Darren Townsend

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

An ovoid robot with banded arms and legs and an antenna. It's wearing a dark, high-collared cape with a scalloped hem, and its antenna has little bat wings on it. It's holding a Winebot filled with dark liquid, which is smiling evilly. Vonbot itself is extending one arm towards the frame, has a raised eyebrow and a crooked smile that reveals two small fangs. Vonbot isn't casting a shadow, but the Winebot is.

1429) Vonbot. Mysterious European aristocratbot who's very keen to have you for dinner in its unnecessarily large gothic mansion. #SmallRobotsRemonstered #Halloween

In Discworld, cities thrive because they welcome dwarfs, trolls, vampires, and humans alike. Ankh-Morpork works because everyone belongs. Funny how fiction can seem more humane than policy sometimes.

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

The government must ensure fair distribution of income 'The average real wage of workers has hardly moved from the 2008 level whilst bosses never had it so good.'

The state we're in

UK full-time employee median wage, £30,816.
4.5m jobs pay less than the real Living Wage.
1.17m workers on zero-hour contracts.
34% of Universal Credit claimants are in work.
16m Britons live in poverty.

Can't build economy on poverty.

Must increase worker share of GDP.

For anyone struggling with depression 👇
#mentalhealth
#wellbeing

An already-depleted batch of homemade Chocolate Brownies 😊

Once again my wife has baked some lovely Chocolate Brownies 😁

Once again, she's told me they're for kiddo, NOT for me 🙁

Once again, I'm ignoring her 😉

One-third of UK children grow up in poverty with higher risk of dying young Children in the most deprived areas of the UK face higher death rates as childhood poverty continues to rise, according to research.

One-third of UK children grow up in poverty, higher risk of dying young.

In some areas 62% of children live in poverty.

Children’s education, health, future employment prospects destroyed.

Caused by govts - austerity, low wages, spending cuts, fiscal rules.

Poverty is a political choice.

That's assuming it was delivered to *your* porch 😏

Younger daughter & I are sorting our fossil
collection with a late breakfast of ammonite pancakes 🐚🌀

I would like to think that the users on here won't allow it, and despite the CEO's recent posts they aren't in the same league as the other guy when it comes to controlling & manipulating the platform, especially with the lack of algorithms.

The kids on twitter were doing a comp on how quickly they can solder header pins.

That looks a rather cack-handed way of soldering, tbh. Why are they 'pushing' the solder and the iron instead of pulling it?

I would, though, like to thank @raspberrypiorg.bsky.social for making us have to solder 20-pin headers on the Pi0 & Pico. It improved my technique no end :-)

A build of MicroPython for the Pi 500+ keyboard, plus some code to get you started driving the LED matrix and - crudely - reading the keyboard is available here: github.com/Gadgetoid/pi...

Much tidying to do, but it works!

[17] Please visit my Etsy shop here: robbohan.etsy.com

My Etsy store includes other original drawings, high resolution images, details & reviews.

I arrange shipping via DHL from Ireland to the US to avoid US tariffs, let me know if you have any Questions!

They're fucked when the tariff bill arrives.

Highway Code - Rule 244: “You should not park partially or wholly on the pavement elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.” #PavementParking

Well this isn't terrifying at all.

‘My son genuinely believed it was real’: Parents are letting little kids play with AI. Are they wrong? Some believe AI can spark their child’s imagination through personalized stories and generative images. Scientists are wary of its affect on creativity

Some parents are letting their kids talk to ChatGPT in the guise of characters. Some are using it to tell bedtime stories or create coloring books.

"My son thinks ChatGPT is the coolest train loving person in the world. The bar is set so high now I am never going to be able to compete with that.”

Clarion Weekly, 3 October 2025 This week’s top stories Oxfordshire's council leaders issued a rare joint statement following the terrorist attack in Manchester. In it they expressed shock and horror, sending thoughts and prayers t...

All Oxford’s news in one weekly email. Featuring:
🌳 Free trees
🐝 Rare bumblebees
🗿 The latest new sculptures
📮 Woolly postbox accessories
🏚️ Oxford University's newest building
Plus events, politics news, research and the best of Oxford’s media. Read online or by email

A graphic with a rainbow flag background featuring wavy stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple against a pink border. White text overlaid reads: “#Pride is important because somewhere out there is a confused teenager who still thinks maybe being dead is better than being gay and that’s not okay.”

Yeah it's October, but here's a reminder of the importance of why Pride. It fecking matters!

Three round robots with banded arms and legs, wearing witch hats and standing around a robot cauldron with legs. One is looking into the glowing, bubbling contents with a malevolent smile, one (with a wart) is raising its hands, speaking some sort of spell, and one is holding a broomstick. In the shadows at their feet, a Cattobot stalks an oblivious Frogbot.

944) Covenbots. Double, double toil and troublebots. Witchbots three who meet to places hexes, sow curses and generally get up to witchy mischief. Cauldronbot is a repurposed prototype Brewbot. Frogbot not included (but they can turn another robot into one anyway). #SmallRobotsRemonstered #Halloween

Article reads: Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

I have a group of Yr10s in one of my clubs that do some brilliant things with Scratch, but it does get difficult to follow the code in larger programs. I think Python's better structure makes it much more readable.

screen grab of Henry the vacuum cleaner's wikipedia page

Happy birthday to Henry the vacuum cleaner x

Happy International Coffee Day! A German word that describes a coffee substitute, usually made from barley malt, is Muckefuck. It essentially means "rotting wood mulch" and can also describe any weak coffee. So next time someone makes you a bad coffee feel free to say "What the Muckefuck is this?"

As a research & science project it sounds like a great idea, and it's nice to see Bicester Motion involved, but if you're going to, and can afford to, fly between them, surely a helicopter would be the first choice?

As far as I can see there are currently no regular flights between the two, so I can't see why electric planes would make any difference 🤷

A collection of ripening acorns arranged so their colours shift gently on a buff coloured linen background with a calligraphy label

Acorn palette,
late September 2025

The express poll asking whether reforms migrangt visa plan is racist is about 91% "no" so it REALLY needs your help - this is a direct link to poll

xd.wayin.com/display/cont...