions the Voice of Wales party, of similar leanings, a new one on me. #murk wp.me/pcyZ3q-qAb

At this rate, coming up next week: Disney orders Marvel to retcon Black Panther as a white dude from Rhodesia who fights for the rights of Afrikaner farmers.

Stuff humans keep doing wrong: The curse of performative flower-giving ~ www.resilience.org/stories/2025...

I want my country back … from those who profit as public transport is run into the ground , those who get rewards for putting shit in the sea, those financiers and bankers who will destabilise a country for a quick buck, basically everyone Farage will stand up for if he wins an election

if you wear meta glasses you must also wear a propellor beanie hat its the law

Hey, @thamesvalleypolice.bsky.social - the criminal is *inside* the castle

From things I've seen recently, I think many people would benefit from reading this. It's short, and it's free. 👉 rdcu.be/dbFbB

I have very mixed emotions about this

So many alternatives to the hackneyed apps people cling to. I know not one person who doesn't flock after FB, WhatsApp... Mind you, I'm enmeshed in G👓gle. And I'm here: the less evil Twitter :D

'There have been **solitary** calls in parliament to address... workers' rights and conditions. Political party #PAN 's (People-Animals-Nature) only member of parliament António Valente💚 spoke up about people working outdoors...' Like the acronym #heatwaves #europe www.netweather.tv/weather-fore...

"Real people are not rational calculators.They are complex beings who care, who love, who sometimes act generously, and who sometimes act brutally" #economics #blog www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/09...

I'll be suspending my disbelief today and pretending that writing to my MP will have any effect. But if I don't write? The insidious double-bind. She's only ever replied to me once, and that was when she could give a 🎉 positive response 🙌 although that was a bit of a stretch. #UKPolitics

The pointlessness of UK constitutional commentary on US events Why there is little or nothing useful now to say on US constitutional events from a UK perspective And what UK now needs to focus on Substack emptycity.substack.com/p/the-pointl... Personal blog davidallengreen.com/2025/09/the-...

A cornucopia of watery stuff 💦 Loads of links to #water- related articles from all around 🌐 Not only in English How the Internet *should* be

Okay, time for some fun. Here's a little game—LOCKWISE a non-zero-sum abstract maze game. Let me know if you want more levels! nonzerosum.games/lockwise.html