I'm at the age where anyone other than Andrew McGregor presenting Record Review causes distinct unease ... hope he's just on holiday.

"People have always been largely ignorant and had beliefs about the social order which were utterly devoid of truth or justice. But the extent to which you can quite deliberately create and propagate specific lies, advantageous to you and your immediate goals, is very much a novelty."

"Oh," the emperor of the galaxy said, "what happened to that monkey world?"

"Our agents infiltrated them some eight thousand years ago."

"Have they taken over the world?"

"Not yet."

The emperor licked a paw and started washing his ears.

"I'll still count it as one of mine," he purred.

Oh for absolute sputs sake

The #BBCWorldService provides remarkable quality broadcasting.

Destroying it would be a significant act of cultural harm

the kind of sabotage I expect from the Conservatives.

To see Labour at it too? Appalling.

Shame on you @lisanandymp.bsky.social and the whole @labouruk.bsky.social Government.

A tuxedo cat has her head turned somewhat coquettishly toward a red rose contained in a tumbler of water. As the post suggests, the visual result is perhaps not what she imagined.

The cat was going for a moody romantic look here but I think she's ended up looking like she's trying to be a Labour candidate in a safe seat.

The thing about Casablanca being the greatest film of all time is people don't believe you and then they watch it

Fascinating essay on institutions and how they extend "naturally occurring" interperson cooperation into larger and larger scales.

Mamdani: "I speak of Renee Good, whose final words to the man who murdered her were, 'I'm not mad at you.' I speak of Alex Pretti who died as he lived, caring for the stranger. ICE shot him bc he did something they could never fathom ... let us offer a new path: one of defiance through compassion."

If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live | Carlos Hernández de Miguel Leaving this world in an age of lies and cruelty, my last message is simple: don’t give up on truth, says Spanish journa

"Objectivity is not the same as neutrality. If there is an aggressor and a victim, a liar and an honest person, a corrupt individual and an honourable one, then your task is to describe all that clearly and forcefully."

Powerful words and an important read.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

"Inexorably life moves on towards crisis and mystery."

One of my favorite quotes from Merton, from volume 4 of his journals. ⚓✝️

The answer turned out to be easier than I thought!

Anyway, everyone celebrating Cat Attorney Day, please enjoy this special celebration from the English Choral tradition.

Speaking out when justice, mercy and humility are so lacking. Full sermon here.
youtu.be/nkCwOukKBjE @oldmacharrev.bsky.social

both highlight the post cold war emergence of a transnational kleptocratic class that links western oligarchs to foreign state interests, whether russian or saudi or israeli or otherwise

Candlemas Bells (the old name for Snowdrops) in Bishop’s House garden. Praise God for little things.

This isn't how society is supposed to work. You can't tit-for-tat things that are a public good. As someone else said, where does that attitude end? Why should we pay for others' healthcare, children, schools, etc etc. Because a decent country looks after all of its people.

Website: and your postcode?

Me: my address is—

Website: no no I’m keen to guess! Postcode?

Me: *enters postcode*

Website: is it no. 132?

Me: no

Website: is it no. 134?

Me: it’s 1—

Website: SHUT UP is it no. 136?

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

The Pretti family’s heartbreaking request to all of us: get the truth out about our son.

Alex was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA whose last act was to protect the woman next to him. We will not let this Administration spread lies.

Opinion | An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good

An EXTREMELY important read right now. Make the time.
#law #Trump #ICE #immunity #fascism #dictator #baitandswitch

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

I passed my PhD. If I gave my PhD certificate to my stepmother’s cat, that wouldn’t make her a doctor.

Fine statement from the PC(USA). Renee Good was a member of a Presbyterian church

Evan Davis faux scratching his head on PM as to how there can be such different interpretations of clearly documented incidents (the shooting in Minnesota), right after platforming someone from the Heritage Foundation giving a deliberately false interpretation of events, barely challenged.

US immigration officer fatally shoots woman in Minneapolis Trump says the woman was attempting to run over ICE agents. Local leaders disagree.

Disgraceful article by BBC News. It's abundantly clear from the videos what happened. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I understand the pressures on the BBC, but Radio 4's coverage of the Minneapolis shooting is an example of "bad balance".

It's all "the Trump regime says she was a terrorist, but Democrats say it was murder".

The BBC has the footage. It doesn't have to treat truth and falsehood as equally valid.

Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did? Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.

I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story

www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...

"Christmas morning was always tense at the Schrödingers" Cartoon by Viluissimo - from the current Xmas issue of @priveteye.bsky.social

The inhuman assault on Christmas On Christmas Carols, 1/2

The other day I experienced an inhuman assault on Christmas – an AI carol. The machine's inability to understand the carol's message of love made it eerie. Basic cultural forms like holiday ritual and music are weakened under the assault of algorithms.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-inhuma...