This is so beautiful.

A reminder that there’s no risk-free participation in this war.

Just got page layouts back for my upcoming book, SLEUTH-HOUND: THE CASE OF THE REAL SHERLOCK HOLMES. Interestingly, my US publisher has added this cautionary note at the beginning re: AI. This has never appeared in my previous books. Good to see it, though one wonders how effective it will be.

It's the Equinox...time again for me to remind you about the EquineOx: that mythopoetic, all-knowing horse/ox hybrid. Mysterious bringer of socks & other sundry goodies. A godling of the changing seasons. Friends: may the EquineOx bring you many blessing this day!

Work from home is here to stay. Benefits of countering climate change & infection transmission are clear. But disbenefits of social isolation, excessive screen time & blurred work-personal boundaries need mitigation. The obvious thing is investing in local community hubs of different shapes & forms.

Oxford Literary Festival is back! 📚 We’re proud to be a cultural partner, with events across the Bodleian. Blackwell Hall at the Weston Library is this year’s festival hub, with extended opening hours throughout the festival. 📅 21–29 March For more information: https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/olf

A day late by me, but still well meant!

I posted about the Battersea shield & the wonders of ancient British bronzework recently, so now here’s the Waterloo helmet (found in the Thames at this location). Originally, the bronze would have gleamed like gold & it was decorated with red glass studs. 🏛️BM 📷 mine #AncientBlueSky 🏺

A valkyrie with drinking horn greets a horseman - who appears to have ridden from the longship below - on an eight-legged horse, probably Odin's Sleipnir 🐎 This Gotlandic picture stone from Garda, Bote, almost certainly depicts the welcome of a fallen warrior to Valhalla. My 📷 Historiska museet

Barack Obama pays tribute to Robert Mueller, calling him one of the finest FBI directors in history and honoring his unwavering commitment to the rule of law

Sanctions finally squeezed Russia's war revenues to a post-invasion low. Two weeks after the US bombed Iran, Moscow was earning 11% more per day than before. The US Treasury called it a stabilization measure. CREA's numbers tell a different story.

For press and media officers, this is why it is important to utilise local outlets as well as national. I seem to recall it was down to the fantastic work of @pollysmythe.bsky.social and @jim.londoncentric.media at @londoncentric.media that this story broke initially. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It has got me wondering just how many work-hours are now devoted to checking that the Bank of Mum and Dad is not actually a front for the Sinaloa cartel. Meanwhile the Bank of England continue churning out £50 notes, which have no obvious legitimate use, but are handy for criminals.

It's always helpful to be aware of the actual facts in any discussion!

It’s fascinating that Gabbard has decided that a new responsibility of the President of the United States is deciding the imminence of a threat to the country. Yeah you have the world’s most advanced intelligence capabilities but let’s leave that one to an addled octogenarian who can’t read.

A very good thread from @sundersays.bsky.social on the government's £10 billion claim, taken apart by @tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social on Today programme this am (based on analysis by @ippr.org).

"Attempts in Western countries to circumscribe the Islamic way of life almost always end up doing the same to Jews."

Yara has the skill of finding and sharing moments of peace, beauty, and equanimity!

Once again this is deliberately misleading from Mahmood. Treating the public and Labour MPs like fools in order to try to justify a policy that is simultaneously economically damaging, politically counterproductive, and morally wrong. archive.ph/25pgV

Meanwhile, while the world's eyes are on the Middle East...

Sunder is very polite. The Home Secretary is repeatedly telling falsehoods.

If you’re an overthinker & find it difficult to unlatch the burdensome thoughts there’s one thing I found the works more than meditation, breathing & other things. That’s humming. Sing or hum a song or a tune. Impossible for worrying thoughts to maintain their possession of you while humming.

