Andy Woolmer

There is far too much pressure to live your best life these days. Leave me alone and let me live my most middling life in peace, with the colourful miscellany of highs and lows that naturally entails.

And those making or influencing policy predominantly attended them.

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

Since a handful of hate filled people protested outside RNLI HQ yesterday because they're angry that crews don't discriminate in their rescues and work to save all lives at sea you might want to show your support with a one off or regular donation.

rnli.org/pages/ig/new...

Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.

Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.

Jesus, the eyes 👀!

David Cameron tweet that says: Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband:

Mad we might get to see both scenarios here. It’s like getting killed in a video game and then returning to a checkpoint

Amazing. Thanks Ethan.

I didn't know that. Which ones?

💯 Charlie. I'd really like to see more simple, analogue models out there. I find myself looking at older Land Rovers and Japanese 4x4s for the simplicity and practicality.

I keep thinking the same, glad I'm not alone.

I'm just reading this now Tom, lovely mate.

IWW IU 520 (Railroad Workers) PRESENTS: TROLLEY PROBLEM SOLUTION "Slip the switch" by flipping it while the trolley's front wheels have passed through, but before the back wheels do. This will cause a controlled derailment bringing the trolley to a safe halt.

Union workers solved the trolley problem, you're welcome

Mentioning Merroir: The Flavor of Oysters The flavor of an oyster is determined by several factors like region, water, and farming method. Knowing how these things affect an oyster’s flavor can help you detect the subtle nuances between oyste...

Wines have terroir, and oysters have merroir: the flavor of oysters from a particular place. Because oysters even in the same species live in a huge variety of water chemistries and have highly variable diets, I believe it! (323) www.whitestoneoysters.com/blogs/an-oys...

Sign the Petition Oppose the WRU's Proposed Reduction in Elite Teams

The Ospreys, Dragons and Cardiff Supporters Trusts have launched a joint petition to oppose the WRU's culling of a team, fanbase, and future for rugby in that region.

Please sign and share-
www.change.org/p/oppose-the...

RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch returns for 2026 With 38 million birds being lost from the UK skies in the past 60 years, recording the decline is the first step in conservation

With 38 million birds being lost from the UK skies in the past 60 years, recording the decline is the first step in conservation | Brian McHugh

This is my 30th year as a journalist.

But I still continue to be shocked daily at the extent to which these same 'news'papers revel in wilful misinformation in order to relentlessly promote the ideology/interests of their senior editors and owners.

An utter disregard and contempt for their readers

Frodo: I wish so much unbelievably stupid shit had not happened in my time Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. This is all exceptionally stupid, though

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows. I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

Two elderly men ride a tandem bike near the sea.

Robert Duvall (left) and Richard Harris riding in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)

#BicycleBirthday Robert Duvall
Born January 5, 1931

One of the chief virtues of the book is that it’s nearly the only remaining form of media that isn’t constantly being interrupted by ads. Between the covers is the last place on earth where no one is trying to sell you shit, a place where you can still be a human being rather than a mark.

This is lovely!

Current status…

FINANCIAL TIMES I was amused - and saddened - to read the latest instalment of the Brexiters' excuses for the poor performance over recent years of the UK economy and the UK's politics. In "Implementation of Brexit became a business fiasco" (Markets Insight, December 19), Paul Marshall acknowledges the cost of the UK's decision to leave the EU. But rather than acknowledge that his analysis was wrong - cutting ties with your biggest trading partner is never a good idea - Marshall blames bad implementation, and the fact that the EU didn't cut the UK some slack.

Implementation of Brexit by the UK has indeed been poor, but that's a direct consequence of the political crisis that everyone should have expected following such a major decision on the back of one simple 52/48 referendum vote at the conclusion of a mind-bogglingly uninformed debate by both sides. That includes the Brexiters' naive insistence that the EU would bend to UK demands and grant it all sorts of privileges not enjoyed by others. So, the roughly 8 per cent of GDP loss in UK output since the Brexit decision in 2016 is easily explained by three perfectly predictable factors: it was a bad economic decision; it has split UK society politically; and the EU27 has moved on.

It's time for those who led the UK down this disastrous path to stand up and acknowledge their wrong analysis and naive understanding of Europe. Until that happens, how can one even hope that the UK will begin to heal? Erik Fossing Nielsen Senior Adviser, Independent Economics (a London-based economics advisory firm); Former Chief Economist, UniCredit, and Former Chief European Economist, Goldman Sachs, Berlin, Germany

Letter to the FT that stingingly sums up Brexit and the shit creek we now find ourselves in.
A terrible idea (naive, prejudiced and uninformed) that has deeply divided us and left us poorer and less secure… but unwilling to face up to the damage we’ve done to ourselves. While the EU moves on.

Totally worth a repost for Christmas.

I suspect that this one is unavoidable and just due to old canal workings but I do like the Cameron Clegg coalition big society genius idea of hiving off 2000 miles of these large linear things to an essentially unfunded make do and mend charity

A gentle reminder if you've received an invoice from a Freelancer/Self employed person which is due before Christmas.

Be a love, and pay it today.

Study finds potential link between high-fat cheese and lower risk of dementia A study out of Sweden has looked at the possible link between eating more high-fat cheese, like cheddar, gouda and brie, and a lower risk of developing dementia.

Good news at last.

www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

Jim and I are on the precipice of 13,000 followers here on Bluesky and it seems only fair that we send whoever number 13,000 is, if or when they arrive, a free signed book, right?