39.5C on the coast

Died on this day in 1636, in London, the very fine Flemish portrait painter Marcus Gheeraerts. Here Margaret Layton, marking her place in her book as she sits to be painted.

More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland. They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

Boris Johnson forced every halfway competent Tory out of the party, stuffed the Tories with useless, corrupt, racist midwits & then screwed-up everything. Now, all the hopeless deadwood he brought in are defecting to an even more laughable outfit. It's quite something.

This morning I've been writing about the 1.5 million-year-old footprints from Koobi Fora, Kenya. What do you MEAN two species walked along a lakeshore within hours of each other? Breathtakingly cool. 📸Kevin Hatala/Chatham University

America is getting close to a tipping point. Scary to think it may choose the wrong course.

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

NEW: Here is the alleged video from Jonathan Ross's cell phone synched with the main eyewitness video we've all seen. As you can see it synchs perfectly. I don't think any internal cuts were made. I have left audio for both videos in this synch so that you can hear them aligned.

Hard to see how this isn’t murder by a federal agent.

You know how Trump gets stupid ideas stuck in his head forever? “In a July 2017 private briefing with intelligence officials, President Donald Trump apparently asked why the US wasn’t at war with Venezuela, noting that “they have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”

1. Heartbreaking news: the largest big tusker elephant in Kenya has died. I feel so fortunate that I got to see Craig in the wild. He was 54 years old and, thankfully, died of natural causes. It’s safe to assume that Kenyan authorities have already removed his tusks to keep them from poachers.

It will be hard for Greenwald, Mearsheimer & Chomsky to see the USA, the power they oppose, act like Russia, the power they appease.

The Christmas Fart Roland the Farter was a jester who (according to the "Liber Feodorum") held his land in Suffolk in return for "one jump, a whistle and one fart" at King Henry II's Christmas court every year.

youtu.be/4W304HGWSn0?... his best song

youtu.be/97wvwuHUMCw?... soundtrack to the dark nights

youtu.be/LGD9i718kBU?... Peter Cook minus Dudley

youtu.be/rC95MEenIxA?... their best song

youtu.be/Lfph3043yZU?... one of the great love songs of my youth

Did someone* try to assassinate Zelensky with drones targeting his flight to Dublin? Because flying four large drones into the expected flight path (the plane was early) looks like an assassination attempt. *Yes, obviously Russia is the likely suspect, but not literally the only possibility.

Well summer has begun with a bang here in #Perth. 39C for December 1st, hottest on record. #Cottesloe beach was great

Since Stephen Miller is in the midst of another of his Aryans-only trantrums, we should note that his family are 20th century immigrants from the shtetl of Antopol (Антопаль) then in the Hrodna gubernia of Russia. Applying his immigration rules, they would all have perished in the Holocaust.

War memorial plaque. St. Wendreda’s Church, March, Cambridgeshire. Commemorating Pilot Officer J.W. Hocking of the RAAF, who after ordering his crew to bail out, remained at the controls of his stricken aircraft to prevent it crashing in the town on 28th July 1944. #LestWeForget

This has happened against my wishes, and I’m genuinely dismayed by it. Not because people can’t disagree with my words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us. /3

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oh, that's... that's not... you can't call it that

Note: I was the one who hired Jamal and was his editor for a year