Essentially we're grappling with cocktail of economic stagnation, aging societies, geopolitical volatility, internal societal polarisation, technological disruption, epistemic fragmentation, climate crisis etc. Not clear that any leader can properly 'get a grip'.

My criticism wouldn’t be “confecting scandals” but it is that as a profession, the lads tend to be gossipy, reckless, trivial, easily led and distracted, stultified by received wisdom, implacably hostile to taking any responsibility at all for their behaviour and incapable of learning lessons.

What you're looking at is one of the reasons pineapple hurts to eat. These needle-like crystals of calcium oxalate are called 'raphides' & they're designed to puncture your mouth & throat while digestive enzymes (papain & bromelain) break down your tissues. Pineapples are trying to eat *US*.

Really concerning to see this kind of rhetoric from practising members of the Bar. If this said "we don't know what proportion of gay men are pedophiles but we know it's some of them" I would hope that people would recognise this for what it is. Sadly they don't when it's about trans people.

#67: Nine

#66: Corn

For those who would like to know whether the Commons genuinely supports this and other amendments, or whether the outcome is simply down to FPTP distortion, we invite you to look out for the proportional recounts published by @propvoting.bsky.social.

Liberal Democrats@libdems.org.uk · 3mo ago

Tomorrow, MPs will vote on @AlPinkerton.bsky.social amendment to the King's Speech - to negotiate a UK-EU customs union. We know there are many Labour MPs who agree that Brexit has done huge damage to our country. We hope they will back our vote tomorrow.

In the original version of the play that later became the book Peter Pan, there's no Captain Hook. He was invented later. A lot of us who watched the Disney movie or saw a theatre production forget how the book ends. Most adaptations hide its grim conclusion: Hook isn't the villain. Peter is.

If you’re interested in board games, video games, or just plain good analytical criticism then I cannot recommend this highly enough. Amazing work by @nopunincluded.com (Bonus points for Sidney of course) youtu.be/4RzS2MNEMiY?...

We Could Not Finish Terraria: The Board Game

YouTube video by No Pun Included

youtu.be

The most ironic Brexit legacy; meant to resolve the EU problem within the Tory party, and instead basically killed that party off and turned us into a European style multi-party system without the actual electoral mechanisms to make that work democratically. 10 years later: errrrbody still mad!

Anthony Zacharzewski@anthonyzach.be · 3mo ago

This is so much a continental European election result it’s almost funny. True Britain Democrats (PfE) 26% Ecology/Planet Action (G-EFA) 18% Christian Democrat Union (EPP) 17% Socialist Workers Revolutionary Party (S&D) 17% Europe Liberalism! (Renew) 16% Others 6%

#64: Regret

On the absurdity of setting UK interests by a Trump doctrine when not even the US national interest is served by the president www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump’s ego-trip war has collided with economic reality but he can’t undo the damage | Rafael Behr

The US president’s doctrine of lawless military adventures harms American interests and boosts Vladimir Putin, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

theguardian.com

just reminding everybody who is still on Facebook:

I ask - why is the government taking so many silly L's on judicial reviews? backofmind.substack.com/p/three-time...

three times is political action

the levers not working

backofmind.substack.com

The American right does not defend slavery because progressives say it was bad. They defend slavery because racial hierarchy has been an important and increasingly explicit component of their ideology for 70 years. Read a fucking book.

Pale Blue Dot day so here's the whole thing. (thread) 1/9 "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...

The Plutocrats Who Rule Our World Aren't Even Enjoying Themselves We are ruled by deeply wounded and dysfunctional emotional infants. The people who control our society are whipped about by primitive forces within themselves that they don’t understand. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-plutoc...

The Plutocrats Who Rule Our World Aren't Even Enjoying Themselves

Reading by Tim Foley:

caitlinjohnst.one

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

Inside the Russian dialect coaching behind Heated Rivalry www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/epis...

The secret to authentic Russian accents on Heated Rivalry

How a Russian dialect coach helped Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie master challenging Russian sounds and build a believable accent

scientificamerican.com

For the record, I don't think even Starmer is stupid enough to call a general election right now. I do however think McSweeney is, and with his job on the line and the weird as hell "rasputinish" grip he has on Starmer I don't think it can be entirely ruled out.

Please, please, media outlets, remember the C word: context. You can’t discuss Trump’s apes post - or his ‘blame a staffer’ excuse - if you’re not also factoring in and reminding your viewers/readers about his birtherism, his ‘send her back’ remarks, him calling Somalis ‘low IQ’.

New report out today on the impact of the Supreme Court's s.28(7) jurisprudence, with @profnicolamcewen.bsky.social, @chrismccork.bsky.social and Jo Hunt. www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

The PM is clearly morally compromised by his decision to appoint Mandelson despite all he knew about him. Perhaps the only thing that stands a chance of restoring some modicum of the public's shattered trust in this country's politics and political class is him doing the decent thing and resigning.

Chris Mason: Starmer can ill afford any more days like these

Starmer is furious with Mandelson, and the mood among many Labour MPs is darkening, the BBC's political editor writes.

bbc.co.uk

Guess who is once again displaying their ability to hyperfocus on being a hater? It's me, I spent all evening writing my own compilation of all the reasons I think AI sucks so I can post it under genAI-made FB posts. Work-in-progress, suggestions welcome! www.skwinnicki.com/single-post/...

I would be so ashamed to use generative AI, here’s why

Generative AI (“genAI”) is not harm-free and I do not think the benefits outweigh the harm in its current iteration. I compiled my thoughts about genAI here to keep all the cited sources straight and ...

skwinnicki.com

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️@skwinnicki.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Has anyone compiled a good, well-cited one stop website with a detailed list of why genAI sucks? I would love something that I could share that simultaneously speaks to the points about stolen art/writing, habitat loss, resource waste, funding/economic issues, misinformation/propaganda, etc.

That's not why Labour's hostile and discriminatory anti-immigration policies should be opposed though. They should be opposed because they are racist, inhumane and based only on inflicting misery and suffering. They are designed to harm. Designed to dehumanise. That is why they must be opposed.

I posted a whole thread of cartoon intros and I forgot to mention. In Sweden, we didn't have Saturday morning cartoons. We had Saturday evening cartoons so all the adults could go out while the kids stayed at home with cartoons

Maja Öberg@majaoeberg.bsky.social · 6mo ago

It’s Saturday! 📺 Post a cartoon TV series you love

“Where Europe has federated: on trade, on competition, on the single market, on monetary policy, we are respected as a power" "Where we have not: on defence, on industrial policy, on foreign affairs, we are treated as a loose assembly of middle-sized states, to be divided & dealt with accordingly.”