I am no longer under embargo. #AnimalFarm consequence.net/2026/04/anim...

You know those essays about how journalism in the '80s was non-stop coke and booze, getting paid £150 per word for one column a week? I'm looking forward to the biography where Janan just admits he was on psychedelics for his entire career.

Setting aside the 'I'm SHOCKED to find nefarious stuff in dodgy vape shops' thing I bet a lot of this could be fixed with a functioning Companies House.

(Also adds to what I find with London gift shops that there is a lot of economic activity going on, rather than empty shops for money laundering.)

Tim Cook’s legacy shouldn’t be defined by sneery techies who ignore his successes because he wasn’t part of their self-defined in group.

Headline of the Day.

Think about something like Alphaville, FT’s ‘fun’ vertical. I’m not a finance type but it’s a must read because it’s engaging, funny work written by subject matter experts. I go back because I want to read what Bryce (and co.) has written, not because they caught a search box stray.

Anyone who still has “huge respect” for JK Rowling after Everything she’s said and done has definitionally no respect for trans people

The question of ‘fandom’ being something so alien makes me think a lot about the algorithm-driven nature of every online business now. SEO juicing that values the instant hit of one-off traffic versus building something organically.

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

Why was I invited to Beast Studios? YouTube video by Folding Ideas

It should go without saying @foldablehuman.bsky.social’s latest is brilliant and fascinating.

youtu.be/0dwagg5wYY4?...

“It’s a couple of things that work beautifully in concert. First: no music. Audiences are so sophisticated, but what they’re not accustomed to is not being told how to feel,” Wyle says. “You take all that out and it forces a level of engagement where you’re now looking for clues within the frame of the screen, which forces you to look up from your phone. And I think that is extremely engaging, especially to young viewers who aren’t accustomed to being asked to participate in a nonpassive way in the viewing experience.

“Second point, shooting it with almost exclusively 50-millimeter or 65-millimeter lenses, which is the most comparable to the human eye—and only shooting from the point of view of a human being that’s present in this space. There are no cameras on gurney wheels going in the hallway. There’s no cameras on the ceiling looking down from a God point of view. You are limited to the perspective of a participant. You can look away, but you can’t leave, and it becomes an endurance test for you to stay on your feet as long as we’re on our feet. Which [brings me to my] third point: real time. Real time has an aggregate sense of tension that you don’t get in any other form of storytelling. What happened before is happening now, and these two things are going to add up to the next thing. And if we throw more ingredients into this cooker and keep ratcheting it up, it’s going to pop.”

Wyle makes eye contact for his next point, delivering it with a Robby-esque matter-of-factness. “Fourth point: The election went the other way,” he says with a shrug. “We could have been a really good show with a lot of nice things to say in a perfectly normal Kamala Harris universe. And instead we became almost a beacon of hope and humanity in an alternative universe. But in the midst of that, fifth point—this is essentially competence porn. You’re watching really smart, dedicated people do what only they know how to do at a level that you don’t know how to do it, and you’re so fucking glad that they’re there doing it, and compartmentalizing their own stuff to put your broken pieces back together. You’re so reassured by knowing that there are people out there that laugh and joke and have the ability to lock in like that.”

this is fucking unreal stuff from Noah Wyle on the magic of The Pitt. www.gq.com/story/noah-w...

BBC News leading all its bulletins on demands by former Government advisor Lord Robertson for more defence spending, without at any point mentioning his current paid senior role for US defence lobbyists

Announcement post for the next two episodes of SNLUK, including Nicola Coughlan.

We can only hope that the April 25th show has a return of 45 Seconds with Fouracres. #SNLUK

The weakest of the series yet, feels slightly unrehearsed, Whitehall is mid, and nowhere near enough Fouracres, but still a few good laughs #snluk

Insufficient Fouracres #SNLUK

Not quite as strong as the other eps, some very good moments though.

But we need more Fouracres, dammit.

#snluk

#SNLUK I’m not psychoanalyzing the goodnights.

But if I were, I’d be wondering why George has to stand there unhugged for so much of it. Treat our boy better!

#SNLUK This sketch was shown at dress for the first three weeks and then cut for not being funny enough. I’ve been waiting to see when it got broadcast.

#SNLUK I’m not the target market for the Gen Z bit. Clearly the youth don’t like written jokes so much as adenoidal phrases combined with dance movements

#SNLUK There were enough Saudi jokes in ‘Masters’ and ‘Weekend Update’ to make me think the cast and crew did have some strong feelings about Riyadh headliner Jack Whitehall’s hosting gig.

I could imagine him becoming a permanent fixture, the British Kenan. But then they could just rename the show Fouracres & Co. and I’m sure nobody would mind.

#SNLUK The first banger of the night and of course, it’s George.

#SNLUK George! Finally!

#SNLUK Two football sketches back to back feels like a bit of a miss.

Where the fuck is George. 15 minutes in and there’s no George.

“We’re spending £2.1 million per episode! How can we make sure we get as many eyes watching as possible?”

‘What if we make our lead-in a repeat of a 1989 classic most people can recite from memory?’

“Genius!”

- Cheered along the closure of the local Sure Start Centre, with my local Green councillor telling me he was an "unwhipped free thinker" for supporting it.

- There were plans for a renewable power facility on old railway facilities bordering Whittlingham Broad. They went door to door organizing protests as it would spoil an area of outstanding natural beauty.

- There was a small woodland area used by sex workers as it was comparatively safe compared to other areas. Local Labour wanted to run an outreach program to ensure the people were safe, make sure they weren't under a third party's control etc, Greens had them pushed to the next ward by police.

"Cite your sources!"
- Breaking the rainbow alliance to protest building of a road bypass which handed control to the Tories, who went ahead and built it but without the amenities for cycling originally included.