Kieran Lowe

this is by far the worst reading of Alan Moore’s Watchmen I’ve ever seen and if you spend an appreciable amount of time online you will know what a crowning achievement that is

A mock-up of an old D&D guide detailing the properties of magical items, featuring "Altman’s Quill of Artifice". The entry reads: This enchanted quill, made from the feather of a harpy, serves as a magical scribe and sage, able to answer all its owner’s queries. The owner must use it to write a question at the top of a piece of paper or parchment, such as “Where is the secret entrance to the King’s treasury?” or “How can I cure lycanthropy?” Acting under its own power, it will write an answer. But despite its apparent (and often genuine) usefulness, this item is cursed. Roll d20 to determine the result of any query: 1 Hopelessly wrong, 2-5 Contains major errors, 6-10 Contains minor errors, 11-16 Accurate but incomplete, 17-20 Fully accurate. Apply modifiers in line with the rules for consulting sages (see Table 62) depending on the nature of the question (general 0, specific -2, exacting -4) and the availability of relevant knowledge (complete 0, partial -2, non-existent -6). The DM should choose the nature of any errors, as well as the consequences of believing them. If the answer is less than fully accurate, that will not be obvious, as the quill of artifice writes in a confident and authoritative manner. A reader may scrutinise the answer to attempt to notice any problem, but to succeed they must pass an intelligence check at a penalty of -2. Anyone who has previously failed such a check makes all future checks at -4. The owner of the quill is particularly vulnerable, permanently losing one point of intelligence with each inaccurate answer that is believed. The owner will be unaware of this loss, and will become fiercely possessive of the quill, refusing to give it up and distrusting anyone who doubts its output. A remove curse spell may make the owner willing to part with it, but the loss of intelligence is irreparable.

I finally realised what AI dependency reminds me of

I've been wondering why Dominion Voting Systems suddenly reached settlements with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and One America News.

Turns out, it's been purchased by a Republican-owned election tech firm that insisted on it, per Axios.

www.axios.com/2025/10/09/d...

If a news organisation is making -200% margin after five years, it is not a commercial operation and should be assumed to have a different purpose.

Two graphs in today’s FT.

Notice the UK’s position on both graphs.

I’m finally catching up on #MAFSUK and I can’t get over how awful the grifter “expert” Paul Carrick Brunson is - he’s a manipulative misogynist and I think quite a dangerous presence to have in a position of power even in a stupid reality show. He’s no John Aiken. CPL Productions should get rid

Cass Review does not guide care for trans young people Good medicine is guided by the values of the patient, not those of a clinician, politician or commentator. The Cass Review, lacking expertise and compromised by implicit stigma and misinformation, doe...

Well Australia is seeing the Cass Review for what it is - a political sham!
www.mja.com.au/journal/2025...

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

If there was ever an example of the Israeli government not being a reflection of British Jews it’s their decision to give Tommy Robinson a hero’s welcome

The fact it’s the minister for diaspora affairs makes it even more absurd, because I don’t know a single Jewish person who would think this is ok

Did You Know? @frog-page When provoked, FROGS will defend themselves by traveling back in time to make sure you were never born!

🐸

Blustery day, isn't it? Here's the National Grid: Live generation data. Wind and solar are generating 74.2% of our electricity. Gas is generating 13.1%. And yet our household electricity prices are pegged to... the volatile price of gas. Which is the basis on which the right attacks... renewables.

It’s easy to say that this is the last desperate hurrah of a dying party, but can we be clear: Trump’s ICE agents are literally kidnapping people, detaining them without due process in concentration camps (yes, this is the right term) and 1000s have disappeared. These are fascist practices.

There are lots of reasons not to leave ECHR. But apart from anything else, it just doesn't solve the problem the Tories/Reform think it does.

E.g. the Supreme Court judgment re Rwanda being unsafe explicitly said it was not based on ECHR.

sympathy is a knife: vaguely based on a charli’s relationship with taylor but mainly about charli’s own insecurities and self-doubts

actually romantic:

Charli xcx in 2024, explaining her songs that explore the feelings of insecurity and jealousy that arise as a woman in music who fans and the press constantly compare to other women
Taylor Swift: and I took that personally

I love this. The purest essence of Kemi - incredibly wrong, bizarrely belligerent about it, and also wrong in a way where you just go “have you considered reading anything other than your Twitter feed?”

