#OnThisDay 29 May 1991 - FAST FORWARD The boys, Mrs Monroe and her bike journey to Grange Hill in the back of a delivery truck in #GrangeHill. "An' what's a flippin' flappin' track when it's at 'ome!" in #EastEnders. #ChrisPackham meets Harold Bishop at the zoo in TV Centre.

Monday

Our entire economy is being artificially propped up by astrology for men: AI, crypto, sports betting, and prediction markets. It's an economy shaped entirely by male insecurity and lack of impulse control, and we'll all pay the price.

Tony Blair is "contemptuous of democracy, greases up to wealth and power and lets the poor go to hell. He is ruthless, mendacious, slippery and shameless...." @georgemonbiot.bsky.social in 2009, when it was already well time for "arresting Blair": www.monbiot.com/2009/10/26/a...

Midway between #MushroomMonday and #FungiFriday, so it must be WebcapWednesday, or something similar! Before I plan this week's #fungi walk, some finds from last week's, up at Mount Gnomon, #Tasmania! #mycology #mushroom #FungiFriends #nature #Australia #mycelium (Names in ALT text)

Plenty of #fungi photos to come from my weekend #hike up Mount Gnomon, but in the meantime, some summit views and some of the many biomes I walked through: #tree-fern forest, eucalypts, melaleuca, and moss lawns, plus a whole lawn of tiny coral fungi! #Tasmania #nature #mountain #Australia

#OnThisDay 23 May 1994 20 STREETWISE FACTS TO WELCOME BACK DEIDRE #AnneKirkbride makes a triumphant return to #CoronationStreet tonight after beating cancer. Here are 20 things you never knew about Anne, who is 40 next month . . .

There are days when I miss being an editor. I loved writing headlines. Whoever did this, I hope they took the rest of the day off.

#OnThisDay 22 May 1991 - FAST FORWARD Staff shortages bite deep in the #GrangeHill cartoon. Arthur's greyhound is off to the races in #EastEnders the cartoon. The wetter the better for #Sonia in TV Centre. Plus, The Proggy Pages.

They showed this version in schools for maybe 15 years and literally no one in my class had any reaction to a black woman being in it, someone yesterday said Eartha Kitt was Helen of Troy in 1950 and I looked it up and it was Orson Welles who cast her because she was a cabaret dancer and was hot!

This is brilliant, and I'm all in favor of public transport (and free-to-use public transport). But have we solved the issue of oversubscription? Earlier in the year it was impossible to get on some services as demand leapt, even if it was for a hospital trip or job interview. #politas #Tasmania

So many problems would be addressed with a UBI. Health & Mental Health Culture & Arts Social Economics Personal fulfilment, careers & productivity. Just so much benefit for one major structural reform.

Litening to @mrjamesob.bsky.social, we have kids who can't get jobs despite doing the right things, while at the other end the retirement age is being raised, even though jobs get harder to find the older you are. Seems obvious that the only ones benefitting are the tax-shy ultra-wealthy. UBI now.

Hard to think of one decision made by either Google or Meta over the past decade or so that hasn't been "what if we made things worse for our users?"

Coronation Street - written by Tony Perrin (19th May 1971). Edith Tatlock (Val's mother) continues to put noses out of joint - especially Bet's. Meanwhile, Emily has an uncomfortable encounter with Ena.

Seth Rogen has more artistic integrity and understanding of creating than … whatever this is jfc. Let me revisit his words and remember that not everyone is terrible. (Via: variety.com/2026/film/ne...)

I am largely estranged from #OxfordUniversity because it's simply too problematic, but I still get the invites. Seems a bit rich to preface the forum with a keynote speech about whether #AI can be #ethical, if everything that follows it is extolling the positives of the #plagiarism machine. 1/

Coronation Street - written by Julian Roach (9th April 1973). Mrs Walker receives an elocution lesson from Sybil Cudlipp (Helen Cherry).

Everyone involved in posting this should be fired and everyone in the chain of command whose office is subject to impeachment, including the president, should be impeached. Just for this. I am not kidding in the least, and Democrats who let this go by without comment are putting us all in danger.

It's #MushroomMonday, so here are some #fungi I actually found last #FungiFriday! I walked along the Emu River and the bandicoots had preloved quite a lot of what I found, but there were a few that hadn't been preloved! (IDs in ALT, open to correction!) #Tasmania #nature #FungiFriends #mycology

Of course, there will be FUNGI photos later, but before the rains this weekend, I managed a walk along the Emu River, through the tree-ferns, and had some lovely encounters with #nature. (Names in ALT). #moth #marsupial #mammal #orchid #flower #Tasmania #Australia

"They exist because we will them to". Why do we as a species waste so much of our lives upholding these arbitrary, made-up systems, that benefit none but a small minority, and ignore... everything else in the cosmos?

