I just decided to abandon my 1475-day streak on Duolingo, stretching back to 2021. That's roughly equivalent to over 15 solid days of my life translating sentences like 'my dog is unemployed' into French and German. Tant pis.

This is a Hall of Fame reader comment on a very reactionary op-ed about Zohran Mamdani's victory that was published in my local paper today.

Essential reading for anyone in the media using CapCut for social content: www.journalism.co.uk/news/capcut-...

I'm no UX design expert, but Spotify's text display on the app is probably not best practice?

⌚️ Two days to go till #EMF2025 📈 93% to my new fundraising goal of £3000 for @mssocietyuk.bsky.social 🙏 Grateful if you can help push me over the line (figuratively and literally!) 🔗 www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...

Autism rights campaigner Emma Dalmayne stood outside Amazon’s UK HQ in London this week with fellow activists — and a petition signed by over 35,000 people. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3_... (1/4)

We were very saddened to learn of the passing of Hannah Deacon, a devoted mother and tireless campaigner for medical reform in the UK (1/5)

Two weeks till marathon day, and I'm over 75% to my fundraising goal for the @mssocietyuk.bsky.social 📈 Thanks to everyone who's donated so far, it makes it much easier to keep going on the long runs🙏 www.justgiving.com/fundraising/... #edinburghmarathon #mssociety

Ah, the neighbour's 9.45pm Sainsbury's delivery, in all its door-slamming predictability. Not like we have a couple of kranky babies trying to sleep at last. Correction: they're awake now 😩

I'm attempting to run the Edinburgh Marathon to raise funds for @mssocietyuk.bsky.social (if the old knees can take it). I'd be very grateful for anything you can chip in to help an important cause 🙏 www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...

I've already seen 5 petitions started on @ukchange.bsky.social over the past 24 hours calling on the BBC to save #RiverCity It might not seem like a terribly important issue, but it's clearly caused anger among viewers and the Scottish TV industry www.change.org/p/save-bbc-s...

I'm attempting to run the Edinburgh Marathon to raise funds for @mssocietyuk.bsky.social (if the old knees can take it). I'd be very grateful for anything you can chip in to help an important cause 🙏 www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...

Richard Tice came to Glasgow today to reveal Reform UK’s latest defectors. It did not go well. Got stuck when the Daily Mail’s Tom Gordon asked him for their names.

Scotland's land ownership debate has made it to the New York Times - one of the best articles I've read on the subject www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/r...

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

Looking forward to the @washingtonpost.com’s hot take on the Trump-Zelenskyy debacle. It’s all about personal liberties and free markets, remember?

Absolutely extraordinary to watch a wartime leader - who never left Ukraine even when his life was threatened - being patronised and bullied on live TV by Trump and Vance

A petition has been launched on @ukchange.bsky.social calling on the UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to extradite the Tate brothers from the US. Andrew and Tristan Tate landed in Florida on Thursday in a private jet after flying from Romania.

"He tried" - Trump's response to a question about whether Starmer persuaded him to avoid tariffs on UK. Goes on to suggest again that a "terrific" trade deal is in the works. That remains to be seen.

Trump just cut off Starmer while he was answering a potentially awkward question about Canada - "That's enough" Power dynamics at play right there.

Celtic following in the footsteps of Raith Rovers here* * Any excuse to post this photo again #muncel #ucl

A sign of the times that headlines as insane as this seem like an hourly occurrence in the US, rather than an Onion parody

My 2026 vote goes to the party who renames the Firth of Forth to the Gulf of Fife.

We often see movements suddenly burst into life on @change.org A good example this week is the student-led response to the cutbacks at Cardiff University Seven petitions and 30,000+ supporters so far: www.change.org/m/cardiff-un...

Crystal Owen has become an extraordinary campaigner. You may not agree with what she's calling for, but her passion and determination is formidable. Today's parliamentary debate is far from the end of the story. More on her campaign here via @ukchange.bsky.social: www.change.org/p/safer-driv...

was mostly keeping it together until I read Kyle MacLachlan's tribute to David Lynch

An artist and a visionary. A master of his craft and one of a kind. RIP David Lynch.

