Alex MacFarlane

hate this for us

I am saying once again that the Conservative attack on the Arts is because they are incredibly envious of artists who they perceive as a group that has “too much” cultural power, a type of influence Conservatives crave but will never have because they’re anti-intellectuals with no imagination.

Imagine this happening in the UK and not having to sigh 'what do their parents do?' every time you hear about a new band. Wouldn't it be great to hear music from somebody who isn't directly related to the Lord Admiral Wythenshawe Bloodfeast MP, the Butcher of Bangalore?

Or, benefits number go down. I'll be off benefits as soon as someone hires me! I'm lucky not to have mental health barriers to getting hired and I'm still struggling, so I feel that 'overdiagnosis' is, in many ways, not the reason a lot of Brits are unemployed right now.

A lot of people do want to work and will be happier doing so (hi! it's me!) if they're doing something fulfilling or are earning enough to live otherwise fulfilling lives, but there's caring about that from a place of human compassion and then there's the government's number-go-up approach.

There's a dearth of mental health support in this country and if Streeting could be trusted to improve it, I would support that, with the obvious caveats that ME/CFS is not a mental health condition and not everyone's ultimate goal is going to be getting back into work.

The combination of wanting to kick people off sickness benefits claimed on the basis of mental health conditions (with the assertion they should get support for their conditions instead) AND wanting to investigate 'overdiagnosis' of mental health conditions is really chilling.

what's happeningggggg

I used to listen to a podcast that put out a bonus episode during a fundraiser, specifically for backers, of all the "umm" and "uh"s etc etc that they'd edited out of normal episodes

stripy babies 😍😭

my movie 3 of this month and what a great time

truly no one could have foreseen this

Greta Thunberg says she is being detained by Israel in cell ‘infested with bedbugs’ Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

So cool and normal that Europe still has normal relations with Israel

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

oh my god. I'm so glad you tried this for the community, but also, oh my god.

"Truth is intersubjective, meaning that we need other people—their testimony, their experiences, their rationality—to be well informed. And chatbots are not people. They don’t have experience. They are not witness. They are fancy wordplay."

A model of the first level from Mario 64.

A model of a snowy level from Mario 64.

The Japanese Mario 64 official strategy guide is an incredible thing. "Can we make little hand-made dioramas of all the levels?" "Sure, why the hell not."

Team Cherry please patch out the bugs that throw bells at me, I find them very unkind.

They want you to think the struggles are separate, indeed in opposition to one another, rather than an interconnected battle against hate and nihilism.

one day I will get that High Halls enemy rush, one day

TERFs are trying to bully a beloved London public swimming space into throwing out their longstanding traditions/policies in order to force trans people out of using the space.

Please consider voicing your support for inclusivity here hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is/en-GB/propos...

hornet from silksong in grass

close up of plants

hornet close up

close up

i just love hornet sm!!!!!!

An indy bookseller speaks! Bookshop.org is AMAZING and frankly, without it, a lot of us would have struggled even more during lockdown. WAYYY better than Hive (if you’re picking the book up from a bookshop, why aren’t you ordering it directly from them in the first place??)

#inktobirb2025 sooty grouse

Peaceful activists are dragged off boats at gunpoint for trying to feed Gaza. But the war criminals committing the genocide get applause in parliaments, billions in funding, and handshakes from presidents.
We are watching pure evil live streamed.

‘This is strength’: stories of enslaved Africans in Grenada made into searchable archive Depths of Paradise project backed by British family and created by Stephen Lewis, a descendant of survivors

The stories of enslaved African people and more than 1,000 British plantation owners who were compensated after abolition have been brought together in a searchable archive for the first time.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

happy day! 🎉

two ink cap mushrooms, which are pale and upright ovoid in shape, fruiting from acorn-covered ground that's otherwise covered in acorns

a bigger clump of ink caps, not as tall yet, and grass

Daily walks VASTLY livened up by every type of mushroom deciding to fruit in my surroundings. Today, inkcaps.

omg omg

if it's the bit I just got to, I was laughing as I fell

It’s goodnight Vienna as Paris sleeper train to Austria and Berlin hit by cuts Some Nightjet services suspended from mid-December after French withdrawal amid public budget crisis

Paris-Berlin sleeper: low carbon, 2 years old, constantly full, but currently losing SNCF a few million EUR/yr

Intl Jet fuel tax exemptions are 80 years old and cost the EU 22 million EUR/yr for the Paris-Berlin route alone.

And you're cutting... the sleeper?

www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...