I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS

The current interest in The Odyssey should remind us of one important thing. For most of history, poetry has been viewed not as a marginal activity, practiced by cranks & hobbyists, but as a revered vocation, a central & indispensable feature of art & culture, of human communion & self-understanding

Fut bal is icumen hom

Having failed to interest any papers in this story, I resorted to writing a letter to The Times, like in olden times. So when all that's left to watch is NASCAR racing sponsored by Cheetos, I can at least say I tried. #ITV #Sky #Comcast

Sarah Mansfield MP has made a little book about The Very Hungry Data Centre

This is lovely! From Country People by Daniel Mason #nowreading

That statement in full for those not watching

Chappers: "Wayne, Micah – was it a red?" Wayne and Micah:

I’m sure this tune is in no small part responsible for my lifelong love of bike racing. Hearing it instantly evokes great memories of Lemond, Fignon, Delgado, Kelly, Millar… and of course Paul Sherwen’s Suitcase of Courage! Never knew until much later that Pete Shelley was behind it

Was doing well until the last one, when I guessed the right continent but completely the wrong side of it… (nearly went that side as well, bah!) www.maptap.gg July 6 98🔥 96🏅 99🎯 100🎯 18🥺 Final score: 746

Clues from the cryptic crypt: Corrupt old scrote with a fag, leering, drunk (5,6)

If you can avoid posting Tommy Robinson, Lozza and the like from the other place on here, that would be great. One of the reasons most of us are on here is to not see that bile. Thanks x

Read the book before you see the film. Klara and the Sun is just 99p on eBook today 🌞 Coming to cinemas soon, starring Jenna Ortega and directed by Taika Waititi. amazon.co.uk/Klara-Sun-Kazuo-Ishiguro-ebook/dp/B08B8BDLW1

I'll take that. britmonkey.com/2020s-politi...

It’s a parasol guys. You’ve made a stupid new name for a parasol

oh my god this is my marriage

"The level of effort is so low that we consider it spam" is a great rule to have against AI content

My opinion coincides with the rules of government. You don't elect a PM you elect a party. There is no need to call an election. If you see me saying anything else in the future (or past) then haul me over the fucking coals.

Shit stirrers irk me, framing a decent man (3,4,7)

Currently reading for the first time (inspired by several mentions round these parts lately) and a) why the hell didn’t I read it sooner? b) intrigued by Paul’s observations as I don’t think it takes a particularly close reading to detect the irony. Anyway, this analysis is spot on for me…

Me and @eleanormorton.bsky.social read Winnie the Pooh and, in the words of A. A. Milne, "I pity the fool who gets on a plane." New pod in your podplace: linktr.ee/readthat

Yeah, sure, send me your list of things Labour has achieved. But the fact that they can't even make the country aware of what they've achieved is damning. So my second "unless he's very stupid" prediction is that Burnham will run a huge, noisy Comms team a la Alastair Campbell.

This FT analysis shows that the third most popular current option for 2016 Leave voters, after Reform and Conservative, is to be dead.

Confirmation by the excellent @remidupre.bsky.social of @lemonde.fr that the Fifa Council was *not* consulted by Gianni Infantino for the award of the "Fifa Peace Prize" to D.J. Trump, a gross violation of Fifa statutes which, in a 'normal' Fifa, should see him investigated and punished. 'Normal'.

For Remain voters, being dead comes a paltry fifth. The only thing worse than death, for a Remain voter, is Reform.

The best insults are disguised as compliments, as I'm sure someone as perceptive as you would agree.

Interestingly, the intuition I felt and spoke from -- that embodied knowing -- is precisely the kind of thing AI, for all of its performative anthropomorphic gesturing at the simulacrum of personhood, can't do. Tech billionaires want us to believe that our embodied/human ways of knowing are useless!

I actually had a conversation with the keynote speaker afterwards, and told him what a shame it was that he allowed an LLM to make him believe in his own worthlessness. I tried to reason with him: "That's exactly what these companies want you to believe, and it's ridiculous." He was unmoved..

Time for me to repeat one of my ‘sayings’. If you try to solve a problem by passing a law, but people don’t obey the law, you now have two problems where you used to have one.

As long as the government remains on the fascist enabling X nobody can take anything they say seriously with regards to social media and safety

Discussing cryptic crosswords with a friend at the pub and delighted at this hallucination of a classic @twlldun.bsky.social tweet

This is superb. I suspect Sam's well-argued, well-written piece will find more sympathetic readers than Will Self's infamous diatribe describing Orwell as 'the supreme mediocrity' though he's making some similar points about those who follow his rules in slavishly pedantic fashion...

One of those charming moments in life…

Great book. Very funny, as I recall. Was 18 when it came out, loved it but not as much as The Commitments. Suspect that now I’m older it would be the other way round… Trying to remember if I ever read The Snapper, not sure I did

These are great fun - I like the variety of styles and difficulty. Recommended. Nice easy one to start the new season… Thinky Dailies 3-1 The Journey Begins Solved in 0:14 thinkygames.com/dailies/puzz...

Just finished this wonderfully funny, smart, sad book. Highly recommended. 'Slyly sophisticated' is bang on. Love the cleverly layered metatextual elements. Love the two main characters. Love the endless descriptions of food. And the ending is heartbreaking. Leaves you with a lot to think about...

Love this bit on Ai from the Royal Society. A classic case of the probability engine getting itself in a mess and revealing its complete lack of understanding

Laughed at this image for 10 entire minutes

I have friends who would consider this opinion sacrilege but... have to agree. But despite having a fair bit of filler, there's also plenty of pure gold - All My Little Words is quite simply one of the finest pop songs ever crafted... youtu.be/eo8vW_0H_Kg?...

Look, plantar fascitis sucks but I think this guy has bigger issues going on

I’m absolutely living for the passive-aggressive shade M&S is throwing at ‘gender critical’ transphobes! 👏🏻💕😘👌🏻

Excellent puzzle as ever. Blog by me now up at fifteensquared fifteensquared.net/2026/05/31/f...

A lot of people from around the world are about to experience the dark side of the USA.

I did a thread on 15 minute cities on X which went so viral I ended up in the Times and on BBC Radio. I thought I'd repeat it here... This was my parents house in Coventry. They bought it in 1965 and it was my home throughout the 1970s & 80s. My mum lived there until 2021. It was a happy home. 1/22

Saw this huge mf of a fly buzzing round my home office. Alarming. Managed to capture it then looked it up on the internet for identification… turns out they don’t bite and they’re pollinators, so I let it out the window to go about its good work… www.naturespot.org/species/pell...

Most of the letters: "Even as an avid reader, I was dismayed to see your list featured Ulysses & Proust which only pointyheaded wankers & poofs pretend to read. Couldn't the Guardian have given the Best Novel prize to something everyone enjoys, like a nice pint or a packet of cheese & onion crisps"

Mum’s selling the family home so I’ve been clearing the loft of 40 years worth of accumulated crap. Found my old Commodore 64 that I thought my parents had chucked years ago! Not sure that cassette deck will still work mind…

The kind you find in a second hand store.