Bill Thompson

So why does the BBC label the academic and economist Faiza Shaheen an "activist" but refuse to do the same for the former academic, turned anti-migrant activist Matt Goodwin?

“we’re explicitly not building Skynet” says man who is 100% building Skynet

My week: "my bad.. when i said tomorrow it was tuesday and when you said tomorrow it was wednesday and I didn’t realise, and I’ve got call at 11 today (which is the tomorrow you were referring to yesterday)… could we do another time?"

Zohran Mamdani caught lying that he understood Plato’s allegory of the cave, yet when asked to explain it, he seemed to instead explain Baudrillard’s theory of Simulacra and Simulation where reality has been replaced by symbols and signs, which seems similar to Plato’s theory but is not the same

Oooo!

It’s time will come!

HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York, sometime special representative to the government on business, trade and schmoozing, in a dark place in one of his palaces.

Prince of Darkness

this is obviously appalling - and he should lose his job - but it's also really quite shocking; I first met Calgie when he was a baby reporter in his early twenties and sure, he was always a Tory, but he was....fine and normal? right-wing radicalisation is out of control in SW1

JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’ Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’

For those of you keeping score, 18-22 year-old students calling for an end to slaughter in Gaza are so racist they need to be expelled or deported, but 24-35 year-olds celebrating Hitler, rape, and, um, racism are just kids being kids so chill.

Also, racism is over so no need for Voting Right Act.

Cheered out of Jarrow by the then mayor - one Bill Thompson. Not sure if/how I’m related (I’m from there) but like to imagine so.

If you know basic kabbalah it's actually not too hard to make a golem out of a labubu. Don't recommend it though. They have a pre-existing body-dharma. As soon as they wake they run straight for the sea. V hard to counter. Lost the first one. No idea what it's doing out there. Moved like lightning.

I love this ad, but I also need to point out how sad it is that it's the pretty much the only time any Democrat with national visibility has used their platform to issue a full-throated defense of trans people at all, let alone a concrete campaign promise for trans rights.

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

A table with an espresso, a lemon cake, a laptop and a phone in a Teams call

Birthday. Cake. Kaffeine London. The finest coffee shop in town.

Great minds… from an internal note I wrote this week…

Job posting graphic with coral orange background featuring white text that reads "NOW HIRING Research Fellow - AI & The Future of Social Conversation" with an abstract geometric illustration of a door or archway. Details include 20-25 hours per week, $40/hour, remote position for U.S. or Canada, working through 2/28/26.

How will technology continue to shape how we talk to each other? We’re seeking a researcher to help tackle big questions like this.

Working with Co-Director @eli.bsky.social, this is a chance to engage with experts, dive into the research, and contribute directly to the field and our strategy.

It's a small point but CBS is the BBC's news partner in the US (ABC had played this role for at least a decade previously) and they often use CBS correspondents for smaller US stories. Can that continue?

At a time when new cyberattacks debilitate British businesses seemingly daily, the UK government is demanding that security is made worse for UK users.

Once I saw the BLINK tag I knew he could never be trusted with anything important.

A post from the Vagina Museum, labelled as "adult content": The last day to view Trans Ephemera is 5th October. This community-created exhibition explores diversity, medicalisation and experiences of oppression through the medium of things that are normally thrown away. The exhibition is free to visit - plan yours now!

*sigh* Bluesky is Blueskying again. Here's that link again, this time visible to everyone. Trans people's experiences are not adult content, mods. www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/communitygal...

DOJ sues over pro-Palestinian protest, using law on abortion clinic access The U.S. Justice Department is suing pro-Palestinian organizations and demonstrators it accuses of intimidating Jewish worshipers at a New Jersey synagogue, using a U.S. law that has traditionally been used against people blocking access to abortion clinics.

Because much of my professional life is pointing out how laws meant for one thing are used for something else: the Trump administration is using a law meant to protect access to abortion clinics, which it is no longer enforcing, to go after pro-Palestinian protesters. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

A really good reason: not knowing where someone currently resides is a huge risk when it comes to legal redress if they nick the hire car or whatever. I love how the magic word 'digital' makes idiot ministers think chaotic humans will suddenly transform into compliant automata because of an app

Call Gavin Newsom's office like you called ABC/Disney/Sinclair/Nexstar

Jam, Jerusalem, and Gerrymandering

What does every Labour Prime Minister, half the cabinet, the London Mayor, the Attorney General, and the Governor of the Bank of England have in common? They are all Fabians. What now? Who? Are we being destroyed by a Radical Left kabal? l do some digging thatalexwoman.com/p/the-powerful...

This is the British political equivalent of arguing that the Women’s Institute are a Nazi cabal and control the Conservative Party.

I'm seeing so many takes around parts of the "ID card" melange, I have to add a few.

It's not about cards. It's about registers. A register is a definitive 'true source' of data, about people, places, buildings, whatever.

A beautifully captured lunch with one of the actors who never disappoints. And a useful life lesson for us hacks from @janinegibson.ft.com - don’t choose the ciabatta.

BBC Radio 3
Train Tracks

Tom Service with a musical and cultural celebration of a landmark moment: the 200 year anniversary of the birth of the modern railway.

Not sea glass but fragments of plastic car tail lights, indicators and brake lights, probably washed into storm drains after heavy rain, eventually making their way to the sea. #oceanplastic

People, good people, civil servants, give up their time and their money to make Civil Service Staff Networks the fantastic resource and public service they are and the government spits in their face, it makes me sooooo mad...

Grrrrrr