“When I was small, not much bigger than a pollywog,” said Frog, “my father said to me, “Son, this is a cold, gray day but spring is just around the corner.”

As someone with autism, I’m tired of hearing the same false “causes” over and over Tylenol, vaccines, you name it. #Autism isn’t a conspiracy or a mystery to scare people about. If you want to understand, start by listening to us.

Great piece of writing from @iandunt.bsky.social about the evil old man running the planet. My favourite: 'He [Trump] has become a uniquely American nightmare, a specific combination of religion and shit TV, suddenly turned into flesh and blood and loosened upon the world.'

In competitive authoritarianism, leaders abuse state power to tilt the electoral playing field in their favor, manipulate the media environment and minimize opposition voices, maybe even steal close elections by lying about fraud. But they usually can't overcome a large majority voting against them.

Over the pandemic I learned out how to attract cats by meowing. I watched cat videos and mimicked the noises until I finally hit upon a tone that would make my cat walk over to me. No one believes this is real until they see it. In retrospect I probably should have taught myself something less dumb.

Congratulations to the white-coated boffins at Tunnock’s Teacakes for their vital contribution to the Artemis II mission. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This is the virtuous cycle that good transportation infrastructure can cultivate: Protected spaces for wheelchairs, bikes, skateboards, etc. -> more people visibly enjoying active transit -> more people deciding to join the fun -> more popular support for further infrastructure investment!

Politics has unexpectedly hit a special interest of mine so here is a quick rundown on the Avignon Papacy.

August 2025 diary comic. I have never felt like a person. More like a space ooze that cries a lot and is doing their best. You can find these diary comics at tessfowlerart.bigcartel.com

One thing about me is I'm absolutely against wiping out an entire civilization

The man is the epitome of a deranged despot. The annoying thing is that he will probably not live to face a court. However, the people who enabled him and facilitated evil can be hunted down and forced to face justice.

AOC: “This is a threat of genocide & merits removal from office. The President’s mental faculties are collapsing & cannot be trusted. To every individual in the President’s chain of command: You have a duty to refuse illegal orders. That includes carrying out this threat”

A few have suggested that some aspects of this mission--joy, international teamwork, diversity--are being played up to stick it to the hateful attitude of the administration. But I don't think it's that. I think it's just that those things are essential to and inseparable from a mission like this.

A wonderful reminder that good people are the baseline. Everything else is the abberation, and it can be changed for the better.

Don't think I've ever been as terrified in all the Trump security crises. As @pkrugman.bsky.social said, "It’s the most astonishing, awful thing that I’ve ever seen, and we’ve all seen a lot of awful things." Mainly as cope, and to teach it, I keep asking why. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Shout it from the rooftops.

Lots of tech dudes think the "idea" is the important part of creating, not the creative journey you take through work to give that idea actual meaning. Ideas are the easiest, cheapest and least fulfilling part of it. Giving ideas life through work, and sharing that work with others, is the stuff.

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

Trump's firing of Pam Bondi and the war crimes of Pete Hegseth both illustrate the perils of personalist rule. Flattery, tribute, and the willingness to break laws for Trump are all that matter. We are seeing the disastrous consequences everywhere. New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/2086...

Came home and found this small black frog asleep (?) on the wall next to the door. . . with a galaxy on its back!

It is so important to be able to withstand not knowing.

All right, live whatevering of Trump v. Barbara, the birthright citizenship case. Arguing for the bad guys is US Solitictor General John (voice is an immutable characteristic so let's show some respect) Sauer. For the plaintiffs it's ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang.

This is my trans agenda

Marco Rubio on Fox News: “Since NATO isn’t allowing us to use their bases — why are we in NATO? We’re going to have to reexamine the value of this alliance.” NATO was founded in 1949. Article 5 — collective defense — was invoked once in history, after September 11th. Every NATO ally showed up for

My daughter made up this song, and sang it repeatedly, when she was 3 or 4 years old: In the fiddle of the moon, In the fiddle of the moon, I love you, In the fiddle of the moon. There were five ducks and magickers making magic, In the fiddle Of the moon.

Women are as intelligent as men, even when it comes to musical composition

Could really use this messaging in the UK rather than blindly thinking we can get through a supply crisis by pretending the issue is just prices and not the supply.

This is absolutely spot on from Emily Thornberry 👏

If Russia ends the war, The war is over If Ukraine ends the war, Ukraine is over Ukraine wants peace and ist right to existe, Ukraine defends itself in a ==war waged by Russia==.

Caster Semenya is mounting a class action lawsuit against the Olympics for their patently discriminatory ban on trans and intersex athletes

Trump is threatening further and greater war crimes in Iran: "completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants... and possibly all desalinization plants!". This directly contravenes the laws of war. One day he and his enablers must face justice. ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary...

Several years ago, on a whim, I started drawing a map of an eel's life travels as seen by the eel. I figured an eel thinks about its life as a linear journey, rather than a there-and-back again adventure. So I wanted to do a map to reflect this. This morning, on another whim, I finished the map!

Castor Semenya: "I have carried this weight. So have other women of colour who deserved better from sport. Reintroducing genetic screening is not progress — it is walking backwards. Women’s sport does not need this. It needs to be abuse-free... This is just exclusion with a new name."

My interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social is now live. We touch on wealth tax, Iran, North Sea, community energy and so much more. youtu.be/STXgaWdfWKs

🧵I think a major misunderstanding about science is that people think it's about "facts". It isn't. Scientists might have thought that once, and many still do. But the core of scientific methodology is to find predictive MODELS. And famously, "all models are wrong, but some are useful". 1/N

Stanley McChrystal just gave an interview yesterday that touched on the fallacy of thinking we could beat N Vietnam with bombing

Spending this morning going through the Digital ID consultation. I've been quite impressed by some of the decisions made by govt around the consultation but the actual doc doesn't fill me with confidence anyone knows what they're talking about. Digital ID is, apparently, not just an ordinary log-in.

It was an article you, Josh, wrote in 2016 that made me understand Trump more about how he approaches the world with a New York publicity mentality where he focuses on just winning the narrative battle of the day, and since his Iran tweet seems to have won the day, he's done with work

Drop a movie that traumatized you as a kid

Horrified by the antisemitic attack in our city. Antisemitism is vile and has no place here. Solidarity with the Jewish community in Golders Green - and with our communities across the country who will be feeling this today.

The best time to have invested in renewables, walkable cities and transit to avoid the oil crisis shock was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

Can't express how much I resent the US and Israel pouring petrol on the middle east and lighting the match, dragging the rest of the world into what could be the worst global crisis for decades

We must lift the US oil blockade on Cuba. This is economic warfare designed to suffocate an island. Food is spoiling. Water supply is compromised. Healthcare services are disrupted. End the blockade now. Grateful to all those helping deliver humanitarian aid!

I know not what victories Woke 2 will bring us, but Woke 3 will be carving worker-friendly slogans into pedestrian bridges built of marble.

No single genetic or chromosomal marker can capture the complexity of biological sex, the obsession with finding a single marker to label someone as male or female ignores the true biological complexity.

Yes. And people who say Trump is stupid or ignorant or cognitively impaired, are missing his core con. Sure, he IS stupid, ignorant etc - but that DOESN'T MATTER - it never did. His MO doesn't require smarts or knowledge, because truth is not the point - the point is the sale, at the point of sale.

News story tonight on driverless cars suggested that the point of the technology is to “make better cities.” No it isn’t, and no it won’t. The point of the technology is to sell more cars, and more cars have NEVER made better cities.

Robert [the] Bruce should have just squished that spider.