Michael Wilcox

Today is the 89th anniversary of The Battle of Cable Street when the people of the East End of London halted the march of Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts through Stepney.

But could be so true!

There was a big community action today removing some of the flags.

An A4 poster glued to a grey item of street furniture. It says "Spread Love" in big letters at the top, then there's a reproduction of Banksy's "Flower Thrower" mural (a masked man poised to throw a bunch of flowers rather than a bomb), and then at the bottom it says "Misinformed bigots are tearing apart our town with needless hatred. Faversham, choose love". Someone has tried to tear it down, but has only managed to shred one corner a little.

"Spread Love". Someone has clearly tried to remove this, but love has been stronger than bigotry.

Statement by Faversham Town Council's Community Committee Faversham is a warm and welcoming town which, throughout its long history, has always proudly opened its arms to those who seek refuge. We as a town are rightly proud of our embodiment of fundamental principles of British values such as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and tolerance for the beliefs of others. However, over recent weeks it has been noted that tensions within our community have arisen linked to unauthorised placement of flags on public lampposts and abusive behaviour when questioned. This has led to many residents reporting feeling afraid and intimidated, and shamefully others have reported they have experienced racist abuse within the past few weeks. Faversham Town Council strongly condemns any acts of racism, intimidation and bullying for any reason.

We recognise that many residents display the St George cross and other national symbols as a positive expression of pride, and this is entirely welcome on private property or where permission has been sought. Faversham Town Council's own flag policy dictates that the flags of our nation are flown regularly from our public buildings. However, we also recognise that these same symbols of national pride can also be used to intimidate and cause division, and we call upon KCC, Kent Police and Swale Borough Council to work with us and the wider community to restore community harmony and a sense of street safety, mutual respect, and the shared pride we all have in our town and wider nation,

Measured, sensible, and much welcomed statement from Faversham Town Council on the idiocy of the moronic flag pandemic.

Why birds & data? To see the whole picture. Data is a system, not a thing. To truly understand data, you need to know how it gets made, how it is changed by the processes of computation, and how the choices we make in representing it affect the stories that can be told. Birding offers a way to get intimate with this entire system. To watch as our observations become data. To see how they are recast and reshaped by algorithms and models. To explore the many practical and poetic ways we might tell our data's story. Through birding, data is revealed not as static record, but as a living process of which we (and our feathered neighbors) are very much a part.

My course about birding & creative code is also secretly (shhhh) a course about critical data thinking.

Which is one of the most important skills you could possibly cultivate in this age of AI and misinformation.

Autumn cohorts start September 23rd... join me?

jerthorp.me/learning

🪶📊🎨

A stainless steel razor with Ever-Ready engraved on it.

Talking about object biographies made me think of this. It’s an Ever-Ready Razor, dates to the 1930s and like all the best most unimportant things you keep hold of, it has a story.

screenshot from bedtime donations website

Donate a bedtime story to @rsbc.bsky.social.

bedtime-donations.com

Really good article. Includes this from Ciaran Martin:

“Both data security and service continuity are important. But they’re quite different … someone sneaking around your house copying your sensitive information [vs] having someone punch you in the face and break your legs.”

English Roundabouts   They’re making the roundabouts great again by painting the flag of St George to keep our circular road systems safe from the dark, satanic hordes. What do they want? Patriotic junctions! When do they want them? Before it’s too late. Good old-fashioned English roundabouts, as decreed by Alfred the Great. Behold the sacred intersection, this blessed plot, this septic isle. English roundabouts for English people, draped in red and white and bile. St George is cross, as well he may be – whipped-up hate, he’s seen before. Give way to the right, the road signs rage, and the far right most of all. Brian Bilston

Here’s a poem called ‘English Roundabouts’.

The German state pioneering digital sovereignty | Euractiv The northern region of Schleswig-Holstein is well on its way to moving its public administration from Microsoft software to open source alternatives

A large part of our public sector's services rely heavily on Microsoft, creating uncertainty. Schleswig-Holstein's shift to alternatives is a promising step that Europe should follow.
👉 www.euractiv.com/news/the-ger...

A close up of the back door of a white van with its registration number blurred out, and a bumper sticker that reads 'No scones are left in this van overnight'

The back of a white van with its registration number blurred out, and a bumper sticker that reads 'No scones are left in this van overnight', parked under a green overhanging tree

In case anyone was wondering where we keep our most prized objects, it’s not here.

The first multi-university group arrives The University of Greenwich and the University of Kent are moving together into a single governance structure. Mark Leach and David Kernohan report on the sector's first "super university"

A ‘group’ not a single merged university - with two sets of degree awarding powers. There’s a lot to unpack in this announcement from Greenwich and Kent, but it’s definitely new. (Let’s not call it a super-university though)

wonkhe.com/blogs/the-fi...

Faversham. It's been like a 2nd home this year. What the actual fek are we letting happen?

"Racists and thugs are acting with impunity, intimidating local residents and people of colour, who are living in fear. This is England 2025."

Warsaw opens metro station ‘express’ library to get commuters off their phones Metroteka aims to encourage people to read more in country that lost majority of libraries in second world war

Oh, this is cool 📚 🚇
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

How Angela Rayner managed to underpay stamp duty – family trusts and tax avoidance explained Rayner’s case highlights the complexities of a system every UK housebuyer is expected to get to grips with.

Rayner’s case highlights the complexities of a system every UK housebuyer is expected to get to grips with.

person reading largely empty news paper Some Newspaper Some Country Was Bombed. Some Country Wants More Power Money Some Man Wants More Power & Money.

americabydesign.fail

Great recommendation👍 2 hrs long, I'm only 10 mins in, but already thinking 'perfect for all the listers, and at the same time, all the non-listers out there..'

Do try 10 mins. At mo' feels like the mash-up I never knew I needed; 'Bill and Ted go listing'.

A family with at least three children drive the car over the brow of a hill, revealing a small bay in the sunshine. The children, not wearing seatbelts, lean excititedly out of the window to get a better view

Bank Holiday ahead!

Artist: Martin Aitchison
(We Like to Help, 1965)

Improving Our Nation Through Better Design By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose and

“America by Design,” a national initiative to improve experiences for Americans, starting [with] the design of sites where people interface with their #Government … This effort will be facilitated by a new National Design Studio and by a new Chief Design Officer [Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia].

I really wonder what would need to happen to disrupt the British media‘s current obsession with immigrants.
I am serious. What would it take to talk about something else? Putin invading a few more countries? Another Prime Minister being hounded out of office? Global economic collapse? A tidal wave?

Making the Kühnen salute, with thumb, index and middle finger extended to form a “W”—as five protestors accompanying the Reform councillors are doing in the photo—is a criminal offence in Germany. The salute was popularised by the German Neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen.

England is FULL.

Proof!

Long exposure, hand-held shot of a wave breaking. Square crop of a photo taken from above. Mostly grey, with a curved wave through the middle, with darker grey, pale turquoise and white touches.

A hand-held long exposure of a wave, with the swell going diagonally from top left to bottom right. The photo is square cropped and taken from above and the colours are mostly grey, with a touch of turquoise, white and darker grey where the wave is bulging before it breaks.

A square crop of a hand-held long exposure photo of a wave taken from above. The photo i s mostly grey, with some dark turquoise and dark grey along the line where the wave is breaking, and lighter grey to the right.

A smooth grey wave swelling up from bottom left to top right as it's about to break. There are some darker grey areas with a hint of turquoise. It looks quite stripy, and is long exposure and a square crop.

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most beautiful...

Hand-held long exposure wave studies from a clifftop in northern #Iceland, April 2023.

Hurricane Erin becomes ‘catastrophic’ Category 5 hurricane, tracking north of Bahamas The first hurricane of the 2025 season has intensified into a Category 5 storm and will turn north just before the U.S. east coast next week. Forecasters are also tracking a new system in the weste…

Erin is now a monster 160 mph cat 5 Atlantic hurricane:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/16/h...

📌 Damn, this is good.

Black and white picture of a dog with a long snout beautifully lit by morning sun

Dawg

Great pic and a beautiful gaff rig. When do you reckon that was taken?

You know, if enough of us say on the internet that it's important to wash your cybertruck with saltwater and lemon juice to preserve the finish, eventually ChatGPT will start telling cybertruck owners that.