In the UK water supply is handled by gigantic corporations that pay huge bonuses but still don't seem to be able to actually supply water. In our corner of Austria the local water supply co-op posts excitedly on their website to tell us about their new digger. www.wlvpitten.at/wlvpitten/?p...

Early Pink Floyd: I have a friend My friend is a gnome Let’s all go to space in my interstellar automobile We’ll drink wine with the space princess Later Pink Floyd: I have no real friends My dad was killed in the war School sucked Did I tell you my dad was killed in the war? At least I’m very rich

Andrew Male@andrewmale.bsky.social · 7h ago

Early Depeche Mode song: Boy in a car It goes far Meet a girl Go for a whirl And on the radio is death Late Depeche Mode song: Driving towards redemption Crows in the sky Girl on a life support machine I don't ask you to forgive me And on the radio is death.

It’s the 50th anniversary of the time Eric Clapton went onstage and told everyone who wasn’t British to leave the room and the country, and was the impetus for Rock Against Racism

Saw the Freiwillige Feuerwehr from a couple of villages away go past and thought they were rather off their usual patch. And then I noticed the view to the north. Good lord.

About three years since we bought this house and we're finally replacing the 1970s interior doors which were very very cheap even then and acted less as soundproofing than as soundboxes to carry sounds far and wide. Looking forward to going for a dump without ploppy noises echoing through the house.

When we play the MCC from 14-16 August, the matches will be played at Tungubakkavöllur, Mosfellsbær. If the MCC beat us, we will ask their squad to pronounce the venue, and if they do not do a satisfactory job, we will declare 'a moral victory'. We will judge them fairly.

Please note that what I meant here was that Farage voters should be too glued to their TVs all day revelling in the cruelty and misery to bother to go and vote.

Mike Knell@blat.at · 4d ago

Because turnout is everything in byelections I think that on August 13 BBC1 should show a 15-hour marathon of a reality show called "Migrantwatch" full of graphic video of things like small boats being machine-gunned and screaming refugee children being dragged away after seeing their parents shot.

News: Austrian Airlines to cancel Vienna-Graz route to save costs Why did that exist anyway? It's a 2.5 hour Railjet journey from city centre to city centre and a single fare if you have an ÖBB Vorteilscard is about €22. There are even direct services from Vienna Airport to Graz every two hours.

Hide the Pain Harold for president of Hungary! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Hide the Pain Harold and Rubik’s Cube creator among social media’s picks for Hungarian president

Newly elected Tisza party asked public to put forward names, which have ranged from the sensible to the bizarre

theguardian.com

Because turnout is everything in byelections I think that on August 13 BBC1 should show a 15-hour marathon of a reality show called "Migrantwatch" full of graphic video of things like small boats being machine-gunned and screaming refugee children being dragged away after seeing their parents shot.

I fear that the ongoing Jason Arday mess isn't going to end well for anyone - the fact that it was horrible racists who publicised what looks like at least a case to answer for plagiarism in his thesis is mightily depressing, but that doesn't excuse the other obvious fantasies such as claiming 1/2

more good content! imagine publishing content that's just nice! reveals a little bit about having fun on the internet! people just doing things because they can and the internet was nice!

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 5d ago

this owns www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

I think I've been in Austria too long. IKEA started a PA announcement with "Liebe IKEA-Kundinnen und IKEA-Kunden" and I felt momentarily annoyed that they left out the "und alle, die hier leben". IYKYK.

News: Gianni Infantino awarded the inaugural UEFA Peace Prize for his achievement in getting the whole of Europe to agree unanimously on something.

Pundits are punditing and looking for reasons why the turnout in the Manchester mayor byelection is so low. None of them seem to have considered the idea that it being the school holidays and the middle of summer might be a major factor. Sometimes I think pundits need to get out more.

I mean, they're not wrong. Mitch McConnell was on the shortlist to play the gelatinous cube in the D&D movie.

Top Democrats accuse Republicans of becoming ‘gelatinous blobs’ on Iran war

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen attack Republican ‘rubber stamps’ in Congress for surrendering authority to Trump

theguardian.com

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

We needed a minor repair done on the roof. Who ya gonna call? (In this part of the world, anyway)

I made this because as far as I can see nobody else has?

Maybe this explains Farage's obsession with Polanksi's stupid post: the Guardian reported yesterday how the money George Cottrell's mother "freely" gave to Reform of her own accord tallied with similar sized transfers from him to her account a day or two earlier. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Revealed: George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before her donations to Reform UK

Exclusive: Sources say Fiona Cottrell told bankers the transfers, received 24-72 hours before her donations to Reform, came from her son

theguardian.com

Funniest thing I’ve read today: "If people post on social media things that are racist or inciteful, they nearly always get a knock at the door, charged, and that's right and proper.” - Nigel Farage

Reading about the Farage/Polanski thing and while that social media post Polanski made was stupid and politically illiterate I think Nigel Farage should be careful demanding the criminalisation of stupidity and political illiteracy as it would put a lot of his party's supporters in the slammer.

According to @bbcstever.bsky.social 's press review Moskovskij Komsomolets reports that there are still fuel shortages in various Siberian regions but that there is fuel in Moscow thanks to "emergency transfers from other regions". IOW, remote places suffer so Moscow can pretend everything is fine.

urrgh idiots accusing Emily Wilson of "self-promotion". Heaven forfend that an eminent classicist, translator, authority on the works of Homer and professor of humanities should engage in academic criticism of the work of others in her field of expertise and then, brazenly and shamelessly, SHARE IT.

To the vegans in the comments being angry that this isn't restricted to vegan food because then poor people would have to be vegan and everything would be better: you are the worst sort of smug, supercilious vegan stereotype and should get back in your box. Then the box should be dropped in the sea.

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 2w ago

At our municipal grocery stores, New Yorkers will get a 30% discount on eggs, milk, chicken, produce and other everyday essentials. In the wealthiest city in the richest country in the world, no one should have to wonder how they’ll afford the food they need to feed themselves or their families.

The Defence Minister of Cyprus is determined to find out who was responsible for a military live-fire exercise in 40C weather that caused a wildfire but wants to make very clear indeed that it DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY ISN'T HIM. cyprus-mail.com/2026/07/27/p... (h/t to my brother Dave for the link)

Palmas says ‘no active front’ in Kalo Chorio fire, police reopen Psevdas road

Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas said there is currently “no active front” in the fire which broke out at the firing range near the Larnaca district village of Kalo Chorio, while ordering an investigat...

cyprus-mail.com

I see Cleese has made a pillock of himself again.

George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · last wk.

Just loving how John Cleese, now reduced to one of his own caricatures, rages about immigrants coming to the UK and failing to accept "our" culture, from his home in ... (checks notes) ... Nevis in the Caribbean.

Bill Oddie, what a lovely bloke. He wrote us a letter when we started making The Young Ones, wishing us the very best, and warning us against interference from higher up. He didn’t know anyone in the cast personally. It just came out of the blue. Lovely thing to do.

Quick PSA as I got caught out by this: the Bill Oddie who has just died did not get a bit odd and become a hardcore traditionalist Catholic in his old age. That was the *other* Bill Oddie, who was a former Anglican priest turned traditionalist Catholic and one-time editor of the Catholic Herald.