The death rate among children under 5 is expected to grow this year for the first time in the 21st century, researchers say. A key factor, they say, is cuts to U.S. and other foreign aid www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Life in the shoe: Went to add ‘gnocchi’ to the online family shopping list and other items already added include ‘drugs’ and ‘left leg of Jeff bezos’.

Movie you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars or Trek), LOTR or Marvel.

Book 2: Canto I

I won’t tell you what rabbit hole I went down to accidentally land on this, but I spat my cocktail. AI - the gift that fucks you up. Every time.

Be advised - this is a really, really good cocktail. High risk of having one too many.

My org @fightforthefuture.org has been “de-googling” for the last year. We’re totally off Google suite, Google docs, Drive, Calendar. We’re using Signal and Element for chat, Nextcloud for docs, etc Planning to publish a “how to” guide for other nonprofits and activist groups soonish.

@johnmkuhn.bsky.social Hi - just in case you hadn’t noticed, your Spenser Dispenser has gotten stuck at Canto I. I was enjoying it, so I noticed. x

Life in the shoe: Gaz Regan's Moonlight Cocktail (per Diffords Guide). An Aviation that aims a bit higher, basically. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Life in the shoe: DH has been away for two nights and - oh dear! - my sleep app reports that it’s the best two nights sleep I’ve had all year.

A week ago Spenser Dispenser quoted this extract, and since then it’s been stuck repeating “Canto I”. Has its creator left BlueSky? Has no one else noticed? Is The Matrix decaying? Are the pod bay doors stuck closed?

This reminder has just massively improved my dinner plans!

Life in the shoe: 6 December calls for a nod to St Nick. This is a Nicky Finn. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Grauniad creating a new concept here, while reporting in-fighting between Palace fans. ‘tiny majority’. OK

Cast my eye on a post requesting examples of book reviews (positive, I think) from 2025 and I have none to share. But if you'd like to cast /your/ eye over the most excoriating review I have ever read, just search Hensher Thackara Book of Kings. Oof. 25+ years old and never forgotten.

I haven't read the article, but this is one of those threads you can use to tidy up your Bluesky feed by blocking the accounts that step in to minimise, justify or otherwise exonerate this creep and prevent them ever exposing themselves to you again. 😫

POV: you live in a place where temp goes down to -3 overnight, but they haven't invented gritting yet. 😕

Life in the shoe: I’ve had an even more than usually demanding day at work, and I’m feeding the 🐥🐥🐥 at this late hour the most basic of dinners and I’ve managed to burn baked beans in the pan. 😳 No take away because they did that last night when I didn’t even make it home.

Right. So. Wait. If I want to see War on Drugs in the UK next summer, I need to get tix for Mumford and Sons? Is that … is that … how it works?

On train home and a quite drunk guy got on, sat next to me wearing really nasty fragrance, put his feet on the seat opposite, leaned his weight against me, ate his take away with an open mouth, chatted VERY loudly and pretty raucously with a couple in the seats across the aisle. 35 minutes hell!

Just take your empties to the bottle bank guys…. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

I know he’s a thug and a war criminal and all that, but also “kinetic”?? As opposed to what? Strikes that are in some way motionless?

Life in the shoe: Playmate. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️ #confinedcocktails

Doesn’t this apply to most of their contributors? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n... …including a well known political leader!

I hope someone’s curating a full collection of popememes.

Act of comedy genius to talk about working with other parties when you can’t even work with other members of your own. 🤪 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is so interesting!

Australia just recorded zero cervical cancer cases in women under 25 for the first time since records began in 1982. The amazing result of HPV vaccination.

Shit! I’d forgotten about Phil Oakey’s Louise-era hair. #totp

Missed opportunity for: It’s My Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To

I’m in favour of following the evidence when it comes to screening. Interesting to see who focuses on evidence and who rejects it here. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Revelation of a £20 billon SEND blackhole has sparked a row between the Department for Education and the spending watchdog and upped the stakes on ministers to fix the system before the government absorbs its soaring costs schoolsweek.co.uk/budget-2025-...

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

Probably because I've read the Guardian piece on free-birthing. FB served me this announcement from an NHS Trust re suspending their home birth service. The comments are both worrying and maddening: www.gloshospitals.nhs.uk/about-us/new...

When someone’s a casually shitty racist all the time, of course they don’t remember the things they said. But the people they hurt still remember nearly 50 years later, for sure. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Life in the shoe: I have a new bottle of Koko Kanu, so ... this is a Mezcal Jackson. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world

I’ve been on the lash with a work colleague and I’m now slowing down and catching up with 1981 #totp Big Hits, and - my word - it’s banger central! I was joking about it last night but I really did grow up in The Good Times.

The Atlantic has chosen 65 titles to help foster a child’s lifelong relationship with books and to give these formative works the respect and scrutiny they deserve. David Sims explains why he chose "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Explore the full list at the link: theatln.tc/ktFFrmrR

I am on public transport and also quite drunk, so this is quite a test of how civilised we are as a nation.

The present government’s bias against children’s homes must be challenged. 🧵 www.communitycare.co.uk/2025/11/21/c...

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

I’m a mum that chose homebirth for three of my children after a traumatic hospital birth for the first, so you might think I’d lean towards ‘freebirth’ - but the dangerous bullshit on show here is terrifying. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

This is great. Start your day with a heart-warming story: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Life in the shoe: 18yo comes running down the stairs singing along to Bowie and Queen. Me: Number 1 in 1981. I grew up in The Good Times. 18yo: And we still like it now. IT really is good. #totp

I’m catching up on #totp and what the hell was wrong with people in 1998 that they caused or allowed an exercise track to chart?

Can’t decide what’s fucking with my brain more, half of BlueSky converting to Catholicism because the pope played a few bangers or everyone else losing their mind because Mamdani stood in the Oval Office and wasn’t instantly spray painted gold and hung out to dry.

Life in the shoe: I'd been wondering what to do with a bottle of mead, and it turns out this cocktail - La Garde de Nuit - requires a tot. So here we are. 🍸🧚🏼‍♂️

Those damn leopards eating faces in public again.

An online store has just messaged me to say: “Great News! Your order will be delivered by the date given when you placed your order.” But this is not ‘great news’. This is merely the bare minimum I’d expect. Blow your trumpets if you deliver early.