Rebecca Ferguson

just watched a dozen people ask microsoft copilot experts their most pressing questions and those questions were 90% “how do i turn it off?” and “when i turn it off, is it really off or is it spying on me?”

:-(

A white bench created to look like the open pages of a book, covered in reflective glass fish. Outside Orkney Library & Archive.

Remember the beautiful, sparkly Book Bench Trail Silver Darlings-inspired Book Bench we had out front all summer?

It's being auctioned TONIGHT to raise money for
Clan Cancer Support!

You can see all the benches, follow the auction live and bid for a bench at: clancancersupport.org/the-book-ben...

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright (Not sure if I spelled that right) What immortal hand or eye Could fashion such a stripy guy? What the hammer that hath hewn it Into such a chonky unit? Did who made the lamb make thee, Or an external franchisee?

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

If anyone is interested I've just updated the myportfolio site with some images from around #MorecambeBay ....a lot of channels, not a lot of sea. Work in progress.

michaelhoughton62725.myportfolio.com/channels

Amusing 404 page explaining why the intended page wasn’t found using various economic concepts.

I absolutely adore the 404 page for the @financialtimes.com

Graphic which reads "Mayor of London / It was predicted to take 193 years to meet legal limits for air pollution in London/ We did it in 9"

I remember being told that it would take 193 years to reach legal limits for nitrogen dioxide.

I decided this was unacceptable.

Thanks to the bold policies we put in place, we've managed to do it in nine years - 184 years earlier than expected.

Book cover of Penguin Classic 'What Maisie Knew' by Henry James. Part of the larger painting, showing a young girl in a pinafore and clearly 19th-century clothing with a huge oriental vase that is taller than her behind her

It was used as the cover for a Penguin Classic

He’s dead right about that.

And walking the byways of Withered Hill might just open another door for you in 30 days time too…

You can report fly tipping of hazardous waste via Crimestoppers. Might that work?

Liverpool poet Brian Patten dies at 79 His poetry often explored love and relationships and he wrote books for children including Gargling With Jelly

[...] You ask for a poem.
And so I write you a tragedy about
How a blade of grass
Becomes more and more difficult to offer,

And about how as you grow older
A blade of grass
Becomes more difficult to accept.

RIP Brian Patten www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

The Sycamore Gap tree. A solitary tree stands at the lowest point between two small hills. It's a sunny day in summer, with the tree's leaves and the landscape all around it green in colour.

Today, two years on from the illegal felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, we're announcing a new, major creative commission.

We're looking for ideas on how to breathe new life into the wood saved from the felled tree, and you can get involved. Learn more here: buff.ly/RBYUuRY

Photo: John Millar

@mikecollins.bsky.social @markchilds.bsky.social
Wondering how/if this fits with Mayer's principles

Trijn van Leemput was a Dutch heroine of the Eighty Year’s War and became a lasting symbol of Utrecht’s resistance against the Spanish.

According to legend, in 1577 Trijn led a group of women to begin the demolition of the city’s Vredenburg Castle — hence the pickaxe and the brick.

Apologies - both starter packs are full :-(

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds

open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

Clearly Cambridge trolling Oxford :-)

OED says British pronunciation of troll is /trɒl/ and British English pronunciation of doll is /dɒl/ (in each case ɒ is pronounced like the o in 'lot'). So they rhyme in Britain, though they don't in American (/troʊl/ /dɑl/)

Letter: 18 September 1915 By the Lake,In The DugoutFlanders,18 Sept ’15 My dear Jimmy Thanks so much for your fine letter which arrived yesterday. We are very busy just now building dugouts for Head Quarters to live in for …

"You must come and see our dugout. It is a treat as we have a wooden floor in it and cover the ceiling and walls with canvas to prevent the mice throwing soil on us."
For the rest of this letter from George in a #WW1 #WesternFront #dugout see georgefergusonliverpool.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/l...

@tinapapathoma.bsky.social

you know what? fuck it. theremin mode. github.com/samhenrigold...

The Open University Copy the page URI to the clipboard

We heard of connectivity problems for online learners due to: sharing Internet with household members, limited data packages, expensive data, connecting while commuting, internal walls blocking signal, moving house, regions with low or no connection oro.open.ac.uk/99921/

Some of them definitely did www.instagram.com/p/DNaoPItSybY/ (the Instagram link is to a Roman hat at Vindolanda)

Maybe she felt that, as it's an Anglian Water project, and their operating profits were £496.5 million last year after an 8.6% price increase, that they should pay for it rather than the taxpayer?

Based on this study, I would guess none of them noblestatman.com/uploads/6/6/...

I was involved in creating a section of this. The report as a whole is based on wide-ranging consultation, as well as extensive review of relevant literature and existing frameworks

I love the fact that my grandfather's regiment contained a pier diver, and that pier divers kept doing crazy things like racing the New Brighton ferry.

Went for a walk round The Open University

Lots of academic papers in there. EC-TEL is in there, LAK is in there, IRRODL is in there. If you're an academic author, it's worth checking.