Romeo

Some of the most powerful and well-paid people in the world don't understand a lesson that every schoolchild knows: if you surrender to bullies, they will only bully you more

Lobbyist at firm with close ties to Tories will help select Ofcom chair Appointment of Michael Prescott as interviewer follows move to give Paul Dacre chance to reapply

It would be funny, if it wasn't tragic, reading this from four years ago about the 'independent' expert who wrote the report into purported leftwing bias at the BBC. It's just embarrassingly amateur - but it works because the Government is awol. www.theguardian.com/media/2021/n...

Sounds a bit like you've picked up your own reins. Well done.

I've always felt that Johnson and Farage put self-interest over the national interest - hence their dallying with Putin and his oligarchs. But directly colluding with a foreign government to take down the BBC feels like an act of supreme treachery

@garius.bsky.social Have you seen/read this?

What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.

This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.

iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Jimmy Cook and Andrew Hudson walk out to open the batting at Eden Gardens watched by a delighted Ali Bacher, November 10th 1991. This was South Africa's return to the international fold after 21 years isolation

Text: The only solution is to ensure a big expansion in the supply of housing. In retrospect, the destruction of council housing in the early 1980s was a big mistake. An alternative now could be for the government to borrow more to build houses: nobody can doubt, after all, that housing is an asset. The government could argue that investing in additional housing was a sensible reason for increasing its debts.

From an article in today's Financial Times. Such an obvious statement of fact. It's hard to understand why direct public investment in social rent housing - so successful for decades - is now unthinkable.

"Blindingly obvious", to coin a phrase.

The shortest day of the year in Iceland is 4 hours and 7 minutes of daylight on 21st December. That's still enough time for a whole T20 match or two innings of the West Indies batting in Tests.

I will also add:

I can do this for evictions in Illinois too, if SNAP benefits being cut off or the government shutdown means you can't make rent.

@mirandakeeling.com

Beginning to understand misanthropy, to dream of a cabin in the woods, where I see nobody, know nothing, just chop wood, domesticate an amusing raccoon, fish by a stream trying to avoid bears, and keep a lookout for the mushroom cloud, so I can put on clean pants before I die, like my Mama wanted.

If you don't already follow Emma Monk you really ought to.

YouTube video by The Strange Brew Podcast Graham Parker Goes Behind Howlin' Wind

New video: Graham Parker goes behind Howlin’ Wind, from suburban beginnings to finding his sound with The Rumour. @thegrahamparker.bsky.social revisits the making of his debut and the drive that’s kept him writing ever since www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-rc...

YouTube video by Kenny Teeology Monty Python - People Falling Out of High Buildings

#BBCresignations
youtu.be/LctLxeOTahQ?...

So glad to hear that.

I hope Poppy explains herself, in exchange for food and cuddles.

POPPY IS HOME!!!

Soul Music - I Say a Little Prayer for You - BBC Sounds Stories about the Burt Bacharach classic.

I had not realised the roots of “I Say a Little Prayer for You” in the Vietnam War: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

#IAmScottish

Lovely.

Excellent image, and I'm going to try and emulate what you do. I won't achieve the same sort of result but I will do my best.

Video of scene

Autumn colour over a long exposure. The technique I used on this one is to hold the camera still and just breathe into you lungs and breathe out. Naturally the camera goes up slowly and then moves down again. It give a slow movement but I feel rather affective. 2.5 seconds 135mm F14 50iso.

#ICM is about the movement of camera and how you move it. You can just move the camera up and down and say its #Art. Through development you can pick up real natural movements. This one is just done by your breathing in and out. More in alt text. Video in comments #photography #EastCoastKIn #Stunday

Success of Women’s Cricket World Cup demonstrates cricket’s potential for growth: ICC Board  | ICC Media Release

The ICC's additional 10% funding for associate nations is welcome. For Scotland that is around $150-200K which is a helpful boost but it's already mostly been eaten up by inflation and devaluation of the US dollar over the last year.

A least weasel. It fits in the palm of the hand.

If you’re wondering what a “least weasel” is, they absolutely live up to the name. This is the least amount of animal you can have that can still meet the bar for “is weasel”

A photo looking down a road, lined with golden and orange trees, that curves off to the right. Above the trees, multiple hills completely covered in fall colors can be seen, with the more distant hills obscured by haze.

A photo looking down a winding road, mostly in the shadows of the multicolored trees that bracket it. At the end of the road, tall mountains (tall for Oklahoma, okay) rise up into the sky and to the top of the frame. The slopes are full of trees, mostly green, but some yellow, orange, and red. The very tops of each slope are highlighted by the nearly setting sun.

The drive along the mountains is spectacular, especially for someone like me who's rarely seen widespread fall colors (I've lived in FL, TX, and OK my entire adult life, and teaching doesn't allow for distant travel during the fall). Here's a few more images from this special place in OK:

A photograph looking straight down a road, which can be seen winding back and forth up a hill in the distance. The hill, which fills most of the frame and is illuminated by a soon-to-be-setting Sun, is alive with color - trees of green, yellow, orange, and red cover every inch beside the road.

Peak fall foliage in Oklahoma's Ouachita mountains. Yes, this is Oklahoma! #photography

What is already one of the most beautiful parts of the state absolutely comes alive in the fall. I've been wanting this shot for years, but I either couldn't get there during peak or there were active droughts.

Please take a moment to appreciate this very, very small water sausage!