Paranoid autocrats and their inner circles, playing the "If you aren't one of us, you're one of them" game with people's lives all over the world, cheered on by homegrown flag shaggers with the right paperwork. newlinesmag.com/essays/kuwai...

Crumbling cliffs and cold mud lava flows

Updating my muted words list

Another "war that is not a war" continues

Excellent stuff as usual from @bylinetimes.bsky.social If you're not following them, why not?

"Q: Where would be your favourite place to model? A: New York definitely… or Milan, somewhere like that. Q: What do you like about the attention? A: I don't know… the girls! Haha modelling is a good chick magnet (thought I’d just throw that one in there)." Another Reform Man of the People.

100 years ago www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Are all these weird Republicans ex-news presenters/media rabble? I'm old enough to remember the real Weathermen: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".

Mark Elias doing an amazing job

Super yacht spotting in the bay. Richard Liu's $300m Deep Blue, pottering about, saving diesel, obviously.

Appalling whitewash of Orbán by the BBC. No mention of the cronyism, the "richest man in Hungary" son in law, the domination and bleeding dry of the Hungarian economy by his clique and his vanity "ideological" projects. Absolute shame on the BBC and Nick Thorpe. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What happens to Britain's radical right if Orbán loses? share.google/6EX9qn3nWN2G...

Now do

It's 1933. The Mayor of Westminster, the Reverend Edward St George Schomberg, inaugurates the new automatic traffic light control system in Trafalgar Square. No, I don't know who "that chap" is.

World Speed Records, 1931: motor car : 246 mph boat : 110 mph airplane : 406 mph train : 78 mph

Clarence Hatry, "one of those curiously un-English figures with whom the English periodically find themselves unable to cope". Was he the straw that broke the Western World economic camel's back in 1929, leading to the Great Depression? Good analysis > share.google/uagqZqkkeXbD...

I saw a man today, wearing a pair of these jeans. Now, I have a fairly active imagination. For amusement purposes only, I can attempt the possible mindset of a Shaolin monk, chanting etc., or even a prowling psychopath, with murder in his heart. "Oh, I'll look cool, with a dog on my crotch". Nah.

Airships. A fascinating story, especially when hydrogen filling ended, after disasters and deaths due to its known, highly flammable properties, and replaced with helium. On a slightly different timeline, our skies could be full of them now. A Brit story... airshipsonline.com/airships/air...

'Philz Coffee' sounds very California, very "Phil is such a cool guy, a great barista and brilliant host, I can't believe he would do.." Reality check: "Phil" is Freeman Spogli & Co. a private equity tumour that wants a huge return on its $145m and FUCK PRIDE. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

A Silly Saturday Story, featuring three examples of successful men in modern Britain. Pointers: •Be born into privilege •Kick a ball well •I have no idea Titchmarsh has always been as weird as weird can be, but what on earth is the hand thing about? Any psycho-chirologists here?

Great stuff, as ever, from Monk the Debunk!

"Pastor McConnell seemed to have some problem with his throat, as he emitted some kind of growl or grunt from time to time." -Ship of Fools review steam2.shipoffools.com/mystery-wors... No, that's normal. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Amazing Venus now above the setting sun, my crappy camera doesn't do it justice.

Jenrick's marmalade mission prompted me to look for further rabid, tabloid stirrer uppers from our dark days under the totalitarian EU yoke. Feel free to help. A 3 for 1 Express banger to start

Apparently BlueSky is currently going through one of those periodic self flagellation phases..

An excellent read. Mr. Turner's stress levels must have been through the roof, congratulations on the just outcome. Makes a Brit realise exactly what peril US citizens feel they are in, when the legal process gets hijacked by the ones who should be in the dock.

Absolutely. Surely the two most popular role models in society must set a good example.

A very crass but British way of bribing voters, with laundered crypto cash provided by anonymous foreign donors (for "reasons"). This incredibly patronising scheme, thought up by Reform's manboy professionals, shows the cheap contempt they really have for the 'pop' in populist.

One or two points: 1) (Old) Men do this. It's got to do with Being Right. 2) For more 'Frost's Delusions': see Brexit. 3) Not "quietly", it's noisy, smug and performative; they like End Times symbolism and the Catholic virtue of ignorance: The Church of Male Supremacy. We see you, Frostie.

"you just have to open Facebook and look at nearly any philosopher’s Facebook feed"

Iran engaging in what can only be described as a charm offensive.

We got battered on the South Coast, as usual if not more, during the winter and much flotsam and jetsam appeared. Most of the boat related plastic has been removed by volunteers, but us old beach bums kept some wood for a popup al fresco, and a mineral, not biological, fossil with which to commune.

One shouldn't amplify bullshit, but I don't think I've read such transparently planted "cute" propaganda (for AI, quelle surprise) for quite a while. Fortune is one of those companies that has no reason to exist. As, I think we may soon discover, is Anthropic. fortune.com/2026/03/30/g...

In the not too distant, Saylor will be looked at as a caricature, an embodiment of this stage of necrotic capitalism.

Fuck Live Nation, Fuck Pepsi Max and Fuck Kanye West.

A wonderfully absurd photo. The whole thread stands as a warning to complacent Brits who believe all that Starmer had to do, if he was willing, was refuse US air access to their UK bases, automatically assuming they'd say "Sure".

Variations on "OMG the end of air travel" comments here, as if the concept of powered flight is welded to one option, the consumption of specialised fossil fuel. Technological leaps are demand/profit driven. Look at the recent, rapid evolution of battery tech, from moribund 'big lead acid thing'.

The Evil Empire update.

Think about how it is someone's job to carry around a bunch of big cardboard pictures and little props to hand the president to play with when he starts getting grumpy. He starts throwing a tantrum and bam, someone hands him a little toy arch or a big posterboard of a building whipped up in genAI

A bizarre article, from start to finish: very hacky. "The population is ageing at one of the fastest paces in history." "On average, funeral expenses are 45 per cent of annual wages." "China prepares to celebrate the Qingming grave-sweeping festival on Sunday." www.ft.com/content/14ad...

A perfect Sunday (or any day) thread, from one of the Interweb's most excellent portals to alternative universes. “She doesn’t have a lot of musical acumen. But on the other hand, she has the courage, the concentration, of somebody about to be executed in the next half-hour.”

Asked for comment, Lieutenant Colonel H. Hogan of USAF Lethal Terminal Strike Force, denied it was a drone attack. "A malfunction in the rear bathroom ventilation led to a build up of gas. This was ignited by an airman breaching smoking regulations. Parts of him are being disciplined."

BBC No Kings coverage. After seven top "News" items, inc. Tiger Woods, six "Weekend Picks", inc. hot cross buns, we hit four "Local News" pieces and weather. Then three on Iran, then "Budget Friendly Meals". Then "more top stories", 2nd sth Claviwtf, then this 3rd www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reason to despise amoral, judgmental stupidity, as facilitated by Zuckerberg's own: specifically Facebook "local" groups, #666. An acquaintance, not on FB, being pilloried, doxxed and attacked for a moment of poor judgment. "Mob"s etymological root is the "mobility", redefined now as the "static".

Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind.

If you like live lawyering in important cases then Matthew is your man, at SDNY, here covering Live Nation and, concurrently Maduro. A hard working, activist reporter with an excellent reputation.

Support Wikipedia. If you search with Google, don't just skim their terribly sourced AI summary, go to Wikipedia. Give Wikipedia some money. Use it or lose it.

Eliminates? What you mean, like beaten in the Semi Finals 2-1?