Death Of Stalin stuff. It's the gravitas of the staging and the ludicrousness of the words

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2h ago

holy shit -- Schiff ties Trump's judicial nominees in knots by asking them who won the 2016 before *before* asking them who won in 2020, which results in them sounding like election deniers about Trump's victories!

Makes the good point, which I'd missed, that if Badenoch believes in second chances why has she criticised the appointment of Louise Haigh whose criminal conviction was utterly trivial compared to those of Bonehill-Paine?

Mark Wallace@wallaceme.bsky.social · 11h ago

ConservativeHome’s leader today: conservativehome.com/2026/08/05/i...

Not good. Not good at all.

The campaign of harassment and intimidation Raise the Colours have undertaken against council staff, contractors, and members of the public as reported by the Clarion today is shocking if not surprising. Excellent reporting. oxfordclarion.uk/the-clarion-...

The Clarion, 4 August 2026

We're doing a rain dance. You? While we wait for some sorely needed water, here is some news, not all of it cheerful. Including less than savoury details about Raise the Colours; celebrating Oxford Ci...

oxfordclarion.uk

At the theatre ✅Two year old at a Shakespeare play. Bold move. ✅Man in front eating something from a crinkly packet for first 10 mins ✅ Mobile phone rings halfway through

Always read the small print

This is a superb essay

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · last wk.

The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions, writes Carmody Grey. ft.trib.al/NmLmVIx

Finally reading Carmody Grey’s article on AI in last week’s FT: good to see this spelt out so clearly

Really enjoyed this. The story of why the CIA rejected his approach is very interesting.

James Barr@jamesbarr.bsky.social · last wk.

I had no idea Mitrokhin was on the poolside for the infamous USSR/Hungary water polo match in Melbourne in 1956

Weirdly timely criticism for a leaflet from 1936

Been a bit of a shortage of Nice Rugs recently, but there's some good ones in a forthcoming auction. A Khotan, from what was once East Turkestan.

This is great

Sam Leith@questingvole.bsky.social · 6d ago

The Bristol pubs thread makes me wonder at what point people generally decide not to tell others on social media what is special, out of a fear it becomes less so.

There is something magical about Dunwich Heath (picture here from Boxing Day, last year). It's not clear how extensive the fire damage is but I hope it will recover.

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

the four stages: 1. Allister Heath's columns are not real 2. Allister Heath's columns are not serious 3. OK, they are real and serious but it's too late to do anything about them 4. Our only hope is to find a way of adapting to Allister Heath's columns

Infantino is discovering people weren’t born yesterday.

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference reut.rs/4x9eTCW

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at ‌a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screenshots and posted them online.

reut.rs

Nature abhors a vacuum cleaner

Interesting piece this, by @edstringer.bsky.social

The age of the genius general is over

British commanders are still trained to prize the flash of intuitive brilliance. In an age of AI and autonomous systems, that instinct may prove actively regressive.

engelsbergideas.com

Of course he bloody did. Fiona Cottrell isn't rich. Yes, she's posh, but she's not hundred-millions rich. And nor, for that matter is George. Whose money is it?

Henry Dyer@direthoughts.com · last wk.

New story on Reform's finances from @annaisaac.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I've confirmed that the UK's new Sovereign AI Fund does no due diligence on whether AI companies use copyrighted work without permission before investing in them. It took me 3 Freedom of Information requests to find this out: 🧵 1/10

Funny how machine learning hasn't grasped that Every Single Time it creates a Roman numeral endnote I have changed the format to Arabic numerals.

I love this view of the UK. We see the population by latitude. Based on this data, where would you place the north/south divide? Source: buff.ly/OskGcdG

London skies

Israel is giving Trump's former campaign manager millions of dollars to fill the internet with pro-Israel articles written by AI, not so that anyone will actually read them, but so that *LLMs will train on them* & regurgitate their perspective. This is the future of the information environment.

Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working.

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence.

dropsitenews.com

After the success of Tom Jones back in the Sixties, a brace of Hollywood execs. bought the director Patrick Garland lunch to quiz him about other eighteenth century novels. “Well I suppose there’s Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.” “This Larry Sterne, is he in town?” was their reaction.

Wait till Nolan finds out Homer wrote a prequel

Jesse Hawken@jessehawken.bsky.social · last wk.

Studio execs are going to want to adapt more poems for the big screen now

I enjoyed this: Brunswick House is one of my favourite places in London spitalfieldslife.com/2026/06/03/a...

JICYMI #Clacton by-election ballot paper