Russ

Listen closely as Carl Sagan explains how regular people can create change!

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England's great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot In its refusal to nationalise water, it’s clear the government operates in the interests of private capital and not of the country, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Last week I wrote about yet another of the disastrous outcomes of privatisation. If there's one thing almost everyone in England wants, it's renationalisation of water. But no, we can't have nice things. Just more shit. Literally in this case.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So, by government diktat, it's a deckchair-rearranging exercise, avoiding the one measure that would make a decisive difference. A measure which would cost far less than sustaining the current system. This is not about the public good. It's about protecting the worst excesses of capital.

Lots of time and effort has gone into the Independent Water Commission, which reports tomorrow. Unfortunately, it's a largely wasted exercise, because the government insisted that renationalisation of the water companies was outside its terms of reference: ie, it was not allowed to consider it.🧵

OTD in 1944 the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler failed. It left the madman with an injured ear, heroic status in his cult & a maniacal sense of his invincibility.

Trump will reveal his actual weight before he releases the Epstein client list.

I want to take a moment to share an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence's grievances against King George III.

Sound familiar?

If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves... If we become even slightly more violent, shortsighted, ignorant, and selfish than we are now, almost certainly we will have no future.

- Carl Sagan

Dear Keir Starmer,
On National Talk Like Yoda Day, reversed your winter fuel policy have you. Too late it is. Voters' goodwill up the wall have you pissed. Choose Binface they will.

Carl Sagan: Goal For Human Species

Late contender from Rosie for #TongueOutTuesday.

It's a fair size, that one, excellent for surprise kisses for the unwary. 😁

I still think represents the most shocking void in the UK’s COVID response - when the largest biomedical facility offered to undertake testing (many universities did the same) the government didn’t even answer. The cost would have been minimal. But no profit for private companies… is that it?

Boss of a small regional office decided that he liked the idea of everyone staying an extra 10 mins after their shifts to fill in an online form listing five things they did that day. He changed his mind very quickly after just one email from Unite the Union. Join a union.

If you've had one of those days when all you really need is a baby bear trying to catch snowflakes, here's a baby bear trying to catch snowflakes.

This is from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson aired on May 20th, 1977.

Carl Sagan says something very important, a strong message that didn't lose any validity since then.

Bloke who obviously needs libraries, the NHS, and the welfare state, rabidly supports party that is dead set against them. Twenty-three stones of irony sat right there.

Brexit led to 1,500 deaths a year as EU nurses left UK, study finds Quality of care dropped as staff were replaced with less experienced nurses, researchers at the University of Surrey say

🚨🚨 #brexit's disastrous impact on the #NHS led to 1485 extra deaths per year, according to a new academic study, particularly due to qualified EU nurses leaving and being replaced by more unskilled staff. #brexitshambles www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

: An exclusive easter extract from Dan Brown's new blockbuster novel Panel one: the caption reads "Renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon makes a shocking discovery!" below it we see him holding a stripy egg and saying "Colourful ovoids secreted in the undergrowth!". Panel two: the cation reads "Casting the beady eye of his brilliant brain over the mysterious designs, he draws the only plausible conclusion..." below we see him with six coloured eggs with classic designs (bunny, spots, cross, stripes) saying "A conspiracy reaching to the highhest levels!" Panel three: the caption reads "Langdon's mind leaps instantly into immediate action." Now he is holding a basket full of eggs and racing out of the garden saying: "I must consult the secret underground library hidden beneath the vatican!" Panel four: A mother and child watch himfrom within the house. The child asks "Mummy, why did that man steal our easter eggs?". She replies "Don't worry darling, he's gone now."

An exclusive extract for easter! (From this week’s @theguardian.com books)

🧵
Here is Earth's rotation realized in an unusual way: using a camera scanning the landscape of Tivoli, Namibia, Bartosz Wojczyński focused on the sky.

He created a timelapse spanning 24 h that has a focal point in the sky rather than on the ground.

➡️ apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap20070...

🔭 🧪 #galactic

Brilliant!

Merz just said on German TV that the primary priority of his government will be to ensure that Europe can achieve full strategic independence from the United States in the defence against Russia.

Merz was once a die hard Atlanicist. Now, after Trump he is a Gaullist.

Extraordinary.

Driver stopped in Tesla Cybertruck banned in UK - BBC News The eye-catching vehicle, which carries a price tag of about £48,000, is not yet legal on UK roads.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Oh dear, Cybertruck seized by UK police. Why?

1) They haven't passed UK safety standards, and hence are illegal on UK roads.

2) They self-identify the driver as a complete tool, and the police are just doing him a favour. 🙂

Thinking a lot about Jimmy Carter, born a white, rural man in 1924 in a strictly apartheid Georgia and how he became a champion for racial justice and human rights, demonstrating once again that racism, xenophobia, crass and selfish individualism, are always a choice.

While we’re banning books…

Finland is teaching children in school how to recognize fake news and propaganda as part of critical thinking and civic responsibility. Some of this will seem very familiar.

Be. Like. Finland.

The first Bee Network service pulls out of a snowy Altrincham Interchange early this morning.

Despite all of the challenges - legal and meteorological - we did it!

After 40 years of damaging deregulation, Greater Manchester has this morning successfully retaken control of the whole its bus network. 🙌🏻

Jeff Bezos never wanted this cartoon to become public.

He killed it, and as a result, pulitzer prize editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit.

Make sure everyone sees this cartoon.