Can’t believe nobody wanted to read the articles nobody bothered to write
14.03.2026 01:34
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Can’t believe nobody wanted to read the articles nobody bothered to write
On the right of the image is a sheer cliff face marked with vertical striations; talus lies at its base. The left of the image is in almost total darkness, and the background is deep space.
This is a cliff on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
It's about 1 km tall.
If you jumped from the top, it would take you 47 minutes to reach the bottom, and you'd probably be OK.
It is three decades since 16 children and their teacher were murdered in Dunblane in Scotland in 1996, the worst mass shooting in Britain. The legacy of the tragedy included the 1997 handgun ban.
The Scottish Merchant Navy Memorial in Leith and just a few of the small bronze figures that it features.
If we could just raise sea levels by 150 meters we get a backup Strait of Hormuz
This interview with the great @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social was a "wow" moment for me. Thanks, New York Times and David Marchese.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/m...
I couldn't help noticing the question that seemed the most Times-like to me.
Proofreading used to be classed as manual labour.
Can anyone explain to me what the Blue Labour justification for this is? Who out there will vote Labour because Mahmood prevented a Sudanese Chevening Scholar? And to be honest, why won’t the PM simply overrule her?
I've seen very little mainstream analysis of how the stability of the Pax Americana was crucial to the buildout and maintenance of a global fossil energy system.
Having a main source of energy concentrated in the hands of a few is always risky; it's untenable in an unstable, multipolar world.
clowns to the left of me,
jokers to the right,
here I am,
in a strictly organised clowns and jokers shop
@michaelspicer.bsky.social has a brilliant take on this type of programme:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjnm...
My photo shows a museum display with colourful Minoan pottery cups arranged on three clear shelves, one above the other. These cups, known as Kamares Ware, are from Phaistos, Crete. They were made in palace workshops, c. 1800-1700 BC. The cups range in shape and size from conic and cylindrical cups (top and middle shelves) to hemispherical and carinated shaped cups (bottom shelf). They are decorated with multi-coloured geometric motifs; with spirals and swirls painted in red and white pigment on black.
Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!
They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made during the Bronze Age some 3,800 years ago!
Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. 📷 by me
#Archaeology
Window display: birbs above and cats below.
Window display: possibly the Great and Mighty Oz?
Window display: flowers.
Window display: someone climbing down a ladder.
The annual unsystematic selection of pics from Strathbungo Window Wanderland.
🧵
In this current harsh world, let's warm a few hearts remembering the events of 7-8 March 1991, when the 90,000 people of Brindisi woke up to find 25,000 Albanians roaming the streets of their town. For perspective, that's roughly equivalent to 25k people suddenly landing in Hastings [Thread] >> 1
The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: ‘The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: ‘UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as ‘Use happily; may you live well’. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.
Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory!
This Roman ‘turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲
Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below.
From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400
📷 LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn
#Archaeology
Article 34 - Naturalization The Contracting States shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of refugees. They shall in particular make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings.
Here it is in black and white.
But people don't need to read the refugee convention to want refugees to feel safe to build lives here, to integrate into society, to have jobs and homes. And they and their children can't do that if they're being threatened with deportation every few years.
This just isn't true. The 1951 convention requires state parties to facilitate the integration and naturalisation of refugees because the people who drafted it weren't moral vacuums or stupid enough to think that persecution that made people flee for their lives would magically go away in a year.
I can’t get this thought out of my head, so I’m typing it here to try it out. I may well be wrong.
I heard someone say recently that the use of AI for therapy shows that the traditional model of going to a weekly session - or even a daily session! - just doesn’t work for a lot of people.
Good piece by Giles Coren on Nando's and others deciding that, no, they don't want chickens to live OK lives after all www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Toad climbs onto the back of a turtle, asking it to carry him to the island where Frog sits. From "Alone" In *Days with Frog and Toad*
A turtle swam by. Toad climbed on the turtle’s back.
“Turtle,” said Toad, “carry me to the island. Frog is there. He wants to be alone.”
'Separatism' is when British Muslims vote for the most socially liberal candidate in the race to stop Matt Goodwin, who Kemi Badenoch herself explicitly said was a threat to minority life in this country, becoming an MP.
Please read this thread as a 'micro-example' of what is going so wrong with the English court system - and note the 'butterfly' effect point.
Our court system is so rackety and improvised, one slip and so many other things will go wrong.
The Westminster Hall debate has dozens of MPs explaining why those affected feel the changes are not fair when applied retrospectively: these include contributions from Doncaster & Grimsby & Kent, as well as inner city seats. The government sounds in denial
hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026...
The ridiculous extension of the wait for settled status isn't about putting up barriers to arrival, it's about putting up barriers to integration for people who have already been here for years. It's agreeing with Farage that these people should be treated with suspicion - and leaving it at that.
This whole thread 👇
Settlement reforms need so much work on substance to avoid chaos & new Windrushes
As politics, retrospective application to 1m+ voters already in Britain is recipe for big constituency of grievance with voters from India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh. But there is no offsetting political gain
Several canvassers say the *settlement* reforms (make over a million voters wait 10-15 years for settlement, not 5, is a top of mind concern for those affected & friends, family
A basic fallacy in Home Office citing more in common polling on asylum reform - a different issue - and net migration
Impact on children - will damage child poverty progress - and draft proposals that will block many women from ever getting settlement are among dozens of issues that look like a recipe for chaos, much of it unintended+ some intentional changes that hurt cohesion
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Far Side cartoon. On the plains are gathered several gazelles, including one who is quite round. Nearby, two predators plan their attack. One predator catches sight of the fat gazelle and calls Dibs.
Chonky boy is in danger