Looby Loo

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

This is super interesting.

The last one I can read fluently is 1600.

I can then still read it and figure out (almost) every word, with some puzzling, but then lose it almost completely at 1200.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

PROMETHEUS: I Don't Want to Set The World On Fire Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 08/02/2026 · 1h 28m

Prometheus. Possibly the most urgent and evergreen of myths from @alexpodyssey.bsky.social. Alex retells his version with humour, then explores it with others and reshapes it with unexpectedly supportive images, icons that linger in the way that only a great story can. An achievement. A keeper.

In conversation with Ian McMillan Ian McMillan is an English poet, journalist, playwright, and broadcaster. He is known for his strong and distinctive Yorkshire accent and his incisive, friendly interview style on programmes such as B...

As @imcmillan.bsky.social is new to @bsky.app here is a lovely little podcast I did with him a while back. He talks about his family, his love of poetry and a talking parrot. 🌱

audioboom.com/posts/829055...

Early stroll. It’s misty; I can hardly see the cemetery in front of my face. From a distance I must be looming. A FOR SALE sign sprouts from a hedge. My stroll is a measurement of time and space. A cockerel’s theme and variations.

Early stroll. That tree seems almost too big for that garden. A TV plays to an empty settee. Those puddles definitely haven’t shrunk in the wash. Unusually, the dentist’s lights are on; they shine like teeth. This weather as animal: drizzly bear.

One of Twitter’s most beloved contributors has made the journey over here, and I must say I’m liking his posting style.

Farage: epic grifter

A hi tech laboratory. Technicians work at computer work stations. A glass cylinder contains an unhappy bespectacled figure in a striped top and hat. A scientist explains to two colleagues: "The subject will be returned to his natural habitat. But now, thanks to our implanted tracking device, we can answer the question 'Where's Wally?' in microseconds rather than hours. "

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

Cartoon by Stephen Collins for the Guardian. [Scene is BBC BREAKFAST with two presenters and a guest on the sofa]. 1 PRESENTER: Now - some disturbing new research has shown 2 PRESENTER: that as many as 10 non-Reform political parties may currently operating ‘under the radar’ across the UK. [Show on screen logos for Greens, Lib Dems, Conservatives  3 PRESENTER: In the studio to discuss this, Nigel Farage [We see the guest on the sofa is indeed Nigel Farage] 4 PRESENTER: Nigel, what’s your view?  FARAGE: Well I think this very worrying. 5 FARAGE: And just another reason why we should ban all immigration. 6 PRESENTER: I won’t push back on that FARAGE: Absolutely! 7 PRESENTER: Funnily enough, this is what your new show’s about, isn’t it? FARAGE: Oop - plug time! PRESENTER: Ha ha 8 FARAGE: Yes it’s a 12-part BBC documentary called ‘In Search Of The Political Parties That Aren’t My One’. 9 [Show on the TV screen Farage presenting a documentary series titled In Search Of The Political Parties That Aren’t My One. He is wearing his farmer's getup and looking dreamily at the UK from hillsides, visiting pubs and chatting with the locals, etc] FARAGE: It’s a really emotional journey  10 FARAGE: with lots of dreamy footage of me looking relatable...  11 FARAGE: as I answer the question: *Am I the only option for Britain?* 12 [Cut back to studio] PRESENTER: I won’t push back on that FARAGE: Absolutely! [ends]

Important piece from @booktrust.org.uk and @openuni-rfp.bsky.social about the value of book choice for pupils and how to help promote it in the classroom. Do have a read! files.booktrust.org.uk/docs/documen... @teresacremin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social

Here’s a great view from the passenger footbridge at Wandsworth Road Station. Sadly the gas holder was demolished to make way for blocks of flats and Battersea Power Station has been engulfed by, as I'm sure you've guessed, more flats, only now they're called luxury apartments 🫤
#printmaker #art

Stepped outside to put the chickens away - life on the edge of Wuthering Heights moor

'Full English’, Rock Steady Eddie's, Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell (2006) by Ed Gray
edgrayart.com

This only happens to you once

After an exhibition of John Nash's work in 1922, a critic wrote: 'A painting by John Nash is like a sentence spoken by a gentleman, perfectly enunciated, quiet, complete, yet with a certain reserve about it as of things left unsaid.'

Tom Johnson · Supereffable: Mysteries of the Pearl Manuscript Any book made by hand is unique, but the Pearl Manuscript’s claim to uniqueness is unparalleled: the manuscript...

‘There is a fine line between genius and insanity. For nearly two hundred years, literary scholars have been driven out of their wits trying to torture more information from this small, inexplicable manuscript.’

@tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on the Pearl Manuscript: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Print featuring a curled up sleeping fox on leaves and among branches of a bush

'Resting Fox' by UK printmaker Sarah Bays #WomensArt

Reposting again. I love this.

In London, hate will never win.

Not many words in this cartoon - it's a mostly silent story of two crusading knights on horseback who travel through a series of wild fantasy landscapes, basically like a Lord of the Rings type quest, and then they eventually get to a modern british town, and they walk up a bleak British overpass, and then one of them climbs up a lamp post and sellotapes a sad little St George's flag to it, and the other one takes a photo on his phone, and then he climbs back down, and all the panels so far are reversed - back through all the different landscapes, their quest over. On the last panel knight 1 finally speaks asking "how many likes?" and the other one says "22".

reposting with alt text because this feels incredibly significant. the right-wing disinfo machine means a lot of the people grieving Charlie Kirk never heard any of the things he said that would have tarnished his brand as Guy Who Just Wants to Have Dialogue Across the Aisle

four pictures of a panda being an absolute derp: doing the yoga 'cat' pose, falling haplessly over a beam, and face-planting off a bannister onto a handrail

i'm too tired to think of anything funny and original, so please enjoy this treasure out of my screenshots folder

#caturday

Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell.

Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass.

That, right there, is the problem.

The Telegraph Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence [Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday] Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent 29 August 2025 8:57am BST

The Telegraph Money > Property > Second homes How to avoid tax on your second home From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net [Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto] Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer 29 August 2025 1:21pm BST

On the same day in the Telegraph:

you may not know you need this but trust me you need this

A spectacular sight 1225m (4019 ft) beneath the waves off Baja California as EVNautilus encounter the amazing Halitrephes maasi jelly.

Print in blue and white of a tree lined river bank with reflections in the still water and a large bird in flight in silhouette to the top right

Heronry, 2022, etching by Janis Goodman #WomensArt