The response when progressive policies that help millions of people are proposed... "How will you pay for it?" The response when the richest 1% ask for tax cuts, or banks ask for bailouts, or defense contractors ask for more contracts... "How much do you need?" It doesn't have to be this way.

A long read, but so worth it. Russ has a wonderful turn of phrase.

Russ Jones@russincheshire.bsky.social · 3w ago

It is four years tomorrow since Liz Truss’s mini-budget. So drink heavily, move the cat out of kicking distance, and relive the experience. No paywall. But you're responsible for your own therapy sessions. russincheshire.substack.com/p/it-would-a...

Keep politics out of music, like in the old days when Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture about how nice the weather was that year, or Beethoven composed his “Emperor” concerto in honour of his favourite kitten, and Dylan sang A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, all about the fun of splashing in puddles.

Agrivolatiacs. www.autonocion.com/us/arizona-s...

Arizona raised solar panels on stilts over its crops so one acre could grow food and make power at once — then researchers noticed a third job nobody put in the brochure: skin under the panels runs 21...

Solar panels have a bad habit of showing up where nobody wants them. They get strung over canals, floated on reservoirs, and planted across farmland that used

autonocion.com

Agrivoltaics protecting Nectarine buds from frost. scienceblog.com/n-french-nec...

A French trial found that tilting solar panels flat over nectarine trees on nights when frost is forecast warmed the flower buds by up to 1.7 degrees Celsius, and during the frost that caused damage, ...

As climate change brings unpredictable frosts, French farmers are discovering an unexpected ally: solar panels that double as frost shields, protecting delicate fruit blossoms while generating power.

scienceblog.com

Absolutely!! They’ve allowed the theoretical possibility of a small number of vulnerable people being coerced into dying early - notwithstanding the safeguards - to be prioritised over the absolute 100% certainty that another group of vulnerable people will be forced to die horribly. Words fail me

“… the very fact these private armies have developed while ministers and the police have been criminalising peaceful protesters under terrorism laws indicates warped political and operational priorities.” Exactly. Contradictions and confusion expertly explained by DAG with his customary clarity.

The Empty City@davidallengreen.bsky.social · last mo.

NEW Why holding a placard is a terrorist act, while causing disruption in a balaclava is not The mess caused by ministers and the police not taking terrorism law seriously By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

I want the Prime Minister to look into a TV camera and say the RNLI are heroes, that we do not change policy by street violence in this country, and that he expects any criminal action to face the full force of the law. That's it. That's all he has to do.

Seems the difference between ‘protestors’ and ‘terrorists’ is that protestors wear balaclavas while terrorists hold placards.

"If there there was a window it was not broken, but it if was broken it was not by Nigel Farage's ball, but if it was his ball he certainly did not kick it, and if he did kick it, it was an accident and he knew nothing about it" said a Reform spokesperson.

Frankly amazed that despite wall-to-wall Bayeux Tapestry coverage nobody has mentioned the Playmobil version I made back in 2016.

I can't believe this London-based landowner is putting the iconic Glenelg to Skye ferry at risk. Support the local community - not millionaire financiers - and save the world famous Glenelg to Skye ferry by joining me and signing the petition today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Save the Glenelg - Skye ferry!

This ten minute crossing is famous around the world - and is believed to be the last turntable style ferry anywhere. It's an iconic part of Skye's history, but it's under threat thanks to a wealthy la...

you.38degrees.org.uk

"What makes an #education educational?" - Another truly thought provoking post by Rupert Wegerif. Beautifully thought and written, as always. rupertwegerif.substack.com/p/what-makes...

What Makes Education Educational?

What the Challenge of AI Reveals About Education

rupertwegerif.substack.com

New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

Emily Wilson Writing reviews of a film that she's sad to have seen Yells at the screen Picks up her laptop Nolan's pastiche of the epic she worked to translate How does it rate? All the shallow film tropes Where do they all come from? All of Homer's richness Where did it all go wrong?

The picture on the front of Reform's policy is of HMS Ocean on the River Thames in 2012. It was sold by to the Brazilian navy in 2018. Turns out you can judge a book by its cover.

Remember, both the Iliad and the Odyssey were originally audiobooks.

I note that the frog faced one has never been able* to do constituency surgeries in Clacton citing 'security concerns' but is able to go to Devon at the drop of a tin foil hat to milk the murder of Ann Widdecombe when there's an actual murderer on the loose. *hasn't wanted

He may well. Not many people know this but the FIFA World Peace Prize actually comes with 3 free Uno reverse cards

My latest for @hyperallergic.com is a new study which found DNA preserved in Paleolithic wall pigments in caves in Spain & Portugal 🎨 Art is an archive! Thanks so much to Dr. @monicamedhist.bsky.social for speaking to me about the present and future of paleogenetics. Thanks for reading!

Human DNA in Cave Paintings Can Survive For Millennia, Study Finds

The discovery points to the future potential of archaeogenetics in recovering the identities of ancient artists from thousands of years ago.

hyperallergic.com

How many more times will Labour keep pressing the button marked 'Win back Reform voters with performative cruelty' before they figure out the wires aren't connected to anything?

'View full thread' is an instruction worth following on this occasion, especially if you've ever experienced the delights of a similar local event.

Russ Jones@russincheshire.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Today, the Sandbach Music Festival has broken out at the rugby club next door. I'd like to thank the participants for bravely having a go, despite clearly having never played any of their instruments before. And it's a bold artistic choice to depart so radically from established melodic norms.

Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

Neat summary of some of Reform's problems by @iandunt.bsky.social (Source: iandunt.substack.com/p/triumph-in...)

This is absolutely key. So much debate about shutting children's eyes, so little about pushing the companies to stop displaying the stuff in the first place. Age verify the post, not the children. Censor the algorithm, not the children.

@nickwylie.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Absolutely. I would do more to stop SM compainies allowing harmful content being posted in the first place. Why not require a time gap between submitting your content and it being posted? It wouldn't make any difference to me if what I am writing now wasn't made available for another 30 mins.

An aphorism for the ages.

Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Time for me to repeat one of my ‘sayings’. If you try to solve a problem by passing a law, but people don’t obey the law, you now have two problems where you used to have one.

Welp there’s no unseeing this

👀 TheyWorkForYou tracks MPs' voting records and found that Nigel Farage has missed 77 votes in Parliament in a row. He last voted against draft regulations for the Employment Rights Act 2025 on the 18th of March. https://votes.theyworkforyou.com/person/26352/votes/2026

Oh, I see, so *now* everyone in Sunderland is happy to be in Europe.