What happened when WPP announced a 4-day return-to-office rule? 15,000 signatures on this @change.org petition, and 100+ media mentions globally. It's a reminder for CEOs everywhere: flexibility is what most workers want, not arbitrary quotas. www.change.org/p/demand-wpp...

(Warning: Distressing themes) More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for sexual assault survivor Gisèle Pelicot to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 1/4

I'm working with @joshbabarinde.bsky.social to push the government to create a specific set of domestic violence aggravated offences in England and Wales. It's simple: if it was domestic abuse, name it in the offence. Back our @ukchange.bsky.social campaign to #NameDA

Hats off to @joeduggan1.bsky.social and Sam Rucker - the kind of journalism that saves lives

For Zuckerberg to call his own fact-checkers "politically biased" just highlights his own bias. This excerpt from @caseynewton.bsky.social's Platformer email explains the context well:

This list is so incredibly Guardian. Some of my favourites: "Snuggle a horse" "Admire a pigeon" 'Try alternate nostril breathing" "Make your own nettle tea" www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Hogmanay with twin 8 month olds: 7pm: Twin 1 can't sleep due to blocked nose. Try to clear then settle her 11.30pm: Twin 2 wakes just in time for the bells, stays awake until 1.30am 5am: Twin 2 wakes again, refuses to settle - eventually asleep at 6.30am 7.30am: Twin 1 wakes for the day 😫

"I often wonder where Norman is now. Probably wintering with his mother in Guildford. A cat, and the rain... Vim under the sink, and both bars on" Yes, I watched watched Withnail & I for about the 1000th time tonight.

With a bit of time to reflect, the 'shock' Neill Collins exit could be a blessing in disguise for Raith. He wasn't rated by Barnsley fans, he gave us no new manager bounce, some of the key players went AWOL under his tenure, and he certainly wasn't a natural communicator.

When you ask “was the suspect an extremist”, which kind of extremist did you have in mind www.spiegel.de/panorama/jus...

The coworking place today has played Purple Snowflakes by Marvin Gaye three times today and honestly I'm fine with that.

That's quite an incredible chart. In Scotland cycling appears to significantly improve (although note the confidence intervals) all types of mortality rates except for one. Traffic related casualties are significantly increased. We need infrastructure and justice protection now!

This year, Change.org continued to help empower people across the UK and beyond to make their voices heard and take action on the causes they care about. 1/4

Strangely, I often find my gmail being co-opted by random people around the world, prompting endless unsubscribes to everything from pizza restaurants to credit cards. But one email list I definitely WON'T be leaving is an English allotment group, which is wonderfully passive-aggressive and petty.

I wrote a thing where I try and fail to contain my annoyance with untrustworthy billionaires talking about ‘fixing trust’ in news organizations with their poorly conceived AI driven bias-o-meters, and concessions to the right

What could be more festive, I ask you?

"We're a multi-party democracy, trying to jam every possible shape into a square hole." Excellent article by @josiah.writes.news citing research by @electoralreform.bsky.social. Nearly 78% of votes in 2024 didn't directly affect the local result. FPTP isn't working. bylinetimes.com/2024/12/10/b...

The UK parliament has joined Bluesky, with proper verified domains and everything: • @houseofcommons.parliament.uk • @houseoflords.parliament.uk • @ukparliament.parliament.uk • @commonsspeaker.parliament.uk

Excellent article looking at how Granton symbolises the poverty / opportunity gap in Edinburgh (and Scotland)

I've been working in co-working places recently and you meet lots of interesting folks. So far this morning: someone working on a new climate technology that uses "rock dust" to absorb carbon, a psychiatrist, and a PhD student working on minority attitudes to policing.

Heads at CBGB's their freshman year

Cycling to work is such a great way to start the day. What would have been at least half an hour on a bus in rush-hour traffic was door-to-door in 15 minutes, and mostly off-road. (I appreciate not all bike routes are like this in Edinburgh)

Plenty to chew on in this interview with Channel 4 News editor @esmewren.bsky.social. This quote struck a chord: “You feel very privileged to be a journalist at this stage. It’s a complex world that we live in, and it requires a lot of explanation." www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...