Thatcher ‘would be appalled by Kemi Badenoch’s vow to scrap climate act’ Former environment minister Lord Deben said the Tory leader’s decision was a vote-loser

Margaret Thatcher would have been “appalled” at plans by the Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch to scrap the Climate Change Act, according to Lord Deben. The Tory peer said it would cost jobs & votes.

Former Tory MP Lord Sharma said it "risks future investment"

www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Going to synagogue on the holiest day of the year should never, ever end with you lying dead simply because you’re a British Jew

Never

The implications for this for the UK Jewish community are going to be enormous

So many of us have been so, so scared about this moment

How Jane Goodall changed the way we see animals - and the world Jane Goodall, who chronicled the social lives of chimps, has died, but has left a lasting legacy on how we view the natural world

My piece on the exceptional legacy of Jane Goodall www.newscientist.com/article/2498...

Two equilateral triangles side by side. The one on the left is labeled 20th century politics and is cut in half horizontally, with the smaller top half labeled 'right' and the larger bottom half labeled left. The triangle on the right is cut in half vertically, with the left side labeled right and the right side labeled left - this triangle is captioned 21st century politics.

Facebook memories reminds me that this was a year ago - undoubtedly the greatest political graphic of all time, taken from the 'Conservatism in Crisis' pamphlet released by Kemi Badenoch.

What is a reactionary centrist, and does the UK have them? A term favoured by US progressives can help us understand Britain’s drift to the right

"In 2012, 60 trans-related articles were published by Britain’s media. By 2022, it was more than 7,500, according to figures from Trans Media Watch. The media is not responding to public rage against vulnerable minorities; it is helping to create it." www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/709...

don’t climb it - it says right there please don’t disturb it!

“We studied more than 70 different elections that took place in 12 western European countries over several decades, and found that when mainstream parties take more anti-immigration positions, it leads to more support for the radical right, not less.”

jurassic perk (not living at the same time as humans)

can’t say I see the same value in my Unlimited subscription with it ended tbh

I was sceptical and generally don’t read anything under the Avengers brand but @meakoopa.bsky.social’s Avengers Academy was a true delight every week, always thoughtful and relevant, likely even more so for younger readers, and beautifully plotted and drawn. Marvel should find a way to relaunch it.

The thing about Labour levelling up and giving money to ‘smarten up town centres” is that you can paint a shop all you like but if people have no money to spend in a shop because their bills are too high and shopkeepers can’t afford the rent then your town centre will remain desolate

Comment: Why are we going backwards on racism in Britain? Black and Asian people have increasingly equal opportunities to reach the top, but a viscerally and unacceptably unequal experience of public space

This country made significant progress against racism in my lifetime - but we did not do so by chance. There is a visible visceral regression in experiencing of overt racism because the toxic fringe with the most extreme views have a sense of permission & impunity
www.easterneye.biz/racism-in-uk...

I love Avengers Academy so much! It’s such a breath of fresh air for young marvel heroes. It’s about to hit 60 issues tomorrow. I hope it gets an omnibus one day.

4 frame comic. First frame we see a tent and a crowd. text reads : Charlie Kirk didn't hold debates on college campuses. What he was organizing were flash mobs where his supporters rallied at colleges to create ideal conditions for drama. 2nd frame, someone is speaking at a mic while people with red caps are holding phones up. text reads: Students who dared to stand up to him were facing a sea of hostile faces. The goal was to make them feel vulnerable to get good footage out of them. 3rd frame, we see the person from the 2nd in a youtube thumbnail. text reads : clips were then edited and clickbait thumbnail created to drive the highest engagement possible. the game was rigegd from the onset. 4th frame, we see a silhouette of Kirk. text reas: Charlie Kirk was "winning every debate" because there was no debate. It was a campaign to radicalize young men and purposefully make campuses unsafe to women and minorities.

Charlie Kirk never cared about debates.