Been reading Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household today. Bloody hell it's good. Love that the protagonist builds himself a womb to return to in the soil of Dorset. I know he isn't on an existential mission, but blimey it reminds me of some of Ballard's short stories.

Happy birthday Jodrell Bank!

Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · yesterday

Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, the world’s largest steerable dish radio telescope at the time (now the third largest). was switched on in 1957 on this day. Built by Bernard Lovell, it was the only radar device that could track the carrier rocket of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik I.

Had a dream last night about trying to prevent many friends and aquintances from attending a lecture they had been invited to by people enacting Dennis Wheatley's secret plan for gentleman fascism. I'd my phone and wallet so had trouble getting to the lecture near Liverpool Street to spoil it

This is absolutely bloody fantastic and you really should read it. Great work!

Chaminda Jayanetti@cjayanetti.bsky.social · 4d ago

"It isn’t point scoring that has delayed care reform, but disagreements on how to find the money and what to spend it on... What’s been missing is a leader willing to lead." I look at 20 years of failed adult care reform - and what Labour's proposals could miss By me, for @theleaduk.bsky.social

You don't realise until you live with mental ill health, distress or trauma it's possible to be the wrong type of person living with mental ill health, distress or trauma Most societies haven't managed to incorporate mental ill health, distress and trauma into ideas of society #worldmentalhealthday

AI make me a personalised videogame all about me and it’s me exactly the same and all my town and my mates except i’m 6’4” and drive the best lamborghini there is and sydney sweeney is my girlfriend and i get to murder the PE teacher who embarrassed me when i was 14

I am not sure I like the modern age of being forced to listen to super rich fuck wits. But I'm not sure I liked the previous modern age of being forced to listen to super posh fuck wits. The least interesting people have the loudest voices and bought the fucking platforms to bore from.

This is a smashing site and project, this.

Kieran - North East Heritage Library@neheritagelib.bsky.social · 3d ago

The day has finally come! Welcome to a significant redesign of much of the site, making a bigger deal of our maps and our pioneering Route Builder. It's completely designed for mobile in mind - no more jankiness. www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk

Note: the headline is absolutely not what the report said www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... (it was more measured and the actual risk of over diagnosis is based on "well numbers are increasing" which, you know, we could also say of cancer)

ADHD and autism at risk of over-diagnosis, says government review

The review, which focuses on younger people, warned there was a risk society was moving from an era of under-diagnosis to over-diagnosis.

bbc.co.uk

REwadent Evil@ewacat.bsky.social · 4d ago

Pleased to announce that ADHD is being overdiagnosed again according to the BBC and pathetic skidmark Wes Streeting, so now - during ADHD Awareness Month no less - it's time to give it up and just be normal. Let it go. Just turn it off and get on with things www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Can't recommend this book highly enough. It's a delight from cover to cover and presents a very different way of listening to The Fall during the period Steve covers.

Route@routebooks.bsky.social · 3d ago

Signed copies of The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall now available on our website (while stocks last) | www.route-online.com/all-books/th...

Looked at YouTube from a non-signed in browser (Chromium) and the top 100 was like Only Fans but for balaclava nonces and Danny Tommo and Reform and Restore. It put me in mind of this very good video youtu.be/PpcP835mWEQ?...

What old men are actually seeing online

YouTube video by Phil Edwards

youtu.be

In these times - this song's a belter #fallfriday youtu.be/5yiHBuTC9tI?...

The Fall - "In These Times" (Official Lyric Video) HD

YouTube video by Beggars Banquet Records

youtu.be

This sort of crystalises another observation around AI for me: focus on the product, not the outcome of the product. If you just focus on output, you avoid consideration of whether the product and outcome of product is, in fact, shit.

🎃👻🧙‍♀️ Vio the VVitch 🧙‍♀️👻🎃@viothevvitch.myatproto.social · 4d ago

this is so fucking sad

@stephenhanley6.bsky.social I've been listening to a lot of Fall records lately (and read your amazing book) and just wanted to drop you a line to say thank you for such an amazing body of work. Just mint. Absolutely glorious.

I honestly feel like someone fed the Vote Leave brexit micro messaging matrix into and LLM/image generation and created these hundred of baffling 'Remembrance' items of clothing. The image card does not do justice to the incredible hallucination of poppies, guns, soldiers, crosses and dogs

Mark Brown@markoneinfour.bsky.social · 6d ago

Lads. I've found the absolute zenith of AI slop meets poppy fetish. Which is your favourite way of remembering the events of the war to end all wars? sewmuchclothes.com/collections/...

Lads. I've found the absolute zenith of AI slop meets poppy fetish. Which is your favourite way of remembering the events of the war to end all wars? sewmuchclothes.com/collections/...

Remembrance Day

sewmuchclothes

sewmuchclothes.com

#OtD 3 Oct 1937 almost a year after their defeat at Cable St, Mosley's Blackshirts attempted to march through Bermondsey, South London. Met with strong local opposition and barricades in the streets, the march never arrived at its intended destination workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e35-...

This work has not yet reached cessation #fallfriday youtu.be/roMXGRzHy1I?...

Shiftwork

YouTube video by The Fall - Topic

youtu.be

This feels like something we might have done growing up

Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · last wk.

"Rita Ora has the Lidl Plus App" "Stacey Solomon gives Joe a sticker for helping with the dishes" "Alesha Dixon made bairns cry at the Hoppings" "Jessie J doesn't donate 10p to charity at the checkout" "Lorraine Kelly is barred from Wetherspoons for stealing cutlery"

I think the largest argument for getting joining the EU back on the agenda is a list of all of the ways that 2026 isn't 2016.

One thing I have never quite worked out in my head is the way we view chronic pain as somehow less of an issue than acute pain. Same as the way we seem to regard someone experiencing something for the first time as somehow more noteworthy than someone who lives with it every day.

Bring back British Quota Quickies.

Here's the anthem of a certain English Bluesky youtu.be/6zltpK2KiaQ?...

My Dad's harder than yours - Sans Beanstalk

YouTube video by Sans Beanstalk

youtu.be

Do you know anyone looking to get into journalism? Maybe with a disability or chronic illness? I’m writing a free newsletter that gives tips & advice on breaking into journalism. Also, gossip. If you know anyone who might find it useful, please pass on! Subscribe: open.substack.com/pub/frances336

Press Access | Frances Ryan | Substack

The things nobody tells disabled journalists about an industry that wasn’t built for us. Click to read Press Access, by Frances Ryan, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

open.substack.com

Regarding that last repost, I really, really wish there was more reporting that involved timelines of things. Things that happen have pasts, presents and futures. It is surprisingly difficult for lay people to piece together coherent histories of polices and events and it's getting more difficult

Liar. Small boat crossings peaked under Johnson in 2022 reaching 46,000 in 2022. In current year they are 18,565 and falling. Also prior to Boris Johnson's Brexit there were none.

There's something amusing about models that are yet to be painted. This will likely end up looking fine but I thought for a second that someone had made the armadillo from the cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus out of a chicken. I can't be the only one, surely.

The other night, when out walking, a polite lad on a bicycle asked me if I wanted packet. I said 'sorry?' he said it again. I said 'sorry?'. He said it again. I said 'I have no idea what you mean' the he say OK, wished me a good evening and cycled off into the darkness.

I suppose anything involving communication where the limiting factor was time it took to communinicate is now likely to find itself with far more demands as computing power collapses time. AI as a problem of demand, not a problem of output

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2w ago

AI is also going to force changes to anything where the friction is provided by a lengthy application process that can now be largely automated: employment tribunals, job applications, complaints procedures... As we're already seeing.