"About the role We are seeking an experienced and qualified immigration advisor to lead on key elements of our Change of Conditions casework service as maternity cover for the coming year including our ‘self-submissions’ support programme and second-tier CoC advice. The Unity…" — Free Movement

The government's "earned settlement" proposals "pull the rug from under those who have planned their lives and commitments and are contributing to our economy and to our society...I believe in a country where we keep our word and live up to our values” Absolutely right from Angela Rayner.

Not even in a scenario that they “planned” and implemented themselves …and were warned about before they acted. They really are that stupid.

Scottish parliament votes against legalising assisted dying

Die deutsche Sprache gewinnt im Moment, aber könnte Spanisch übernehmen? Vielleicht sogar eine Überraschungsherausforderung von French?

Did we almost just get dinosaured or what?! I need like a disaster astrophysicist or whatever this subfield is called to inform me pls

Groups like Sex Matters use legal action to bully others into discriminating against trans individuals and excluding them from society. I highly recommend supporting organisations like @goodlawproject.org who are able to fight back against them.

Who'd have thought it?!

Good piece. I think seeing “progressive” voters as “undecided” is a bit of a misread: every non-Reform voter I spoke to in Gorton & Denton was “unsure” who they were going to vote for but they had in a very real sense “decided” who they were voting for: the non-Reform party they judged most viable.

#MementoMoriMonday Death, happy in his work, surrounded by earthly vanities and symbols of death: coins, crowns, jewels, a Papal tiara, musical instruments, a crosier, a mitre, sword, and gravedigger's tools. Spanish or Mexican, 18th c. www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6... #TheVictorianBookoftheDead

Reminder: DHS nominee Markwayne Mullin is one of the most active stock-traders in the Senate — and violated the STOCK Act against insider trading as recently as last August. He currently holds stock in L3Harris, which has millions in contracts with ICE and FEMA. The grift continues.

Today really feels like spring has arrived! (This cherry used to blossom at the beginning of April, until a couple of years ago!)

And Israel wants us to help them, while they continue this behavior?

#OscarWin “Mr Nobody Against Putin” “You lose your country through a thousand small acts of complicity. When we agree to a government murdering people in the streets. When oligarchs take over the media and control how we produce and consume it."

NATO can’t send ships to Hormuz to protect from potential Iranian aggression. They are busy in Greenland protecting from potential US aggression.

Looks like an impressively significant gain. Haven't seen this in the mainstream media —have you @phillipspobrien.bsky.social ?

So, the USA has "100%" destroyed Iranian military capacity, and totally won the war (4 times at least), and, after all that winning, Trump is "demanding" other countries come in to "help us". Yeah, its going well, really well....

“Brexit has been very bad for the UK economy (and unity) and since Brexit we’ve had both the covid pandemic & the Russian war on Ukraine & Trump 2 that’s made things so much worse, So most people don’t want it any more …But we‘re going to go on doing it anyway. Vote Labour”

👀

Today is Friday, March 13th. Six years ago today in 2020, Covid was declared a national emergency. Much has changed since then. Now we have measles making a come back.🧪

A great thread setting out simply & clearly the findings from this major study (~43% population of France!). Overall mortality in unvaccinated individuals was ~50% HIGHER. The advantage held EVEN AFTER removing coronavirus-related deaths from the mix. (caveat: remember association ≠ causation!)

How to win friends and influence people. Threaten and bully them!

After the preceding 3 PMs, I thought we had at last landed a pragmatic, reliable, technocrat whom we could safely leave to get on with it. Sadly, that impression has been increasingly eroded to the point of complete frustration & anger. He may have been a good DPP, but a good politician or PM? No!

Worth sharing widely to raise awareness of what to look for.

Join us online with author @kitdewaal.com on Mon evening for the second episode of our Borders in Literature series with @ouliterature.bsky.social looking at the class ceiling and ways of breaking through it. Free event, all welcome. www.mklitfest.org/borders #books #socialclass #literature

Classy

An incoming Reform government would "focus on making change via executive orders rather than legislation, where possible" www.theguardian.com/politics/202... As predicted last August on The Empty City blog: emptycity.substack.com/p/yes-an-inc...