Where I grew up (Manchester area) yes, and no-one was picking it up - not sure when that became a thing? A lot less in Cambridge when I moved here, which was more of a cat town in those days.

I thought badgers were known to eat hedgehogs - what next, "disturbing moment where owl attacks a mouse"?

It's the Prices, Stupid Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low because prices are at an all-time high. Consumer sentiment isn't broken, popular government data is just incomplete

The index of consumer sentiment isn't broken; models that try to predict it just don't have the right input variables. I fix that and find that, yes, high nominal price levels explain why the vibes are so off. It's the prices, stupid
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-04-14...

Helter Skelter is the only good Beatles song

"It's unlikely that he would've been able to, given Waffle House's sealing jutsu," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, who holds the Sandaime Chair of Ninjutsu Studies at Leaf University. "But some Sharingan users have been able to use unconventional space-time techniques, so we can't rule it out."

People in general don't understand inflation as a rate of change. Trump himself expressed that fallacy (saying that inflation falling would mean prices falling). So with the inflation shocks of recent years, people see prices permanently higher than they remember - which they see as 'inflation'.

The largest known insect that ever existed was Meganeuropsis, a giant predatory relative of modern dragonflies. It had a wingspan of up to 75 cm (2.5 feet) and a body length reaching 47 cm (18.5 inches), with an estimated weight of over 1 pound (450 g).

Earth used to buzz with enormous insects, including dragonflies the size of falcons. Nothing like that exists anymore...and it turns out we don't know why.

A new study disputes the idea that modern oxygen levels are too low. So why are there no mega-flies? 🧪

theconversation.com/giant-dragon...

Reddit User Uncovers Who Is Behind Meta’s $2B Lobbying for Invasive Age Verification Tech Meta funneled $2B through nonprofit shells to push age verification laws targeting Apple and Google while exempting its own platforms from surveillance requirements.

OS level age verification is a Meta lobbying project

Pass it on

Supposedly the Yellow Pages used to have a heading "Boring: see Civil Engineers"

Swiss Toni from The Fast Show, looking very suave as usual

Opening a strait is very like making love to a beautiful woman...

Isn't this just late capitalism in general, though? More and more things are unaffordable for more and more people as the money concentrates at the top.

Beware the IDEs of March...

What, even @greenday - how will we wake up Billie Joe on October 1?

Death by Snu Snu

Honestly, cellars are almost certainly better - you want your wine to be away from the cosmic rays, not closer!

Sorry, apparently I have a lean and hungry look.

"It'll all be over by Christmas"

I feel he is a little too kind to Starmer in that piece.

I think that generation were generally more progressive, though, hence the Attlee government after the war.

This isn't comparing like with like, though, is it - what were boomers' attitudes 50 years ago when they were around the same age?

Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course? The human subconscious is such an interesting thing. No matter how much you think you’ve got it figured out, it’ll always spit out the most random stuff. Take me, for example. After coming home from a...

Commentary: Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course?

She Came Out of the Bathroom Naked, Employee Says Bank details, sex and naked people who seem unaware they are being recorded. Behind Meta’s new smart glasses lies a hidden workforce, uneasy about peering into the most intimate parts of other people’...

“The workers in Kenya say that it feels uncomfortable to go to work. They tell us about deeply private video clips, which appear to come straight out of Western homes, from people who use the glasses in their everyday lives.
Several describe video material showing bathroom visits, sex…”

Bring it on!

Sitcom pitch - the Andrew formerly known as Prince is cellmate with Peter Mandelson. Basically Porridge but with less talented comedians

You can never get the third nail in

Brass Eye next?

Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They Were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next? How private equity reshaped the local and the postcode tool that shows the pubs most at risk.

My brother wanted a London pub crawl. The result? My new Substack post: "Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?" How private equity reshaped the local, which pubs are most at risk and most importantly what to do about it.
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

Links?

English didn't even exist in any meaningful sense.

Taking your own food when you’re going TO ITALY. truly the sign of a demented mind