David Matthewman

That's when you distract yourself by making the Yorkshires.

In my experience, even when someone else _does_ stand up to offer a seat, it is 50/50 whether the person accepts it, because in their mind it is no longer about them needing a seat, but about a specific person 'unjustly' occupying one. It's still worth offering, though, and often works.

That's so rage-inducing. People can be such arseholes. Much love to you and kiddo.

I love all of this take.

Also "frustration tolerance" is a wonderful turn of phrase, and it sounds less intimidating than the one we often use in Education, "productive struggle".

The Legibility of Serif and Sans Serif Typefaces This book provides a detailed and up-to-date account of the relevant literature on the legibility of different kinds of typefaces.

Also, my very wise friend @dougclow.bsky.social points out that a recent comprehensive review found no significant differences in readability between serif and sans-serif fonts in general: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

YouTube video by Elle Cordova Fonts hanging out - Elle Cordova (full compilation)

Although at this point, I think it's mandatory to link to the brilliant Elle Cordova: youtu.be/BXbW42uTKYo?...

This is a genuine move against DEI, as the article points out, albeit a laughably petty one. Font readability matters to a lot of people, and mandating a (supposedly) less readable font is a statement of intent.

The Ladykillers was released on Dec 8th 1955, so turns 70 this week.

Here’s John Finnemore celebrating Alec Guinness’ gang of Ealing ne’erdowells…

pod.link/1614879928/e...

The War Between The Land and The Sea poster: Barclay (Russell Tovey) and Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) reach across two worlds – this Sunday on BBC1

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning.
“Where the sea is asleep, and the rivers dream.
“People made of smoke, and cities made of song.
“Somewhere there’s danger. Somewhere there’s injustice. And somewhere else, the tea is getting cold.
“Come on, Ace – we’ve got work to do.”

Before he became one of the biggest names in literary SF, John Scalzi was a movie critic, and this post is a pretty good demonstration of why he was good at it

Trading Places is/was an excellent film, it's a royal shame that Landis is such an utter shit

That being the most well-known and well-covered translation (by John Willett ond Ralph Manheim) of Brecht's lyrics:

Ihr Herrn, die ihr uns lehrt, wie man brav leben
Und Sünd und Missetat vermeiden kann
Zuerst müßt ihr uns was zu fressen geben
Dann könnt ihr reden: damit fängt es an.

You gentlemen who think you have a mission
to purge us of the seven deadly sins,
should first sort out the basic food position,
then start your preaching! That's where it begins.

This is such a kind and thoughtful thread.
Minnesota Nice at its finest! Ya, sure!
Read the whole thing for lots of helpful hints!

The fact that a second strike like that in an armed conflict is definitely a war crime should not completely negate the fact that *there is no war* and ALL the strikes are cold-blooded murder. The whole chain of command are murderers.

The Laws of Rassilon: Constitutional and Criminal Law on Gallifrey Way back in 2019 I did a wee talk on the TARDIS Talks academic track at the Gallifrey One convention. It’s a fantastic part of the convention that lets attendees do a deep dive into some aspe…

New post: a talk I gave at some years ago on Gallifreyan Constitutional and Criminal Law is now online! Because sci-fi legal systems are cool, damn it. Or, in the case of the Time Lords, quite the hypocritical mess.

lmmyles.com/2025/12/03/t...

It me. I'm the light blue one, and @tkingfisher.com is the dark blue one....

ICYMI: new covers for Dominion of the Fallen in the US!
New editions with introductions by @aptshadow.bsky.social and @kateelliottsff.bsky.social, plus bonus short stories

Preorder now and save your receipt, there will be a preorder bonus.

I missed this - is it because rules of engagement during war and the breaking thereof brought up the Belgrano?

This is all true but

1) under no definition are we currently at war with Venezuela under domestic US law

2) since we aren’t, the initial strike was just as much a murder as the follow up

The failure to understand this by a huge range of actors is really driving me up the wall.

Introduce yourself with five animals you've seen in the wild (seen in very domestic circumstances but still made me go Wow!):

Hedgehog
Squirrel
Rabbits
Shrew
Dragonfly

Starlings and long-tailed tits are always plural. I don't make the rules.

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild

(Seen in my garden somewhere I have lived list)

Starlings
Great-crested newt
Mole
Long-tailed tits
Nuthatch

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild

(Exotic list - things that made me go 'wow!')

European praying mantis
Purple gallinule
Horned lizard
Bearded vulture
Ibex

Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen.

Amy MacDonald
Carter USM
Melrose Quartet
Pet Shop Boys
Pulp

This is a powerful gut punch of a letter, all the more powerful because of the clear force of love that lies behind the punch. To say more would be to lessen its impact. Read it.

Also, disrespect Papa Boule all they like, he seems to be the only Engineer with the delicacy of touch required to make a locomotive pull away without wheel slip.

Brilliant! Come for the gritty WWII heroics, stay for the railway infrastructure porn.

I mean, if anyone could, Brecht could. The Streetsinger's final song almost fits the bill unmodified.

OK, because of licensing, it's not actually downloadable on iPlayer, but some of my other streaming services have it so we're good.

A Muscovy duck. Yeah, that’s…quite a duck! 😮

Just arrived in Miami, FL for the Miami Book Fair. First bird I saw was a Muscovy duck! There were three standing in green around the highway ramp goes around.

I was like, “ooooh, who is that!”, then I googled. They’re common here and look like this: