JanetM Sage Observer

As I noted a while back, this is a new feature on the blog, aiming not to make me rich (ha!) but just to defray some of the cost of running the shop.

The articles retail for £4, this is the first one.

@alanallport.bsky.social @jeffcrutherford.bsky.social @rgpoulussen.bsky.social

Robert B. Farren's portrait of the elderly geologist Adam Sedgwick, cradling and gesturing to a globe.

In a few weeks, I'll be starting a new role as Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at Cambridge, based at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. As part of @camglamresearch.bsky.social, my project will be about 'Re-Excavating the Cambridge School of Geology, 1850–1914'.

We were all up early as the prof wanted to take #sophiefromromania for a walk before heading off on a business trip for a week - we’re both going to miss her

Britain is not dying.
It is multicultural, alive, changing.
Farage and Robinson scream because they fear that truth.
We defeat them by making diversity work…in housing, schools, jobs.
Practical fairness.
Real belonging.
That’s stronger than hate.

From promises to collapse: The measurable damage Brexit caused the NHS Staffing gaps, medicine shortages and avoidable harm – the everyday reality of a broken Brexit promise

Brexit wasn’t abstract, writes The Bear.

It stripped out the NHS’s stabilisers – staff, medicines, safety nets – and left us running on fumes.

The cost isn’t just GDP points. It’s lives.

Something people aren't talking about enough is how often Charlie Kirk invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before Congress about the domestic terrorists he provided buses to get to Washington on January 6, 2021.

It would really help to explain to any recreational drug users how their "fun" contributes directly to crime. Local burglary, ram raids, house takeovers, weed factories, sickness beneficiaries distributing. Its really an exploitation

Letter in The Observer today.

“I am a refugee. The UK made me a surgeon.”

Yes, every word in this is true. I saw much of this as well In the 60s and 70s. I remember being shocked by Manhattan and appalled that no one else I knew seemed creeped out bi it. Men freaked me out back then: you couldn’t walk down the street without harassment. It was a terrible time.

We had a lovely time, raising money for @cancerresearchuk.org this afternoon. Many generations enjoying textiles and conviviality. 💖

Embroidery of a sitting fox facing forwards with head looking up tobthe left

Silk embroidered fox created by Helen Richman, professional hand embroiderer, based in Somerset, UK #womensart

After this weekend, I'm leaving X.

Follow my work stuff on Instagram @nicolakellywrites. I'll mainly be posting there.

www.instagram.com/nicolakellyw...

What was going to take place on Saturday 18th October 2025 has now been postponed! See pic (copied over from another platform).
Have to say I’m disappointed. Right now we need to stand with Europe more than ever!🤔🥺🇬🇧🇪🇺🤝

Wishing, threatening, or doing harm to people who are doling no harm to anyone except making them uncomfortable by their mere existence.

Attitudes like this are always with us, unfortunately. The difference today is that those holding them are being encouraged to express, even act on, these views.

My, my, my. How the tone has changed.

The Brexit ref of 2016 accelerated a trend in which age & education, rather than class, are best predictors of voting behaviour. Study, shows how this is splitting left-leaning young graduates from right-leaning pensioners

Voters see parties clustered in two ideological blocs; the left & the right

Politics latest: 'We will not stand for assaults or intimidation' - Starmer speaks out following mass-protest Sir Keir Starmer has condemned assaults on police at yesterday's 'Unite the Kingdom' march, while recognising the "right to peaceful protest." He has also said people should not feel "intimidated beca...

“we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin”
Keir Starmer

news.sky.com/story/politi...

The myth that racism is primarily driven by economic conditions must die, especially on the left. It is a misdiagnosis and a kind of excuse

The far-right mob in London paled into insignificance compared to our Remain marches. Especially the one in 2018. Between 700,000 and a million people turned out. The Labour front bench stayed away. They also ignored its message. But the voters who took part in it haven't disappeared.
#RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺

Elections watchdog admits 'painful lessons learned' after Chinese hack In the first interview about the hack, the commission's new boss admits that huge mistakes were made, but says the organisation is now secure.

"I don't think everyone realised quite how much democratic systems and electoral systems were targets.....

We [Electoral Commission] now have to be really up to speed with the threats,"

Elections watchdog admits 'painful lessons learned' after Chinese hack -

Via BBC News

Toyota's new flagship EV is, honestly, pretty impressive The bZ7 is about the size of a Tesla Model S and way nicer than you’d expect. Toyota’s new flagship...

Can Toyota make up for the time they lost while ignoring the EV market? They were ahead of the curve with hybrids, then got lost for a decade w/o a competitive EV offering, while making news about forthcoming solid-state battery tech. We may find out next year if they’re back in the game.

Depends on how the debate is marked. Agree Oxford Union style is awful, probably training for all those vicars and politicians 🙄
But school debates should always have marks for content and facts, usually from the second speaker, and that is good training for lawyers. Using Jaycee rules (USA).

Everyone saying PM shd condemn far right violence in London yday (Shabana Mahmood already has)/ leave X is right. But same for Kemi Badenoch. No Conservative Party can condone thugs attacking police horses & calls for violent uprising. Even Farage has gone up against Yaxley-Lennon ffs.

That is criminal damage and racism and needs to be reported ASAP.

If you are too scared to say this @labouruk.bsky.social then you’re not fit to govern

If you are too scared to act you are not fit to govern

If you fear the BBC & Sky etc will promote these thugs’ angle then you can get back some semblence of impartiality in the BBC but that means you have to ACT

I’m not surprised at the large turn out yesterday. Our media ecosystem - as @carolecadwalla.bsky.social has often pointed — has completely collapsed, and people are motivated by outright inflammatory lies on social media. It’s a crisis of information and the dark side of the digital revolution

Interesting that the US "centrist" take on Kirk, which boils down to "he did his politics the right way" aka a polite white supremacist, I mean we don't want to frighten the children do we

"why won't someone think of the children"

has infected the UK mainstream discourse on him [sigh]

The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration

Only just got round to reading yesterday's @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social masterpiece. Again, the sense of dislocation, of insecurity, which is surely what is behind so many protests on so many subjects. A world transformed by technology into facelessness.

www.ft.com/content/7068...