Monsters

Median UK voter in 2026, as predicted by Hugh Laurie some decades ago:

William Irwin Thompson argued that once they reach their mature consolidated phase, revolutions end up being the diametric opposite of the liberation they initially set out to achieve. I think of this one a lot these days, but to my mind Big Brother is a stand-in for data as a source of power.

Apple 1984 Super Bowl Commercial Introducing Macintosh Computer (HD)

YouTube video by Robert Cole (RobertKCole)

youtube.com

The fact that various people are saying Liddle was nice in private speaks to a columnist disease - people having nasty and ugly views once a week for money, with little care for the social consequences. But enjoy that £1 a word!

The war is expanding at such a pace that even this information is missing important developments, i.e. the German invasion of Belgium.

World War I As It Happened (1914)@warhappened.bsky.social · 2d ago

For those who find it difficult to keep up with just who is involved in the war so far, The Daily Mirror provides a handy information box, which also highlights Britain's current stance.

it's a big club and you ain't in it

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 2d ago

The Times, one of the leading voices when it comes to 'protecting women and girls' calling a man who assaulted his young pregnant girlfriend, said he would rape the kids if he was a teacher and called for child sex abuse porn to be legal, 'brilliant'

Your reminder Rod Liddle not only said he couldn't have become a teacher because he "could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids" in The Spectator, but he also wrote laws banning child pornography are "absurd" in The Guardian. Abhorrent.

“Which column? By who?” “It was on the back page of the Sunday Times last Sunday.” “And who wrote it?” “I can't remember his name.” “I'll tell you who wrote it. I can remember his name. Rod Liddle. He's the guy who ran away and left his wife for a young one.” youtu.be/Prep4trYNj4?...

Eamonn Dunphy rant

YouTube video by Piaras Kelly

youtu.be

German film score composer Hans Zimmer showing off his Moog modular in the early 80s.

Suetonius is very good on “real power is when you can get important people to humiliate themselves in front of their friends”.

I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.

Chatbots must tell users they are AI under new EU transparency rules applying from today. Companies face fines of up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover. csalert.ie/V67K4K

New EU AI Transparency Rules Take Effect Today

Chatbots must tell users they are AI under new EU transparency rules applying from today. Companies face fines of up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover.

csalert.ie

It's really fascinating looking at Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) feed (which I do via a thing which lets me see it through RSS). He is utterly, utterly obsessed with racist anti-immigrant propaganda. It is, if anything, worse than you probably imagine. He's insane.

it’s never a great sign for your society when all the competent people who believe in doing a good job for the sake of it conclude that they’re actively being punished for these qualities, while malignantly stupid criminals are making bank

Once we were concerned about geographic literacy.... now...

Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 6d ago

I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:

I think I'm going to just attach this to my syllabi from now on.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 6d ago

your apartment, the sport of basketball, and the Republic of Korea are all social constructs. mere recognition of this fact does not actually make the question of whether you are standing in your own apartment, playing basketball, or a Korean national up in the air until settled by op ed editors

When UEFA are the good guys, the bad guys.are very bad indeed.

“The Third World War is already underway, has been for a while, but remains unrecognised because it doesn’t follow the patterns we know.”

The Third World War Is Here

And it's not what you think

chadbourn.substack.com

The old Haider, Bossi, Lepper-era populists produced huge surges of popularity that could suddenly implode because they hinged on individual dominant personalities However much Marine Le Pen or Meloni are still key, much of Europe's populist right is more institutionally structured than Reform

It's a datapoint for how Farage projects are a personalist throwback to the far right populism of the 1990s and early 00s rather than the more professionally run and institutionalised far right parties that now operate in Spain, Italy and France. Farage as the last remnant of Haider-era Europe

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · 6d ago

Reform at 23% with FindOutNow is not a good number for them (they tended to do better with them than other polling firms). Could the funding scandal and backfiring by-election gambit be starting to really hurt?

✅ Touring Clacton ✅ Visiting local businesses ✅ Listening to constituents’ concerns ✅ Hi-vis vest Make your Vote Count! #VoteBinface #Clacton

He might be the greatest unifying figure there's ever been. Truly incredible. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

AFC joins Uefa and Concacaf in opposing Fifa plan

The Asian Football Confederation "stands in solidarity" with Uefa and Concacaf in opposing controversial Fifa proposals.

bbc.co.uk

Ross McKay@rossmc11.bsky.social · 6d ago

We need to take a moment to salute Gianni Infantino for being the first person in history to get 55 European countries to unanimously agree on anything.

Well, this is quite something: All 55 UEFA member associations threaten to boycott the next FIFA World Cup if Infantinos plans go through. This seem like the biggest European revolt against something Trump connected so far:

Fifa World Cup: Uefa to boycott tournament if Gianni Infantino's investment plans go through

Uefa will boycott Fifa's tournaments if investment proposals from world football's governing body president Gianni Infantino go through.

bbc.com

One tiny positive about FIFA going full-on smash-and-grab transnational organised crime syndicate is that a lot of people whose identity is defined by football but don't care about politics are starting to realise just how much the two are linked together. www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

Fifa World Cup: Uefa to boycott tournament if Gianni Infantino's investment plans go through

Uefa will boycott Fifa's tournaments if investment proposals from world football's governing body president Gianni Infantino go through.

bbc.com

just in case you wondered how graham is doing lol

The one thing you can guarantee about Northern Irish far-right paramilitary Loyalist psychos is that they will devote much of their time on internal feuds, where everybody accuses each other of being the *real* criminal drug-dealers, before trying to assassinate them.

Searchlight magazine@searchlightmag.bsky.social · last wk.

Shots fired at the Portrush home of nazi anti-migrant organiser Mark Brown look like the latest chapter in a UDA turf war, but the nazi connections behind it stretch back through Combat 18, the National Front and forty years of loyalist paramilitarism. Read more here:

The rise of the leader-cult is another cause of political instability. The Boris Johnson Party is not the same as the Liz Truss Party, the Sunak Party or the Badenoch Party. The Starmer Party actively opposed the Corbyn Party. Parties need to be houses of many mansions, not constant new-builds.

Anger is rising in Jordan against US forces in the country, the NYT reports. Jordanian protesters call the American presence a security, political, and economic risk pulling the country into a war it wants no part of. The war has already crushed the tourism sector — up to 18% of Jordan's revenue.

It has been brought to my attention that the forest fires around Bordeaux are burning up the pine plantations set up on drained wetlands there in the 19thC, a project widely admired and imitated around the world. In case someone wants to fund my global history of pine project.