Big up the letterers in comics. Every great classic comic you've ever read has had a great letterer.

Comic sans doesn't even look like the lettering in comics.

Imagine being so weird about women (and men) you think society will end if women have beliefs, ideas and opinions upon which they act.

People find it very easy to accept my sibling had a transformative trip on Ayahuasca in a non regulated lodge in Peru with a bunch of dropouts (his words!) It's less acceptable that I'd have a lasting transformative experience deciding to start Lithium whilst carefully monitored on a psych ward.

I was re-reading the novel on a train down to East Sussex (the traditional apocalyptic destination) and the first 60 or so pages felt just 'ouch'. Far more than they did on telly.

Researchers warn of severe long-term damage to the brain after Covid following new study Scientists warn long Covid could be linked to lasting brain damage, including memory issues and increased risk of neurological decline.

www.uniladtech.com/science/rese...

I know, trust me.

I remember all the big media studies textbooks in the early nineties being obsessed with the TV presentation of American wrestling. Interesting, I thought, but weirdly niche. Cut to today, where every aspect of society operates like American wrestling.

Every now and then I think of that woman a friend knew from a ferret owner’s group who said that her ferret loved it when she blew raspberries on his bellybutton, only to discover that wasn’t a bellybutton and that he *really* enjoyed it

Bereaved family members of Covid victims write to Nigel Farage urging him to sack his Croydon candidate who said COVID was a "staged event" by the US military, with vaccines used to control the population.

Reform has not responded to our story revealing his views

bylinetimes.com/2026/04/15/r...

Conversely, it's also a fantasy of owning the workforce that you can charge other people for, making 'work needed' into a subscription service so, in theory, you can swim in money like Scrooge McDuck forever without ever having to look after, develop or nurture actual unruly wilful 'workers'

Whether it's an employee who never gets tired or needs holidays, a romantic partner with no desires of their own or a conversation partner who can never get bored, it's incredible we are reconfiguring economies and wrecking ecosystems for a sweaty teenage boy's fantasy of frictionless power

It's fascinating how much AI advertising and rhetoric that basically amounts to 'how mint would it be to own someone who never says no?'

Hello. I would like to share with you this amazing story of Deborah Delano, Thatcherism and homophobia, comics in the late eighties and early nineties and much more (Moore). I think it's my favourite thing @eruditorumpress.com has written.

www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/last-wa...

I always think of opening paragraph and follow-on line of Orwell's Decline of the English Murder for a very obvious version of this kind of surprise. Yes there is information, but there is also the magic of writing there. Your shelves are filled with similar

www.george-orwell.org/Decline_of_t...

The choice of what is the most likely correct next word is the antithesis of writing, which is the ideosyncratic assembly of words and their associated meanings into a whole that could not have been assembled by anyone other than it's author. Expression is one of the most magical thing we have.

I think one of the pleasures of reading is surprise. Functional writing is, of course, about the right things being in the right place. But for all other writing, the main thing that makes it feel good is surprise. It works by making connections you yourself would not. An average cannot do this

A colleague didn’t recognise me in my glasses so I tried to joke “I’m Clark Kent” but accidentally declared “I’m Ken Clarke”

Mine still has his book of log tables, should he ever need to look one up. I remember the static electricity smell of the faux leather case of the cherished 'pocket calculator' in its special nook in the cupboard

Imagine running sessions in thirty years time where folks are invited for a 'trip down memory lane' by opening the original version of Hotmail or choose the hits of 2001 from Napster and dragging them to 258mb mp3 player

I keep thinking about the ways that retro computing will eventually become part of care in later life and how making a spreadsheet in Windows 95 will unlock hitherto occluded memories of a life now passed. Interface habit as memory.

The Fall - My New House YouTube video by chriskyle20

"The spare room is fine, though a little haunted
By Mr Rearden who had hung himself at number fifteen
Mr Rearden hung himself at number fifteen

It'll be great when it's decorated

My new house

You should see my new house"

#fallfriday
youtu.be/D36kOzop6oo?...

I know 'ooo let's have a transparent algorithm that tilts toward progressive causes and public interest news' sounds silly, but we already encounter everyday algorithms that are serving us things where we are the actors with least influence and we just accept those on a 'good enough I suppose' basis

I know the dissemination of news and information has always gone hand in hand with the current version of capitalism in capitalist countries. But I think for a long time we've assumed the Berners-Lee vision of the web and the emerging business vision of the web were somehow linked and they're not

I think a lot about the way that publications were in part like aggregators. Sure, some stuff was exclusive but there was often an undertaking to cover as much of what was needed to be known.

In the past, I did have the chance to be an aggregator for others and benefited from others aggregating

I think the challenge I have (and I do follow people on here who say stuff I'm interested in) is that the demise of publications that collected up interesting stuff in one place / package means there's nowhere to browse, just a load interesting stuff floating like stars in the night sky, unconnected

I suspect, rather like Orwell's essay on Boys Papers, it would feel insufferable and preachy to anyone who isn't me.

But I do increasingly find it difficult to keep up with news I'm interested in during the erecting of the great paywall as a non academic, non rich person with wonkish interests

Keep wondering: what a progressive, not for profit algorithm for social media/news reading would look like.

Like: you opt in for this and you only get suggested things about social policy, people doing good stuff, charities, not for profits, public interest news.

It really isn't nitpicking to correct anyone in UK who talks about 'welfare'. Social security is literally that: the provision of support to guarantee the security of an individual or family within society.

Silliest DC Comics opinion:

Seven Soldiers, 52, Final Crisis and The Multiversity were in Grant Morrisson's head intended to be all the same story of Darkseid winning and then finding the were greater powers beyond the universe embodied by the actual management of DC Comics and comics readers.

Blue badge holders: how are you treated by other members of the public when out? Have you experienced reactions from other people when using your blue badge? We’d like to hear from you

Do contribute to this if you’ve been on the end of the increasing level of abuse people with blue badges receive. Govt & media hate campaigns against disabled people have real life consequences

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...?