Stuart Wilks-Heeg

Yes, exactly. I am very bored with having to become an expert in the workarounds for so many flawed electronic systems (self-service tills, ticket machines, HE grading software etc etc).

Yes, have seen the reports of the exact same thing happening to people year after year. Think I will try Samsung or Garmin. I was happy with what it did before they messed with it.

Oh, yes, I've had the same issue with bike rides too. Thought that was just me. Clearly a software fail as well then.

Have also concluded it's easier to just buy another brand than attempt to use their customer support procedures. Consumer powerlessness in the 21st Century (other than the power of silent exit - which is very often not risk-free).

Having the exact same issue with a Fitbit Charge 5. Seriously unimpressed. Just beyond the warranty period, now broken by adding Fitbit's own firmware.

London is Over, Finished, and Washed Up
By Professor Matt Goodwhinge

From the new Private Eye, out now.

Jeez. That's bad. I've certainly noticed that individual items can take up to 10 days to reach us.

I don't really understand why this regulatory change holds any significance at all. In practice, all of our post, 1st class and 2nd, arrives as a job lot, once per week, or twice if we are lucky.

Nope. When I list specific things that might be cut to pay for the extra, it's a "no" to every single one of them. This might be why so many people want to believe we spend billions on MPs' expenses - that fantasy gives you an easy target for cuts.

Have lost count of the number of times I've been told: "there's plenty of money that could be used to increase spend on social care/the NHS/schools/higher education/social housing/roads, it's just a matter of political choice".

The great irony (and massive challenge) in all of this is that a lot of people regard the details of how public money is raised and spent as soooo booorrrinnng 💤🥱 and yet they still have incredibly strident and self-confident views on it 🗣📣.

I think I read that, in Japan, they block the mobile signal at performance venues to prevent this. Not sure if that's (still) true but it's probably now the only way of stopping this behaviour.

Exactly this. It was constant. There was also some kind of inexplicable altercation between two women sat in separate rows near me, that went on and off for about an hour and ended up with about a dozen people changing seats in order to separate them.

That's a very fair point, but it does feel different in the age of universal smartphone ownership. Pink Floyd at Wembley in 1988 and the Rolling Stones at the same venue in 1996 were not like this. Although, yes, I am showing my age and in danger of being falsely nostalgic!

That's grim. Feels like we've just opted to let Covid run in the background, doing basically nothing at all to minimise any harm that may arise from it.

It really should not be difficult or controversial to just provide simple official information and public guidance. Not doing this just creates a void filled by low-grade media reporting.

And, no, it isn't OK if some people do that, because they've paid their money and they make their choice. The circus this dynamic is creating within audiences is making it really hard for anyone else to focus on the actual performance on stage.

Experienced similar watching Springsteen at Anfield. The level of distraction in the audience was just incredible. Hard to avoid the conclusion that many were only there to get the "right" photo or video to post on social media and had little interest in the event otherwise.

Is there actually any official public health information about Covid anymore? Or do we all just have to rely on variable quality reporting (much of it presumably AI generated) on media websites heavily overburdened by advertising to try to learn about the new Stratus variant?

An example involving Lib Dems and Buddhists feels like a neat way to remember what the ecological fallacy involves.

Oh my goodness. Yes, you could make a fortune armed with that knowledge!

It's the fourth anniversary of that time I tweeted the wrong Sisters Of Mercy

End to school rating system could play havoc with house prices, says Ofsted chief Martyn Oliver says he knows of property values shooting up by £15,000 after schools were graded as outstanding

The Chief Inspector of Schools thinks it's a problem that scrapping headline school gradings will stop local house prices shooting up and down in response to Ofsted reports? For real? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Enjoyed this by @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com on his time as Gen Sec of LSE Students' Union in the 1990s. Back then, I assumed those weekly UGMs were just normal student life, replicated at universities across the land. They really weren't! blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2025/06/bull...

Taj Mahal Jorge Ben Jor · Football & Samba Groove Association · Song · 2006

Or this, depending on which part of the song is stuck in your head open.spotify.com/track/2CMj2l...

(If You Want My Love) Put Something Down On It Bobby Womack · I Don't Know What The World Is Coming To · Song · 1975

Should be very easily replaceable with this, given the evident similarities open.spotify.com/track/3bO7xt...

I couldn't work out why I'd never seen this before or how she could have been in it, and then I realised that it's new! It's great!

Happened to me twice with feral pigeons in London. One got stuck in the kitchen and it was an absolute nightmare. The other one flew in through an open window, flew into the closed window opposite, and managed to regain composure, turn around, and fly out again.

This really is magnificent! Glad they get there in the end. Paging @marineafc.bsky.social ...

Aha! So funny as, to me, it's the most obvious answer in any quiz ever! I have to try to imagine not instantly knowing the reason! Thanks for sharing!