Call me a pedant but I really think if BBC is going to make this inflammatory stuff headline news for two days (and counting) they ought to have a bit more evidence than this, and since they don’t you have to wonder what the purpose is of trumpeting it all over the place 5/
I think it depends! They’re part of a song, like tambourines or cowbells. Sometimes they don’t matter much, sometimes they pull it all together. Depends on the song! Though sometimes they’re totally essential, like here youtu.be/bQDY3HFkh_Y
Did the BBC assume that asylum applications, unlike every other area of society, were completely free of fraud? Seems like a total loss of perspective over their investigation, now into its second day of dominating their headlines
I have literally seen a flock of starlings swooping and ‘playing’ around running wind turbines and they were clearly at no risk whatsoever of hitting them so this tracks.
And not only that but … www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘se l’Italia fosse oggi in linea con gli obiettivi della direttiva Case Green, l’impatto della guerra sul portafoglio delle famiglie sarebbe ridotto di oltre un terzo.’
www.repubblica.it/economia/202...
Plot twist: there are at least eight people in this story, not including the neighbours.
"Did they tell you what the agent said or did they merely tell you the content of his messagel' 'Oh, the messages were edited, but otherwise as received. They had to be; the staff handling the material didn't know enough about economics to understand what it was about.' 'But you identified different sources?' I asked yet again. 'Sometimes we could, sometimes that was easy. Some of it was total rubbish.' From different agents?' I persisted. My God, but it was agony to deal with old people. Would I be like this one day? 'Some of their agents sent only rumours. There was one who never provided a word of good sense. They called him "Grock".
Len Deighton, London Match (1985)
It's around this point that Brutus, by now in his twenties, surfaces in the historical record. In the summer of 59, a man called Lucius Vettius went to the Senate with information about a conspiracy to murder Pompey. The repentant Vettius confessed to being one of the conspirators; among the others he named was Brutus. The senators seem not to have believed him, but threw him in jail for carrying an offensive weapon. He repeated his allegations the next day, but 'removed Brutus' name from his speech entirely, Cicero says, before going on to hint that the omission may have had something to do with the fact that Brutus' mother, Servilia, was sleeping with Caesar. Their relationship led to the rumour (which can't be true) that Brutus was Caesar's illegitimate son.
There was! That gets a mention in the article too
An aerial view of the decommissioned Alessandro Volta thermoelectric power station on the site of an abandoned nuclear power station in Montalto di Castro, Lazio, Italy
Italy too has foaming nimby campaigns against renewable energy infrastructure. Just imagine wind turbines ruining this landscape.
Spain's renewables build-out has structurally decoupled its electricity prices from gas markets. Gas now sets the price in only 15% of hours, compared to 90% in Italy.
Countries that invested early in clean power are far less exposed to fossil fuel price shocks. Those that didn't now pay the price.
Europe spent years debating whether the energy transition was affordable.
Spain quietly answered the question: gas now sets its electricity price in only 7% of hours.
Strategic autonomy doesn’t arrive via summit communiqués. It’s built in advance — in wind farms, solar parks, and grid investment
It’s basically a rehash of Uptown Girl
oh no why is Bluesky showing me trending videos
Tis a Pity She Was a Whore has some great woos
Though the woohoo is pretty optimistic. One of the all time top woohoos.
That’s true! Though I’m not sure how optimistic it is. Hedges its bets maybe. ‘From factory to field, how many tears must fall?’
That’s so weird
Actually, sorry, it was an Arnold Corns song, B-side to Moonage Daydream, both appeared on the Rykodisc CD reissue of MWSTW as bonus tracks.
I’m coming to this conversation very late, sorry
Fill Your Heart is bad
I think it’s a holdover from The Man Who Sold the World but yeah it’s great
Heat is also a masterpiece! One of those songs at the end of an album that already looks ahead to the next album (like Fame). And such great lyrics! My father ran the prison, like a peacock in the snow. People are weird.
A Better Future is an amazing song though I can see why people skip it after one listen to that ‘deck the halls with boughs of holly’ synth line. But if you stick it out to the end—through one of the best middle eights by an all time master of the middle eight—it’s a soaring, aching masterpiece.
It circles for ever on the LP!
Hope it’s going better this time.
Some of the books are really good. I’ve been supposed to be writing about them for about two years. Better get on with it.
It's estimated that US oil companies could gain a windfall of $60B this year if crude prices maintain the levels they have hit since the start of Trump's war on Iran.
Remember that Big Oil spent spent nearly $100M to get Trump elected in 2024.
That investment is paying off quite well for them.