There isn’t much left to say except that your children will be less well-rounded than you. Less well-read than you. Less intelligent than you. Less able to problem solve than you. Leas worldly than you. Less empathetic. Less equipped. And more helpless. For the first time in living history.

Want more indie games, animation, music, everything? Support UBI. That’s literally the only way I can think of that it becomes feasible, at all, for people to make things they love and are passionate about *without* also burning them out and working them into wreckage.

They spend millions to make sure you stay car dependent, and to make sure you think that’s normal. So normal in fact, that you’ll actually fight to protect that dependency, in the name of “freedom.” Their profit depends on it.

Can't wait to see how that stadium will go re overrun... #politas bsky.app/profile/abcn...

"Basic Income is a key to averting that dystopian future. It is a common denominator solution, a foundation of economic democracy where we all—humans, not corporations or robots—use our income every day to vote on how we spend our money and time on what makes us healthy, gives meaning to our lives…"

The desk-adjacent pile today...

Up Pompeii! (11th May 1970). Love is in the air (there's a little something in the wine as well).

After 12 years, the EU flag is back on Hungary’s Parliament building — the new Speaker’s very first decision. A happy Schuman Day indeed.

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

Surely they've suffered enough?

#OnThisDay 9 May 1997 #BluePeter celebrates its 3,000th edition with the help of Valerie Singleton and Mark Curry and a look back at some classic clips.

Buller's Albatross in heavy seas off southeast Australia. #SuperSeabirdSunday #seabirds

As I said, I know it's neither #FungiFriday nor #MushroomMonday, but these are definitely SexyStipeSunday (or something similar). Less sure of IDs for these stunning #fungi from Mount Dial in #Tasmania. IDs in ALT, but corrections welcome! #fungus #mushroom #mycology #nature #Australia #FungiFriends

I know it's neither #FungiFriday nor #MushroomMonday, so SporeSunday will have to be a thing. Some of the #fungi I can (reasonably) confidently ID from my hike up Mount Dial in #Tasmania. More to come... #fungus #mushroom #mycology #nature #Australia #FungiFriends (Names in ALT)

No one expected Keir Starmer to solve our pressing problems overnight. But what we did expect – and had every right to expect – was that he would lay out a clear vision and roadmap for doing so. Instead, we’ve had drift, appeasement and a startling absence of ideas, values and ambition. 🧵1/6

It's worth noting, by the way, that had the UK had compulsory voting, Brexit wouldn't have happened.

Yesterday, I walked up to the summit of Mount Dial, and it did not disappoint. Hundreds of #fungi photos to sort through now... #mountain #Tasmania #Australia #hiking #nature #flora #flowers #orchid

Coronation Street - written by John Stevenson (8th May 1978). Mrs Walker, returning from holiday, is appalled to learn that someone's pinched her car. And she's even more appalled at Fred's choice of alternative transport ....

A reminder that this is why we make fun of The Odyssey. The book would not exist if Odysseus was not such a complete chaos goblin who was busy causing problems for himself by arguing with Gods and being a shit navigator. There is no way to make an extremely serious movie out of this material.

Well, doesn't he?

Definitely snorting.

Public transport passengers in Victoria's north-west say a rise in "ghost bookings" has led to half-empty bus services during the state's free transport period.

We could easily feed, house and provide healthcare to everyone many times over. Overpopulation arguments ignore the elephant in the room, which is the unequal distribution and consumption of resources. The earth can support billions, but it cannot support billionaires.

The media forensically dissects the pasts of people who challenge the status quo, such as Polanski and Corbyn. Fair enough, up to a point: we should know about our representatives. But it's far less inquisitive about those who defend power, however great their misdeeds, such as Nigel Farage.🧵

Being a billionaire is a mental illness. When you have more than you could ever use and still keep optimizing for more - more power, more control, more accumulation, you are detached from normal human values. Winning is all that matters. You don’t grind your way to billions by being well-balanced.

My preferred AI metaphor is actually Asbestos. - Seemingly magical properties - Developed and experimented with to make endless products - Poisoned countless communities in it's creation - Everything it was used for eventually becomes a toxic hazard to mitigate & it's in the fucking walls now