Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.
Rodger Kibble
@rodgerkibble.bsky.social
Recovering academic, former IT type, artist and printmaker, Brighton Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain - Schiller
Truly startling - across swathes of England and Wales, dozens weather stations recorded ZERO rainfall in July, for the first time in their history www.newscientist.com/article/2583...
Parts of the UK endure first ever month without any rain | New Scientist
For the first time since records began, there was no rain at all for parts of southern England and Wales in July, in a “truly exceptional” month of heat and sunshine
newscientist.com
Is there no escape? I dutifully purchase Byline Times and find 8 pages of it taken up by an interview with my old Goldsmiths colleague Professor @drkatedevlin.bsky.social
For anyone who looks forward to climate change bringing us a "Mediterranean lifestyle"
ZettaWire@zettawire.com · 4d ago⚡ BREAKING: More than 70 wildfires force evacuations in Greece as blazes burn near Athens, with strong winds fueling rapid spread and hampering firefighting efforts nationwide #wildfires #Greece
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Gotta say it thrills me to see US production companies saving money by making The Price Is Right in Ireland using the S481 tax break that was designed to create an indigenous film industry while many Irish filmmakers (including me) don't have a fucking pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
RIP the man who meant so much to me in music and comedy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Bill Oddie: The Goodies and Springwatch star dies at 85
His agent pays tribute to the "multi-talented" broadcaster, comedian and conservationist.
bbc.co.uk
"Before filmmaker Chris Nolan raised eyebrows with the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in his blockbuster The Odyssey, Orson Welles had cast Eartha Kitt in the same role in his 1950 stage production of Time Runs..." #FilmSky wellesnet.com/eartha-kitt-...
Eartha Kitt was cast as Helen of Troy in 1950
Eartha Kitt co-starred with Orson Welles in "Time Runs."
wellesnet.com
Some recommendations from my recent reading: Anne Irfan, A Short History of the Gaza Strip Zakia Sewell, Finding Albion Elizabeth Alker, Everything We Do Is Music Daniel Trilling, If We Tolerate This Dave Hutchinson, The Essence
Louie Stowell@louiestowell.bsky.social · 2w agoIf you ever want to give an author whose book you've loved a magical free gift, recommend their book to someone.
Prog Rock #Proms - essentially prog minus the rock. Thought the King Crimson medley was one of the more successful, perhaps because the original was itself self-consciously orchestral (using the Mellotron rather than an actual orchestra of course)
The 1984 film "Threads" endures as the most devastating depiction of nuclear war in apocalyptic cinema, writes @dandrezner.bsky.social — and its scenario of escalation from a Middle Eastern crisis has acquired renewed relevance in the 21st century.
The brutal, powerful legacy of Threads
Mick Jackson’s 1984 film Threads endures as the most devastating depiction of nuclear war in apocalyptic cinema. Its portrayal of societal collapse is unrelenting. Threads depicts nuclear war as a…
thebulletin.org
Driven by pre-Cold War planning rather than a modern democratic mandate, the UK's shift toward first-use, non-strategic capabilities risks destabilizing the European balance and inviting escalation with Russia, write S.M. Amadae and Tom Stevenson.
Is London shifting from nuclear deterrence to war-fighting?
After decades of gradual disarmament, London is quietly reversing course by expanding its warhead stockpile, altering its nuclear doctrine, and acquiring stealth F-35As to carry US tactical nuclear…
thebulletin.org
I'm old enough to remember when Kinnock was a Tribunite firebrand
DracoBro33🎧🇬🇧🔒@athen4.bsky.social · 3w agoI don’t think I’ve ever been happy with any of our leaders maybe Kinnock I can’t remember
"It comes from a profound belief that re-enchantment is resistance" Reading David Southwell's despatches from the lost county of #Hookland on Brighton beach
Vandalism on a grand scale - a new book of Tish Murtha’s photographs. She was one of the best, taken before her time and never recognised by the photography establishment until after she died. www.huckmag.com/article/tish...
Tish Murtha’s searing documentation of broken Britain
Vandalism on a Grand Scale — Capturing youth unemployment and poverty in north-east England during the ’80s, the photographer never lived to see her work…
huckmag.com
Literary style in British politics My @newstatesman1913.bsky.social column reflects on Andy Burnham's English degree (and my thwarted one). Includes a potted history of Eng. lit. in politics, via the early Labour movement, FR Leavis and Michael Gove. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
“I felt sick on the train, I was facing the wrong direction.” “Why didn’t you ask the person in the seat opposite to exchange with you?” “I couldn’t. There was no one in it.” I can’t remember where I heard this joke. But I find it very poignant.
Doesn’t matter if US lose on the pitch to Bosnia. The Supreme Court will reverse the result.
The pump don't work because the vandals took the handles
Helen Kennedy@helenkennedy.com · 2mo agoYou'll be interested to hear the algae problem in Trump's shoddy but expensive reflecting pool revamp was put there by vandals and the bottom was torn up by mean reporters.
JD Vance Not a big student of history, I guess World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan
Louis de Bernière has noticed Valley Speak after 40 years, and disapproves www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Why is the NHS conversation always about efficiency, but defence is just splash more money at it - despite defence spending corrupt, incompetent and grossly out of date.