Thank you to The Clarion for such clear reporting on this horrendous situation. Why aren't 'RTC' a proscribed organisation ??

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · yesterday

Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.

For GOD'S SAKE. Massive landowners call for ban on disposable BBQs, but at the same time call for "a lifting of the ban on controlled burning" 'You oiks shouldn't burn moorland - that's OUR job' Entitled double standards. Ban both. @georgemonbiot.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Calls to ban disposable barbecues in England and Wales over wildfire risk

Lib Dems and many Labour MPs join farmers, landowners and firefighters in urging temporary prohibition

theguardian.com

UK companies are trashing the environment and wrecking the lives of people overseas through their global supply chains - and UK law lets them get away with it. Join me and call for a new #BizHumanRights law to put #PlanetOverProfit: foe.uk/7p-ax

Make companies pay for exploiting people and planet

Greedy UK companies are wrecking the world’s forests through their international supply chains. Last year was the hottest on record, yet global deforestation - one of the leading causes of climate bre...

foe.uk

Speaking as a person who can't even cope with the Runaway Mine Train at a certain midlands theme park this is *already* terrifying...

Joel Morris@gralefrit.bsky.social · 4d ago

This is coming. On Monday. TORMENTOR A Broken Veil Summer Special. Exclusively for paid subscribers. Patreon.com/brokenveil

I am judiciously saving all evidence of my book research, emails/ chats with my researcher (he helps me track down sources, I read them), all my notes (cut+ paste and then summarized w my thoughts+ organized), chapter drafts, feedback from colleagues... to prove 0% AI was used.

Absolute treat to be playing for OCM, especially since we get to mess about with our Essex / Turkish broken folk pals Masal — harp and synth, the perfect cocktail! masalbanduk.bandcamp.com/album/the-ga...

The Galloping Cat, by Masal

6 track album

masalbanduk.bandcamp.com

Oxford Contemporary Music (OCMevents)@ocmevents.bsky.social · 6d ago

We're honoured to be presenting the final night of @lunatraktors.bsky.social' UK tour. They'll appear as a double bill with Masal at The Nest, Sat 10th October. Tix: wegottickets.com/f/22708 Funders: @artscouncilengland.bsky.social @prsfoundation.bsky.social @ppluk.bsky.social #ocm #FundedbyPRSF

Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.

Yn a worlde where the humanityes are being systematicallye defunded by both the righte and the lefte, the internet ys one big seminar about the meaninge of *The Odyssey.* Ther ys a lesson yn thys somewher. And the lesson ys: funde the humanityes.

c.org/nnWQgSWMfC

Sign the Petition

SAVE JODRELL BANK – Protect a national treasure of science, heritage and inspiration

c.org

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3w ago

“What will the Lovell Telescope discover/enable 20 yrs from now? I can’t tell you, and that’s the point. It will either be something extraordinary that none of us can yet predict, or we will defund it and leave Cheshire with a rusting monument to unfulfilled potential and discoveries never made.” 🔭🧪

Academic organizations hadde bettir actuallye be brave and protecte each othir or else the last one ther will have no taske besydes turninge out the lightes and leavinge the key yn the envelope for big businesse.

Ooooo!!! Exciting. Also I miss spooky ice lollys.

Joel Morris@gralefrit.bsky.social · 2w ago

Been recording the Broken Veil Channel Summer Special today, with a special guest. Yeah. That’s a thing. Coming soon.

This really is a fabulous novel, such a great read though truly heartbreaking and furious making (I haven't quite finished it yet). I'm wondering why the only other Barbara Kingsolver I've read is the self-sufficiency one. Well, the library opens in 2 hours...

A Very Good Point!! (It had never occurred to me to look at the ratings on Google Maps so I had a look at Uffington White Horse which rates higher than the Himalayas, but still only 4.6 which is also clearly nonsense)

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2w ago

If you're worried about the reviews your book or record might have on the internet, remember the Himalayas have a 4.3 out of 5 star rating on Google Maps.

Exciting news: my mum has just sent me a package with beautiful linoprint bookmarks. You get one of these FREE if you are in the UK & would like to order an Everything Will Swallow You direct from me, for cover price (£9.99). Let me know below or at hello@tom-cox.com if you'd like to be on the list.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2w ago

www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-ro...

I’ve signed a letter calling for Angela Eagle and Ofwat to reject the last-ditch deal from Thames Water's creditors. Can you sign and share it as well? weownit.org.uk/act-now/sign...

