What's been your holiday reading list? I assume there's been some Nevil Shute in there?

You can never be late to the Southern Reach! The film is great and I love it, but I think you have to treat it as its own thing. In a lot of ways I feel like it's talking about different stuff to the book(s).

Get Ready for Lovecraft Investigations: The Call of Cthulhu From Julian Simpson - Get Ready for Lovecraft Investigations: The Call of Cthulhu

www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

A puzzled farmer asks a "heterodox marxist" if everyone should steal food from Gregg's rather than paying for it, or if that's just OK for the worthy poor.

SHAFT!

"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded."

"Now Dougal, this is going to sound very, very immoral, and stay with me, but what if..."

🌴 Who Is Using Arches?

The City of West Hollywood has launched a new Arches implementation as part of its Historic Preservation website—improving public access to info on the City’s cultural & historic resources.

🔗 Learn more & explore the database: bit.ly/wehopreservation

The World Holds Its Breath This week: I hate him I hate him I hate him. Also: a map of the horrors; and some notes on the Moon.

Why the f*ck must everything I hold dear be subject to the whims of a demented shitposter with no emotional regulation? Why can I not book a holiday or make a financial decision, without first stopping to think about that guy? Why should I have to wake up every morning to find out what he’s done?

On the plus side I guess now we can absolutely make bank by charging £2m-a-pop tolls to pass through the English Channel or the Strait of Gibraltar.

With the Lightnings - Wikipedia

Also, while I haven't read it for fear of disappointment, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_th... is apparently military SF inspired by the Aubrey-Maturin series.

I would very much recommend A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine and The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld, both excellent thought provoking SF in the Hyperion style. The latter has lots to say about AI and weird techbro-style longevity.

Spectacular high-resolution image of our home planet viewed through the Orion Crew Module window by the Artemis II astronauts as they continue their journey to the Moon on Flight Day 2, 3 April 2026 (pic: NASA)

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

😮 Awesome views from Day 2 of #Artemis II this morning.

@exploration.esa.int @esaearth.esa.int

Niche, but hilarious.

(It was Thursday, but we'll let that go for now...)

Top 10 tweet right there.

Bloody hell. "Our lord and saviour" isn't even dead yet - that happens on Friday. The celebrating bit is on Sunday, and not before.

Stop scrolling & post two characters who bring you happiness.

The Royal Navy in the Gulf British experience in Gulf operations is undermined by a lack of investment

My Royal Navy piece is out - some history, some analysis, and a shout at the government

open.substack.com/pub/behindth...

Ah. That famous "not bothering to read the source material" approach to making a show out of some beloved novels. I'm sure it'll be great.

Addison Act redbrick end of terrace council house and garden

Swanpool Garden Suburb white rendered terrace

🚨 New on Substack, Lincoln’s Early Council Housing and the Corporation’s "duty to provide the houses themselves" - Homes for Heroes, a model Garden Suburb and pioneering slum clearance:
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/lincolns-e...

Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People

Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People theonion.com/archaeological-dig-uncov...

Council Simulation — Labour Together

We’ve built an interactive game to show what the pressure of adult social care looks like in practice. In Run the Council, you take charge of a fictional council for four years. Can you run ‘Northfield Council’ amongst mounting financial pressures? Play here: www.labourtogether.uk/council-sim

I'm on tenterhooks to hear you tell everyone what the connection is.

The Enshitification of GIS Part One: How Proprietary Ecosystems, Cloud Lock-In, and Feature Glut Threaten Geospatial Innovation

The Enshittification of #GIS.

#GISChat
open.substack.com/pub/reimagin...

I would guess that lots of CofE parishes are at risk of entryism/takeover by the far right. Dwindling congregations could be easily outnumbered by a concerted effort to get new people on the electoral rolls. 20-30 would usually be enough. From there it's easy to get control of church councils.

It's absolutely crushing when you think of it like that. I wish I'd realised back in 2001-2007 that I was living in a Golden Age - I feel like I should have appreciated it more.

Turns out the best paid I've ever been was for 8 months in 2006 when I was on about £25k as a Uni research associate. That's about £43k today, and I'm well short of that.