Ben Beck

Colin Blunstone, of the Zombies

Does advertising really work?
Everyone I know mutes TV ads when they come on.
Everyone I know uses ad-blockers online.
I avoid sites that say 'You can't view this site unless you turn off your ad-blocker.'
And some ads are so annoying &/or repetitive that I refuse to use the product on principle.

We can reverse America’s decline | Bernie Sanders It is not good enough just to criticize Trump. We must offer a positive vision that will improve the lives of Americans

At this difficult moment in American history, we must be honest with ourselves:

Our nation, once the envy of the world, is now in profound decline.

For the sake of our children and future generations, we must reverse course.

Tremendous film! I've watched this more times than any other, and get something fresh from it every time.

Bravo!

anarchysf.com: January update

Updates to:
• Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Paul McAuley

@DropSiteNews: JUST IN | President Trump has signed a sweeping executive order declaring Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat" and authorizing broad new sanctions, including punishing foreign countries that sell oil to the island, even indirectly. The move comes as the Financial Times reports Cuba has just 15-20 days of oil left, after US pressure helped halt Venezuelan shipments and Mexico's Pemex suspended a delivery. The shortage has already fueled near-daily blackouts and fuel rationing. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her government provides oil to Cuba via contracts with Pemex and via humanitarian aid mechanisms, the latter she said would continue. The order tightens a blockade strategy that leverages economic collapse and humanitarian crisis under the guise of national security.

Cuba is next on Trump’s expansionist hit-list.

The only “threat” it poses is existing as a sovereign state that refuses to bow to US imperialism.

Blocking all fuel supplies is collective punishment and a war crime. It must be opposed.

Hands off Cuba! Hands off Latin America!

The people, united, will never be defeated. ✊

Thousands march for Rojava in London - Freedom News Calls for international solidarity as assault on Kurdish autonomy and rights intensifies ~Blade Runner~ Between 20,000 and 30,000 Kurds and support…

Thousands march for Rojava in London
News, Jan 26th
Calls for international solidarity as assault on Kurdish autonomy and rights intensifies
~Blade Runner~
freedomnews.org.uk/2026/01/26/t...

As @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social says, the UK government has to make clear to the Syrian government that the mass release of ISIS prisoners is unacceptable, that the current ceasefire must stand, and that attacks on Kurdish majority towns are unacceptable.

greenparty.org.uk/2026/01/21/u...

#Rojava

'We need to stop our subservience to Trump': Zack Polanski questions US military bases on UK soil amid tariff threat | LBC Donald Trump repeatedly said the US

It's time to stop subservience to Donald Trump.

And that starts with questions about how to stop US bases on UK soil and maintain our national security.

www.lbc.co.uk/article/subs...

🤣🤣

The only questio about 'defectors' to Farage is: "Were they lying before or are they lying now?"
The answer, invariably, is "Both".
I'm watching the snooker.

The USA shouldn't have the Olympics it shouldn't have the World Cup, it shouldn't be allowed to even participate in anything with the rest of the world.

Just cordon it off like there is a Zombie virus outbreak.

"The maximum time a prisoner can spend on remand is 182 days (six months). Yet Muraisi and Ahmed were arrested in November 2024, and are not due to be tried until June at the earliest, which means they will be remanded for 20 months."

Shameful.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Three black ICE SUVs with flashing lights drive in a line down a wide street. A lone woman stands in front of them at a crosswalk, holding up her phone to take a photo, evoking the ‘Tank Man’ image from Tiananmen Square.”

All power to the comrades in the Twin Cities and across the hemisphere pushing back against empire and death.

anarchysf.com: December update

New additions:
• Phyllis MacLennan
• Vandana Singh

Update to:
• Robert Silverberg

End non-stun religious slaughter No more religious exemptions from animal welfare laws.

Millions of animals are suffering unnecessarily by being slaughtered without stunning to meet religious demands.

That's why we campaign to end religious exemptions to animal welfare laws.

Read more👇

www.secularism.org.uk/religious-sl...

Boiling live lobsters to be banned under animal rights reforms Downing Street has published its welfare strategy, which sets out a series of new farming and food standards and banning trail hunting

The government is right to say that animals should be spared avoidable pain, suffering and distress when they are killed.

That's why reforms to animal welfare laws must include the banning of non-stun slaughter.

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

A propos of nothing, a revelation: I’ve been reading Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and have had this nagging feeling of something else using the same meter.

I have finally realised what it is: the 1975 Jimmy Castor Bunch single ‘King Kong’.

Iambic pentameter.

Disabled people driving luxury cars on your dime? Just the latest rightwing lie peddled by Labour | Frances Ryan Starmer’s ailing government is happy to pursue ideas like cutting Motability, but all ministers will do is damage lives and themselves, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

Disabled people driving luxury cars on your dime? Just the latest rightwing lie peddled by Labour.

Govts stigmatize people claiming benefits as scroungers, claim fraud is rife.

Silence on corporate welfare, tax abuse by corporations/rich. HMRC failed to collect over £500bn tax since 2010.

Jury trials scrapped for crimes with sentences of less than three years The reforms are being brought in to tackle unprecedented delays in the Crown Court.

Jury trials in England & Wales for crimes that carry a likely sentence of less than 3 years will be scrapped.

Bad move

Money may be saved but justice and trust in the system will be the biggest casualty.

Poor and minorities at the mercy of toff judges.

Very badly written article, and no examples given of the supposed partial translation(s).

anarchysf.com: November update

Updates to:
• Vajra Chandrasekera, Victor Koman, Ayn Rand, Joanna Russ, J. Neil Schulman, Robert Shea, Mary Shelley, Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea

i will never tire of this meme

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Pelican
Leatherback turtle
Chipmunk
Fruit bat
Hummingbird

Chuck Berry
James Brown
Sex Pistols
Jah Shaka
Karlheinz Stockhausen

Hope is here.

Help us beat Reform in May. Donate today ⤵️

Old photo original. Class photo

AI versions

Sample of the same child, showing how different AI apps have interpreted the data completely differently

Somebody posted an old photo in a Facebook local group and asked if anyone could clean it up. Well-meaning people turned to #AI. Lots of responders seemed happy with the results, but this is how you destroy historical records.