Jane A.

Did it attract hero voters?

No.

Did it at least prevent a resurgence of the radical right?

Well, also no.

But it at least enabled the left and centre to swing in behind Labour?

Ha, you're not going to believe this...

"were told how to vote" = usually known as "an election campaign"

"came together to dominate the constituency" = that's called "a majority"

And... that's how democracy works.

Reminder:
Watergate didn’t collapse because the people in power decided to tell the truth. It collapsed because reporters kept digging and the public refused to look away.
Iran-Contra didn’t unravel on its own either. It unraveled under exposure and pressure.

Barron: “I don’t think he knows my name. He calls me Eric, Junior, and Barton.”

Ivanka: “Just go along with it. He calls me Stormy.”

What is happening in Gaza summed up perfectly in 2 minutes while a stunned Piers Morgan sits in silence.

I think this is a very dangerous misreading.

They are not cowards.
They are supporters.

They WANT an authoritarian regime, where greed is unchecked and exploitation is encouraged.

And, if & when Trump is removed from power, THEY WILL STILL WANT THAT, and will be funding the next viable candidate.

I think this is a very dangerous misreading.

They are not cowards.
They are supporters.

They WANT an authoritarian regime, where greed is unchecked and exploitation is encouraged.

And, if & when Trump is removed from power, THEY WILL STILL WANT THAT! And will be funding the next viable candidate.

Who's the "we" in that sentence? From a distance, I only see the press normalising it.

Which one did you generate?!

@flashes.blue
Is it possible to post to Flashes from a browser? Or desktop app? (For those us who don't want to work on a tiny phone, when I have a perfectly good and comfortable mac 😬)

Euler's Identity design, looking kind-of-like a martini ad (because Euler really is *that* cool) in yellow and white, circular, with the text: [the formula] e i pi +1 = 0 Pure Mathematics Euler's Identity No artificial intelligence Quality formula since 1735. Oh, and the model is having a pie smashed in his face, because, why not.

So I made a geeky-cool (geeky/cool?) tee-shirt design — you can see it here (she says, cringing with embarrassment, because I have a horrible feeling it's only me and my dad who think maths is cool, right?)

www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Pu...

Duke chapel interior

Hosted a meeting today; took my visitors to see Duke Chapel

Julian Abele designed it—one of over 30 Duke buildings he designed from 1924-1950 (when he died)

The school wasn’t desegregated until 1962 (🤬) & Abele was a Black architect

Posthumously, Duke renamed the central quad for him in tribute

“Presumed to be innocent until proven guilty my ass!

You're presumed guilty until you unredact the Epstein files because you're hiding them.

Innocent people don't do that! Show us what's in those files, Thunder Chicken!

Show us what we already suspect.”

Anthropic, a company founded by OpenAI exiles worried about the dangers of AI, is loosening its core safety principle in response to competition. https://cnn.it/4rAVDMm

Outrage in Austria after man ordered to pay female footballers €625 each for secretly filming dressing room A man has been given a seven-month suspended prison sentence and fined €1,200 after being found guilty of taking secret videos

Oh this makes me angry.

Suspended sentence and a fine — so, no punishment at all basically. (Fines are only a punishment for people who can't afford them.)

And no deterrant.
www.theguardian.com/football/202...

I love the idea of some hotel receptionist saying “And we’re looking forward to welcoming Lord Mandelson next week as well“ and Hoyle saying “wait what”

Well done.

Chronic ocean heating fuels ‘staggering’ loss of marine life, study finds Fish levels fall by 7.2% with as little as 0.1C of warming per decade, northern hemisphere research shows

🐟 "The faster the ocean floor warms, the faster we lose fish”

🌊 Chronic ocean heating is fuelling a “staggering and deeply concerning” loss of marine wildlife, new research shows, with fish levels falling by +7% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade 🌡️

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Are AI-generated summaries suitable for studying and research? Despite didactic, ethical, and environmental concerns, the use of GenAI is on the rise in academia. For most applications, the jury is still out on whether and how they will benefit education and rese...

Tired of AI hype posts? You might like my sober assessment of whether AI-generated summaries are suitable for studying and research. Spoiler alert, they are not.

The text is primarily aimed at students and researchers, but has much broader relevance. So share freely!: www.tue.nl/en/our-unive...

“Some girls in our study, as young as 11, conceptualise receiving dick pics as an indicator of their popularity,” one researcher told me. “If we do it we get called slags, whores, if we don’t do it we get called frigid,” said one girl in the north-west.

I know I wrote it, but I truly think this should be a massive story

The Secretary of Defense told an AI company to remove its bot's moral guardrails so it can operate surveillance and lethal weapons autonomously

When warned that could endanger our own troops, he didn't care

“… Epstein had emailed another associate, Palantir founder Peter Thiel, describing Brexit as “just the beginning” of “a return to tribalism, counter to globalisation, amazing new alliances.”
The Epstein files reveal in clearer terms than ever before, just how far those alliances extended.”

I recently discovered something that has markedly improved my experience of daily life: if you Google something and add “-ai” after the search term, it gives you search results without the AI overview

From Trump’s Maga to Farage’s Reform, they’re all following Putin’s nationalism playbook | Rafael Behr Reform is promising a ‘patriotic school curriculum’ – but what does that mean? In the end it comes down to submission to the leader, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

This, by Rafael Behr
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential Amid Trump’s lies and xenophobic rants, people struggling to pay bills and make ends meet are unlikely to be moved

I was expecting to see lots of commentary on Trump's latest rant this morning. But there isn't much. I think because it was just the same routine, same tired lines, same whining for attention.

He's become very boring.
How long before his MAGA base moves on?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

tweet from lisa desjardins reporting SOTU might be up to 3 hours long

It’s both funny and cosmically correct that the U.S. men’s hockey chodes will have to sit through 2+ hours of rambling from their addled little king while the U.S. Women’s team gets to skip the speech and party with Flavor Flav in Vegas

His whole routine is getting old. So predictable, so whiny.

Causes of the Global Water Crisis WATER SCARCITY IS DRIVEN BY A MIX OF ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL FACTORS. THE KEY CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: 1. Climate Change Global warming is changing weather patterns, bringing longer droughts and more severe floods. Melting glaciers and shrinking rivers are reducing freshwater supplies. For example, Lake Chad has shrunk by about 90% due to drought — destabilizing crops and livelihoods across multiple countries — and Himalayan glaciers are retreating rapidly, threatening water for nearly two billion people downstream. 2. Poor Water Infrastructure Many low-income and rural communities lack basic water infrastructure for storage and treatment. In Pakistan, some villages still depend on open ponds shared with animals. Each year, about four trillion cubic meters of freshwater are wasted due to evaporation, leaks, and inefficient irrigation.

3. Overuse of Groundwater Using too much groundwater for farming and industry is causing underground water sources to dry up. When water is pumped out faster than nature can replace it, water levels drop permanently, making groundwater harder or impossible to access in the future. 4. Pollution of Water Resources Contamination of rivers, lakes, and aquifers with industrial waste, pesticides, and sewage has made once-reliable water sources unsafe for consumption. 5. Population Growth The global population is projected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, increasing demand for water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use. Rapid urbanization compounds the issue by replacing permeable land with concrete, reducing groundwater recharge by as much as 80% and increasing flash floods instead of sustainable storage.

💦 We're not truly running out of #water, but we're mismanaging the limited supply we can access. Plus, #ClimateChange disrupts natural cycles faster than governments can respond.

Urgent investment is needed to prevent #DayZero scenarios for billions of people.

#ESD #WaterScarcity #GreenSky #EduSky