Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Weirdly, my photograph of our newest tea towel, featuring what I'd have thought was a beautiful and not remotely contentious picture by Tracey Emin has been picked up by Bluesky censors. I'm really not sure what counts as offensive on here.

A white tea town with a Tracey Emin painting of a slightly soft focus pink nude seen face on, with writing across the bits of tea towel the nude is occupying...

Well, we seem to have added a Tracey Emin tea towel to our collection. (Mostly, they're just agitprop or cats.)

Why would Scotland not want to give all of their citizens' private data to a spy company owned by a neo-feudalist, theocratic, possibly white supremacist, TESCREAL obsessed nutter who isn't sure that he wants the human race to survive?

No idea. It's a mystery.

Which would also be entirely appropriate...

Japanese wood block print of a cream coloured cat, with a red scarf round its neck, staring out intently at the viewer from a black background. It is impossible to tell what the cat is thinking. Nothing good, probably. Early 1920s.

Used to think the best bit of writing was editing, after you finally had something written. Now I think it might be staring into space, with a coffee in a cafe, looking up random facts, and calling it coming up with ideas...

#whatsynopses?

A lone battle: Why is Pedro Sánchez the only European leader to take on Trump? As the Spanish PM decries the war in Iran, other politicians are unable – or unwilling – to speak against the US president

Because they've already lived under a long term fascist governent, and don't want to help another...

You've probably already had the crystal cave recommended, somewhere in that line.
But, if not...

Scottish Labour MP issues statement after husband arrested in China spy probe SCOTTISH Labour MP Joani Reid has said she is “not part of my husband’s business activities” after he was arrested on suspicion of spying for…

I do hope they dug up her garden.

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

Two smiling tax administration employees standing at Arrivals section of an airport with a large hand-drawn banner with the text translated above

“To all influencers and other tax exiles in Dubai, the tax authorities wish you a safe return to France”

Well, that's obviously why they'd abandoned Portobello to the oystercatchers.

Really can't work out why the Nobel Committee didn't give Trump the peace prize.
Complete mystery.

The first deaths announced from the US-Israeli strikes on Iran: dozens of school girls. They hit an elementary school in Hormozgan.

Scottish folks: can you give me accurate, sourced examples of the BBC failing in terms of its coverage of Scotland please? In both news, documentary, drama, lifestyle: the whole gamut of its output? I’m putting together a piece on the BBC in Scotland and would love to hear your well-sourced thoughts

I remember when reading him soured, and I thought was it always like this...?

I find my ability to stay in places has a direct collation to how fast the flickering of the lights make me feel sick, or simply drive me out. (Also, loathe cars with led lights.)

A photo showing the Domus Medica building of the University of Oslo. The ground is covered in snow, while the building bathes in warm sunlight.

Last day to apply for a PhD position with me!

Fully-funded, three year position in beautiful Oslo. Voltage imaging, ephys, all the cool stuff!

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

:-)

If you add my money to that of Bezos and Zuckerberg, I am incomprehensibly rich.

Reading Chris Power's forensic dismemberment of Garza's literary 'crime novel' Death Takes Me in the LRB, and now want to read it, incomprehensible non sequiturs and all...

And, of course, professional C-word Matt Goodwin will now have to suffer months of Matt [Insult of choice]loser jokes.

Gorton and Denton

the new Green party MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, in pink and green, stands next to party leader Zack Polanski, in crumpled open white shirt , and dark suit jacket, as they take a selfie on a pink phone , with press photographers with much bigger cameras stand around them.

Thank fuck.
And that despite all the excited national media tarting for the hard right in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

(And I know it's impossible to judge general elections on mid term by-elections, but all the same...)

Labour Accused Of By-Election Dirty Tricks Over 'Fictitious' Tactical Voting Group A leaflet sent out on the eve of the crunch poll has sparked a furious backlash.

Remember the bullshit Tory HQ 'fact-checker' website run during the last General Election campaign? Well, Labour HQ has taken a leaf out of its playbook with a bullshit 'tactical voting' website.

Different rosette, same party.

Philosophy #FAQ Ontology: what the fuck? Causality: why the fuck? Epistemology: how the why the fuck? Phenomenology: the fuck.

As do many of us...

Mandelson’s downfall is one of fastest ever seen in British public life Epstein links have taken political operator from a vaunted position in British diplomacy to arrest in under six months

Famously aged and rotting cheese apparently turned blue and honking overnight, shocker...

Also, possibly, someone who has read a lot of AI, and been influenced by its phrasing. Someone neurodivergent, who instinctively smooths out personality. Or someone not taught English at an English school, but who acquired it through other means, educational or within the family?

It's the song's debt to Mikhail Bulgakov's M&M that makes me happy...

:-)
I understand that feeling!

Aye. Although that was a good Wales match. (Apart from the final result, obviously.)