I've brought this up before but I think it bears repeating because it's a total non-factor in all the rhetoric: "Britain" hasn't been an island (or archipelago) at any time in its history. The last decade of drawing back behind our borders is a bizarre aberration.

Some days I have a sweet bop stuck in my head; other days I have Einsturzende Neubauten chanting "sicher nicht sein, sicher nicht sein, sicher nicht sein" ...

feed some acorns to a pig if anyone is in the mood to hear a pig happily crunching on an acorn

It's a pity Tom Petty is dead, because, he should be congratulated for writing a song, Free Falling, that - while I was at the shops today - made me LONG for them to put the Christmas music back on...

I've discovered that Focus are playing Whelan's next year. Tix are €32. I mentioned it to my wife and I think that was a mistake. "Ooh, that's expensive, I'm not sure I like them *that* much." I never learn.

"When garments are produced using misery, no joy can be derived from them." - Derek Guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social

Stories on BBC News - a street brawl which helpfully tells us those involved were “of Turkish origin” and another about a sex offender “Sudanese” but an extremely prolific sex offender responsible for 343 offences is not described as “white British” why is that

No-one has made a good movie about Borley Rectory. In fact some of the worst films I have ever seen have had Borley in the title. It’s a film curse. A spectrum of shite. I implore you, avoid any Borley film - even those with half-decent casts and cinematography are pustules on the Devil’s cock.

The way the BBC have reacted to Trump's criticism is a ridiculous, overblown kneejerk, especially when they wholly ignored criticism about their Gaza reporting, Corbyn bashing or Farage soapboxing. 1/3

Hunker down, y'awl.

If that's a machine, I think it needs an out of order sign.

Tiny drawing of my dad, who is dead in real life but in drawing kind of liminal

It was only today that I learnt that Tufty from Tufty Club has a surname - Fluffytale.

So, @bsky.app, why does your web interface character count say 300, but allow me to post 323 characters when there's a URL? You only allow 300 ch in your API, so when I write posts here to check for length and then paste them into a scheduler, they are too long. This is ridiculous.

Gen Z stands for Generation Zohran.

BREAKING: Green Party councillors have walked out of Belfast City Council’s meeting after the Lord Mayor blocked a member from speaking on the Gaza genocide and refused a recess to resolve it. This is a clear overreach of the Mayor’s duty to act impartially.

I see there's once again Discourse about blocking. You are not entitled to anyone else's attention, and nor are you obliged to pay attention to anyone else.

I kinda feel like cycling to Kilrea just to sneak across the bridge and back.

Aw Micheál, you know where this line of rhetoric will lead. Just look a few miles east. Pay attention. www.irishexaminer.com/news/politic...

Normalise calling people who are obsessed with bringing trans people up in every argument “weirdos” and “perverts” instead of debating them

Know your subgenres, Cracking open a cold one with the fellas: buddy comedy Cracking open fellas with the Cold One: dark fantasy Cracking open one fella with a cold: medical drama A cold open with one cracking fella: sitcom One cold fella with the open crack: public solo porn in winter

your moment of calm

Newton Emerson writing about Heather Humphreys facing a sectarian storm during the election. Gwan and shite lad.

I love how sometimes a picture really is a 1000 words. (Posted on IG by Cork Rebels Support, no credit given for the artist)

I got to do the staff pick today. What else could I go for... digitalfilmarchive.net/news/dfa-sta...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

I'm sorry but as an Andrew this doesn't go far enough and on behalf of all my people I demand he be stripped of our name too. He's welcome to Mountbatten Windsor

the university keeps advertising Enterprise Fellowships - where you apply your scholarship in a commercial/entrepreneurial context - & all I can imagine is sitting in a boardroom with some men and saying tenderly to them 'all my research indicates that your business should cease to exist asap'

I’m curious about people who do research professionally but who don’t have PhDs and aren’t in academia. What do you do? Where do you work? How did you get into doing it?

I shall visit a chocolate factory later this day, and I shall make many impulse purchases.

I think the fact it's harder and harder to opt out of having a fucking mediocre insensate program write for you is the most infuriating thing. It helps that like her I write longhand drafts, but having to disable things in Word or just ignore them is becoming annoying AF.

Yes that is my name on the cover of @uncannymagazine.bsky.social no. 67! Bucket list writing achievement thank you to the talented editorial team at Uncanny for making it the best it could be and for @michaeldthomas.bsky.social for approaching me to write this 🖤🦷 I got plenty more in the hopper 🤓

Feeling like I might enter next year's marathon. Unsure that this is wise.

Heather Humphres voted to seal the records of the Mother and Baby Homes. Never forgot. #rtept #Aras25

I used to find thesaurus dot com genuinely useful for finding words on the tip of my tongue, and ever since they've gone AI it's complete garbage. they HAD the correct information and they replaced it with trash, it's infuriating

Just been to see the Chamber Choir of Ireland at an event called Echoes of the Divine, in Belfast's Fisherwick Church. One of the pieces, from either the 1100s or 1300s had the choir at the back of the church singing forwards up the nave into chancel, in a series of rounds. 1/2

I've come to regret eating an entire bag of pumpkin seeds last night.

Stunning poem by Anne Tannam 💙 #amreading

There's not much that'll make me switch off the TV more quickly than people dancing as the focus of the entertainment.

They fixed the sinkhole before I could look in it, story of my life.

Nice one Yuka, a set of results I can entirely not trust. Just because you'd rather ask an LLM rather than, maybe an expert, or even search the web yourself. One more mailing list to unsubscribe from, one more app to delete and one more account to close.

Oh what, turns out government is difficult and not really easy like you thought? Who knew??

The reveal I want to see is that Jim Gavin's tenant was CMAT.

I also don't think "customize your own social media experience" is a very satisfactory solution for many people especially when their problem isn't "this guy appears in my feed" but "this guy has an influence on the world" which I don't know if social media should solve but that's what's wanted

This is a fantastic story. Unmute

I've had the refrain lyrics from Status Quo's The Clown popping into my head on the regular for weeks now. Those horns "and they're laughing...I got nothing"

This is probably my favourite 1-2 punch of replies, ever.