Cool. Microsoft has broken an obscure product feature known as 'being able to save and close a Word document'. But at least I have AI features I didn't ask for!

Competing theories

Just went to see Spongebob Movie with the kids and a short cartoon before the feature was basically furious anti-AI propaganda that ended with an AI robot being destroyed and the heroes saying 'I'm going to delete my ChatGPT app right now'. Kids had NO IDEA what to make of it.

IMHO, still around $20 more than they’re worth.

Bandcamp bans AI music

It's still amazing that six months after 9/11 The Observer published an uncompromising 4-page 'Absolute Atrocity Special' satire on the whole thing by Iannucci and Morris with lines like "Bush cheers American nation by launching Operation Death Unto Allah." image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Ob...

An excellent and much-needed pushback in defence of free speech and the arts. Well worth reading from start to finish. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the regular complaints about rooftop solar subsidy schemes is that it only assists those who can afford to invest in rooftop solar - but as this is demonstrating, those subsidies protect the grid for those who can't afford the investment. Rooftop solar has benefit of the commons effects.

In Australian journalism, we add the weather forecast to all pertinent beer news, and vice versa.

At CES 2026, where I find myself asking "Oh what fresh hell is this?" every five minutes

Well that was a rubbish Ashes series, two tired and flawed teams playing often quite badly on several terrible pitches, and I enjoyed the hell out of all of it.

I've deliberately opened Threads about three times ever, and accidentally opened it through an ambiguous prompt on Instagram almost every other day. Hoping for a future 'stop trying to make Threads a thing' option in Settings.

Snorkel: definitely one of those words that look weirder and weirder the more you look at it. I reckon if there isn't a word for this kind of words then they should be called snorkels.

The fun part of it being a dead rubber Ashes test is Australia feels free to bat like they're 150 runs ahead, when they're still 150 runs behind.

So many great pix last year but the one from Schoolies is my favourite - as our pic editor put it, it could be a still from a perfectly composed movie scene, and every element is a story. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Warning: I don't think this is actually accurate because I tried it twice and got different results.

It did not finish the kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

All I want is a music streaming service that properly pays musicians, integrates with my smart speakers, has a big library and when I search for a song doesn't play me cheap covers or AI slop. Maybe someday someone will get around to making one.

Metallicabaret Voltaire

Next year your job will be replaced by seaweed.

Happy New Year 🥳

Oh good someone got 12,000 likes for making a weird and not-un-creepy AI video of Ahmed al-Ahmed www.instagram.com/reel/DSSrYOw...

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

Price <> deliciousness * * at supermarkets www.theguardian.com/food/2025/de...

"What Americans in a 1998 poll expected to happen by the year 2025..."

Looking forward to the Telegraph’s extensive coverage of petrol-powered cars whose gearboxes broke.

Classic of the genre.

Apparently now there are only 3 people from We Didn't Start the Fire still alive www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeau...

Thanks for the suggestion IFTTT but I might actually die.

Terrific read about the public policy lessons inside a Christmas tradition www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the cleverest ideas I’ve seen in journalism recently is Wired adding the ‘Claude v Dr Eliza’ coda to its AI special.

The fact that humans are still better than AI at most stuff is irrelevant if the people who make the hiring decisions reckons it’s ’good enough’.

what a great pic

Every time I see these headlines I read it as Doctor Who

Yes yes yes this person sincerely did the Mitchell and Webb sketch IRL. But also actually lovely to see this happen against all the evidence that people tend to pick a tribe then never change - especially with all the algorithms working to reinforce it.

What fun. As of Monday, if you apply for almost any kind of non-immigrant visa to the US, you have to set all your social media accounts to 'public'

Every day the BOM weather app tells me there’s a 50% chance of at least 0mm of rain today, and every day I tell it actually it’s a 100% chance. It’s our cute little morning thing we do.

“New Lizza post is up!” I shout from my room. The only reply is my own echo; this house has been empty for thirty-five years.

CBP Agent: "So, we've reviewed your Discord history and..." Me: "I can explain!" Agent: "I very much doubt that. How long has this been going on?" Me: "We... we started over two years ago." Agent: "And in that time, the party you DM for has moved how far?" Me, crying: "About a mile, sir..."

Last night I watched half of a new heist movie starring a chap called Connor Swindells, about a down on his luck crim planning a... etc etc... for some reason at Christmas... and it won't win any awards, but it surely has to be the greatest moment of nominative deterministic casting in movie history

Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move

TIL Monet's money made poplars popular.

"Move to the center. Inject some civility into your hate speech."

"From handsome, alpha dogs, to weak-chinned lost souls under the evening lights, eyes hollow, hair straggly, like acid casualties at Woodstock." Barney Ronay on the England cricket team 🔥https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/08/bazball-brendon-mccullum-ben-stokes-england-cricket-ashes

all the protesters were taken into custardy www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I can’t believe that in this day and age, people are still wearing fir.

it's white. The colour of the year is white.

What a world

I know AI is terrible but honestly, some days the best I can do is work out what word is most appropriate to follow the previous one I said.

My Spotify Wrapped age is 100.