A Lord of the Rings Cover Band called The Eagles

Can some of you read my essay which has been somewhat betrayed by this out of context quote without shitting on it thanks

Very excited to dive into this book come holiday time. Also fascinated to see the thread connecting this to Monmouth's own slightly surprising counter-cultural origins laid out by @jonathandnunn.bsky.social last year www.theguardian.com/food/2024/ja...

It was when they went after Parkrun that it became clear to me that "fairness" (narrowly defined) is in fact not the most important value important in sport, and others - community, inclusion, wellbeing - need to be staked out and defended much more clearly by those of us for whom they're important.

I am just watching the Owen Jones interview with Ischenko about "the devastating truth of Ukraine and the west." I came back from Ukraine a few weeks ago, where I interviewed many Ukrainian leftists about the war. These are people who are on the frontlines, who are living up close to the threat of

Similarly, what is these people's problem with kindness?

it is very much Lovecraftian cosmic horror bc the horror isn’t something “scary” as much as an sense of deep violation upon the contemplation of a sexual act between a woman and a strange creature from New England that non-ironically hates human lives

If the Bangladeshi or Lebanese government were found to be systematically shaking down refugees at the border for their valuables, there would be diplomatic outrage. How is this any different?

Is this perhaps because lizard brain thinks "50 years ago" is 1950?

this is a pet peeve of mine. "war crime" is not something that means "bad thing I think is wrong". it is not a war crime to murder thousands of retreating enemy soldiers. it is a war crime to paint a Red Cross on a truck. if you think something is morally wrong just fucking say that.

It's a very, very large number of people who've just been told to "go home" by HM's opposition. Add their friends, relatives and supporters and you have an enormous chunk of the voting population. Without those people's votes, the Labour Party is finished. It needs to be made to understand that.

No. This is somewhere to be. This is all you have, but it's still something. Streets and sodium lights. The sky, the world. You're still alive.

Love the contrast between the complex, elegant long cons of Lupin with "masks, chainsaws and the back entrance, job's a good 'un"

This is such an important point and a clear way to frame it. Also in humanitarian action, neutrality is a professional, not a personal expectation

Holy shit he's not lying. This judgement is WILD. And it's not even the full ruling yet!

this tipped me off to londoncentric.media and, boy, their stuff is really good even if you don't particularly care for London. Why? Because it's laser-focused on *the money* - who is getting paid and how for various aspects, especially the shady ones, of urban life.

❓ Why are women-led organisations still being routinely overlooked within the humanitarian system? And what can (and should) we do about it? Our latest paper from researchers @megandaigle.bsky.social, @this-is-cate.bsky.social & Manny Maung explores → buff.ly/ILQa6DQ

I want to see the Hainish Cycle get the Star Trek episodic treatment

I just got indefinite leave to remain 2 years ago, so I'm reading this like, I don't even know what the fuck this means. We pay taxes, we pay TWICE for the NHS, we pay an exorbitant fee for visas to reach ILR, our income is constantly scrutinised. How the fuck more are people supposed to contribute?

It's that time of year again, annual elections for election to Council of the National Trust. Lots of candidates to choose from. Read carefully and vote wisely if you don't want the direction of travel to be backward.

The Conservative MP for Huntingdon is vocal against racism. I continue to anticipate a member of the Labour government will challenge overt racism sometime soon after a month of inexplicable silence

For friends in Beijing who are interested in the music scene, beginning today we are starting a new weekly series at My Dramamine, featuring many of the best composers and experimental musicians in Beijing and China. The series kicks off with performances by Zhang Shouwang and Wang Xu.

📣 OUT NOW: Our new briefing explores the practice of humanitarian evacuation in conflict settings, which is often seen as a last resort due to ethical dilemmas and risks involved. HPG researcher @verobarbelet.bsky.social unpacks in detail, with examples from Ukraine and Syria ⤵️

This, from the Quakers, is a pretty good example of how to resist pressure from bigot lobbying groups. Effectively “we legally can allow trans people to use the loo, we morally should, and we tried it and nothing bad happened”

When the Beano starts taking pops at you then it's probably time to question your amazing comms and policy strategy.

Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".

Continue to find inclusion of Square and Compass in best of lists baffling. Never enjoy drinking at places that find every opportunity to remind you that you're an outsider and your presence is, at best, tolerated.

Another approach for Labour than full-bore retreat to 'yes, immigration is a problem, yes it is a squalid experiment, we hate business and commerce' is available and has worked in the past. www.theguardian.com/politics/200...

Obviously the smears against this man are incredibly libellous - and it says a lot about access to the law that he wouldn't be able to afford to Lord McAlpine these fuckers - but at what point does the government clock that it needs to get a grip on this raging online fire of fascist hate?

‘Partition removed the Irish question from British politics. A referendum will not solve the British question in Irish politics.’ This essay by @philipstephens.bsky.social is striking in reminding us how rare it is to get pieces covering the British/Irish relationship these days on.ft.com/45T8p0g

Just back from a meeting in a Harry Potter themed co-working space. This stuff is so weird because i) it's now inseperable from JKR's transphobia, ii) books unlocking imagination giving way to a standard aesthetic (house crest designs now canon), and iii) because said aesthetic is so...cheap?

the home office are not fit for purpose. I will say this every day if I have to. A completely dysfunctional government department that has contributed to the fracturing of our social fabric. And it has zero morals.

The director of our US grad programme in China in a speech at Christmas dinner, 2008: "there are no jobs. I don't know what else to tell you."

That Melanie Phillips is a lunatic conspiracist bigot and racist is not remotely shocking. But the fact that the Times continues to employ her should be.

Also good to see @katewagner.bsky.social doing their thing, probably the only place you'll see Wout and Hölderlin mentioned in the same paragraph this week escapecollective.com/two-immolati...

Bit late to this, but @defector.com Tour de France coverage has been some of the best I've read in years and more than worth the cost of entry. More of this please defector.com/the-tour-de-...

I don't understand why one would buy and read approximately 45 heavy, tree-eating books when one could just read all the paragraphs, in a slightly different order, copied and pasted into a single, barely-edited, 12 million word Warhammer 40k Wiki page

Hello, I am a humanitarian aid worker in a film. My khaki shirt drapes hotly over my toned, bronze frame. I wear a thoughtful, pained expression at all times. I am excellent with children, by whom I am always surrounded. I have never touched a donor report or heard of the ECHO Single Form.

Some of the media want to portray the thousand people protesting on asylum as being a proxy for general public opinion. They wouldn't want to say that about the much larger trans rights + allies protest of up to 100 thousand people www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/26/l...

WOUT!

Technological progress is often equated with shiny gadgets: rockets, robots and AI. But many of history’s most important innovations have been 'boring', and that has big implications for those working on innovation for social good. Nesta's Laurie Smith explores how dull can change the world:

Hey does anyone remember where the police shot Mark Duggan back in 2011 and there were a bunch of very angry people out protesting (alongside a bunch of opportunists) and how it all kicked off? Remember how we were constantly asked to sympathise and engage with people's legitemate conce- Oh.

Commiserations in advance to the long-suffering girlfriends and partners of every nerdy centre-left man in London who will have to endure being taken around this. www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/lon...

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

Having (briefly) run a food distribution programme, I cannot emphasise enough how criminally fucked up and against all good practice every single aspect of this is. Inside Gaza’s ‘death traps’ - on.ft.com/4lF0mdd via @FT

Intrigued to know why Chris Brown's grammy gets a mention, but his conviction for the assault of his then-partner Rhianna does not, in this, a piece about him allegedly assaulting someone in a nightclub. It's almost as if Me Too did not, in fact, go too far. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

It's time to abolish the Home Office. It is not fit for purpose & has totally lost the trust of every stakeholder it serves - We knew that already. So I looked into how it could practically be done for @carladenyer.bsky.social My NEW report out today 👇👇

Also, "idyllic village"? give me a fucking break. Bourton-on-the-Water is a) a town, and b) has been a tourist-choked mess as long as I can remember. Just let people enjoy things.