What a view! Snow in distance. Took this photo on Saturday. I’d taken my youngest to a university offer holders day & we couldn’t have been more lucky with the weather! Cold, but absolutely gorgeous & sunny, for one day only - then the weather returned to the constant cloud & rain the next day.

the loss of the World Service would be a tragedy and huge lost of soft power for Britain

In incredible news, the European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women." Even the center-right European People's Party voted for the declaration. It will form a foundation for their position at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Our latest.

Palantir, a US spy-tech firm, has been given access to millions of NHS patient records. Its founder has said the NHS should be 'ripped up'. Join me in calling on the government to end the dangerous Palantir contract. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

pure elite capture - the uk just folded to a hardline anti-trans campaign pushed by a tiny number of people www.thepinknews.com/2026/02/11/n...

I always think this looks like a very uncomfortable position to be lying in, but obviously not if you’re a cat!

I’m seeing so many people cycling on the wrong side of the road along the cycle lane in the wrong direction recently, when did that become such a thing? You’re still supposed to go the right way in a cycle lane!

When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured” www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Found some old screencaps showing a bug in Old Skies where characters’ heads would disappear for seemingly no reason. While annoying (and I did fix it eventually), it did make some bits of dialog unintentionally hysterical.

We pride ourselves on being a democracy and yet there’s a medieval theocratic anachronism in the heart of parliament: 26 bishops with automatic seats in the House of Lords. (The only other country in the world with clerics automatically entering a government is… Iran).

He’s been stuck like this for ages. My dude. Just reverse. Truly, achingly vacant.

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The #AssistedDying Bill now has 1,227 proposed amendments – more than any other Bill in UK Parliament history. Peers have set the Bill up to fail. This is filibustering and it distracts from the real task, getting the safeguards right and delivering a law that works. humanists.uk/2026/02/02/a...

Today would have been Elizabeth Sladen’s 80th birthday - for all the generations she made happier - a memory of her first departure from #doctorwho

P.S. Since starting to need reading glasses I’ve discovered the endless frustration of food packaging design. Huge pictures all over them but the one bit of info you really need, oven temperature & length of time, is tiny requiring me to collect my reading glasses from another room, gah!

Collected my new reading glasses today. This time the optician had suggested I look at the teenage range of frames and she was right, these glasses fit better and look better than my old ones! Also a smaller case so easier to take about, win win!

Our cat has been enjoying the new @discworldemporium.bsky.social Discworld reading blanket today!

Alarm woke me particularly early this morning. Before getting out of bed I checked a few headlines & my brain read this BBC one as “Secret warehouse guards LOST world of treasures found on HS2 route”. What? I checked the article. Nothing lost. Headline intended emphasis on a different word: GUARDS 🙄

Meanwhile the government throws money at massive AI companies for their crappy product.

“Even after taking into account direct government grants to universities, only 3% of the total cost of financing their higher education will be met by the taxpayer.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... (limited gift link) Hadn’t realised the extent of govt abdication.

BTW the EASIEST way to convince a pet-owner the NHS shouldn't be privatised is to ask them how much their last vet bill cost.

This arrived from @discworldemporium.bsky.social today 😊 Belated Christmas present as it was out of stock by the time someone tried to buy it for me! Not surprised it sold out fast. #discworld

This episode had me laughing out loud in the car! This podcast always cheers me up, so much fun! The first episode I chose to listen to to try out this podcast was Chris McCausland and it was so good I immediately listened to it a second time for my youngest (a teenager) to also enjoy in the car.

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

After what feels like weeks of grey skies and bits of rain it is so nice to see sunshine and blue sky in Manchester today! 😊

Just learned about the charity @endsexisminschools.bsky.social who do research on the sexism that is apparently STILL a feature of the curriculum because so many schools choose to teach the same male-dominated books & history. The official lists have alternatives, but they don't get chosen. [1/2]

Deadly ICE raids in the US rely on Palantir tools that mine health records to produce real-time data on people’s location – a chilling prospect for the NHS: https://goodlaw.social/ym7q

A national disgrace in the making

We've identified several instances of peers being clear that they're trying to block the Bill. 7 of the most vocal opponents have put forward over 600 amendments, including pregnancy tests for all applicants, a one-year travel ban, and an unworkable requirement for half a dozen GP visits.

Finished playing Strange Horticulture yesterday. Wasn’t sure it would be for me but I really enjoyed it - was a surprising page turner so to speak! Liked the visual style. My rarest achievement was saving the sisterhood at 36% of players and I got ending 2, Elderphinium, “The Sleeping Dendrew”.

Our cat last night, coming to demand instant food. I’m the only person he does this to & he’s very insistent that I immediately drop whatever I’m doing to feed him. I’d just finished watching the latest episode of Great Pottery Throwdown so timing ok on this occasion!

A male rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) in winter plumage. Ptarmigan is from Gaelic 'tarmachan' meaning "croaker". The p- was added when people mistakenly assumed it was a Greek word. A bird forever warning people: "A werewolf!" (just in case of werewolves).

Watched the film Mr Burton last night on BBC. It’s Toby Jones so was of course good! He was the main reason for watching as Richard Burton a bit too much before my time for me to know much about him but the film was fascinating and apparently Mr (Philip) Burton’s life afterwards continued to be.

Where he likes to sit to look for birds on rooftops.

I’ve posted about this before, but about five years ago I got third degree burns up my forearm (and livetweeted the experience) and now you can barely even see the scar because during pregnancy, my sons’ stem cells healed the area. And now my husband’s and kids DNA is testably part of me

I always feel a bit sad about taking down the Christmas decorations - they’re so cheerful when it’s cold and dark outside! It’s not long until I enjoy being free of the clutter though!

-6 degrees C this morning. 🥶 Gave son one of those reusable hand warmers to take with him today.

"That drink," said the machine sweetly, "was individually tailored to meet your personal requirements for nutrition and pleasure." "Ah," said Arthur, "so I'm a masochist on a diet am I?" "Share and Enjoy."

Beautiful sky. Took the photo earlier today. Happy New Year!

Just finished playing The Beeker’s Picnic, the most delightful and charming game about Sherlock Holmes in retirement. A short point and click adventure, very British, set in a small seaside village. Very enjoyable, and with an appropriate sentiment for New Years Day! Lovely 😊

Voted in this, but it hurts! Had 2 stand out favourite indie games this year & it was hard to choose between. The Drifter is now by far my favourite point+click of all time, but Seance of Blake Manor surprised me with how addicted & excited I was, talking about it to family constantly! Voted latter.

I am begging games writers in 2026 to stop talking about point and click like it's a dead/dormant genre currently being resurrected by whatever thing you've just noticed

Let’s take back control from the almighty algorithm… We choose every game by hand, playing them first and backing what deserves attention Sometimes that means big names. More often it means the smallest, strangest, most niche projects you’ve never heard of All chosen by real humans who care!

Four games that defined my 2025. (The Drifter, Seance of Blake Manor, Is this seat taken?, Old Skies. If I was allowed a fifth it would be Unforeseen Incidents).

1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but 2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but 3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So 4. Now the LLM code points to malware.

Got son a subscription to @debugmag.com for Christmas. Was great because he didn’t know about it & loves indie games/studios, also whole family play games so we’ve all enjoyed taking a look! When I saw this page I remembered it was a post by @kanaratron.bsky.social that made me aware of Debug 😊

Happy Hogswatch to all who celebrate. Ho! Ho! Ho!

I've got to be honest, we may as well call it a night #DuvetKnowItsChristmas