Sign our open letter to Angela Eagle

I’ve signed a letter calling for Angela Eagle and Ofwat to reject the last-ditch deal from Thames Water's creditors. Can you sign and share it as well?

weownit.org.uk

🗺️ The Minister who signed off the "Greater Oxford" boundary grab was sacked days later. Look at the shape - it's a gerrymander, reaching for villages that have nothing to do with the city (but cutting us out?) I'd rather keep Oxfordshire whole. Please sign & share: www.oxonld.uk/lgr

What's a really obvious policy that could save people millions of people money *and* save the government £2 billion a year?

Yeah? She should go see a doctor. Thatcher never slept much and look at the fucking state we're in now. YES I DO LAY IT ALL AT HER DOOR.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2w ago

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has said she gets just “zero to three hours” of sleep a night, prompting a debate in the country over work-life balance.

Some ancient faces I liked in the Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon. They all look a bit annoyed/perplexed and I suppose I would be too if I was being stared at all day....🤨.

Microsoft is planning to build three massive AI data centres in Leeds. It’ll drain thousands of litres of water from the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop the council's final sign-off, but we need more voices. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...

Stop the Microsoft AI megasite in Leeds!

Microsoft wants to build three huge AI data centres at Skelton Grange. It would drain the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop it - add your name to the petition.

you.38degrees.org.uk

I need to make a 'The Luddites didn't hate technology, they hated technology being used to plunge people into hellish poverty' sign so I can tap it at times like this

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts

In today's episode of reports which tell us what we knew all along...There is no overdiagnosis of autism, ADHD and poor mental health amongst young people. There's just diagnosis, for a variety of reasons, none of which relate to 'gaming the system' - but may relate to engaging with the system

Rosie (she/her)@airfriedrosie.bsky.social · 3w ago

Remember Streeting's review into whether young people are being overdiagnosed with ADHD, autism, and mental health issues? Well, the interim report is out, and there's a reason the media are silent on it (spoiler: it proves what a lot of us have been saying all along)

If you feel like irritating John Mitchinson, a man who stole a lot of money from me, @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social, @alexdecampi.bsky.social, @jordanshiveley.bsky.social and many others, you could always leave a one star review of his podcast. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/b...

Backlisted

Books Podcast · Updated Biweekly · The literary podcast that has been giving new life to old books since 2015. For show notes visit backlisted.fm and get an extra two shows a month by supporting the p...

podcasts.apple.com

Linothel@linothel.bsky.social · 3w ago

Oh yuck. I only found that podcast recently, during the period when he had the good time to taste to not be on it. Hadn't noticed he'd resurfaced. Unsubscribed.

Every time I think I've heard the peak the shitty awfulness of Unbound &/ its administrators something else turns up... absolute fuckers.

Effin' Birds@effinbirds.com · 4w ago

Despite a paper trail proving otherwise, Unbound’s administrators claimed they still owned the rights to Effin’ Birds and threatened to sue Penguin Random House if PRH paid me any royalties for my ongoing book sales. Wasn’t resolved until two months ago. They tried to bankrupt me out of spite.

This is doing the rounds of Facebook again. Pages getting 100s of shares & using it to boost their following with their own watermark and no acknowledge of the source. Fuck all you can really do about it. It's not by "Unknown". It's from my book Ring The Hill: blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

This point needs to be made over and again: The main purpose of wealth taxes should not be to raise revenue. That's a small and secondary benefit. The main purpose should be to *reduce the fortunes of the ultrarich*. Why? Because those fortunes present a massive threat to democracy and public life.

At my son's prom they were asked to send in requests beforehand and THE DJ DIDN'T PLAY ANY OF THEM.

Joel Morris@gralefrit.bsky.social · last mo.

Just got back from DJ-ing the Taylor Swift wedding disco. Mad-level celebs kept asking for Loveshack and Crazy In Love and Groovejet, but I mainly play funky house and it’s my set and my decks, so I was glad to see the dancefloor empty, people listening and going away with something to think about.

I ran an absolutely 100% human, zero AI-involvement at any stage passage of my writing through an "AI detector," curious if it could really tell human from AI work, and it said my own writing was "84% AI written" then asked I wanted to pay to have it "humanized." So there's that to keep in mind.

I am quite cross about this too.

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · last mo.

Abingdon – AI-ometer 5/5 Oh come ON. One of the most creative, independent-minded towns in Oxfordshire and they submit this travesty of an AI image. We are actually quite cross about this.